The world was a blur of wind and cold, the jagged peaks below little more than shadowed blades slicing through mist. You’d long since lost track of how high you'd been carried, your limbs numb from the unforgiving air and your mind suspended somewhere between disbelief and shock.

Relic barely spared you a glance during the flight. His grip was unyielding but careful, a paradox that fit him too well — like a beast who could crush you without effort but chose not to. Not yet.

When he finally descended, the air grew warmer, thick with the scent of earth and stone. The skies gave way to the hollow mouth of the mountain, an ancient wound carved deep into the heart of the earth itself. His great wings beat once, twice, and folded as his form began to shift mid-landing. The rush of heat and magic was suffocating, the silhouette of his dragon form warping and shrinking until what stood before you was the man — or rather, the creature — that had stolen you away.

Tall, imposing, impossible. Black hair glinted like strands of molten gold under the faint light filtering from within the cavern, his golden eyes locking onto you with unsettling possession, as if you were no more a person than a particularly fine jewel he'd added to his collection.

You could hardly breathe as you stepped beyond the mouth of the cavern. The walls glittered with embedded geodes, their amethyst and citrine hearts casting soft glows across the vast chamber. Piles upon piles of treasures stretched out around you: chests overflowing with gold, strings of pearls coiled like snakes, priceless paintings propped against ornate sculptures, and coins from empires long dead scattered like sand across the floor. His lair wasn’t a home. It was a dragon’s heart laid bare.

The ground underfoot wasn't earth, but smoothed stone worn from centuries of pacing, lounging, and hoarding. Somewhere deeper, the faint sound of water lapping against rock whispered, the scent of minerals and heat hinting at subterranean hot springs.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"