In the lair of the dragon

Vera limped to the nearest safe haven. Soon the rain would come and with it any chance she had for survival. Despite her best efforts there was a trail of blood left in her wake. A damn magic caster had managed to unleash a spell before her ring of protection would reactivate. Leaving her defenseless. The blast had eaten through her armor like it was paper, littering her chest and stomach with shrapnel. Fortunately the pain was not too great, but she knew that once the adrenaline wore off she would be in agony. The best chance she had was to hide out somewhere and see if she could pull something out of her ass. If she held on long enough perhaps she would be found and rescued. The rest of her squad had been scattered in the attack who knows where they were now. The opening to the cave wasn’t much further ahead, which was fortunate because her own strength began to fail. Her feet stumbled over every stone and branch before them and her eyes grew impossibly heavy. She made it to the lip of the cave. It was so dark that she could see nothing but the vast blackness. Taking from her small waist pouch she produced a fire crystal and set that to burning in the middle of the cave so that she might have a light to see by. Her fingers were numb and fumbled as she tried to reach back into her pouch. There were several other crystals in there, but none that would help her. It seemed she had used all of her healing crystals in the battle. Her own foolishness and mortality struck a cord with her as she groaned helplessly. Suddenly she was no longer able to keep her body upright and the full ache of her chest began to boil. Her body was crashing. Fast. And without immediate aid she wouldn’t last the night. Suddenly a grumble came from the cave above her head. It took more strength than it should have to look up at the source of the sound. And to her horror when she looked up she was treated with a large, sharp, pearly white maw.