It took all day to enchant the items.

  The rings held the two enchantments. How well, I couldn’t know unless we tested them, and we weren’t testing them until we went after the dragon.

  I put the Ice Wall spell on the shield. I didn’t make it a reactionary rune. I didn’t know when it might go off. Instead, I put the rune next to the leather straps on the back. It was far enough away from my hand that I wouldn’t accidentally activate it, but close enough that I could trigger it if I needed to.

  I didn’t like the idea of fighting the dragon at night, so I put on the board that we were going after it the next afternoon. I went and found Jonnie at the Mage’s guild and gave him the news. Once that was done, I went back to the room and curled up on the floor.

  Mei was still asleep, so I rolled up my bag and used it as a pillow. It didn’t take me long to drift off.

  I dreamed about fighting the dragon. We started out fighting it like planned, but it didn’t stay in the tunnels very long. It ran over me, out into the open area.

  I watched as it killed my entire party, then it turned its teeth on me. I felt the fire from its mouth just before it sank its teeth into my shoulders.

  I sat up, my eyes wide open. My heart was beating so fast, I could hear it in my ears.

  “Nightmare?” Mei asked from the bed

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  “How did you know?” I asked

  “I’ve been around enough young people to recognize the signs.”

  I hear d the bed squeak as she got up. She flipped on the lights and sat down on the edge of the bed. She patted the place beside her.

  I got off the floor and sat next to her. She started rubbing my back.

  “You want to talk about it?” She asked

  At first I wanted to say no, but there was something maternal about her. Something I couldn’t refuse.

  “I dreamed about fighting the dragon today.” I admitted

  “You dreamed it killed us.” She stated.

  “Yeah.”

  “This is a good plan.” Mei said. "It’s also a great opportunity to try to get your brother to come down to one of the lower zones.”

  “But what if we die?” I asked

  Mei took a deep breath. "Not everyone who dies in the game dies in real life. There were a few who made it in the alpha test.”

  I leaned my head on her shoulder. "I just want everyone to be safe.”

  “Nothing in this world or the other one is safe. Danger is all over the place. You can’t let fear of getting hurt stop you from doing something.” She bent over so she could look at me. "It’s a good plan. It will work.”

  “I hope so.” I said. "I still haven’t mapped out the tunnels. We don’t know if we can even attack it from multiple sides.”

  “There’s nothing you can do about it right now.” Mei said. "Don’t worry about what might happen tomorrow.”

  “I’ll try.” I said

  Mei got up. "Try to get some sleep.”

  “Where are you going?” I asked

  “You worry about sleep.” Mei said. "Let me worry about what I’m doing.”

  I nodded and curled up on the bed. It didn’t take long for me to drift off again. The sleep wasn’t very good, but at least there were no more dreams of dragons.

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