“Dragon.” Professor Kapur gasped lightly: “This is bad, we’re in way over our heads. Team, prepare to head back and find shelter.”

“It looks injured.” Tony Barnes said: “What kind of dragon is this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen his kind of dragons before - it has no wings and a long body. Looks more like eastern kind of dragons depicted in legends and folktales.”

“It is indeed that kind of dragon.” Professor Kapur silently cast a concealing spell onto the whole team in order to be extra sure that their presence would not cause the dragon to wake up: “Let’s find a place of shelter first, then we can head back and regroup. This is definitely not something we’d wanna mess with right now.”

“It’s just a wounded dragon right?” Josephine Wong asked: “What’s such a big deal about it though? Is this dragon particularly dangerous?”

“I… I can’t be sure, but this might be one of those more dangerous ones that only lives in legends.” Professor Kapur tried to rush the entire team away: “Let’s go now, let’s go!”

“Don’t move, professor.” Tony Barnes saw something behind Professor Kapur and immediately said in a low voice: “Professor, slowly walk forward towards us, don’t make any sudden movements.”

Professor Kapur went silent for a shortment, then started walking towards Tony Barnes and Glenda Grimes slowly and carefully, without looking back or making any other uncalled for movements.

“Yeah, okay. ” Tony Barnes slowly also walked towards Professor Kapur and eventually came to the place behind her, into the space between her and whatever was behind.

“Okay, you’re safe now.” Glenda Grimes nodded at Professor Kapur: “Though I am not entirely sure from what.”

The thing behind Professor Kapur was another one of those creatures of random things on the ground and dark green and red slime. This one looked even weirder than the others, because this one had extra slime on its body, which seemed to have formed something like an eye without eyelids. 

“Careful now. Don’t touch it.” seeing that Tony Barnes was ready to make a move against the creature, Professor Kapur warned: “Let’s just leave this place first - that dragon down there, if it is what I think it is, would be the creator of these things. If we attack these creatures, or just merely touch them, it could alert that dragon.”

“Okay, professor, care to tell us what it is?” the team gathered together and started moving away, while the creature with an “eye” made of slime was still staring at them while they left.

“I will tell you when we are further away.” Professor Kapur shook her head: “If I am right, this would be a tremendously powerful dragon, with a similar ability to many grand wizards and witches. If we utter its name, or speak of its identity in this close vicinity, our words or even thoughts will alert it of our presence. ”

“Okay.” Glenda Grimes exchanged looks with Josephine Wong and Dorothea Clarkson: “Let’s go.”

Just when this moment, the dragon rolled around on the ground while it was still asleep, and with a loud cough and snort, it spit out phlegm with traces of blood inside from its throat at the ground nearby.

The phlegm reacted to the environment around and started moving on its own, first it darkened in color and became thicker by releasing a lot of the moisture from inside. Then, it sucked in rocks, broken tree branches and dirt from the ground, turning them into solid parts of its “body”. In less than a minute, the spit of phlegm became another one of those strange creatures around the area, and started wandering around in the area.

“Boom!” another loud thunder cracked in the sky above, and a ball lightning appeared high above the sky.

-------------------------------------

“Thank you very much for coming!” after another evening meeting at the arrays and circles club, Carl was finally able to send off the half a dozen members: “I know, I know, information about proper establishments of array foundations can be quite boring. Hope you enjoyed what I’ve demonstrated, let me know if you have any questions”

“Not boring at all. It’s quite interesting, actually.” Jason smiled and waved Carl goodbye: “I find it quite useful. And I’ll bug you with some questions later, hope you won’t mind.”

“Oh, I won’t mind at all. You’re perfectly welcome to send me questions you have.” Carl laughed out loud: “And Jason, I knew you’re gonna fit in here perfectly. I think with any more sessions, you could get on here and do your own presentation.”

“That might be too far for me. But I would be happy to share if I have something.” Jason chuckled: “Alright, I’m gonna go back and maybe experiment a bit with what you just showed me. See you next time and have a good night.”

“Good night Jason, and thank you again for coming.”

When Jason walked out of the meeting place and started heading back to his living quarters, he had a strange feeling - that someone, or something was following him.

This tingling feeling was very vague, and he even started suspecting if he was being overly paranoid.

After turning back and trying to check the directions behind him in order to spot the potential stalker twice, Jason decided that he might need something more discreet to detect if he was actually being followed.

With only a short moment of consideration, Jason decided to go old school - by kneeling down and pretending to tie his shoes. And at the same time, he left a few metal balls and a few droplets of clay on the ground.

When he was done with setting these small traps and continued his way forward with increased speed, Jason also turned up his power of mind and will to a maximum degree, greatly enhancing his senses and enabling him to sense much more than he normally would.

Someone of unknown identity was indeed following Jason, who was smart and cautious enough to circle around most of the metal balls and clay droplets left by Jason, but was partially exposed because they had to catch up to him and for a very brief moment became visible.

“Who the hell are you...” it wasn’t long before Jason reached the entrance of the living quarters, when he sensed that the stalker seemed to have given up. Now that the stalker was gone, he tried looking back at the way in which he came using the True Sight Spell, yet he could not see anything - apparently the stalker was concealing their tracks.