Stolen Heart of Fire chapter 4

The next morning Lilia wakes up. That must have been the worst night's sleep of her entire life. She had tossed and turned along with those heavy, cold chains which sometimes got wound around her. She was groggy and her wrists and ankles ached. At least the bed was nice, and still looked new. In fact all of the decor contrasted very oddly with the cave and didn't seem to fit. Her sleep deprivation left her head a bit fuzzy. She felt like she was forgetting something. Why did she have these shackles on? She seemed to have forgotten for a moment before everything rushed back to her memory in a startling instant. He had shackled her to the cave wall because he was supposed to be no longer handsome. She shut her eyes and tried to take this calmly. He was no longer handsome but she would still love him. He had treated her better than she could have imagined. But what did he look like? Perhaps he was not as young as he looked. But he said that he was horrifying. Perhaps he was born with great defects and was a very misshapen fat man with distorted facial features. Perhaps he was a victim of some horrible trauma with half of his body burned with a missing eye or something similar. She braced herself. Even if the he looked like a troll she would still love him. She opened her eyes and looked for him. She saw nobody. Had he gone? Oh no. She was chained up and helpless. If somebody came while he was away......She tried not to think about it. She sighed and moved her arms to get comfortable. The chains rattled loudly. She then saw movement on the far side of the cave. What she had overlooked thinking to be a shadow covered bulge from the cave wall started moving. A snakelike neck lifting revealing the head of huge dragon. Her blood went cold for a moment. Oh no. A dragon had gotten in. She thought how she would live through this. Maybe the dragon wouldn't see her.
As if on cue with her thoughts, the dragon moved its head at fixated its large green eyes at her and started to get up. Its body was huge and covered with black scales. It stood up and yawned revealing teeth like huge razor spearheads. The sight of these along with its huge claws sent her into panic. She needed out of these chains and fast. She tried to slip them off but they were on tight. She struggled as hard as she could, in every way, to free herself. She didn't want to end up eaten by a dragon. What a horrible concept, but it seemed inevitable. The locks wouldn't open and the chains wouldn't break. In her furious attempts to get out, the dragon quickened its pace. No, this couldn't happen to her. She screamed for help. Perhaps he was just outside and would rush to her aid. Nobody came but she kept screamed in hope of rescue. The dragon was now at the foot of her bed staring down at her with those monstrous green eyes. Tears filled her eyes as she struggled and cried out for help. She didn't want to die like this, especially not now. The metal against her wrists and ankles began to cut her but she didn't care. She saw the dragon had stopped moving and was staring at her with narrowed eyes. Whatever. This delay would give her more time. She struggled and yelled even though she knew it was futile. She would fight until her death and not let this dragon have an easy meal of her. She gave as much energy as she could and was nearing absolute exhaustion. Her further struggles seemed to anger the dragon as its eyes narrowed to slits and exposed its teeth. Her struggles were slowing but persisted. It lowered its enormous head in front of hers. She could feel its hot breath on her body. It came closer and she stuck it on the nose as hard as she could. It recoiled and rubbed the end of its nose. It glared at her and growled. She was ready to do this until she died. The dragon came close to her again and placed a paw on her body. She smacked and hit it as hard as she could but this time the dragon ignored it.
The dragon grabbed her arm and started to mess with the shackle on it. She kept hitting it then she heard the shackle unlock and felt it fall off. She felt the cool air soothing her now free wrist. She was frozen with an unidentifiable mix of wonderment, bewilderment, and terror. The dragon held a small key in one of its paws. It proceeded to unlock her other arm. It was fixated on the locks and ignored her. It unlocked both of her legs and looked back at her. She got out of the bed and started backing away from it. it followed her. She found herself cornered against a wall and screamed. The dragon stopped. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest along with the aching in her muscles. Could she escape this? The dragon remained still. Then it turned away and walked away to the far wall and curled up. She stared at it confused. Was it going to eat her? On the ground lay the key it used to unlock her. She looked at the chains, her wrists, and then the keys. Just then she realized she had made a huge mistake. He was the dragon.