Removing the thick silver cloak from her shoulders, the woman slowly walked through the cave towards the source of light in the very back of it. After several yards she came to a large, cold stone altar where a man lay frozen in time. His arms were crossed over his chest, his body surrounded by eternally burning candles.

The woman reached out a deeply tanned hand, gently stroking the ice cold cheek of the pale man. She want's a child anymore, she was a woman now.

"Beautiful Isa," she said quietly, leaning over the candles and placing a soft kiss upon his frozen lips. The flames didn't burn her, they'd never harm the one who cast them to protect the sleeping dragon. "Won't you ever wake again?" she asked, covering him with the cloak she'd worn there.

Over a hundred years ago, Isa had angered a powerful sorcerer. As a punishment, the sorcerer had declared he would harm Isa by harming what he cared for most. That resulted in him taking away what was most precious to Rage, which of course was Isa. So Isa had fallen into a deep sleep and had never woken since.

Rage had spent every waking moment since that day trying to find a way to break the enchantment over Isa. She'd become an apprentice to several magicians, and had set out to recover every single piece of Isa's treasure that had been in his cave when they first met. She still had a long way to go, but she had managed to get most of it, along with many more treasures from all over the land.

Rage had made it a personal mission to raid any and every dragon den she came across, taking what was most valuable of their treasures and returning to Isa, leaving her prizes as offerings to him. The gold and silver and jewels and odds and ends filled a large portion of the cave surrounding the altar he slept on.

She removed several jewel encrusted golden chalices from a sack, adding them to the stash in the cave. "Are you even still alive?" she asked, her voice cracking as she moved to press her ear against his chest. There was still a heartbeat, though it was weaker than the last time she'd been inside the cave with him. It had begun growing weaker a few months previous.

She bit her lip, standing back up with tears in her eyes. Rage knew she was running out of time to save him. "I don't know if I can bring you back to me... Please don't let go Isa... Don't leave me forever... I need you Isa..."

Head hung, she left the cave in order to continue searching for something to cure Isa.

After several weeks she returned to the cave, dumping a large bag of gems and precious stones onto a pile of gold and silver coins. She then tossed the bag aside and went to Isa.

"I couldn't figure out how to save you," she said, pressing her ear to his chest to make sure he was still living. "But I know how to keep you alive..." Rage slowly climbed onto the altar, lying on top of Isa, and slipping a golden chain around his neck. A large blue stone hung from the chain, and there was a second chain attached to it. She placed the second chain around her own neck, the stone now held between them by the two chains.

She slipped one of her arms under his back, and her other under his neck, lying completely on top of him and resting her head on his chest. "I'll keep you alive," she whispered, slowly blinking as her eyelids became heavy.

"I'll use myself to keep you alive..." Her eyes slipped closed, her body relaxing as she was pulled into the dragon's enchanted sleep. Her energy would keep them both alive as long as it could, once it was no longer possible, they would die together in peace.

Three hundred years later, the ancestors of the magicians Rage studied under continued the woman's mission to assemble Isa's lost treasures all in one place. When they pressed their ears to Rage's back, they could hear a heartbeat from deep within her. The only thing they never understood was how Isa's arms had come to be wrapped around Rage in a loving embrace while they slept...