You wake to the smell of smoke. You scramble off of the slab before your brain catches up to your instincts. You're in a cave. The only thing you have to worry about is the smoke. You hold your breath and cautiously poke your head out of the cave. There's no fire, so you pull your now reddish-purple shirt off of the tree. You wet it on the leaves of the tree, then tie it around your face. You're pretty sure that's supposed to help prevent smoke inhalation, but you're not sure. You cough as you inhale another lungful of smoke. Nope, definitely doesn't help. You untie the shirt and put it on properly. You look around for the source of the smoke. You find it almost at once. The extremely tall mountain you saw yesterday is wreathed in smoke. This is odd, because you are certain that you didn't see any trees on it yesterday.
Your rumination about the smoke is abruptly cut short by a rumbling that seems to shake the very mountains. Shortly after, the cloud of smoke grows larger as more flows from the mountain. That had better not be a volcano. Unsure of what else to do, you sit on the same mossy rock you sat on yesterday and watch the ominously smoking mountain. Like clockwork, there will be a rumble, and another burst of smoke. It seems disconcertingly like the breathing of some titanic beast. Thankfully, the wind picks up and pulls the smoke away from your cave and across the mountains. You sit there, watching the smoke for what seems like hours. It's certainly more interesting than staring at the roof of the cave.
Shortly after that thought crossed your mind, you see something colorful flying around the mountain. It looks like a large bird, but you realize that at this distance, it would have to be at nearly as big as you to even be visible. As it is, it's barely a speck of blue against the smoke. You wait, and hear rumblings from the mountain, this time without a pattern. If you didn't know any better, you would say you heard a party horn in there somewhere. Suddenly, a roar echoes down the mountains, and you tumble backwards from the rock. You sit back up just in time to see the same blue speck go barreling away from the mountain before it comes to a stop and flies back. Now you're even more confused.
A series of thunderous booms echoes from the mountain, followed by a sound somewhere between a roar and a yell of frustration. Another plume of smoke rose up from the mountain, but this one seemed almost horizontal. Silence falls, and then you hear something you didn't expect. You hear a voice. It is so loud that you can make out the words from where you are, even though it is clearly coming from the mountain. You have to strain a bit to hear, but you can clearly make out the words "But that rainbow one kicked me." There are no words for how confused you are right now. Again, you hear the voice. "But, I-" before it is cut off. You realize you are hearing half of what must be a very interesting conversation.
As you begin to question your sanity, the voice begins crying. You don't even want to know. There's a pause, and then something massive and red circles the mountain before fling directly overhead. Your heart jumps into your throat. It's a dragon. An actual dragon. And it's carrying a massive collection of gold, gems, and other valuable and shiny items. Your mind is doing back-flips as you sit in dazed silence and watch it fly into the distance. The smoke dissipates a while after it leaves, and you realize you were hearing a dragon snore. This elicits a chuckle from you, snapping you out of your stunned state. Judging by what you heard, it's not coming back. The thought that there's something out there that can make a dragon cry causes a chill to creep up your spine. Just what are you in for?
Then you realize that there might be something up that mountain worth looking at. You decide that come tomorrow, you'll set off to find a way up. Even if you don't, you might find something useful. Walking over to the raspberry bushes, you crouch down to see how many are left. You harvested maybe a fifth of them. There are plenty to bring along for when you set off down the mountains. You just hope you can remember where this cave is if you don't find somewhere else safe. You turn around to make your way back to the cave, and promptly eat dirt as you trip and fall flat on your face.
You spit out the clump of grass and soil as you pick yourself up and brush the dirt off of your clothes. You look back, and see something shine in the grass. It's some kind of metal cuff, gold if you aren't mistaken. Oddly, it seems about the right size to fit on your wrist. Realization hits. There might be other people here! Or maybe the dragon ate them. Still, it's an interesting find. There's a complex looking clasp, which is currently open. You shrug and fit it on your wrist. The first thing you notice is that it's cold to the touch, but warm on your skin. You snap it shut, and admire how seamlessly it fits. There are runes of some kind on it, but it's not anything you recognize. Maybe where there are dragons, there are wizards? Couldn't hurt to check.
You stare at the cuff, willing something to happen. Nothing does. Oh well, it was worth a try. You look for the clasp to take it off. You can't find it. That's not good. You trace your fingers across the entire thing, scratching and prying at any break in the smooth surface. It doesn't release. You growl in frustration and bash it against the rock. It clangs and hurts your wrist, but is otherwise unaffected. With your luck, you think, the thing's cursed. You watch the moon rise, and head back to the cave. You once more lay down, and slip out of consciousness. Your dreams are of snow and ice.