Sable woke feeling much better.

After languidly stretching her limbs out, and a big yawn, she checked in on her health. As expected, where she had fallen to less than one-third, she was now comfortably hovering near the two-third point. [Recuperate] was much better at healing her physically than … magically? Mana-ly? Whatever the word was, there.

Even accounting for the fact that the ability scaled on the size of her hoard, a several-hour nap had brought her back into fighting condition. Or, healthiness-wise. She’d only regained a few hundred mana points, this being a short nap compared to yesterday’s full sleep. That resource still dwindled unfortunately low.

The sun was still high in the sky, though would be setting in a few hours. She had two tasks planned to finish the day. First, a visit to Skatikk, then to Roman.

No point in dawdling. She was a busy lizard.

***

After picking up Aylin from her hunting mission—she still hadn’t leveled, unfortunately, with these things coming slower to puny mortals—Sable set off to the city of Skatikk with one goblin minion, and one gigantic corpse of a orecruncher hivemother.

Sable was pretty sure the remains of the creature were valuable in some way, but after cursory inspection, she’d come to the conclusion she couldn’t do much with it. She didn’t know enough about the creature’s biology.

So, the obvious choice was to drop the monster off with the city of Skatikk so that they could deal with the problem. They would know better how to strip the carapace and otherwise make valuable weapons and armor from the corpse.

Perhaps, even, she’d let the goblin city keep some of the spoils. While the material might make a good addition to her hoard, her hoard wasn’t highest priority. Truth told, Sable was worried about her relation to the city of Skatikk. While they’d bent the knee in a nominal manner, she’d have to be pretty ignorant not to be worried about how tenable the situation was.

She was pretty sure she’d well and cowed them—who wanted to mess with a dragon, even a young one?—but her difficulty taking down the hivemother showed that she wasn’t some world-ending threat. Powerful, yes, and in a few short weeks or months she might become what they feared, or much closer to it, but for now, clearly Sable wasn’t one of the terrible legends spoken about in stories.

Still plenty enough to raze a goblin city, especially if she were clever about it, but Sable suspected Skatikk could put together a force that would cause her trouble in a direct fight. And from what she had seen, while a primitive people, they were also intelligent enough to deduce that.

Hence, she didn’t plan on staying long. A short trip, especially when she wasn’t at full health. A quick show of good will. Masqueraded, of course, as selfishness, but such was the tightrope Sable would need to walk the rest of her life.

This time, when Sable set down into the city center, the public didn’t go into a frenzy. More of a panicked retreat, but not on the same level as before. Were they getting used to her that quickly? How disappointing. The terror was much more fun.

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Rozita, the captain of the local garrison, was the one to meet Sable. Undoubtedly other important figures had been sent for, but Sable wasn’t interested in waiting for them. Again, she didn’t feel comfortable being down in the city proper while not at full health and mana. A quick discussion, and she would be gone. Her pride didn’t like that, but Sable liked her well being—and not having to fulfill her threats of massacre—much more than her pride.

Using Aylin as a conduit, Sable informed Rozita of her demands. The enormous corpse of the hivemother made a good backdrop for the conversation. Sable could tell by the wary looks the woman sent the hulking, carapace-covered beast that while Sable had quantified her strength to the people of Skatikk, she hadn’t done so in a wholly negative manner, either.

Maybe they knew she wasn’t as fearsome as the legends, but being able to scuffle with a beast of that size and come out the victor—and still be in mostly good health—meant Sable was someone they didn’t want to mess with. Especially since Sable had an intelligent mind, could fly, and wasn’t bound by the same game-like rules that governed monsters.

Sable detailed her task to Rozita. She wanted the valuable parts of the hivemother’s body to be harvested, cleaned, and otherwise prepared. Then she dangled the ‘show of good will’: that the city of Skatikk could use some of the resources for their own crafting efforts.

Rozita seemed stunned at that, so Sable had guessed right that the creature’s corpse would be valuable. At a minimum, its tough exterior would make good armor.

Sable vaguely alluded to wanting Skatikk to have well equipped warriors, because again, their success was hers, and she intended to siphon their future prosperity for her own benefit. It made it clear that she wasn’t doing it out of true good will, but that Skatikk would benefit under her rule. Domineering and evil, but maybe a good thing, big-picture speaking—that was the seed she planted.

With that done, she departed. Before Skatikk had a chance to organize an offense—if they indeed planned on something of the sorts, seeing her weakened.

As she made the trip to Roman’s, Sable mused that she might be the only dragon to have first given to the city they’d conquered rather than take.

And she did intend to take, soon enough. What use was a dominated city if she wasn’t drawing taxes from it? But she thought it wise to let their situation digest in the minds of the leadership before she pressed. Maybe let the situation with Gadenrock resolve—how long would it take them to hear the news?

Plus, more time was nice. She would be making their relationship clear in short order, but the more leverage Sable had—the higher level, the more competent spellcaster, the better in health and mana—the more comfortable she would be doing so. And surely as the gap in power grew, the less likely rebellion would become.

And, as she’d already noted, growing her hoard via demanding payment from Skatikk wasn’t her highest priority. She didn’t need to put taxes into place so quickly. The boost in stats from lifting her hoard debuff would be nice, but she doubted whether a single payment would do the job.

While wealthy for the Red Plains, it was clear Skatikk simply didn’t exist in the most prospering of lands. Progress would come from dominating many cities and tribes, not one.

In short, Sable had to play the long game. This was a marathon, not a sprint.

Though, a bit of a sprint, too. She needed to gain levels and spellcasting competence as fast as possible, because she doubted she’d continue to skate by with no real conflict. Even if Skatikk itself didn’t try to hunt her, as her name spread, someone would.

Plus, she wanted to dominate more powerful lands too, not just the unimportant goblin tribes.

Sable thudded down into the ground in front of Roman’s cabin. A string of curses spewed from inside as glassware and cabinets rattled lightly from her bulk impacting the ground. Sable tried not to take insult. She supposed a dragon wasn’t the most welcome of visitors, and Roman … not the most eager of hosts.

The door swung open, and green eyes glared up at her.

“What?” Roman demanded.

“Lady Sable wishes to practice with her newest branch of magic,” Aylin said. “You will aid her with this.”

Roman wiped her hand down her face, then said, “Give me a minute.” She slammed the door shut.

Such an irritable woman.

“I like her,” Aylin said.

Funny enough, Sable did too.