Rosalyn's progress to the destination that Serena had promised had slowed down immensely in the last hour and she was suddenly very glad that she had spared the little kobold as he had already stopped her from wandering into four seperate death traps set by the kobold tribe to deter invaders. After Birdie stoped just pointing out the trip wires and showed her the tension trap lined with sharpened butter knives she developed a healthy respect for the craftiness of the Snare Setter kobold tribe and she was more than happy to let Birdie go first.

Watching the little kobold disable the traps that they came across utterly fascinating to her as it was so far removed from anything she had seen anyone do before. "Birdie? What are you doing to that floor tile?" Birdie looked up from the floor and pulled out a small knife. He smiled at Rosalyn and poked the completely innocuous looking stone.

It exploded. Not a huge explosion, but it probably would have seriously damaged the foot that stepped on it.

Serena's avatar spasmed as it floated nearby at the end of the hallway and her voice echoed out with the barest hint of strain in it, "Dear me! Was that an explosion? What have you little ones been doing? I didn't know any of these hazards were even here!" Hearing that Rosalyn visably paled as she wondered how many traps she had avoided on pure luck during her inital flight into the cave.

Rosalyn shook her head and stared at her new kobold friend, "Birdie, you guys are, quite frankly, incredibly terrifying and I cannot fathom why kobolds are considered fodder in all the adventure stories. Although, I do see where you get your reputation for being dishonorable combatants..." Rosalyn looked into Birdies brown eyes and smiled, "Thank you for escorting me, I would probably be dead right now if I hadn't met you."

Birdie snorted and shrugged. "Birdie not care what adventurers think about kobolds. BIrdie is large for his tribe and even Birdie knows he is not very strong. We are weak alone. So Kobolds don't fight fair and we don't fight alone if we can help it. Birdie can't eat honor..." his mouth opening in a toothy grin to punctuate his words, "...but he can eat adventurers."

Coughing and looking sheepish Birdie quickly added, "I wouldn't eat Pretty Lady though. You are the Great One's guest and you defeated Birdie in single combat and then spared his life. You even fed Birdie and his crew! No one had been so nice to Birdie before after a fight!" The small creature looked like he was at a loss, "Birdie has decided that he would just stick by Pretty Lady and see what he could do. Pretty Lady never know when small hands could come in handy after all."

Rosalyn watched Birdie walk off to scout the tunnel ahead for more traps as he started humming a soft tune to himself, boucing his arms to a beat only he could really hear. She looked up at the floating blue orb and asked "You really didn't know those were there?" The orb dipped and shook from side to side in response, " No child, I didn't. People underestimate kobolds. They are weak yes, but no one knows how to play a home field advantage like they do, and they have had almost sixty years to entrench themselves in this cave." The orb dipped once more and flew off ahead past Birdie.

After several slow hours of carefully advancing through the tunnels Serena declared they were almost at their destination, and all they had to do was enter the chambers ahead and open the door. Rosalyn wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what she saw when they entered the room.

She found herself in a large dome shaped room covered in tiled marble that had to be a hundred feet at the tallest point. Just standing in the room made her feel smaller. Darting her eyes around the room she noted several distinguishing features. To the right and left there were murals painted on the walls depicting men fighting dragons, and there was a a large stone box in the middle of the room. However the last thing immediately grabbed her entire focus. Looking up and up at a gargantuan metal door emblazoned with roaring dragons that totally dominated one side of the room. She absently noted that Serena had called Birdie over and was giving him instructions. Not wanting to get in the way of whatever they were doing, she turned to the murals.

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There were gorgeous and colorful and could probably have been a national treaure if anyone knew they were even here. She looked them over in awe for several long minutes until her eyes were drawn to a large glowing section of the mural. It was hard to look at and seemed to twist and turn under her vision, but after staring at it for a few long seconds she realized that she wasn't standing in the chamber anymore. She was on a battlefield, standing next to a ridiculously handsome blonde man wearing a crown. Instinctively she knew she was seeing what the mural depicted, that she was seeing the past.

Something about him seemed... larger than life. He wore a confident grin that gave off an aura of competency that made her just want to fall in line and let him handle things. This king was part of an army clashing against an army of minions. She looked over the horizen and as far as she could see was nothing but orcs and goblins in disorderly formations, but the thing that struck her the most was the utter lack of sound on the battlefield. She could see the open mouth screams of the advancing creatures, but no sound emerged. Dismissing that detail as something she probably shouldn't be focused on, Rosalyn watched in facination as the king led his forces against the enemy host.

Suddenly a bright flash of light engulfed her and she was somewhere new. Rosalyn was standing next to the king again, but this time he was alone and covered in wounds. However, he still had that same confident grin on his face while he was facing... a... a dragon. There was no other word for what she was seeing. It was magnificent! With bright red scales and wingspan of a least forty feet, Rosalyn knew it could be no other creature. Another slightly smaller dragon was in the back with a spear driven through its chest, crimson blood staining the dark black scales. It wasn't moving and appeared to have been killed sometime recently. The living dragon turned his head to his defeated brethren and a look of utter disdain passed over the red dragon's features as it reared its head back and belched fire at the king. 

Another flash of light, and now Rosalyn was standing in the middle of a parade. The king was standing on a moving float that held the heads of four dragons. She recognized the black and red dragons from the precious vision, but she also noticed the heads of two smaller dragons as well, both of which were a shimmering bronze color. She was impressed until she turned around and saw the pikes adorning the following floats. Dozens of dragon heads comprised of all the colors of the rainbow were spit up and put on display. Rosalyn tasted bile as her eyes rested upon a small baby dragon, about the size of a dog, that had been hung from one of the nearby poles by its neck.

Another flash and Rosalyn was standing in a cave made from coal black stone. The king was facing another dragon, this time though he struggling and did not have the confident look she had expected to see. The dragon was twice as large as the red one she saw him face before, and there was an etherial quality to it that made its silver scales shimmer mysteriously. It had a look of unbridled rage as it stared down the king. Rosalyn watched in rapt attention as they silently traded blows, neither gaining a permanent advantage over the other. That would probably change soon though, as the king was bleeding from a dozen places and was visibly slowing down. It was at that moment that Rosalyn noticed the robed people wearing featureless white masks the king was defending. They were gesturing wildly in the air as a white light built around them.

There was a flash and four dark pillars shot out of the ground around the dragon. It silently roared as a translucent white cube surrounded it and cut it off from view. The king fell to one knee and rested the tip of his sword into the stone of the floor. Leaning into the hilt he closed his eyes. Rosalyn wasn't sure how, but she knew that he would never open them again.

One last flash of light and she was back in the chamber. Turning to look at Birdie and Serena's orb she noticed they were in the same position she last saw them in. No time had passed for them. Turning her head toward the large stone box in the middle of the room, she hesitantly walked over to it. Running her fingers along the edges of it, she realized that it wasn't a box. It was an ornate marble sarcophagus with roaring dragons carved into it.

Noticing a silver metal placard engraved with words, she carefully read what it said aloud. "Here lies the King of Light, Geoffrey Woodain, Dragon Slayer. He carved a place for our people with will and strength and defended our lands to his last, paying the ultimate price to ensure our continuted peace and prosperity." Rosalyn was stunned. She was in the tomb of the king that wrested control of this land from the armies of the dragons a hundred years ago and united the small scattered tribes into the kingdom she currently resided in.

Looking once more at Serena's orb she watched Birdie scurry off toward the door and start climbing. With a shaky voice Rosalyn asked, "Serena... are you a dragon?"