Grim swam for hours until night began to fall on the world. He finally reached a beach, some 300 miles from Ashwood. He crawled up onto the beach until the water could touch him no longer. And laid there. Crawled another few hundred feet away from Ashwood and crashed to the ground, laying there, bleeding all over the sand. Several minutes later he made what would appear to be his last ditch effort to reach his destination, a small barbarian encampment, and crawled twice the length of his body towards it and crashed again in to the sand. Waiting for what felt like eternity, he cast one of his final spells.

[TELEPORT]

In the blink of an eye Grim disappeared from the blood covered beach and appeared in Ashwood, right in the town center.

Town guards surrounded Grim and tried to tend to his wounds, summoning the local healer.

"That's unnecessary, summon all of the town's folk, wake them if necessary, and even the children."

"HURRY!"

Within fifteen minutes, Grim’s request was fulfilled and everyone, even the children had been summoned.

Grim ordered all of the people to touch him so he could share with them through telepathy, the information they needed to know.

The human king and his dragon have murdered all of the dragons of this world. Seeking a vengeance on us, and to wage war against all the peoples and races of this continent. Total conquest and absolute power is his driving force now. Several hundred years of peace has unfortunately weakened all of the peoples of this continent. There are no armies per say so to speak of, so any armies he can quickly raise will decimate the land. The only remaining dragon, Tyre, is under his complete control. Or should I say the king is under Tyre's control. But either way, this is this world’s last hope. And you, are our dragon kinds last saving hope. I'm going to give all of the knowledge of my people, all our spells, to an unborn child. He will be called a Dragon Born. I am dying, after I preform the ritual, my dying breath will be to save this town from attack and keep it safe until the Dragon Born comes of age and can defend this beautiful place and hopefully save us all. It's complicated, but no one on the outside will be able to see inside. To them, if they walk through this area, it will look like a field. In a perfect circle surrounding this area for 20 miles, from the outside looking in, they will see rolling hills, and trees. You will be out of phase with the rest of the world. Only those touching me can see the town from hence forth. If you leave the barrier, you and whoever you touch, will be the only ones who can re-enter. Until the child becomes of age will this last. I love all of you and have worked with my brothers and sisters to protect you for all these years. Now. Sven, Laura, Come to my head. Everyone else, you may stop touching me and leave if you wish. No one should have to witness a dying dragon’s last breath.

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The townsfolk started weeping for Grim, and his great sacrifice.

Sven and Laura approached Grim’s head, and touched him.

"You can't leave us!" Cried Laura while Sven held her.

Grim said appearing to weep himself, "I must, if you are all to survive and protect your son."

Sven stammered, " were...were having a son?"

"He will be powerful and suffer much loss and see much destruction in his time, but he will be the only one who can stop the king and Tyre and bring my people back. He will be the saving grace of the world if the divines will have it. The townsfolk has the job to keep the three of you safe. Your jobs however will be the most difficult, in that you have to raise the child and teach him what’s in this book."

Grim made a book appear from nowhere in front of Sven and Laura.

Grim asked, "Has either of you, or any of the townsfolk taken the trial and began to level"

"Only our healer Marissa, the wood elf." said Sven.

"That will have to do. Marissa, keep these people healthy at all costs, the boy will be weak until he comes of age." said Grim. "Laura, when I do this, the divines will gift you as if you were to have taken a tier 1 trial. And you will be rewarded as such."

"I understand, what I must do?" asked Laura.

"It is with my dying breath I give my life to the Dragon Born and to protect these people", just then, in an instant, Grim turned into a bright green light, and entered Laura’s stomach, where the baby lie.

Laura dropped to the ground. Within moments, Laura’s stomach pulsed a bright green light that exploded from her belly, leaving her and the baby uninjured. The explosion did just as Grim explained, and placed a 20 mile radius from the village out of phase. Briefly, the stars were dark and could not be seen, shortly thereafter, their glimmer resumed.

Three hundred miles away, Draco and Tyre tracked down Grim’s blood trail. They followed it to where each time he dropped, and bled, and then vanished.

Tyre said "My lord, I sense a large magical disturbance right here, I feel Grim died at this spot, my apologies you won't be able to capture his essence for yourself like I promised, but the one promise I did keep, was to help you eradicate all the dragons. It is done."

Draco walked from his saddle, down Tyre’s neck to right behind his head where his ears were and sat down, straddling his neck.

"You’re sure all of them are dead?" asked Draco.

"Yes my lord."

Draco smiled and said, “It’s ok Tyre, as long as you were able to capture all their essence and take their power for yourself I do not care."

Tyre smiled and said, “I have captured it all my lord and I am powerf....."

In that instance, Draco buried a black dagger into Tyre's brain. Tyre slumped to the ground and Draco stood atop of him.

[ESSENCE LEECH]

"Then give to me what is rightfully mine you bastard!"

For several minutes Draco stood there as Tyre spilled multiple colors of essence, one for each of the over 200 dragons he’s slain. Over time, Draco’s body transformed into a humanoid shaped looking dragon. Looking like an everyday human, only scaled like a dragon, in all black.

"This world is mine for the taking!" he screamed. He heard an explosion behind him, and looked to see a giant green dome emanating in the distance, and then....it vanished.