4 Years after the devastation of Greinford

I was surrounded by darkness, an all encompassing tangible wall of darkness, soon enough, I realized it wasn’t a wall, but an eggshell, My eggshell, I pushed with all the strength my body had, and cracks started to appear, from those some faint light from outside poured in, I kept pushing until it eventually broke and I was free, and in that moment, many new sensations rushed at me, but no stronger than hunger.

I scanned my surroundings, it was rocky, a cave, the light from earlier reflected across the stone walls from somewhere else, 3 other eggs around me, Siblings,they were starting crack as well, looking back at what remained of the egg, wondering if it was edible, I approached it and taking a tentative bite at the shell I realized that yes, it was.

After eating, I gave myself a look, my scales were a dark red with 4 limbs that ended in sharp claws, my hind legs ended in sharp talons with a digit on the back, my forelimbs had 5 digits to the front, with claws that I quickly learned could retract and extend, my back was lined with stubs that appeared to be growing spines that reached all the way to the back of my tail, a heavy thing, and to it all I had two large wings, that I knew where gonna be of use soon enough.

After I finished, I looked at my siblings to see that they have already broken through and were on the process of going through the same as I did, with a last glance to them, another sensation hit me like a wave, exhaustion, my movements felt sluggish as I dropped to the floor, eyes feeling heavy, closing them, I quickly fell asleep.

I woke up to a wet thump, snapping my eyes open there was a giant mass of scales in front of us, Something in me told me what it was, Mother, and in between us was a dead animal, a large quadruped, a boar, the hunger from before resurfaced and I rushed along my siblings to get as much as possible, jaws opened wide as we started tearing through the exterior hide, everything around just became white noise as we chewed through to get as much meat as possible.

Mother looked at us, observing us, while consuming flesh and bone alike, some form of primal connection appeared between each one of us, names, and mine was Valreid, in those moments some form of connection opened between me and the name, something that I could use to impose my will in those lesser than us.

Once only few bones remained and I felt that I ate twice my weight, the connection to mother opened once more, ‘FOLLOW’, and like that she started walking towards a tunnel that from what I could tell, led to some other room in the cave, we had to run after her due to our short limbs, quickly learning to use my wings to stabilize myself as I ran, soon after we reached the other room, it was filled with piles of precious metals, mostly in the form of coins.

The piles were centered in the middle of the room, Mother laid down on it, and we followed, the shiny pieces of metal felt comforting and soothing on my scales, and from them I saw my reflection, my head ended in 4 horns at the back of my head, my eyes being black as night with a white sclera.

At the other end of this room, laid outside, with sunlight pouring in from the hole that led into the cave, from here I could see silhouettes of people moving or structures, it must be mother’s servants and what refuges they had set up.

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There was a knock at the door and soon someone entered “My liege” A messenger came in and kneeled, he must have ran all the way from his mount to here as he kneeled on the floor gasping for air.

“Rise and state your message” Arnold Crow said, After becoming a knight and founding the Order of the Crimson Spear he became the governor of his rebuilding hometown after the previous one quit out of guilt, while it has risen once more thanks to it being a commercial hub that linked the 3 neighboring nations together, the scars of the massacre that occurred here could still be found, with the melted foundation of buildings still being removed to give place to new ones.

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Taking a deep breath the messenger stated “Reports from the southern coasts of the Kingdom of Boulren show signs of dragon activity, with multiple villages sacked by people in with a dragon head tattooed on different parts of their bodies, guardsmen of the port city of Larcren claim they spotted dragons off the coast, with missing fishing and merchant vessels” He paused and took a deep breath “The Boulren crown is willing to pay up to a five thousand gold ferdands for the head of the reptile” The messenger finished relaying the information and looked at the knight-governor expectantly.

“Very well, tell them I accept the bounty, you are free to go” he said, getting up from his desk giving a final glance at the order he had written for the construction of an external wall around the town.

“Yes my liege” He gave a simple bow and left, more calmly than he entered.

After the messenger was off he went to the headquarters of the order, grabbing his armor, it was adorned with the scales of the dragon he had impaled 4 years prior, most of them were however given to the academy in the capital along with the bones to study them, the magical properties of dragon scales allowed them to be incredibly hard and tough while being surprisingly light.

The headquarters of the order was 7 kilometers out east, it was still in construction but around the area tents and a palisade around it were set up to function properly, once he arrived the guards on duty opened the gates for him, he went directly for the command tent at the center of camp.

Inside was Major Clandery, she was reviewing some information when she noticed him arrive, “Anything important, Sir?”

“I’ll need you to assemble the troops, there’s another dragon, not much information is known except that the thing was there for at least a month before they finally decided to get our help” He announced, without waiting for her reply he sat down in one of the desks, and pulled out one map of the Boulren kingdom, he circled an area with a quill.

“This” he pointed to the area he circled “Is our search area, the Greyfold mountain range offer a great protection to outlaw groups and all kinds of beasts, establishing a thorough search of the area is needed” He explained

The order earned a reputation as monster exterminators, doing several cleansings around settlements, however while there were dragon reports most of them were misidentification of wyverns, unlike dragons wyverns acted more similar to some predatory birds, they lacked the sapience, cunning or brutality that the former were known for.

“I’ll get the couriers to start amassing the troops” she spoke up and exited the tent.

Alone, he started to think, memories of that fateful day resurfacing, ‘No’, he though, he wouldn’t let such thing happen again, with increasing resolve he put himself to think on how to best use his limited forces against a monster like this, unlike the previous one, this one shouldn’t be any larger, and if his assumption was correct, it shouldn't have such a large following as the previous one to the point thousands of soldiers were needed, they should be able to take it down with his knights and if need arose he could get levies from the nearby towns if they wanted that thing dead before it caused further damage to their nation.

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While laying on the hoard I must have gotten asleep, I must have slept for days as I felt my body be larger than before, I was not hungry, peckish, sure, but I could do without eating for a while, my scales felt stronger than before, my body must have went through a growth surge while I slept.

I laid there observing the entrance, silhouettes of people entering the cave, they were carrying bags that seemed to be filled with more treasure, they approached and poured the bags at the edge of the pile, coins and more objects of value fell out, such a beautiful golden grail encrusted with gems.

From this distance I noticed their features, 2 humans, one a kobold, the one in the middle was a man his skin was tanned with the signs of labor and fieldwork, with a tattoo in his arm in the form of a dragon’s head, indicating his servitude towards mother, not us, for each one of us was a different master, we have yet to get to this point, but the time will come.

The one to the right of him was a woman who had dark hair and medium skin, the tattoo was on the neck.

The last one, the kobold, he was quite a hulking beast, he seemed to be 2 meters tall with dark green scales and yellow eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness, his mark was in the back of his wrist of the left hand, unlike humans who could draw the tattoos on their skin, kobolds had to scar their scales.

After there was nothing else on the sacks, they all left at once, with the addition of the new treasure the previous feeling of calm grew even more, I could feel how most of this soothing aura came from the grail, even if I slept short of a week, the feeling of calm the new addition gave was enough for me to fall back in to a slumber.