Razam took in a sharp breath as the mysterious lights that glowed in the darkness. Two orange-colored orbs fixed on him; they gleamed and displayed strange patterns. Razam was scared, scared enough to scream, turn around and run for his life, but whatever he was looking at was calling to him. There was a strange feeling, as if his soul had been pulled away and hooked to something he could not see. He blinked, then felt a distinct voice in the depths of his mind.

Razam gasped, swallowing hard.

“What?” he shook his head, looking back toward the creature. The light of the dragon’s eyes revealed powerful chains that kept his body restrained. Massive wings were bound, painfully tucked against his back. An iron muzzle kept a powerful snout still and in place, with barely a flicker of light shinning through its back as the creature breathed. The body was covered in blue scales, like a million fragments of sapphire studded in a great tapestry.

And Razam felt a stab of helplessness, not for himself, but for the creature, as if an entirely alien part of his mind was speaking to him.

“A dragon?” Razam said with a gasp.

Despite the shock and fear of being face to face with a dragon. Razam felt bad for the poor thing. Who wouldn’t hate being locked up and tied like that? The dragon couldn’t even open move its neck. There was a sadness to those eyes, helplessness. Razam could tell that the dragon didn’t deserve to be treated like that.

And something answered in his mind.

He shook his head, as it seemed to whisper clearly.

“Release me,” said the voice.

Spit on a grave, why would I do that? Razam thought.

“Because if not, you’re going to die,” said the voice in his head.

Razam looked back at the canopy and cursed under his breath.

You’re going to eat me, he thought.

“There’s no other way. If you don’ help me, they’re gonna hang you,” the dragon said into his mind.

I’ve broken out of prison once, been there, but I don’t need to make deals with demons like you.

“Do you think you’ll fool them? Look at me; I’m a dragon and I can’t even move because of what they’ve done. Release me and we’ll fight together.”

Suddenly, a figure emerged from beneath the tent, a soldier carrying a halberd. Razam rolled his eyes and jumped into action, ducking a spear attack and ramming his scimitar through the soldier’s armor.

“More are coming,” the dragon told him through their connection.

“Why are you inside my mind?” Razam shouted. “Get out of my mind now! It’s not funny.”

“Free me or you’ll die, human. I’m not the one who’s about to die.”

But the dragon was sincere. Razam could somehow feel it. What the hell had that creature done?

Spit on a grave, I’m dead either way, Razam thought.

He’d heard that dragons were dangerous, but not that they were unreasonable. It was not likely to burn him to a crisp. Besides, maybe that was quicker than being tortured to death by the Murlians.

He leapt toward the dragon and extracted his pick-locking kit from his belt. In that time, two more Murlians entered the tent.

“You bloody fool, what do you think you’re doing?” said another Murlian, preparing his spear and hurling it at Razam.

Razam ducked, turning around, reaching for a large padlock that connected the chains and rings, The soldiers hurled spears at Razam. He dodged, moving back quickly and catching the halberd with a hand, with a fluid motion he whirled and threw it back at the soldier.

“What’s taking so long?” the dragon spoke into Razam’s mind.

“Stop it for a minute,” Razam said out loud, going back to the padlock.

“Come on,” said the dragon.

“It’s not as easy as it looks.”

Two more soldiers stepped in, shocked at what he was doing. They immediately ran toward him, ready to skewer them with their spears.

“Come on,” Razam said, gritting his teeth, just as a man thrust a spear toward his body. He slid to the side and dodged, but another one was about to attempt to stab him in that very moment.

Then, it clicked.

The padlock thumped into the ground.

Chains slid and slithered like snakes, metal clanked, and before him, a dragon spread magnificent wings, scales on its body like studded diamonds that reflected the light in its eyes, larger than an elephant, reaching the edges of the cage.

The muzzle fell, revealing the dragon’s powerful snout, already gleaming with amber colored sparkles. He spread his mighty wings, that filled the metal cage where they were.

Razam noticed something, there was a box under the dragon, a chest as white as ivory. Could that be what they were looking for?

“The creature’s escaped!” the Murlians shouted in panic, turning around, snatching horns from their belts and blowing them desperately.

“Come closer,” said a voice that made Razam shudder, rough and loud as iron wheels on a rocky road. He turned and found the dragon looking at him.

“I…” Razam mumbled.

“Come closer, human, at once,” the dragon repeated.

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Razam did what the creature told him. In that very moment, the air seemed to catch fire.

He stared up, feeling a shock of fear and awe, hot wind circling around him as a thread of fire exited the dragon’s mouth, aimed at the iron bars of his cage. Then, the canopy caught fire. Panicked soldiers ran away. One of them was caught in the flames, his cape and hair caught fire and he let out a panicked scream.

The iron beams melted as if in a hot furnace, turning red like embers and falling like melted cheese. Soldiers stopped to stare, behind the smoke and flames.

“They’re going to attack,” said the dragon into his mind. “We’ve got to go.”

Razam remembered the other thieves. He clutched the box beneath his feet and held it in his arm.

“What do you think you’re doing with that,” the dragon kept talking through their bond.

“My business,” Razam said.

“Yours?” the dragon replied. Whatever was happening was making the dragon angry, a wave of rage was brewing in his mind. Razam looked at the creature. It was definitely a male, he was feeling it. The dragon had stopped breathing fire.

“We have to go now,” said the dragon. Razam held the box and turned to climb on the dragon’s back. It seemed like a natural thing to do, climbing all the spikes and resting on top.

The dragon pressed his legs against the ground and hopped with a powerful leap, passing through the open cage, just as dozens of spears were hurled at him. An explosive burst of fire veered them off course as the dragon spread his wings again and caught flight, then again, he flapped his powerful wings.

Razam gasped, looking at the ground beneath him, a sudden burst of vertigo made him blink in shock. He felt better after a few seconds, as he held tightly to the dragon’s spikes, holding the ivory box in his other hand.

He looked down and caught sight of the other thieves that had been trying to escape. Five of them were lying sprawled on the floor, and one had been captured. He watched as the enemy had one of them on their knees. The dragon flapped again, raising ever higher, as through the smoke, Razam saw how a Demon Knight removed the helmet off their prisoner’s head. He was shocked once he saw long curly hair. Yes, it had to be, that figure could not belong to a man.

A woman was leading the thieves.

He glanced as the soldiers placed a knife to her neck. Another one kicked her in the ribs.

“Wait,” Razam said, the dragon was now flying so high that Murlian spears and arrows could not reach them.

“Are you concerned about that human?” the dragon asked.

“I am. It’s a girl. What’s she doing there?”

The dragon grunted, his entire body reverberating.

“Hey,” Razam said. “How can we just let her be tortured and killed like that?”

“It’s a problem for humans, not mine.”

“Hey, were you a human problem? It didn’t look like they treated you like a king. Now imagine how they’d treat her,” Razam said.

The dragon snorted, a cloud of smoke escaping his nostrils, his flight steady as he circled the air high above the chaos. Razam felt the rumble of a growl vibrating through the dragon's body.

“Come on,” Razam said. “You know what it’s like to be powerless, at the mercy of others. She doesn’t deserve that fate, any more than you did.”

The dragon let out a long, rumbling growl that seemed like a reluctant agreement. Then, he tilted his wings and started descending rapidly, cutting through threads of smoke and new volleys of arrows.

Some Demon Knights turned around to flee in terror, a few remained, hurling their weapons at the dragons.

Razam felt the dragon’s scales turn warm. He held on, just as a powerful thread of flame descended into the fields.

The man who was holding the woman faced the dragon and Razam. His eyes gleamed with anger and fear. The dragon descended powerfully, Razam held tight as the dragon stretched out his claw and grasped the woman with his claws.

Flame burst around, making the man frightened to the bone, who ended up turning and jumping to the ground. The dragon flapped his wings again, and Razam sighed in relief once they gained altitude. He looked down, that woman they had saved was strangely quiet. Had she fainted? Was she even alive?

“Wait, wait,” Razam said. “Why are you flying so far! Hey, I have to deliver that package.”

“Who says this is yours?”

“I don’t know, we’re just doing business.”

“And I won’t let you.”

“Hey!” Razam shouted. “How is it important to you, anyway?”

The dragon’s chest rumbled with the humming of a hundred bumblebies. The knowledge rang in Razam’s mind. Whatever was in the box was extremely important to the dragon. To the point of life and death.

Suddenly, a female voice rang in Razam’s ears.

“Hey!”

Razam looked down the side of the dragon.

“Hey, where are we supposed to be going?” said the woman. She looked serene despite having lost all her men. She stared up at Razam with a furrowed brow. “Put me down now!”

“You’re alive!” Razam said. “I’m glad to hear you.”

“Yes, nice little trip you’re carrying me on, but I cannot be seen just anywhere. Put me down in the outskirts of the city!”

“Huh? You’re forgetting something, darling. Something very important.”

“Put me down, it’s not entertaining anymore.”

“Where, should the dragon just let go and drop you to the four winds?”

The dragon tilted his wings. Razam felt a shift as they started to descend.

“No, no, no,” Razam said, rising his hands. “Don’t listen to her. Not just yet, keep flying.”

“Who do you think you are, disgruntled thief, to treat me like that?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Razam raised both arms in front of his face. “First of all, you call me thief. I am no thief. Second, what are you supposed to be, a nun? Second, who am I? I am the one who saved your life.”

“The dragon saved my life.”

“After much convincing.”

She looked at Razam with a furrowed brow. She was pretty alright, quite above average. He liked the wavy hair, but her personality was lacking. Very much unlike those giggling barmaids he often encountered. Her hubris was immense, however, so was her bottom.

“I’m waiting for two words, two simple words, before I allow you to go down,” Razam said. “No, Vrarog, don’t do that. I want to hear it from her before you descend.”

Vrarog? Razam thought. Where had he come up with that name? It seems like it just popped into his mind. Was that the dragon’s name? The dragon… Vrarog’s guts rumbled with a strange noise, like the purring of a cat.

“Why would I say that?” the woman said, looking up. She looked strangely comfortable, wrapped in a dragon’s scaly claw.

“Because I saved your bloody life, woman!”

She chuckled.

“It was your duty!”

“My duty?”

“Your duty as a moral and sane person.”

“Since when is it my duty?” Razam said. “Lord Creator, do you think people have an obligation to risk their lives just to save your buttocks?”

“It’s the least I can expect,” she said.

Suddenly, Razam noticed a change in the dragon’s intentions, as he turned toward a small hill and flapped closer and lower.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Razam said. “Hey, Vrarog. I’m talking to you, what do you think you’re doing?”