"So the dark elves are expanding or one of the minor houses has been forced out of one of the citys."

Aldrin leaned back on his chair, taking a sip of his wine. Thorgrim nodded to him, from his chair while lightening his pipe.

"It looks that way, and they must have a bunch of mages. Or at least one or two high level spell casters "

Aldrin agreed with Thorgrim, but he didn't know what they could do, or if they even should do anything. They had around a hundred men with the dwarfs and the elven rangers, so any type of attack was out of the question.

"Well let's sit tight for now, and send a message informing king William of the situation. "

"Well it's his kingdom so let him deal with it. You ready to teleport me home?"

Thorgrim rose from his chair ready to leave, he was done here.

"You are right Thorgrim, you have Elric and the dragon to deal with."

"Yeah, the lad sure had an…"

The dwarf froze, and Aldrin could not hide his smile.

"What bloody dragon?!"

"Oh, you didn't hear? Elric met a dragon and wanted a pet, but you will have to ask him for the details. It's not my story to tell."

With that he waved his staff and sent the dwarf home.

-Elric-

" Do you think this is good enough mom?"

Me and Helga had been digging in the corner of her garden trying to create a nest. The only thing we knew about creating a nest, was that the egg needed to lie somewhere cold. If it had been a fire type of dragon we could just have placed it in the smithy. So we decided to bury it, and mother had a wand she usually used to cool water with. It should be enough to keep the temperature around the egg cold. We had dug about 2ft deep and used the wand of frost.

"Well it should do for now, but you will have to recast the spell everyday just to be sure."

Together we placed the egg in the hole, recast the spell with the wand and covered it with soil. We had just finished when the door to the back of our house slammed open.

"Come forth and face me lizard!"

We looked over in shock, and saw father with his axe in hand and a red face as he strode in scanning the backyard.

"Thorgrim Silveraxe, what are you doing?"

Mother had now turned towards him with her hands on her hips.

"Not now Helga! There are snakes about, and I will not have them skulking around the house! Tell me boy, where is the dragon hiding."

" Father, there is no dragon."

He was looking at me and Helga, and slowly he started to lower his axe.

" Your uncle told me you had brought a dragon home."

"Let's all go inside and sit down, Elric will tell you while I start cooking."

We went inside and sat down in the small living room while Helga went to the kitchen and started to make us some dinner. It took me some time to tell him what had happened, and he asked some questions about the magical items the dragon gave me. I showed them to him, he examined every piece. The belt he told me not to use until I was fully grown since it would hinder strength training. The ring I could use now, but when he got to the longsword he paused.

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"Is something wrong with the blade?"

He had drawn it out of its scabbard, and was checking the rune's on the blade. Shaking his head at my question only made me more confused.

"Well I must say she was not stingy with her pay for taking care of her egg. This sword is made of deep steel and mithril, it was crafted by master smith or grandmaster. Too bad the enchantment is mediocre, but a good choice on a sword."

He told me the swords stats since I could not yet see them.

Longsword of piercing

One Hand damage: 10-15 +(str mod)

Two hand damage: 10-15 +(str mod*2)

Critical hit: damage * 2

Durability: 47/50

Special effects: Armor penetration +5

Requirements: Str 16, Dex 14

"I will keep the sword for you until you can use it or turn fifteen. Now Elric about this dragon egg, what are you going to do with it? "

He sheathed the sword and looked at me.

"I don't understand, it will hatch and live with us for a short time then move?"

Was there more to raising a dragon? Did not Uncle say dragons move out quickly after they hatch.

" Well that's an option, but you could also claim it as yours. Most people would do this, even good people. To own a dragon is just too tempting."

"So it can be mine? But Ermidairth was a person, I don't think you could own her."

"Well I don't know all the details, but I know there are spells that can force a young dragon to bond with you. This will make the dragon your slave, and it gives you a lot of benefits."

"But I don't want a slave, you said that slavery is evil and that I should educate them with my fist. What does that mean by the way?"

How could you learn with your fist? Should I drag the slave away from his master?

"Thorgrim what fist are you guys talking about in there? Are you telling Elric bad stuff again?"

Helga's voice sounded from the kitchen. And father became pale.

"No, of course not dear. I was just telling him that dragons can't make a fist."

He was looking at me with pleading eyes. He was afraid of mom again and I knew she would be angry if I told the truth.

"You better not be leading my boy astray Thorgrim Silveraxe! Or else!"

Father cleared his throat and continued.

"Well about the dragon, so if you force the bound the dragon becomes your slave, but that is not the only reason people do it. The biggest reason is that you get a longer life, some even say time does no longer affect you. I don't think that is true, but it is proven that you will have a longer lifespan with a bond dragon."

What did that matter, I still had a lot of years left. I was not even fifteen years old so I was still a child.

"You don't understand it yet, but time is something a lot of people fear. And it is also one of the reasons people try so hard to level up."

"What does levels have to do with how long you live?"

"I was going to tell you this stuff later, but I guess it won't hurt. You know that all races have different lifespans right?"

I nodded to him.

"Well humans live for around 50 years if they are level one, each level they gain gives them around two years more to live."

" But I'm a half-elf, how long will I live?"

"The elves have the longest lifespans of us all and it is believed that they would live around a thousand years at level one. But no one knows for sure, since no one can live a thousand years and not gain some levels. Anyway they gain around 10 years each level."

He paused and let the information sink in before he continued.

"Since you have both elven and human heritage, you take half from the years from each race and add them together."

I did the math in my head, and was astonished.

"I will live for 525 years if I stay at level one, and gain around 6 years each level."

"Yes my boy, you have a long life ahead of you. Just remember that this is not exact and more like a thumb rule."

"How old will you become then?"

"Dwarfs live for 300 years and gain 5 years when they level. But every time you get a new class after becoming level 20 the new levels will dubbel."

So level 2 to 20 gives 5 years each but level 21-40 gives 10 years.

"What happens after level forty?"

"In your case you would gain 24 years each level. The same happens when you hit level 61"

"So what level are you?"

"Let's just say you won't need to plan for my funeral any time soon."

It was getting dark after we had eaten, so Helga told us to wash up before we went to bed.

Time flew by, and the rest of the sommer was soon over, father had been to the garrison at least once a week. And my magic studies were done at home with Aldrin coming over to tech me. Ranger training was cancelled for obvious reasons, but I kept shooting with my bow in the yard.

That winter my cousin Balrim came and lived with us, he had followed the platoon of dwarfs that was to reinforce the garrison. From what I heard there had yet to be any new fighting, and I was happy for it. My cousin had red brownish hair and a small well kept beard, he was just over a hundred years old and was a young man by dwarven standards. But he sure knew how to have fun, he made me and Tova a sledge and tied it behind his pony. We flew over the snow, too bad he had to return to the clan after my birthday.

Two years slowly crept by and since the attack my education has been a lot more homeschool. Thorgrim has narrowed down the weapons training to sword, blunt and bow. He told me that I must learn to use a hammer or a mace since some armors and creatures were more or less immune to anything else. I have also learned my first spell 'magic missile' and are now trying to learn mage armor. My blacksmithing has also become a lot better together with bow and arrow fletching.

But today I am sitting out here in the snow waiting for the egg to hatch. I could see the first cracks on the eggshell, I was really nervous. What if I had done something wrong, and the dragon was hurt. Or what if it did not like me? Aldrin had given me some books on dragons that he had borrowed from elven duke's library. I must have read them a hundred times. And if what was written in them was true, then the dragon should be born with some memories and natural instincts that should help it survive. They should also be able to recognize different smells, so if you had a lot of contact with the egg over a long time, it should be able to smell this.

Suddenly a crack split open and the nose of the dragon could now be seen, I was holding my breath while waiting. After a minute had passed I started to wonder if it was sleeping, the books said it could take hours for the dragon to get out.

So with as much patience as a ten years old could muster I waited. Then with a push it's head was through and quickly it crawled out of the egg.

The silver dragon's head had two metal gray horns pointing up and back from its head, and you could see the small spikes on the back of it's head following the spine all the way to the tail.

It was almost 2ft from head to tail and it's scales had a blue-gray color with a touch of silver. And the purple eyes were staring at me.