{Arthur}

The two dragons walked side by side down the hall. Davit looked pleased about something, and Arthur was keeping an eye out for any potential danger or loot. The duo had been walking for a good minute, making distance. Davit had informed him that there was a secret passage at the end of this main hallway. Caesar had been living down here, because Davit also described multiple rooms filled with things like food and basic supplies. There were multiple small kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, et cetera. It made him think this place wouldn’t be so bad as a lair, but he discarded the idea. He liked his mountainous cavern, and this place wasn’t big enough for his actual form anyways.

They reached the end of the hall, running into a few guards along the way doing one thing or another. Arthur wasted no time and charged any guard they found and beat them into a pulp, Davit supporting him with magic. The hall ended in a simple stone wall, like the rest of the place. He turned to look at the copper dragon, who smiled and pushed one of the stones. They both watched the stone wall expectantly, but nothing happened. Davit looked confused before saying,

“Oh wait, it’s this one. Whoops!” He pressed a different stone and this time the wall slid to the right with a loud grinding noise, revealing a dimly lit staircase leading down.

“Voila! After you, Arthur.” Davit did a mock bow and gestured to the staircase. He walked past the copper and restrained an eye roll, going down the stairs. Davit followed behind with a pleased expression.

Step by step, the duo went deeper down the staircase, making it to the bottom after a minute of walking.

The bottom opened up into a brightly lit expanse, much like the one that held the cages. In the middle of the room was a large clay statue, which looked very crudely made. Stacked high on the north wall were multiple gold bags, each one crammed with gold coins. There had to be at least two dozen bags here, just waiting for Arthur to snatch them up! Some worry tugged at his mind but he dismissed it. He walked into the expanse, intent on taking the gold. Davit hanged back, getting out of his way when he walked past with a neutral expression.

He crossed the room, walking around the clay statue. When he reached the gold bags, he reached out and plucked one up, weighing it. He let out a hum of approval when his instincts ballparked it at a thousand gold pieces. “Watch out!” The sudden shout came from Davit.

Looking up, Arthur saw the clay statue walking towards him. Not a clay statue, a clay golem, he realized. Stupid of him to not realize that, he had been too fixated on the gold. He threw the bag of gold on top of the pile and cast a fireball on the clay golem, pouring more of his draconic magic into the spell to strengthen it. The blast knocked the golem off-balance, otherwise showing no reaction as the fire seared and charred its body. The fire dissipated and the golem continued its march towards Arthur, now around twenty feet from him.

Davit ran from his spot at the entrance, casting a spell under the golem’s feet when he was close enough. Slick grease spread around the floor where Davit had aimed his magic, and the golem failed to keep its balance when it stepped forward and slipped with a loud crash on the grease. Arthur ran forward and blasted the prone golem with his breath weapon, the fire singing its arms and body further. The golem stood up rigidly, almost slipping again, and swung its tree trunk arms at Arthur. The swing was unexpectedly fast, and he noticed some sort of spell effect surrounding the golem before he was hit. He was thrown bodily ten feet to the right, standing up hastily after. He felt surprisingly little pain, just a slight stinging feeling.

Davit cast another spell, and he seemed surprised when the golem turned to him. The golem barreled towards Davit, miraculously not slipping on the grease. “Ya wanna dance? Fine!” The copper dragon shape changed into an exact copy of the clay golem minus the burn damage and met its charge with his own. He had caught up at that point, and Arthur cast reduce on the golem. He felt his magic disintegrate when he tried to reduce the golem, and he silently cursed himself for wasting his magic on something he should have known would’ve happened. His strategic part of his mind was being blunted by the rising anger and adrenaline of being in a battle that’s lasted more than a few seconds.

The two golems smashed into each other, and Davit quickly gained the upper hand by maneuvering faster than the animated golem, kicking its legs and jabbing its face, the other golem retaliating by throwing wild punches, driving Davit back. The golem became more erratic as it relentlessly assaulted Davit, the disguised dragon having a tough time dodging all of its rabid attacks.

Arthur had let this all play out, unable to do any damage without hurting Davit in the process. He decided to enlarge himself and head in to support Davit.

He ran forward, casting enlarge as he went, instantly doubling in size. Arthur reached the two and grappled the berserk golem from behind, pinning its arms so Davit could pummel it freely. The golem thrashed and kicked, but he held on. It finally went limp after the fifth punch to its head, and Arthur shoved it to the side.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Arthur repeated that a few times. The fight was over, but his mind practically brimmed with anger and adrenaline still. Someone tapped his shoulder and he looked up to see Davit in his human form.

“Hey, that pile of gold isn’t going to loot itself.” He said it almost gently, watching him. He sighed and nodded to the other dragon, walking over to the bags of gold.

“If you shape change into a big form and carry all of those bags, you can shape change again into another form and absorb everything that your carrying.” Davit flashed a smile and gestured for him to try it. The thought of increasing his hoard calmed him, and he felt the adrenaline wind down. He pondered on what form to take and settled on the clay golem.

Changing into the golem, he felt very slow, like he was in a pool of syrup. Nonetheless, Arthur stacked up all of the gold bags in his tree-trunk arms and shape changed back into a half-dragon, ‘absorbing’ the gold in the process. It felt like his magic had taken the gold inside some sort of limited internal bag of holding. It was very weird, and he decided not to dwell on it.

“Alright. We have the gold. Time to leave this stuffy dungeon.” Arthur said it with finality, and Davit gave a nod of agreement.

“And good riddance too! I was starting to get tired of this place.” Davit said easily, already heading towards the staircase. He silently agreed and followed.

{Kaia}

She had expected it to be hard to watch and shepherd all of the ex-slaves, but they all were surprisingly understanding and patient. Of course, a select few caused a racket, but everyone else just told them to shut up and wait. Kaia practically had to do nothing. She was currently setting up a makeshift splint for the Dragonborn with a broken leg. He winced when Kaia tightened the splint but otherwise had no complaints as she worked. Kaia dealt with broken legs all the time as Kobolds were particularly frail, and broken bones and other major injuries happened all the time. The Dragonborn spoke to her in draconic, asking, “So, does your party do this sort of thing often?” After a moment, she replied in draconic,

“We aren’t really a party. Me and Arthur originally were on our way here, and the other dragon decided to help us. They seem alright thus far.”

“Hmm, I see. You are very eloquent for a kobold. Thank you for this.” Kaia nodded and finished up with the splint. The Dragonborn seemed to do some sort of mental double-take, and he nearly shouted,

“Wait, other Dragon?” It was at this moment Arthur strode in with Davit right behind him. Her god spoke up, shouting out,

“We leave now! Anyone strong enough, help those who are too weak or injured to walk. I will lead the way.” The expanse became a flurry of movement, and in minutes everyone was walking down the hall towards the exit hatch. Kaia was at the front beside Arthur and Davit, confidently leading forward. When they made it to the ladder, her god gestured for them to wait and climbed up, pushing open the hatch. There were cries of alarm heard above, and her god went out of view above. The hooligan also went up the ladder and disappeared, a grin on his face the whole time.

There were shouts and cries and much scuffling heard above, but it was over as soon as it started. Kaia wasn’t worried through the whole process. Why would she be?

“Alright, everyone come up the ladder and wait. Me and Davit will finish the rest off.” Her god disappeared once more, and she heard a faint door shut. Kaia was disappointed she wasn’t invited to help, but she went up the ladder back into the cellar of the tavern, spying two bodies in the corner, and helped a dwarf climb up.

{Arthur}

Taverns were always fun in D&D. When Arthur walked up the cellar into the main room ready for a brawl, he felt more like himself than he had these past two days. But when he burst into the main room, it was completely vacant. Some tables and chairs were tipped over, but those were the only signs anyone was here at all. Davit made a disappointed noise.

“Aw, looks like they up and left. Oh well. I’ve been dying to get back into my real form, I’m sure you can handle all those slaves yourself, Arthur.” Before he could respond, Davit burst open the double doors and breathed in a deep breath. He walked out and was promptly brained with a club and a net thrown over him.

The attackers were two men on each side of the door, both holding clubs. Davit, despite being hit on the head very hard, looked more annoyed by the net than anything. The two bulky humans clad in leather armor swung at Davit again, both easily hitting their opponent. Arthur began running forward to help but an annoyed voice spoke before he could, “ALRIGHT, you wanna play dirty?” Davit shape changed back into his true form, tearing off the net, and said in his deep and smooth voice,

“My turn.” The copper dragon smashed the two gobsmacked humans with both his claws, breaking bones and almost instantly killing them. “Serves you right!” Davit said in a sort of ‘good riddance’ tone.

Arthur had made it to the door and was observing the surroundings. The bustling village was now a ghost town, except for the guards on top of the cottages armed with bows and crossbows. He also noticed Davit barely fitting in the main road, tucking in his tail to avoid destroying anything. He shouted out, “Deal with the rest, I’m bringing up everyone else.” Arthur turned back to run to the cellar, already hearing commotion of a battle behind him. He threw open the cellar doors and looked down the stairs, observing a large portion of the ex-slaves crowding the cellar. They all looked up to stare at him, and Arthur shouted, “Come on, we leave now!” He stepped back as the cellar poured out excited, hopeful, and scared people.

Arthur pushed open the double doors, peering outside and spotting the copper dragon plucking panicking humans off of a roof and flinging them into the air. Everything else otherwise looked to be clear so he pushed the doors open fully and shouted,

“ We have a long road ahead of us, prepare yourselves!” The faces on most of these people when they saw Davit would have been comical in any other situation.