The earth heaved, sagged, heaved again, and finally collapsed into a hole filled with darkness. Fire, smoke, and lightning streamed out in cascades of magic as the dungeon’s defense system continued to malfunction. A shadowy form, a monster perhaps, tried to crawl out but was pulled back down, screaming. Finally, an explosion and then silence.

The hole sat there, exposed. It was about as wide as a small keep and if anyone were brave enough to walk to its edge and look down, they would have seen a lake of fire burning at the bottom. As it was, the only witnesses to the event were birds and a very startled squirrel who had climbed to the top of the nearest tree where it sat chittering nervously.

Minutes passed as the hole smoldered, smoke rising from its maw. Periodically, clumps of earth would drop from its edges and fall down into the fire. Each landed and dissolved with a hiss.

Then, a dragon, black scales with shimmering gold along its belly, flew out of the hole and soared up into the sky. Its four eyes looked out across the tree tops, found no immediate threats, and then took off for the nearest hill.

Her name was Vevic.

She could see the mountains in the distance and wanted no part of them. Mountains, her mother said, were where a lot of dragons made their home and most dragons, mother said, did not like other dragons coming in and making themselves at home. She was young as far as dragons were concerned and so was unlikely to win out in a fight of any sort against another of her kind. In fact, aside from her younger half-sister Xhen, she had never encountered another full dragon, let alone fought one. To make matters even more complicated, this was not only Vevic’s first time seeing mountains, it was also her first time seeing trees, lakes, valleys, or unfiltered sunshine. This was, of course, because Vevic had never been to the surface before.

So as she flew low over the tree tops, as the streams and the fields passed below her, she thought of what few things her mother had told her about this new world she now found herself in. She knew the surface was a lot bigger than the dungeon she had grown up in. She also knew – and could now see – that the surface world was a big, wide open place where you could run into almost anything or anyone on a daily basis, and not just the things her now deceased step-father let into his dungeon. And finally, she knew that while the surface world was full of many different creatures and monsters, dragons like herself sat at the very top of the food chain. She knew this because her mother had told her so.

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She stayed low, just above the tree line, hoping to avoid detection. The battle in the dungeon had been horrible and she wasn’t sure if there had been any other survivors. Not that she had won, mind you, only that she had survived, a trick she hoped to keep up.

That dungeon had been the only place she had ever known. It’s caverns and caves. It’s tunnels and hallways. It’s corridors and rooms and barracks and stairways and passages and traps had been all that she had ever known. Now she was here and everything her four eyes could see were new.

Three miles. That was how far she dared to go, and about how far her wounded wings were willing to travel. As her strength began to wane, she found a small clearing where she landed between the trees. She needed healing, shelter, and perhaps someone she could boss around to keep watch for her.

Sitting in the glade, she took stock of her wounds. Many of them were magical, burns and scorch marks that marred her beautiful scales. Only a few were bites and cuts from where the knights and trolls had struck her. She had tried to not let them get too close, but when the knights had cornered her mother, she had been forced to land and draw them off. Then, as she tried to take off, one of the knights had wounded her wing and she had been grounded. Twice she had been knocked from the sky and twice she had healed herself. Then had come the final confrontation. Vevic had been all but dead. Her health in the red. Her magic empty. She had waited until the last minute before she struck and had separated her stepfather from his arm. Shortly thereafter, everything had collapsed.

Now he was dead and – thanks to the healing potions she had stolen off her stepfather’s dead body - she was alive and free. She was free to go wherever she wanted. She was free to take whatever she could find. She was free do whatever she wanted here. Wherever here was.

Her position was treacherous now. She didn’t know where she was or what was out there. She had no friends or allies to speak of. She would have to find her own way.

Minutes passed into an hour as she lay tending her wounds. The glade was safe, or at least as safe as anything was. Her wings were too hurt to carry her far and in her limited knowledge of her surroundings, she didn’t think movement was her best option. At least not in the present.

Then, a rustle. She turned. Something had emerged out of the brush. It saw her and froze, her dragonfear holding it in place. It was two legged and green, almost like the trolls who had guarded the dungeon below, only this creature was smaller. It reminded her of the kobolds, though it had no scales.She leaned down and gave it a sniff. It was cute, she thought, in its own way. As she lowered her four eyes to face level, the tiny being trembled.

“What are you?” she asked.

The small being gulped.

“Answer, or I shall eat you.”

“Lubglub,” it answered.

“Not your name,” she said patiently. “I want to know what you are.”

“Gobbers. Of the Tribe of the Bloody Foot.”

Goblin, she realized. I’ve found a goblin.

Mother had told her about goblins. They were not the bravest or the most powerful of the monstrous humanoids, but they were numerous. Her mother had said, ‘They breed like rabbits.” Whatever rabbits were.

“Listen,” she said, “I need you to help me with something and if you do, I promise a great reward for you and your tribe. Betray me and I shall visit a fury on you and everything that you love, for my name is Vevic, dragon of the Last Light.”