As Nia walked out of the dark and empty alleyway, she no longer sensed the dragon nearby. It was strange to her, but she didn't have time to wonder about it. She had to find the Den of Dragonslayers.

Upon leaving the alleyway, the lights and grandeur astounded Nia. The city was still so lively even though it was night. She would have thought that everybody would be asleep, yet all the lights still shined brightly over the city. Structures and temples towered over everybody. Man-made buildings made of stone, marble, and other kinds of rocks that she wouldn't have imagined of. Especially being made by small people, but she knew that when those people work together, they were able to accomplish tasks far greater than the individual. The full moon shined brightly over the city.

The crowd wasn't as bustling as the crowds in front of the entrance, but there was still quite a number of different kinds of people. Plenty of well-dressed men and women. Some hid with cloaks. Some with armor. However, there weren't any children. She thought that because it was night, there was a different kind of crowd than in the light. Some wagons passed by her and she began to walk on the stone road. Nia checked her illusive ring to make sure it was still there. She made sure that her hood wouldn't fall and walked towards a busy tavern.

Above her, many crows perched themselves atop of building watching down on people. A never sleeping army of eyes. However, with so many eyes, there was just as much distraction. They were unable to tell whether the girl was anything but a regular human.

As Nia entered the Guey Tavern, she saw plenty of drunk mercenaries - men and women - enjoying themselves. The waitresses handed out drinks with a smile. Nia strolled over to the bartender without making any unnecessary eye contact.

She took off her hood and looked at the bartender. The bartender looked at her young face with the conflicting set of armor. He would have been surprised, but he has seen a lot of different types of people during his life.

"Well, aren't you a little young to be drinking? Well, as long as you have gold, then it'll be fine. It's not like it's illegal or anything."

"Actually, I need directions. Do you know where the Den of Dragonslayers are?" Nia asked and as she finished her sentence, the drunk armored man next to her made a loud burp.

The man said incoherently while slowly moving uncomfortably closer to Nia, "The Den of Dragonslayers? That ol' place used to be a great way to make some money. But now there aren't any dragons to hunt! I used to be one, y'know. A dragonslayer."

Nia leaned away from his dirty breath and said, "That's, uh, nice."

"But then I asked myself why I couldn't broaden out. Now, I'm just a good ol' monster hunter."

"Hey, Gerbazo. Stop bothering the young lady," the bartender said.

Nia didn't want to make any trouble, here. She just needed to know where the Den of Dragonslayers was before she could plan her next steps.

"I'm not botherin' anyone. I'm just tryin' to - hiccup - have a conversation with this nice lady. Hey, my cup is empty. Bartender, another glass for me and one for my new lady friend, here."

The man put his shoulder around Nia, and she instinctively pushed him back with both arms. He flew off and hit another table, spilling that whole table full of drinks. It was also a table of fully armed mercenaries.

"Oh. Now, I'm going to have to clean up a mess, aren't I?" the bartender said as he prepared himself.

"Hey, what's the big idea, chump!?" the huge mercenary said as he grabbed the drunkard from the ground.

As soon as he did, the drunk man yelled, "Get your dirty hands off of me, pal!" and threw a punch at the mercenary's jaw.

"Oh, boy! Another bar fight! The excitement is killing me!" one guy wearing a triangular mask said who was sitting in the corner alone.

The mercenaries grabbed the man and threw him over to another table. So ensued a cycle of chaos.

Everybody lunged at each other's throats. They threw chairs and tables around. The waitresses sighed and walked out of the bar as if this was routine looking for a soldier to break up the fight. The bartender took out a sword and prepared to protect his tavern. One of the drunk men tossed another towards where Nia was. As he got up, he threw a punch towards Nia, but she dodged out of the way. Another punch. Another miss. She punched him once in the nose and tossed him towards another group of crazy armored men and women.

The man in the mask shook in excitement and was the first one to bring out real weapons. He took out two throwing knives and threw it at one of the mercenary's eyes. One for each eye. He fell screaming covering his face. As soon as this happened, everybody else unsheathed their weapons. Nia had no idea what was happening. Were all bars this hectic, she wondered.

More and more people attacked each other. The waitresses outside yelled for soldiers, but there were none in the area and none coming.

Two mercenaries charged at Nia with their swords. She braced herself and dodged to the sides as they swung their blades down. She didn't want to kill any of them, however, as she looked around, they were killing each other anyways.

A huge mercenary grabbed Nia and held her above his head. He tossed her to the wall and grabbed a chair and just before he could swing it down at her, Nia unsheathed her red blade. She swung straight through the man's armor and created a hug gash in the middle of his belly. Intenstines started to fall out, but the man only looked down at his belly entranced as if he didn't know he was already dead.

Nia kicked him to the ground and held her red blade ready for anybody else who may try to hurt her. Nia's hood fell and as it did so, one by one, the drunk men began to stop fighting each other.

She was wondering what was wrong, but then she realized that they were all staring at her. She touched the sides of her face and felt the scales. She looked down and saw her illusive ring on the wooden floor. She stumbled, quickly grabbed it, and put it on. The scales disappeared.

She wiped away some sweat on her forehead and said, "Phew. Man, we must have all drank so much. I could've sworn that I was growing scales out of my face." She laughed loudly, but none of the others laughed. They weren't buying into her trickery.

The bartender started to run away, but the masked man threw a dagger at his forehead instantly killing him.

"I heard that killing a dragon would make any man rich. Rich enough to build their own empire. I sure hope that none of you decides to run away and let some one else take the credit," the masked man said with a giggle while spinning a dagger around his fingers.

The other mercenaries began to focus their attention towards Nia.

She gulped knowing that she had to kill each one of them, now. She didn't want to kill any of them, she couldn't let anyone know that she was a dragon. She took a deep breath and prepared to fight.

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The armored mercenaries charged at her yelling a battle cry. The masked man walked over to behind the counter and stole the tavern's coins.

Nia sliced away at the mercenaries. One by one, they fell. Sometimes, she would slice their arms or legs. She parried some of their attacks. Sometimes, she dodged and attacked their corners.

As the last one began to flee, Nia threw her blade at him. Her red blade struck the man through the head. Nia breathed out. She didn't want to do that, but she was left no choice.

She walked around the dead bodies and towards her red blade. As he hand reached for it, a dagger hit the hilt and she flinched back. She looked back and saw the masked man sitting with one knee up on the front counter. The triangular-shaped mask was patterned with something that looked like a smiley face, but with a v-shape for a smile. The eyes looked like the side of a fish's fin. There was no way that the person could see through those. Was this similar to the white-robed monster, she wondered. But she couldn't feel the same kind of monstrous presence. She wasn't feeling any chills down her spine. No fear at all. She thought that either the man was just a man or that she may have improved since her encounter with the white-robed monster. She believed the latter.

"I guess the money for your corpse is all mine, now," the masked man said as he began firing a barrage of throwing knives.

Nia quickly grabbed her blade. She was near the exit, but she couldn't leave just yet. She had to kill one more even if she didn't want to. As one knife headed straight for her, she instinctively dodged it. Her senses as a dragon was sharp. She trained with the sword for 30 years and practiced by fighting monsters, but even without that, her instincts were top notch.

As Nia swung her blade, the man jumped away from the blade continuing to throw blades seemingly from out of his sleeves. An infinite supply of cheap knives.

Nia's eyes turned to outside of the tavern, but no one was looking in except for a couple of birds. The waitresses have ran away to call for help. Nia shot a ball of fire from her mouth towards the masked man.

"Oh, hell," the masked man exclaimed before dodging to the side, although Nia didn't hear it. The fire hit the wall and stayed there. The man was distracted by the surprise ball of fire. In that moment, he didn't notice that Nia has already ran up to where the man dodged to. His face looked directly at Nia, but it was too late. Nia slashed across the man's neck. The head flew off, and the body fell.

As the head was in the air, it said, "Well, that sucked..." and it dropped to the ground rolling over to it's side.

Nia sighed. She wiped away the blood from her red blade by using her cloak. She then proceeded to sheath her blade.

She looked back towards her hand and her illusive ring was still on.

"Now, look what you did!" the head yelled.

Nia was shocked and quickly unsheathed her blade. She pointed it at what she thought was a talking head. The head stared right at Nia. It didn't look like it could move.

"Was I just imagining a voice?" she asked herself quietly and began to relax.

"Of course not! I'm as real as you!" the head yelled, "What are you looking!?"

She was surprised by the talking head. She thought that she was going crazy.

"What the hell are you?" she asked while still remaining vigilant. There was nobody else alive in that tavern except for the two of them.

He talked quickly full of energy, "I'm me! And you're you! That's all that matters. But if you're that interested, then let me tell you. I'm the Messenger of Chaos. The voice for the only monarch that matters in the world! You should be grateful that I was going easy on you."

"Ok. Ok. I get it. You're some messenger of chaos," Nia replied as he was getting a headache by listening to the talking head.

"THE! THE Messenger of Chaos! There is only one... I think. I sure hope so, anyways. My monarch doesn't really tell me much."

"So, you're some kind of monster? Are you related to that white-robed monster I fought a while ago?"

"The white-robed what-now? Never heard of him. Who is he? Is he somebody who claims to be the Messenger of Chaos? If so, he is lying. I'm the only Messenger of Chaos. Me!"

"You are loud and obnoxious. You know that, right?"

Nia thought for a moment and still needed to know where to find the Den of Dragonslayers. Perhaps, the talking head could help her.

Nia asked with a smile, "Do you know where the Den of Dragonslayers is, talking head?"

"Talking head!? How disrespectful. I'll have you know that's no way to treat your elders!"

"I'm 130 years old."

"So, what? That's nothing. Now, try asking again, but this time use the proper words like sir or madam - Messenger of Chaos, perhaps."

Nia sighed and gave in to the annoying head's demands.

"Alright. Do you know where the Den of Dragonslayer is... Messenger of Chaos?"

"Well, the tone was off, but it'll have to do. The Den of Dragonslayers is to the right after you leave through the front entrance, then left after seeing the first intersection. And if you go straight from there, you'll eventually find signs for it."

Nia mumbled to herself to try and remember the directions. She thought that she understood.

"Okay. So, left first? Then-"

"No! Right, first. Right, you idiot! Am I cursed to be surrounded by incompetence!"

"Okay. I think I got it."

"Anything else?"

She thought for a second, and realized there was one more question that she wanted answered. She was aware of Akai from her big sister Nera's stories. A dragon that was injured and Nera brought him back to health. It was a story similar to her own. Nia remembered how her big sister wanted to see him every day, but he never did come back to visit.

However, she heard that Akai made a pretty big name for himself in King's City from the dragonslayers. She wondered if it was true, but as she recalled, Nera believed him. If Nera trusted Akai, then maybe she could too. Maybe, she could get him to help her free Nera. She then thought back to her senses. How she sensed a dragon when she was nearing the city. It must have been the great monster hunter Akai that Nera was so fond of.

"Do you know someone named Akai?" she asked.

"Akai? Hmm. It sounds familiar. Oh! Oh! I know who that it is! You'll most likely find that guy near the Den of Dragonslayers if he isn't showing off his expensive set of armor. Even during night, you should find him there if he isn't busy. "

"He'll be there?" she muttered to herself. Nia thought, perhaps, Akai would stay near the dragonslayers' base of operations to keep a close eye on them. There was a saying that she once heard. "The closer they are to danger, the less danger they are actually in." She still had no idea if that was true or not, but if it was working for the dragon Akai, then who was she to counter it.

She couldn't sense him, now, but she was sure she would eventually feel his presence nearby.

She unsheathed her blade and walked away from the talking head. As she looked outside there were a large number of crows just cawed at the entrance.

She wondered whether they were attracted to the large amount of bodies. She bowed her head in response to the dead. She learned the human method to respect the dead in one of the villages. She began to walk away, but the talking head continued to shout words at an incredible pace.

"Are you really going to leave me? Here!? On the dirty, unmopped floor! This is absurd for someone with my stature!"

Nia continued to walk away thinking that whatever the monster was, it could do no harm, now.

"Hey! You're a dragon, right? Are you planning to kill everybody in the Den of Dragonslayers? A little sweet revenge. Well, how about you take me with you. The night's still young! I can still fight and kill. I might even enjoy it!"

Nia froze at that last sentence, but the head thought that the dragon was considering it, so he continued to talk.

"I see that you have some intelligence, if you stopped for little ol' me."

As he continued to talk, Nia bit her lips and turned around. She walked towards the talking head as it continued to talk.

"All I need is a fresh, living body. Not that I want yours, of course. You can keep your body. Not that We can just take the first person who walks by. Or maybe one of the dragonslayers."

As Nia got close enough, Nia unsheathed her blade and sliced down at the head. But in an instant, the mask on the head jumped off and evaded the oncoming blade. It turned into a spider-like creature with small tendrils on the bottom of the mask. It landed on it's eight skeletal legs that surrounded the sides of the mask.

"Sheesh. Fine. I'll find another host and leave you alone. The message of chaos must be spread!" it said as it crawled and squeezed itself between the floorboards. Nia tried to chase it, but it was too small and fast to catch up to.

She remembered something that the white-robed monster said to her and paraphrased it.

"'Soon monsters that were never meant to come out of the shadows will no longer fear the light.' Wasn't that what that white-robed monster said to me before he died? Seems like he told one truth."

She heard the sound of soldiers marching towards the tavern. Nia unsheathed her blade and put on her hood. She ran quickly through the back door. She didn't notice it at first, but she was covered in blood. She grabbed a nearby bucket of water and ran into a dark alleyway while repeating the directions to getting to the Den of Dragonslayers over and over in her head.

Meanwhile, back at the Guey Tavern, the soldiers were looking for any survivors, but there were none. However, one of them could have sworn that they heard something speak under the floor.

The voice said, "How disgusting! My tendrils touched rat excrement. Scram, you rats! I'm the Messenger of Chaos. You insult me with your presence!"