This story begins with a young girl named Penelope Morin who just loved dragons. As a child, she read wondrous tales about dragons of all shapes and sizes. She became obsessed with dragon lore and wondered if it was possible to meet a dragon in real life.
These interests naturally gravitated her toward fantasy novels and other kids who shared her passion for all things mythical. Growing up wasn’t easy for Penelope. The popular kids mocked her for the vibrant dragon t-shirts that she wore to school. She didn’t care though. She had a different one for every day of the week.
Her friends belonged to a club that brought dragons to life. They played a game called Dungeons and Dragons. The thing Penelope couldn’t understand was why her friends found it so appealing to slay the majestic creatures.
“I want to talk to the dragon.” She began, giving the dungeon master her most charming smile.
The nerdy boy adjusted his glasses and shook his head. “Nope. Sorry. You don’t speak dragon.”
“Aww.” She pouted, glaring at the boy. “Fine! I want to flirt with the dragon. Use body language.”
She was proud of herself. The DM couldn’t argue with THAT! Another girl, the rogue as well as the only other girl in the club, scooted away from her. “Ew, that’s gross. You can’t flirt with a dragon! You’re an elf. Elves aren’t compatible with dragons. It wouldn’t fit!”
That comment received a round of chuckling and giggling from the boys around the table. Apparently, they were amused by the thought of a girl falling for a dragon or vice versa. Penelope didn’t care. She had declared her love for all things draconem when she joined the club.
“Ahem.” The DM cleared his throat. “You, um, attempt to charm the dragon. Um, roll for charisma.”
Penelope snickered at the other players and rolled her dice. The DM looked at the result and dolled two dice of his own. “Ah, you rolled three. The dragon got an eleven and was indifferent to your attempt at gaining its affection. As a matter of fact, it thinks you look tasty.”
Penelope got a hopeful look on her face but the DM continued. “To eat. It finds you tasty like one would a steak. It decides to cook you alive by breathing fire. Please roll for…”
She rolled the dice but Penelope lost interest in the game at that point. It was probably then that she lost her interest in mammals entirely.
The rest of her young life was spent researching all things dragon. Penelope was convinced they were real. She just had to find them. Every story about dragons being things of myth was just well-crafted lies designed to keep her apart from her true love.
When she failed to thrive as her therapist put it, her parents had Penelope committed. At first, the institution was no different from living at home. She still had access to the internet and thus her research.
After a few months, however, her doctor decided that her obsession was causing her insanity, and they decided to pull the plug, literally. No more internet.
Penelope became catatonic over the following months, refusing to speak to anyone. She spent her days dreaming of the day when her dragon would come to rescue her in a blaze of fiery glory.
While that day never came, her savior did appear. A middle-aged man wearing a silk black robe burst into her room in the middle of the night. It was so sudden that she didn’t even remember him opening the door.
Penelope looked up at the man from her bed, more curious than anything. She probably should have screamed but she was tired of doing that. She didn’t have any dragons left for this man to take from her.
He towered over her and spoke in the most melodious voice she had ever heard. “I hear you’d like to meet a dragon.”
“More than anything.” She croaked. Her voice cracked when she spoke. She just woke up and her throat was dry.
The man smiled. “I can make that happen. However, there is a price.”
Penelope gasped. Not only had the man admitted the existence of dragons. He was offering to introduce her to one. Then her mind caught up with the conversation. “What price?”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“Your firstborn.” The man said, matter-of-factly as though he were out shopping for a car.
Something strange happened. A longing welled up in Penelope’s chest. A longing that had previously only been reserved for dragons. Was she going to betray her heart to fulfill its greatest desire? Suddenly, that wasn’t such a bad idea.
----------------------------------------
Kiki remembered growing up in a big house. It was more than a big house. She could run for hours and still not get to the other side of it. Then they moved to a tiny apartment. Why was it so small? She had to share a room with her mom.
It must have been too small because her mom decided to sell her to a dragon. She remembered some of the interaction. Her mom stood tall in front of the massive dragon, Kur.
The gravelly voice of the dragon echoed through the chamber as it spoke. “I shall grant you that which you desire but you must pay the price. Give your child to me and I will give you the claw of one of my offspring to do with as you see fit until death do you part.”
“I can’t just give her to you.” Penelope pleaded. “She doesn’t feel the same way I do about…”
“Worry not, mortal.” Kur roared, shaking the cavern walls. “Your cub shall be taken care of. This child is special. I will teach her ancient magic that will make her powerful beyond your wildest dreams. She will want for nothing. It is truly a better life than anything you can provide for her. Do not forget, your dream will also come true.”
----------------------------------------
That was the last Kiki saw of her mother. The next five years of her life were spent playing games with a dragon. And a ruthless dragon he turned out to be. The winner of the game always won a prize while the loser got a penalty. Kiki never won.
Sometimes the penalties were simple. Five minutes in timeout or cleaning the cave. Kur’s prize was always the same. The dragon had an insatiable thirst for mana. Kiki knew what mana was. It was her life force. She felt weak when it left her body.
The tougher penalties were the times that Kur demanded she find him victims. Unlike Kiki, he had no qualms taking mana from them by force. Special cocoons littered his cave specifically for that purpose.
To get these victims to come willingly, Kiki learned the art of the deal. A deal sealed with a magical contract. Kiki wandered the surrounding neighborhoods looking for other children to play games with. She always suggested a game called double dare.
The game was simple. First, the other kid dared her to do something, and then she dared them. The dares she got were usually childish. The boys asked for kisses and the girls wanted her to tell them a deep dark secret or some juicy gossip.
When it was Kiki’s turn, she issued an ultimatum that was either dangerous or unrealistic. She asked them to jump over a ditch or swim across a lake. When they balked at the idea she said in her sweetest voice, “You can always turn the dare down.”
They scowled at her and told her the game was stupid but they admitted defeat. It was wrong and she knew it but she never told them the game was magically binding. A contract compelled the other kids to follow her back to the dragon’s lair.
In Kur’s defense, he never took more than any kid could stand. It was a trickle by his standards but it was all Kiki could produce. Once the penalty was paid, she led them back home with the threat that if they ever said a word, the dragon would be back to finish the job.
----------------------------------------
At thirteen, Kiki was recognized as an awakened and admitted to a magical school called The Academy. There, she discovered a much more nutritious source of dragon snacks. Awakened people!
She also had an easier time finding willing participants. Kiki was sprouting into a beautiful young woman and the boys at The Academy had noticed. She accepted them all when they asked her on dates and used that opportunity to play a game with them.
The boys all got kisses, on the cheek, and Kiki brought a steady supply of food for her father. She hated calling Kur that but the dragon insisted. She also hated boys. They were so superficial. The only benefit was that they were so easy to manipulate.
Girls were interesting as well. Just in a different way. Kiki negotiated with some of them as well. By the end of her first semester, she already had hundreds of recurring contracts.
If Kur was good at one thing, it was teaching. He taught Kiki all about magical contracts through constant trial and error. She learned the differences between magic and non-magic contracts. The difference between law-bound and mana-bound contracts meant that no government or court of law could alter or nullify a magic contract.
The only way to manipulate a magic contract was with magic itself. The part of a contract that bound to a person’s core relied entirely on how both parties understood the contract to work. That meant that it was easy to manipulate the ignorant when drafting an agreement.
There were also no rules about what age a person could be legally bound. Kiki knew all about that. She was enthralled by a dragon after all at the age of five.
The routine went on for a few more years. She attended classes and learned more about the awakened world. She dated and fell in love with a guild advisor four years her senior. Unfortunately, Kiki contracted her to Kur before she realized she was in love. Her young love was doomed from the start.
It was during her fourth year at The Academy that something changed. She met her brother, Melvin Murphy. Kiki always knew there was something special about her bloodline. It had to have come from her father because her mother was just a jerk who sold her to a dragon for a dragon claw.
The man she remembered as her father was a mysterious figure to her. The only memory of him was the big house. Also, perhaps the fact that he never had time for her but she couldn’t be sure if she remembered that right.
Melvin showed up one day with a red-haired girl. She knew puppy love when she saw it. Of course, she was way too excited to meet him so she dragged him off to a closet. It was her first time meeting someone who might actually understand.
And that was the start of Kiki’s adventure.