This is bad!

The day had started so well. The dragon had a good morning flight, saw a bunch of tasty human females, and had a nice bit of fun delivering death and destruction to the human city. He didn’t even mind the sword that struck him. It was a new experience!

After he finally landed…ok, forced to the ground by the humans, the humans began charging at him. It was a bad mistake on their part. With his poisonous breath, the dragon killed most of his attackers and those who survived were badly affected by his breath. With his sharp claws and teeth, the dragon made short work of the remaining humans. Then he waited.

The dragon fully expect more humans to attack him so he decided to just sit there and wait. There’s no need for him to fly around when his food would come to him right? So he waited, and waited, and waited, and got bored.

No humans came and the bored dragon had nothing to do. He thought of going back to hunting but then saw all the dead humans around him. He was hungry! He hadn’t eaten yet and food was all around him. Is it any wonder he decided to have a little snack before going back to hunting?

Of course not!

The dragon thought this was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. You also can’t hunt on an empty stomach right? So the dragon ate a human. He was tasty and juicy. After the quick snack, there was still no attack from the humans so the dragon decided to have another. Then another, and another, and another. He lost count after the fifth human but it was still not his fault. The humans were just too tasty!

Then just as he was enjoying his meal, the Kin showed up. It was the Speaker along with a group of Kin and the dragon felt a new sensation; a feeling of self-consciousness. The dragon didn’t quite understand the feeling he had but it was not good and he did not enjoy it.

“What? I was hungry!”

Uh…why did he say that? That will just make things worse! The dragon berated himself and was about to apologize when the Speaker stepped forward. She bowed toward him.

“Great dragon! It is an honor to finally meet you. I hope you are well.”

The dragon was surprised. The Speaker wasn’t angry at him? He thought he had been pretty rude. Oh well, if the Kin weren’t angry at him then there’s no reason for him to say sorry right? Instead the dragon raised his head proudly and said.

“I am fine. These humans were hardly a challenge. I take it the Kin had entered the city without any problems?”

“Yes Mighty One. Your help was invaluable in that. The humans were so busy with you that we had little issue gaining entry. The Kin give you our most sincere thanks. Your great power is overwhelming.”

The dragon wasn’t sure how to react to this. One moment he was going to apologize but now, he was getting praised. The dragon kinda like being praised though so he nodded his head sagely. The Speaker took this chance to make her request.

“Mighty One, the Kin are now pushing to the inner part of the city. The human defenses there would be strong and the fighting fierce. On behalf of the Kin, I wish to request that the Mighty One assist us with the fight.”

“My meal is finished anyway. What do you have in mind?”

***

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Brand took a small sip of his flask. He wanted to drink more but the Yaslay Ale he bought for the trip was almost finished and he knew he had to conserve his remaining drink. A hard thing to do when he is still shaking.

“We need to move. It’s foolish to just stay here.”

Brand looked at the man who spoke and didn’t know if he should admire the man for his courage or pity him for his foolishness. One of his other companions had no such qualms.

“Be patient Bork. The hunters should return soon. We can decide on the next course of action after their return.”

“What’s there to decide? We came here to kill the dark mage and that hasn’t change. Don’t tell me you have changed your mind just because of a flying monster Gwendis? We knew we would be fighting monsters before we came here.”

Brand took another sip of his ale and await the fireworks. Gwendis, former head of the Mage Council of Yachium, just smiled at the brash warrior. Rumors had it that the old wrinkled mage was a former lover of The Grand and was one of the few people in the world that The Grand respected.

“If you are not afraid warrior, then you are even stupider than people say.”

Bork may be strong and powerful but he picked the wrong opponent. Brand saw Bork’s face turned red but before he could explode, another voice cut him off. “Would you city fools shut up? We are in enemy territory here.”

The brave man who decided to jump into the fray was called Vall and as all eyes turned towards the shaman, Brand found that the barbarian was more interested in the sky than his companions. Brand don’t blame him. They probably should be more interested in looking out for enemies. Gwendis obviously do not think so.

“That dragon flew away days ago barbarian. You can relax for now.”

Everyone turned to look at mage. For a moment all was silent, then someone asked the obvious question. “That flying monster was the dragon?”

“It had to be. Garnock wouldn’t lose to just anyone. That thing however was something else. You can feel the power of that thing even as it flew overhead. That must be the dragon.”

Brand took a gulp of his ale and more than a few of his companions shivered at the memory of the dragon. Brand had told the Clan that he was bringing six but somehow word had spread about his quest and before long people were coming to him saying that they wanted to join. Some of these people, like Gwendis, were people you don’t say no to. By the time Brand met up with the barbarians, he had twenty-one people with him. The two Clan barbarians were less than pleased but promises of future payment convinced them to continue on.

Brand looked around and found that he had some sympathy for his companions. They had all lost family and friends to the dark mage before and all of them know that this quest was dangerous in the extreme, but they came anyway. They were here for vengeance but there was no shame in fearing that flying monster. It had been two days since they saw the monster flying overhead and Brand could still feel the power of that thing. Vall however was more worried about another matter.

“I’m more worried about the skies than the dragon.” Vall replied. “It is too empty.”

As one of their two guides, Vall was one of the few men who had survived a trip into the dungeon the barbarians called “The Cave of the Spirit Beasts” so even among they city folk of Yachium, his words carry weight.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Bork asked.

“No.” The Clan shaman looked at the sky again. “There should be more patrols. Just days ago, the skies was filled with them. Where did all of them go?”

In the past when the biggest danger to the Clan and the city was Yachium was each other, someone who offered a quip on how the shaman sounded like a coward. Now, everyone just looked at the sky with him. Brand had to concede that Vall was right; the sky was too empty.

“Someone is coming.”

The group immediately hid themselves among the rocks, not a hard thing to do in the Keg Mountains. Two man appeared and the group relaxed when they realized that the approaching duo was the barbarian hunter named Bonn as well as a young hunter from Yachium named Cromer. They had went on the scouting trip after spotting the dragon and the duo looked like they had been running hard.

“We found it!” Cromer had barely stopped when he made the announcement to the group.

“Found what?” Gwendis asked. Even though he was the one who set up the quest, the powerful old mage had become the de facto leader of the group. Brand wasn’t stupid enough to dispute the matter with her.

“There is another entrance to the dungeon.” Cromer quickly said. “It was amazing. A big hole in the mountains that lead straight down into an underground forest!”

“An underground forest? You’re sure?” Gwendis was amazed and so was Brand. Just how powerful is this dark mage?

“You’re forgetting the most important thing.” As the older more experienced man, Bonn was more controlled than young Cromer but the smile on his face was unmistakable.

“Oh yes,” the young hunter said. “Get this; we saw a big spirit matrix in the middle of that forest. It is huge! It must be the biggest matrix in the world!”