by Aaron Smith
My words seemed to bring back a sense of ease back amongst the gathered few villagers.
“I will however, devour you for wasting my time. So state your reason, loudly and clearly.”
I wondered if it was my draconian physiology and increasingly sharp hearing which allowed me to hear the man’s heavy gulp, or if the gulp was just that loud.
“Princess Mirabilia is the true ruler of Meliora!”
My gaze turned to the man’s daughter, Maya, who seemed to possess more courage than her father. There was determination in her brown eyes, the kind of determination that had reminded me of a certain pesky knight – and if her hair was blonde instead of plain dark brown, I would have easily mistaken her for Pierce’s daughter.
“Maya, be quiet!” Her brother hissed “It is not your place to speak to the great dragon!”
“Why?” She retorted, “He has already stated that he would not devour us for stating our minds – do you believe that he would go back on his word?”
Her brother flinched, his eyes shifting back and forth warily. “I – I do not know what to believe –”
“Atram, Maya, that’s enough!” Emit said, his voice surprisingly firmer than I imagined.
The children stilled, and then Emit gave a deep sigh, the man somehow aging as he spoke. “Forgive my children, my daughter especially. She is rather vocal about it, but what she speaks is the truth. Princess Mirabilia is the true ruler of Meliora, blessed by twelve goddesses upon her birth, with a destined rule to bring forth utmost peace and prosperity across the land.”
Wait, wait – were these guys the villains here? Why in the world would they want me to kidnap someone who was supposed to be a messianic version of Alexander the Great? The girl also kept calling the princess the true ruler of –
Oh.
“I take it, the Princess is not who sits on the throne.”
It may have sounded like a question, but it was most definitely not a question.
Emit immediately nodded. “The throne is held by the Princess’ uncle,” he then snarled “The Hare of Deception – Leporine Liveheart.”
Wait a minute. Wasn’t that the name of the guy who these guys had wanted to overthrow in the first place?
“Leporine Liveheart is the younger brother of the previous king, Leonardo Liveheart. He attained the throne when his brother died of a strange illness, and when the princess was still far too young to ascend to power.”
Yeah, I could bet my scaly hide that there had been nothing ‘strange’ about that illness at all. Unless of course, you counted ‘poison’ as strange.
“But since attaining the throne, he kept the princess locked up in the highest tower in his castle, under the guise of ‘protection’. She is a prisoner in all but name – and it leaves Leporine with the freedom to rule as he wishes, increasing taxation prices, taking as many wives and concubines as he can, and soon, he will begin a campaign to wage war against the smaller kingdoms in Asperia.”
I hummed, the sound sending shivers down numerous backs, even as I closed my eyes and made a great show of contemplating what they told me. It was an interesting tale, of treachery, betrayal, heroes and knights – and honestly, it was an incredibly fun adventure.
Except, did it really have anything to do with me? I could simply just say ‘no’ to their request, and then they would go back to their houses sulking and angry, but it wasn’t like they could force me to accept anyway. Instead, I’d just spend time flying around, hunting tiny or large animals, and getting more experience points until I could fly indefinitely and then I’d fly around the whole world like a nomadic dragon.
Yeah… hell no!
This was an honest-to-god adventure world with quests and I was a goddamned dragon! I’d raced through games with similar storylines and quests like these on a daily basis, but had I ever done something like this as a dragon?
The potential for how much chaos I could create – or, counterintuitively, how much good – was just way too large to be ignored.
“So,” I said at last “What you actually wish for me to accomplish is to rescue the princess, not kidnap her.”
“Not from her perspective.” I heard the Chief’s daughter mutter under her breath.
My fangs crinkled into a smirk at her comment, and they blew into a full grown grin at her horrified look when she realized I had heard her.
“True. Not from her perspective.” My grin then faded “However, why did you not explicitly state that this was what you wished from the beginning?”
Emit, Atram and Maya turned to one another, possessing the same gazes before turning back to me.
“You are a dragon.”
They said as one, in a matter-of-fact tone which made me feel extremely stupid for some reason.
“Forgive me for saying this great dragon Timothy, but,” Emit seemed to struggle with the words “Normally, dragons do not take time to converse with us humans, let alone try to aid them. Your kind are heralds of destruction – you arrive, you destroy, ravage and conquer, and you leave. You are perhaps the first dragon in existence that has displayed any sort of benevolence.”
Well, there went any hopes of having interesting conversations with my fellow dragons, or sitting down to enjoy a civil dinner. It seemed that my human mind in a dragon’s body made me an anomaly without even trying.
“I see,” I said, rubbing my chin “So tell me then; what is to stop me from merely raining fire down upon Meliora, killing the King, and conquering the city as my own?”
I mean really, it would be far more efficient than the whole ‘kidnapping-but-actually-secretly-rescuing the princess’ shtick. Also, it wasn’t like I was going to be some sort of tyrant – I was a pretty selfish guy and all, but it churned my stomach if someone was suffering or facing a bad time because of me. So I’d just ask for them to give me a tribute of juicy lambs every week or so, and I’d leave the people to do their own business as my vassals.
“Zero.”
My eyes turned down to Emit. “What was that human?”
“Zero.” He repeated. “That is the number of times that Meliora’s capitol city has been attacked by dragons.”
I blinked. “Why?”
Emit shook his head. “I do not know. In all the years since the capitol city was founded... Dragons have avoided and strayed far away from it. The outlying territories have seen their fair share of attacks… but never the capitol.”
It was not that I was a superstitious person of any nature, as I stated earlier, I’m not quite particularly religious either. However, for a country to have never been attacked by dragons in an era where I knew for certain that dragon appearances should have been a thing? It… was most definitely suspicious.
On the other hand, I had to hand it to the craftiness of these little men, or rather, of the chief. Though he may look and act like an unassuming, frightful village elder, shivering, shuddering and shaking in place as he spoke in semi-broken syllables and stutters, there was a crafty mind underneath.
In asking or assigning me the task or favor of being the one who is meant to kidnap, or rescue the princess, either which way, he was efficiently completing two goals at the same time. Should I succeed in my task, a major goal is completed and he gains the princess, should I fail, it would be unfortunate for him and also unfortunate for his plans of ultimately freeing the land of Meliora from the evil clutches of Leporine Liveheart and ultimately, well, it was just another day. However he would have successfully eliminate a dragon from his territory, after said dragon had just succeeded or rather, had just helped him succeed in accomplishing a very formidable task of fighting back a recent legion of knights. That I would have ultimately strained the lives of these people was also another important factor. They were poor and impoverished, which meant, that they would not be able to offer tribute without also depleting their own reserves and eventually starving themselves to death.
Dragon I may be, but I was most certainly not someone who would allow someone to starve t
o death while I grew fatter and fatter.
I turned my gaze to the old man, and his eyes hit mine, and it seemed, he too had realized that with his latest declaration, I had uncovered the full weight of his plan. Strangely enough, there was no fear in his eyes, no trepidation, no shudder or shiver that would indicate that this man was someone or rather, this was the man who had orchestrated a plan in which no matter the outcome – he ended up the victor.
“You… human. You impress me.”
For his part, the Chief, Emit, let out a rather large smile. “It seems I greatly underestimated your intelligence. My folly, I suppose, is not anticipating that a dragon would be capable of utilizing the strongest weapon of humans.”
“Oh?” I mused, “And pray what tell, would that weapon be?”
Slowly, he rose his hand to his head, and then tapped it. “Ingenuity.”
I couldn’t help it – I laughed.
The trembling sound of my own voice, the large echo of the bellowing laugh of a dragon that could spew down flames and rain down fire echoed to my own ears as a foreign sound, one in which I could recognize as mine, but at the same time, could not believe was mine.
Honestly, part of me had thought that these guys were going to be the dumb, routine characters I’d meet in the standard role-playing games that were not capable of solving the most trivial and menial of tasks without relying on the travelling group of adventures, or often, the sole adventurer to come down and aid them.
At the very least though, it meant that there were some people here who could give me a run for my money in a good ol’ battle of wits, even with my slight advantage possessed by being from a world with foreign technology and wider access to information.
“Alright human – no – Emit – your name is worthy of being recorded in my memory. I, Timothy the Great Dragon –”
I rose, purely for dramatic effect of course, because the aspiring thespian in me could not help it.
“Will kidnap your princess.”
Ting-Ting!
Main Quest - Updated!
The World of Asperia – Part 2
Main Objective Completed! [Listened to Emit’s Request]
Hidden Objective Completed! [Discovered Emit’s plans.]
Achievement Unlocked: Shrewd Dragon!
Congratulations! You have unlocked a special skill!
Draconic Perception – Passive – Level Maxed
The heightened senses of a dragon combined with the sharp mind of a human, together, they form a terrifying sense of perception that spreads out to the outer world, allowing you to properly grasp and estimate the true natures of everything from people to objects.
I blinked, staring, as in my utter and complete disbelief, I realized, that I could see words and numbers floating all over people’s heads. It took me a second to realize that these words and numbers were their statistics, information, and their levels.
As such, my eyes strayed over to the chief on pure instinct.
The Misplaced Sovereign
Emit Veritas Ignatius Ligerheart
Level: ?
When a man had four names, the initials of which spelt a rather grim word – oh, and the man’s name was written entirely in fancy-pancy gold – you knew that something was up.
The rest of his tribesmen, along with his daughter and son had already began to climb down the mountain, I let my gaze stray on the old man for some extra seconds, as he strayed behind them.
“You – you are no ordinary human – are you?”
Emit smiled. “And I could say, that you are no ordinary dragon either.”
There was a light crinkling in his eyes, one which was filled with mirth, and one which made me, a damn dragon, shiver at the gaze of understanding that lay beneath them.
Yup. He knew.
Still smiling, the old man left, his presence still lingering with a faint hum of energy that I could not identify. I didn’t try to do so however, and instead, I merely shook my head, realizing that finding out Emit’s true name and title had done nothing but open a whole new can of unanswered questions, whereas I hadn’t finished the first one.
Rather than feel disgruntled, or annoyed, instead, all I felt was a slow, tiny bubbling surge of excitement and exhilaration which continued to grow in me. Adventure, danger, mystery and intrigue, capped up with dragons, princesses, and potentially dangerous, but powerful clever and wise old men.
What more could I possibly ask for?
Ting!
“Timothy?”
I turned my attention back to my sprite, a small smile on my face.
“Get some sleep Ting, because tomorrow…”
I let out a puff of fire into the air from the rushing adrenaline in my body, watching as it soared into the sky and simmered into a brilliant splinter of sparks.
“We begin an adventure.”