“Let me make this perfectly clear. You are not saving my daughter from a dragon. She IS a dragon. You are going to protect her and keep her company until she learns how to control her magic.”
I guess I could’ve suspected something much bigger was going on when I came here. They don’t exactly hand you a guide when you flee to the next kingdom about their weird circumstances, but after doing it enough, you learn to pick up the signs. The seemingly endless forest that isolates Bainstow from Slincendmouth was a harrow to get through. I noticed as the trees got younger and more spread out that I’d occasionally come through a stretch reducing them to blackened, charcoaled ghosts. It wasn’t your typical forest fire responsible. It reeked of sulfur. The direction seemed to deliberate to be wind, and its as if it happened outside of a dry season. I looked at the king. He looked tired, worried, wilted from age. “What do your people know of this?” “There’s the occasional rumor about a dragon, or demon, or witch more in the rural areas. No serious conversation, and I intend to keep it that way.” I studied his expression as he told me this. As I stirred my mug, I made him aware of my concern. “I knew there was some kind of legendary beast here before I entered the kingdom. If it’s a secret now, it’s not a well kept one and will gain enough attention to expose itself. What do you intend to do if people become more aware of this… family problem you’re having?” His eyes widened at my statement. He looked away for a minute and pulled at his thinning hair while he contemplated an answer. When he looked back at me, I was not staring in the eyes of a proud man, but a scared father. “I’m… not sure.” he sighed. “If you’re who you say you are, then this is a problem in your hands, and it will be yours to solve when and if that time arises. Normally I wouldn’t trust someone like you with such a potentially tragic situation, but somehow I’m placed in a postion where you’re the only person I can trust with such catastrophic information. Don’t prove me wrong. I will stop at no concequence, and if God agrees, then he won’t either in life or Hell.” I swallowed a portion of my gruel and wiped my lip with my sleeve. “Then I suppose I have no choice but to accept. However, I’m no servant and this does not change my previously discussed compensation.” “Of course not. Slincendmouth would have fell early in my rule if I was not a man of my word.” I nodded with comfort in the sincerity of his breath.
