An empty castle

I awoke lying on something cotton that felt hard as a rock, opening my eyes I realized that it was because I was laying on a rug, on a stone floor. Sighing I realized it came out more like a growl, kind of surprised I looked over my body realizing that I was a full on dragon. My scales were bronze colored while my chest was white, on my back a set of wide wings rested while my body ended with a tail heavy enough I could probably knock people out with it, while my hands had lost some dexterity I could grip things well enough and they now ended with sharp claws. Reaching upwards I felt the shape of my head, which was as you'd expect with a large frill on either side of my head and down my neck along with a pair of small but sharp horns atop my head, overall I was about the size of a larger horse not counting my wings.

Turning from myself to the room I was in, I looked around, the room looked like a great hall with a long rug from where I sat at one end of the hall to a large double door on the other end, long tables ran along both sides of the hall with enough chairs to sit 20ish people. Iron chandeliers hung from the roof supports along with torches along the walls providing a good amount of light. Along with the candles, light also flooded in from rows of windows that lined the upper half of the hall's tall walls. Lastly I noticed that beyond the large doors at the end of the hall there was also a door on either side of me and a last one on the back wall to my right.

As I finished looking around the hall I heard several things fall over past the door to my right, having an idea of who it was but not taking the chance I yelled "WHO'S THERE?" as I shifted into a defensive stance, after a minute of silence the door opened slightly and a small head poked through before swinging open as they ran towards me and yelled "mistress!" followed by over a dozen others. Letting out a small sigh as it had just been my kobolds I shifted to sitting on my haunches as the little dragons scrambled out of the room and started standing in front of me, as the first one did so I got a good look at them and I realized something... They're incredibly adorable!

Like the cross between a puppy and a gecko they seemed perfectly designed to make me love them, especially as they stood in front me violently shaking their tails in excitement, yipping and cheering. After a minute I realized this was probably from them being made from my beautiful dungeon core, letting out a chuckle at just how adorable they were. I laid down completely, still a bit taller than them just from my body and neck, after doing so I said. "Calm yourselves little dragons, before you start hyperventilating." this caused them to calm down a bit and after a minute one of them, with deep blue scales stepped forward and kneeled before asking "How can we serve you, mistress?

Pulling myself back to reality I thought for a moment before standing back up and asking, "Is this everyone?" The kobolds started talking among themselves before each nodded towards me one after another, "Good, I'm doing a headcount." after a minute of counting I found I had 40 kobolds to work with, after finishing I thought for a second and decided that considering this was my dungeon and was seemingly a castle the first thing to do was secure our defenses so looking towards the group of kobolds I say, "All of you follow me." I then turned to the large door. Opening the door and stepping outside I saw an overgrown courtyard ringed by stone walls with 2 other buildings having been built against it, deciding to get a better look I took a running jump and with a flap of my wings landed on top of the walls with ease. Looking beyond the walls I was stunned, I was on a hill above an evergreen forest and beyond it a towering set of mountains, for a second I forgot to breath, it wasn't like I hadn't see mountains and forest before but it had been so long and now I free, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and listened. The wind through the trees, the rushing of water, the songs of birds, and my kobolds clambering up the walls behind me, breathing out I opened my eyes and looked at the mountains again, they were still there, the wind, trees, birds, all of it! It hit me that this was real, I was free, and I could do whatever the hell I wanted!

deciding I needed a thorough look of my castles outside I turned to my kobolds and yelled, "I'm taking a short flight stay in the courtyard!" With that I threw myself off the wall and spread my wings, I almost fumbled as I felt my power weaken when I left my dungeon but still managed to take flight after a moment. Gaining some altitude I did a circle around my castle, three of the hills sides were cliffs with the fourth side having a far more gradual incline, my keep itself was nestled against the back most cliff with the gate being built towards the incline, overall it was a good fortress and would probably require an actual siege to break in. Looking at the surrounding area I quickly noticed a few things, the first was a river that ran behind my keep seemingly seemingly having carved the cliffs, looking upstream I saw it ran towards the mountains and looking downstream I saw some wisps of smoke on the horizon, probably from a village or town but it was several miles away so for now I ignored it.

After enjoying the view for a few more minutes I remembered I had work to do, swooped down and landed in the courtyard quickly followed by my kobolds running up to me, turning to them I asked, "Do any of you know how to hunt or forage?" They all raised their hands, "Lucky me, all right you 10 are to split into pairs and start foraging, be back by sun down and if anything attacks come back and report. You 24 split into pairs, get on the walls, and keep an eye out for anything noteworthy and especially any humans or large monsters. The last 6 are to help me in the keep." After a minute they all started moving, as the foragers started moving to the gate I remembered the palisade and started towards the gatehouse and yelled at them to wait. I walked into the gatehouse and went up 2 floors and found a winch. I called up some of the kobolds I told to guard the wall and had them open the gate, they barely could, which was slightly concerning but wasn't that big of an issue. With the gate open the foragers went out and I headed towards the keep with my helpers.

We started on the room that the kobolds were in, heading inside it seemed to be a barracks with it mostly just being rows of beds and an armory with some basic weapons I had handed out, after a few more minutes of looking without anything else of note I went to the door on the other side of the hall and found a kitchen, pantry with a decent amount of provisions, and servants quarters. Lastly, we headed to the room in the back of the hall, entering what seemed to be a master bedroom with a bed big enough for me and a few partners, a sitting area in one corner, and a desk in another. Overall the keep had everything we needed, at least for now.

I had the kobolds I had with me start on dinner as I started thinking on my next step.