Show her the reason why

You are unable to respond verbally considering you cannot speak human, so you opt to just show her instead. Rearing up on your hindlegs, you reveal to her your hardening friend. She gasps and holds a hand up to her face, if she was unsure of your goals before, she most definitely knew now. Maria stumbles backwards into the river in a vain attempt to make some distance between the two of you. In a show of dominance, you slam your tail hard onto the ground causing her to flinch and then cease all movement. Good, she was weak-willed and obedient, this should be easy. Slinking forward to claim her, your attention is immediately diverted to a miniscule light source coming from the top of the river. With a quick glance to the sky, you shrink in the sudden realisation that it was a full moon, skies illuminated in a blood red from the moons light. Another random event was about to occur, a really bad one, just my luck...

Maria seems to have realised it too as she stared wide eyed at the figure crossing the stream on a small rowboat. "A- a blood moon! It's th- the gh- gho- ghost of the Emerald River!" Was all that the agitated woman could stammer before freezing in place, quite literally as the river begun to freeze almost instantly within seconds of the ghastly creature's appearance. It was Charon, the Ferryman of the Underworld!

"Seems like the NPCs have their own folklore about him" You thought as the creeping frost closed in on Maria.

Oh no, you were not losing this quarry. Thinking fast, you plunged yourself into the river as you tackled Maria backwards into the deep end. Shards of ice flew up into the sky as a loud splash reverberated through the dimly lit forest. The stinging cold of ice hits you immediately as you are both submerged and trapped underneath the ice. Maria struggles agaisnt you, hand pushing and smacking against your green scales as you attempt to drag her away from the obviously bigger threat. This is the thanks you get despite actually trying to help her this time, she will require some punishment later.Speaking of punishment, if this was some form of karmic retribution for all the terrible deeds you have done so far, then you would have preferred being slaughtered by Heroes for another hundred times. The chilling sensation is unbearable to your draconic form as you attempt to drag Maria downstream to some form of safety. At the very least, you can indulge in her body warmth as you rub up against her, letting her feel the immense bulge poking at her.

Poking both of your heads out of the water every now and again for breath, you manage to sneak a peak at the absolute carnage unfolding throughout your relatively peaceful forest. The once tranquil beasts of the forest were transformed under the blood red light, bones protruding from their bodies, contorting into behemoths of their former selves. Deer, rabbits and all manner of "friendly" creatures that were once only hunted for experience and loot took on hideous deathly forms which would strike fear into even the most hardened adventurer. This sort of thing happens rarely to spice up these lower level areas and incentivise stronger players to return for such events. You usually just hid and waited out the night in your lair. Sneaking another peak out of the water, you realise that there was no longer any ice floating along the river. You assume you managed to make some distance away from the Ghost of the Emerald River. Charon acted as the main boss of this area during this event aside from the usual boss, the Emerald Serpent, that resided in one of the caves around here.

Charon's presence and the blood moon revealed the horrors of the usually peaceful creatures of your home forest, but it did not affect the hostile creatures such as yourself or the many wolves and bears. You shudder from the chilling thought of running into a gang of altered rabbits, clearly remembering that time they stripped a bear clean of its flesh. Thankfully things all returned to normal at sunrise. Of course, that was still hours away but it would be fine if you simply got on some trees. It was then that you realised that there were no longer that many trees around anymore. You had cleared the forest and were now in open rocky plains, a large city coming into view. Damn! You were so preoccupied with running, you did not realise how far away the both of you were transported. As you got further from the creature on the boat, further from your lair, further from your forest, something else caught your attention. The lights typical of Heroes travelling at night with lanterns were coming upon the edge of your forest, intent of participating in the slaughter-filled revelry. You drag a drenched Maria out of the river and just off to the side of the river and the forest. She's shivering from the cold, whimpering into your arms. This does not bode well, doesn't it?

If you followed the river, you would eventually reach the big city downstream and have to deal with all of that. If you tried to go back into the forest, you would have to deal with the Blood Moon event. If you tried to stay on the rocky plains, you would be in unfamiliar territory. Damn, so many decisions, if only you were smart enough to know what to do.