You awaken from a nightmare

Your vision is shrouded in a black mist, unable to discern anything. Every step you take keeps you running in place. You attempt to call out to anyone, what was going on? Glancing around in a panic, your eyes landed on an door of light a few metres away, one of a searing pure white which shone through the mist. Not really any other way to go you thought as you tried to scurry your way to the gateway of light, finally able to make some proper distance for once. Once face to face with the blinding light, you poked a talon through to see if anything would happen. Sure enough, the moment the tip enters, you could feel your entire being pulled through. You struggle, and struggle, and struggle, until finally succumbing to this magnetic **** and slipping into the door.

It burns, your skin from head to tail burns all throughout, the feeling akin to the time that firehawk past the road blasted you with a flame breath. You could feel yourself falling, no end in sight. You fall for what felt like an eternity, endlessly your limbs would flail as your wings would fail to keep you aloft. Finally, the burning stops and you smash into the cold hard ground beneath. Attempting to move, you get up unscathed, your skin clean despite burning up and falling so far. You glance around, the room is filled with chains and bars which seems to hold many unknown shadowy figures. Nervously you attempt to sneak past them hoping to escape whatever this place was. As you do so, you are stopped dead in your tracks, something had grasped your rear right foot. Your movements stuttering as you look down, you notice that one of the chains has been connected to your ankle. It was at that moment, an unknown voice boomed throughout the room, awakening and riling up all the shadow figures. You began to shrink backwards as the creatures yelped and roared against their restraints. Looking upwards you finally notice the largest of the shadow figures descend down before you, wings spread apart to slow the fall. Its wingspan cloaked and dwarfed the entire room. You made yourself as small as possible in an act of submission, whatever this creature wanted, it was clearly your superior.

"Tiny Poison Lizard" It spoke in an indiscernable voice, or rather, multiple voices could be heard coming from the creature. You merely stared upwards towards the gargantuan being, quivering in your non-existent boots. The creature before you pauses and glares at you before continuing.

"You shall accomplish great things, for I have deemed it so. The fools stand proud and mighty, thinking themselves superior to me, you shall prove them wrong. They have many who worship and follow them, however, all I require is one creature. I have given you the opportunity to prove yourself not too long ago, amongst the other drakes. Compared to their failures, you have indeed proven capable despite your own later shortcomings. I will not give you any boons, I have not given any at all, you accomplished everything so far with your own cunning and strength. If you continue to thrive, we may perhaps meet again. I may consider blessing you with a portion of my power, for a price... Go, claim the world, show them your splendour, let them know of who set you out on this journey in the first place. I trust you will not fail me, little Lizard" and with that, the creature laughed a raspy sound. The coarse sound reverberated throughout the room and shook your body into a limp state. Struggling to your feet, your mind begin to race, what did it mean by that? What the hell is going on-

The chain around your ankle pulled itself taut and began to drag you upwards back into the searing light. Your train of thought is cut off as you yelp and are blasted with the searing sensation of the white light again. You struggle against your restraint as your consciousness begins to fade. From white, your vision goes black.

You shoot up from your slumber, eyes wide and teeth grit. Oh, it was just a dream... You peak upwards to see the sun high in the sky. You slept in until the afternoon huh? Grasping the last bits of meat from your satchel, you shove it all into your mouth before stretching like a cat. That was an odd dream, you did not dream much as you usually spent most of your time dead. What would be the agenda for today? Oh right, you still had to learn the "Mold Earth" spell. You trot on over to the book like a horse and attempt to reread it again, perhaps you were doing something wrong. Inspecting the book closer, it does not provide any info as to how one really performs the spell, simply what it does and its limitations. Who knew learning magic would be so difficult? You were unsure of how much time you had before your lair would be swarming with Heroes looking to hunt the elusive Lesser Poison Dragon lurking about. If worse comes to worst, you could just... Leave? Your "Lesser Hoard" passive ability states that your hoard can only be looted upon your defeat and Ophelia leaving without taking her items proved that. "That would be the last option" you thought while flipping a few more pages. You were not about to lose your home to a bunch of Heroes.

After skimming through the book for a third time today, you decide to spend the rest of your day attempting to move pebbles again. So there you stood, waving your front paws around like a madman, your faced contorted in anger as you attempted to move the pebble with your mind. From high noon til dusk, the pebble remained in the same spot, not flinching. Finally, you laid backwards exhausted and defeated. Seriously? Not a single hint of progress made. Sitting up, you can feel your stomach growl in hunger, how long had you been here? With that, you decide to postpone this issue to tomorrow as you grab some of the Healer's rations from your hoard and chow down. Wistfully, you began to slumber.

(Twenty-nine days to the next Blood Moon)

You awaken the next day early, eager to get back to the grind of learning a new spell. Spending the next few hours glaring at a pebble, you finally collapse in another silly defeat. Damned be this object of your ire! You rush forward, grabbing the pebble and launching it into the air towards the underbrush at the edge of your lair. With a start, it seemingly lands against thin air, bouncing off of nothing. You squint your eyes in suspicion, giving your eyes a once-over before staring again. Wa- was there something invisible watching you? You strain your perception skill to its limits as you try to discern any form of strange movements, until suddenly, you see a leaf fall onto something invisible, remaining suspended. With that confirmation, you decide that you are at a great disadvantage right now, turning tail and running again. You know of nothing capable of going invisible in your forest, and the only heroes who pass by here are the lower level ones who obviously do not know the spell. Your only conclusion is that it was a high leveled Hero who had come to claim your bounty, you still assumed you had one of course.

You ran and ran until the number of trees began to shrink. How long have you been running? You grind to a halt, disturbing the piles of leaves that had fallen from the remaining trees. It seems you were at the edge of the forest, upstream the river as you could clearly see the city of Preheaven on the mountainside in the distance. You glance back, still wary of the invisible creature that might have tracked you. Damn it all, you did not expect them to already be on you this early! Seems like leaving your Lair was the only safest option, at least until you were strong enough to reclaim it. It saddened you but you had ****, they knew where you were. Readying yourself again, you began to sprint off into the distance, towards one of the farms you could see that surrounded the city. That seemed like a good spot to hide and level up, it even came with free food and perhaps women. As you began to run further from your home, sorrow overwhelmed you, this is about to be the furthest you have ever went from your home. You were about to think back to all the good and mostly bad times you had in that place but you were interrupted.

The horns on your head is smacked backwards as you ran, followed by the rest of your body. Huh? What happened? You got back up into a combat stance and scanned the area. Nothing of note came into view despite the daylight illuminating everything, could it have been a really far ranged strike? You began to lay low, slowly crawling towards the farms again, hoping your green scales will camouflage against the green of these grassy plains. As you returned to the same location you were attacked, a small white wall formed before you. Getting up, you attempted to just walked around it, but it seemed to follow you everywhere you went. What was this? Could you not leave your designated area or something? Surely that was not the case. You winded your arm up and struck the white wall as hard as you could in an attempt to break it. What you had not expected was to be launch backwards and into the air by the wall, repelling you with great ****. "Well, that answers that question," you thought as you glided back down to relative safety, your wings carrying you in the windy plains. This does not bode well, if only you were smarter, huh?

Trailing the side of the wall, you wanted to get a feel for how far you could actually go from your forest. Seems like there was a pretty large zone which encompassed the entirety of your forest along with the surrounding area. You suspected that this stretched over to the other side of the forest as well. Sitting back in defeat, you breathed a deep sigh.

"Trapped and hunted, only a matter of time before I'm dead again," you thought as you fiddled with your tail. You spend a good few minutes just pitying yourself, rather pathetic state you were in but at least you were still alive. The moon begins to rise as you got up to wander about, maybe there was still an escape, a hole in the wall perhaps? One big enough to let you slip through? You have seen birds fly from one zone to another, perhaps you could do the same once you have gained function in your wings with enough levels. Perhaps you could dig underneath this wall? Your claws combined with mold earth would probably be enough to make a tunnel big enough to slip through. "There might even be other loopholes actually," you thought as you pulled the spiked Tamer collar out of your satchel. You have seen Tamers capture the creatures of the Emerald Forest and brought them out of their specific area. Could you do the same if you wore this? Of course, there was the risk of suddenly becoming that Tiefling's pet if you wore this...

The Collar seemed to glow under the moonlight, it has to be magical in some way right? Maybe you could learn how magic is done by observing this trinket. Glancing towards you, the river was right ahead as well, you had unknowingly wandered towards it. That was right... Charon. He was capable of leaving this zone for some odd reason. You know that he travels the river through the forest and down into the City of Deltaplere for some "Raid Boss Event", or whatever that one Adventurer had blurted out that one time you died. Apparently he gets "really strong" and drops "crazy loot" once he becomes a "raid boss" but most Heroes tend to just grind Charon in his usual form along the river. You were unsure of the reason why but to your knowledge, bosses were usually confined to their specific location. That was worse than your current predicament you assume, the size of their allowed location was actually smaller as they were locked to their "Boss Room". The only boss of this starting area was the Emerald Serpent which hid in some cave. You were unsure of its level, but it would be a great opportunity to gain experience.

You stopped along a steep incline on the opposite side of the river, stuffing the collar into your satchel. Right now you needed rest and a meal. Swiftly and skillfully, you snatched up the fish that travelled along the river and consumed them in one gulp. "That would do for now," you thought as you snuggled up against an alcove in the wall of the steep incline.

(Twenty-eight days to the next Blood Moon)

You awaken the next day with a sore back, the ground was hard after all. Scooping up more fish from the water, you had a quick breakfast before getting ready for the morning. There was a list of things that needed to be done, so you just drew them in the sand to get a better idea. It was fun! You could forget about your troubles and just express yourself, of course, the drawings were bad, you were not that adept at artistry. When you were done, you surveyed your work. The poor and crooked circle of the drawing related to the spiked collar meant a few things, observe and learn magic, test this collar on either yourself or a woman, and learn "Mold Earth". The weird blob standing on a crescent moon was suppose to be Charon and meant that you should figure out how Charon could leave zones, to grab a few Frozen Hearts, and to fucking kill the dude. The sorry excuse for a snake was the Emerald Serpent, it just meant that you should grind some levels from it.

Now the final mix of drawings was the most important. It consisted of many breasts and a self-portrait of yourself, you never really got to look at yourself much considering how much you died. You walked over to the river to get a good look at yourself everytime to ensure you drew yourself as accurately as possible, and it turned out to be the nicest of the drawings. This drawing represented your grand goal pretty well you thought, no explanation required as you lined up your two horns so they were of equal length. Staring down at your handiwork, you thought of the two women you had stolen the purity of. They were of utmost priority, they carried your young after all. You could feel yourself hardening at the memories and was just about to rub one out when you suddenly heard a voice. Could a dragon go one day without interruptions?

"Amazing! Master Dragon is a true connoisseur of the fine arts, ah- what exactly is it?" The shrill voice cut through the clearing as you leaped back, ready to throw down, yet there was noone again. Could it be the invisible Hero again? As you got ready to run again, you saw it appear before you. Red scales and five horns, a dark grey hooded cloak pulled down to reveal a joyful smile full of teeth, and a wooden swords slung on its side. Was this, a Kobold? You loomed over it despite being four feet, completely dwarfing the creature who looked to be about two feet. You took a step forward, attempting to look as dignified as possible, hiding the fact that you are unable to speak.

"Errr, ahem, Master Dragon, my apologies. I believe introductions are in order, you see I am Slazar, a humble cleric," it had tried to introduce himself respectfully, not quite what you would have expected from a Kobold. Although you already knew its name and its position from reading its title above its head, the words "(NPC)" was next to its name, so you simply glared at it silently.

"Uhm, Master Dragon, a- as you can see I am a Kobold," it added as it bowed. Your eyes squinted, you already knew that too. You laid on your belly and placed your chin on your right hand, at least you can amuse yourself with this creature for now. You gestured for Slazar to continue.

"Ahem, uhm, s- so you see, I was se- searching for you and h- had finally found your la- lair. Y- you see, I was recently k-kicked out from my old home f- for failing the dragon o- overlord there. I w-was the next matchmaker for our Mistress, s- she had recently come of age and succeeded her f-father after his untimely pa- passing." The Kobold stuttered in embarrassment. You tilted your head to the side and beckoned for him to continue. "Uhhh to keep it short, I h- had brought many suitors and she... She denied all of them and banished me." It confessed as it hung its head low and kicked at the dirt. "I was **** to wander in search of a suitable male for her if I were to ever return. And that's when I heard of your exploits from a group of Heroes! You had managed to outsmart and defeat them with your cunning alone! Please, if you would Master Dragon, allow me to introduce you to her! If she heard your tales, you would most definitely..." It trailed off before fearfully meeting your eyes again.

You grumbled in annoyance, you assumed it wanted to be your first servant, not that it was some walking advertisement. You have heard of Dragons employing a cavern of Kobolds to work for them, well more like enslaving but you get the point. Banishment in their culture was basically a **** sentence, how did this Kobold manage to live this long? Especially after encountering those party of Heroes that almost ended you. It was wrong about those tales too, although it lightened your mood slightly to hear how the exaggerated tales made you sound much grander than in actuality. With a heavy sigh, you leaned up and poked Slazar on the face, causing it to yelp out loud and recoil in fear. The pop-up for its stats appeared and you began to skim through it. Slazar, Level 2 Cleric, (NPC), male, "Quest Giver", belongs to...? As usual, alot of the information is only shown as question marks, although something very important caught your eye. "Wanderer" was a trait that he had. You tap it and your eyes go wide in renewed life, "wanderer" lets NPCs and creeps leave their designated zone, by design it seems! Was this what Charon had?

After giving his stats another last read, you close the sheet and faced Slazar proper. You wished to inquire on how to gain this "wanderer" trait that he had. He was shivering in fear, unsure of what you did or what you were going to do to him. You opened your maw and attempted to speak, but nothing came out aside from your usual screeches and roars. Slazar blinked a few times in shock before beginning to realise your issue.

"Ah- Oh! Master Dragon is unable to speak common? What about Draconic? That is fine, we can fix that issue easily with enough practice or magic items," Slazar stated cheerfully, attempting to calm the beast before him. You wished to communicate with him, however it has proven difficult without the capacity for verbal commands. In a vain attempt, you tried to draw in the sand what you wanted, making a crude drawing of Slazar. He stares at it and smiles a big toothy grin.

"Ah, Master Dragon is in fact quite the artist, I'm sure the Mistress would enjoy your presence once you have gained more strength!" He misintepreted what your intentions were... Hmm. You had to try a different approach and beckoned him to follow along to the white wall at the edge of your playable zone. Stopping once you arrived, you poked the white wall to show Slazar how you were unable to pass through. He step backed in shock when you were thrown back a few feet. Getting back up, you gesture to the Kobold to try instead, getting a few hesitant looks before he finally tries to walk past the border. Would you look at that? He managed to make it through without any resistance, not a scratch on his clothes. Looking up at you, Slazar finally understood what it was you were trying to communicate to him the entire time.

"Ah! Master Dragon is stuck here by some **** of magic! Uhhhh... Okay, I'm actually unsure of how t- how to help you here..." He stated plainly. Well, it was worth a shot. Turning back, you sat on your haunches and pouted. Of course it was not going to be that easy.

"If it would make you feel a lot better, Slazar has nowhere else to go. I would be honoured to serve you until Master has reached greater strengths!" Slazar attempted to cheer you up. You glanced back before pouting again, at least someone feels happy.

"Master Dragon just needs three things and he will be set to meet the young Mistress!" Slazar hops to your front before continuing, "Master can speak if he can find an Echo Scarf! It is rare but I believe in Master! I am unsure of how to break the barrier, but Slazar will try night and day until Master can get through! Also you must get stronger or else Mistress will just laugh at Master." You glare at him in anger. What did he mean by that last part? What the hell is an Echo Scarf? You rise onto your feet, digging your claws into the grass below. Slazar notices your building rage and attempts to defuse the situation. "Ah I me- meant, Slazar meant that Mistress is a very strong Red Dragon! Master must be even stronger to impress her! Cunning is not enough!" He laughs in a slight panic, hands forward in an attempt to calm your wrath.

You stare down at him before just sighing, you were too tired from this information overload. Your hand moves towards him which causes him to flinch, however, you simply carry him by the hood and place him on your back. After that, you head to your Lair before the sun goes down, retracing your steps. The walk back was quiet between the two of you, now acquaintances.

(Twenty-seven days to the next Blood Moon)