A massive dark dragon, breath of great flame. Enormous wings, hide oddly smooth and soft. The maw was filled with large teeth, the dark red eyes slitted and serpent-like. Yet the voice? Warm, unusually kind, intelligent, gentle. The feared, hated, creature, has never killed save non-intelligent animals for food, and only wanted peace between itself and others. Yet the only ones willing to listen, were the kobolds who'd made their home within its den. Then, came travelers, would they listen to the words and finally get the hunters to stop? -- Anon Guest
[AN: Had to correct 'sentient' as a sentient creature is self-aware. Rats are sentient. A cockroach is sentient. They may or may not be smart]
Silverwing was not a stupid dragon. Stupid dragons laid waste to everything around them and all but invited adventurers to come slay them. Silverwing made a point of only hunting the dangerous creatures in the mountains and valleys. Occasionally, ze would delve into a cave and clear it out of anything nasty.
And yet, the adventurers still came.
There was nothing like a dragon for drawing the type of people who wanted to look large by killing a dragon. Killing them only invited more of them. Silverwing lead them on a chase through areas where the landscape alone was plenty deadly enough. Nature always took her due.
At least the Kobolds were helpful, transporting the hoard from one den to another whenever Adventurers came to find hir. Silverwing tried to at least tone down their instinctual worship of hir, but they were insistent, so ze at least looked after them.
There was plenty in the wide world that could kill a Kobold, and plenty of them made excellent food for Kobolds once they were roasted by dragon fire. It was almost a neat solution.
If only the bloody Adventurers would go away.
"Hey boss," Vip scuttled into the main chamber. "Got another one. Two heavy armour, three medium and a bear."
Of course they didn't see Vip. They were the best spy among the Kobold tribe.
"Moving day again," sighed Silverwing. "We only just got here."
Skritch, the one who was best at organising things, consulted a big book. "Team Scraddle has almost finished a new den for you, boss," at least 'boss' was better than what they used to call hir. "Bad news is, not enough room for the treasure. And... they need another day or two to make sure there's room for you."
"How long before the Adventurers get here?"
"Half a day, maybe. Even with all the traps. They're slippery."
Great. Just great. Well. Ze was going without proper bedding anyway... Silverwing got off the hoard and waited to see which air vent the Adventurers came in by[1].
"Hello, little ones," ze said. "Have you come for treasure or have you come to slay a dragon?"
They paused. Good. They were, after all, staring directly into an eye bigger than the biggest of them. If any of them tried to charge, then things would have gone very differently.
"Treasure?" said one of the ones in leather armour.
"Yeah, treasure would be good," agreed the rest, one by one.
"Then we may have a deal. You may take all the treasure you can carry. In return, you do not attack me or my Kobolds. Further, you prevent other adventurers from coming to attack us."
"You're hiring us to guard you?"
"I know better than to make your kind lunch... or a flash-fried snack." Silverwing let that knowledge sink in. "Surely you've noticed a lack of manticores or other large predators in the area. I've been keeping their populations down."
"Oh," said the adventurers. "Huh."
The deal struck, they weighed themselves down to the point of encumberance with gold and gems. Silverwing got to survive another day, and enlisted a band of fresh guardsfolk to fight off any other bands of adventurers.
The new den would have to include accommodations for medium-sized creatures. At least Team Scraddle had the extra time to do that.
[1] Looking sideways at all those adventuring books where the dragon's in a cave with no dragon-sized exits.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / bobonacus]
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