A dragon "kidnaps" Wraithvine's friend, Gikka, and flew off with her. Though, oddly enough, seemed to be flying slow enough to let Wraithvine keep up. Only to gently put Gikka down by a pile of books, and ask Gikka to please teach them how to read, offering dragon's gold in return for the favor. -- Lessons
Kobolds and Dragons go way back. Some say that when the world was very new, Dragons allegedly created Kobolds to be their servants. You know, since the bid to create Drakkonbred for similar purposes went so well[1].
Gikka, like many Kobolds, had dreams of being a "real" Dragon one day. It did not take much effort for Nurdoth Maviskal to lure Gikka away with promises.
"Lessons," they whispered. "Lessons for gold. I have jewels, I have treasure... and you have skills I need." And like all deals that seem so fantastic in the beginning, full disclosure was not an option. Consent only counts when it is informed, and informed properly.
Wraithvine, when ze put all the clues together, was understandably upset. It is not nice to steal a Wizard's friends at the best of times, and this was a Wizard who was also a living legend. Ze could do things not ordinarily expected of Wizard-kind.
Like... turning into a different Dragon and giving chase.
It wasn't a long journey, for Dragons, to the cave that Nurdoth called home. Where Nurdoth's hoard was split into two piles. One of gold and gems, and the other of books.
"Lessons first," insisted Nurdoth. "Teach me how to read these."
Wraithvine, close behind, changed back into hir usual Elfin form, and heard everything. "You do realise my companion is barely competent at the Trader Tongue or Draconic, don't you?"
"Hey," said Gikka. "I was about to make a fortune."
"We do not defraud Dragons, my friend," said Wraithvine. "It never ends very well. Remember the Valley of Glass? The obsidian mines? That's what happened to the last place that tried to defraud a Dragon."
"Oh," said Gikka. "Can I still try? And you take over when I run out?"
"That's more amenable," allowed Wraithvine. "In the meantime, I can possibly fabricate Dragon-sized copies of everything here." And after a moment's thought, added, "Please tell me you came by all of these without threatening or harming people?"
"Gifts from visitors," said Nurdoth. "I promise."
[1] For those of you who did not read the sarcasm present - it did not go well at all.
[Photo by Laith Abushaar on Unsplash]
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