The Inconvenient Alliance

Chapter 1

Scout POV:
Walking up the carpet of the large throne room in the empire with two others, a large stone room with pillars on either side and guards posted in front of nearly every one of the pillars, arches curve in between the pillars with more rooms beyond the arches and a balcony above that. In the room, there's a silky red carpet with golden lining running from the entrance to the stairway and the stairs go up to the throne, the throne sits upon a stone platform with similar carpet all along the floor of the platform. Mounted above the throne on the back wall is a massive dragon skull, while the throne itself is made from stone and the finest precious metals found around the area with intricate designs lining it from top to bottom fit for the emperor who proudly sits upon it dressed in royal clothing, and expensive jewelry. I have worked for the empire for many years but I have never been summoned by the emperor himself, none of us probably have been but I'm sure we all feel quite honored on this day, "Your Majesty." I begin, and take a bow, glancing at the other two who are with me who do the same before we all rise and look back up to him, and he speaks to us, "I'm sure you three are wondering why I have called you in here so suddenly" There's a moment of pause before he continues, "you three are some of the best scouts in the kingdom and I have received a recent report of a nearby sighting of the one who not only betrayed the empire but is also a thief to the empire." He would hand a slip of paper to one of the two guards on either side of him and the one walks over and hands me the slip of paper, I take it and glance down at it, while the other two look over my shoulder at it. It is a wanted poster of one called Grayson, it mentions he stole the precious dragon egg the empire used to have. I somewhat recall stories of this incident, how he used to work for the empire for a few years and found out about the dragon egg somehow, suddenly deciding to take it with success despite knowing the consequences for betraying the empire, and yet he still ran off with it, being wanted ever since to this day. I heard the empire burned his home and family with it or hung the rest of his family that was living in the empire in front of everyone. I don't know what caused him to do such a thing to go against the empire, and how he managed to escape exactly is still quite a mystery, but he should be captured, and serve his proper punishment as deemed necessary along with those who have helped him. Another thing that caught my interest though was the high reward for the one who manages to catch him and bring him in alive, or if anyone manages to find the lost egg. It shouldn't be too hard I thought to myself and we looked back up when we hear the emperor speak again, "I have decided to keep this a small quiet mission, his name as you can see is Grayson who stole the dragon egg from the empire, he has a few others with him now that may make it more challenging, one may be a mage from some rumors around, but the name of the other is Drake from what I've heard. Capture them if you can, but dispose of the other if you must, I have already lost too many men hunting them and I will not lose any more if I can help it. You should begin your search immediately, head out to the near dense forest and continue on for a few hours, you should be able to catch up to them there if your quick, and If you three do manage to succeed with this mission ill reward you all greatly" He finishes, I nod in acknowledgment, and we silently leave the room. After quickly grabbing some supplies we were soon off on the mission assigned to us.