The Golden Scales

5: The Court of the Dragon

"And so the hunters and warriors
emerged from the dark
climbed all those high walls
to fight, scream and bark

The great, terrible beast
old, powerful, with obsession
with golden scales covered
fought against the she-demon"

"I'd rather you don't call me a 'she-demon'" Lady Elora interrupted as they walked through the dark streets of the area outside the walls of Hope. The city was divided in four great areas inside the walls, and then there was a large part in the north-east built with no apparent order, where the poorest in the city lived. It was clear that the very few that still wandered the streets at that time looked at the lady and her companions as rarities. They were all well dressed and ready for a fight. Even the noblewoman, carrying an enormous sword with a red blade in her hand, keeping it levelled with almost no effort.

And so, as the group moved, doors and windows closed. The people in there decided it was best to keep their houses safe in case the fight they'd possibly make against a monster ended up being in their street. They were partially right knowing that they'd fight monsters. What no vilalger guessed was where they were going or what monster they'd face.

"I mean, she-demon sounds better than vampiress" Antonius replied.

The woman raised an eyebrow, amused.

"Oh, yeah? You'd rather fight alongside a primal horror, a creature that trades with the souls of the living and then tortures them for all eternity, which is a long time, by the way, instead of a vampiress, which is a perfectly normal creature except when she drinks blood or the sun touches her skin?"

Antonius made a long pause.

"What happens when the sun touches you?"

"Same as you, my skin burns and everything itches. But if you need to spend hours under a summer sun, I have enough with just a minutes of sunlight to have one of those ungrateful burns."

"And when you drink blood?" Kilau asked

"I'm faster, stronger... your blood is like a drug for me. In the best and worst ways."

"Some studies indicate that vampires need substances only found in the blood of the created species." Neven explained. "Some specialist mages from the southern universities made studies, mostly theoretical ones, about why vampires have that sort of capacity."

"Oh, there's someone interested in knowing more about me than myself?" The lady asked.

"There's people interested in knowing more about what they don't know." Neven replied. "About magic, about creatures, about the world itself... the want to know new things is an intrinsecal characteristic of humans, elves, dwarves... and I imagine vampires, giants and other creatures too, as they settle with their own civilization and have time to worry more about the curiosities surrounding them, they'd want to know more."

Elora laughed.

"You're saying that, someday, goblins will try to learn the secrets of magic and gods?"

Neven shrugged. Maybe, some day. But she didn't want to express it out loud and continue arguing with the vampiress. She had other more important things to worry about, such as the fact that she was about to fight a dragon. And dragons were incredibly dangerous monsters that would require her to use all her attention. So, she decided to take a moment to breath deeply and ask:

"How will we do it?"

"What? Goblins learning the secrets of magic?" Antonius asked. "Well, I guess if they get access to a magic school..."

"No, no. Not that. The dragon thing."

"Oh. I don't think there's a strategy for that. I mean, it's the kind of beast nobody fought in centuries." The trobadoeur said, worried. "Any dragon hunter that could exist might be dead. Even the elven ones."