The Unlikely Hero

Chapter 1. The Fateful Meeting

If you ever come across a living and breathing dragon, which is just about to take its last breath, by all means, pass along. Do not, I repeat, do NOT stop to make sure it is real and do not, in any circumstances, attempt to strike a conversation with it. As that will not end well. Trust me. Been there, done that...

Anyhow, perhaps, this serving as a proper and honest warning, I should start from the very beginning. I am Aleta, your everyday run-of-the-mill graduate from the Magical Academy of Trarton. Well, almost. Some tend to say I'm a selfish money-grabbing bitch who would not have a care about what will happen to the world if only she got paid enough for it. I tried to dispel such an awfully wrong opinion about me, but so far, I was not very lucky. Now that I think back, my misfortune started all because I decided to show a bit of kindness, which I had. Somewhere. Deep. Fine, curiosity and profitability played a big part in it too, but hey, I was about to help! At a price, of course.

So, to cut to the chase, I was on my way across the Ugundi Mountains towards the City of Trarton for my first official mission, when I heard a loud roar. When I looked up, a huge blur of a winged creature came down and crashed into the plain just further on from where I stood. As soon as it hit the ground, it let out another loud groan and then lay completely still. Its reddish-brown skin glowed in the sun and seemed to emit some kind of a faint light. I know, this all might sound simply unbelievable, but it really did happen. And from the looks of it, the creature seemed to be a dragon, or, at least, that was what I was led to believe due to its huge wings sprawled across the ground, its long tail and scaly skin. That's how they picture dragons in all the books. And you know what they write underneath? "If you ever meet a dragon, turn around and run. Perhaps, you'll live." Yep. That's what they write. But hey, to everyone's knowledge, the dragons are almost extinct and the last few of them are being hunted down by the Slayers, the mighty Holy Knights of Amyron. In other words, the probability of meeting a real dragon is close to zero.

I was not that lucky.

Driven by my everlasting curiosity and the prospect of gold I rushed and dashed and almost flew closer to the creature. Which was really stupid of me. I should have run the other way instead. But, coming back to the story, the creature was simply huge. And when I say huge, I mean it. I think it was the size of the main building of the Academy I attended and that one could house over two hundred students. Huge, as I said. The beast did not seem to be moving at all and I neared it with slight wariness. What if it is alive? But is it? It fell from the sky, literally. Quite a way down. And is it actually a dragon? That's ridiculous – why would a dragon be here, of all the places? Maybe it's just an overgrown wyvern of sorts? A mutated snake? Nah, who am I kidding...

Anyways, I squatted down beside its head and for a few minutes I just stared at it, wondering about the possibilities in front of me. I mean, a real dead dragon. And no one around. Gee, do you know how much gold I could get for it? A single scale could be worth a thousand gold coins! Ahhh, I'm sure the merchant in Trarton would pay any amount of gold to get his hands on this one...

As I sighed at the prospect of the glittering coins and glanced down at the head again, I found its eyes open now and their golden orbs stared back at me with both anguish and anger.

"Have you come to mock me, human?" It growled, but to my surprise, it sounded like a deep disgruntled voice inside my head. Startled, I jumped up and tracked back about a meter. It wasn't every day someone talked to me telepathically. I've heard of such talents before but have never experienced it myself.

However, more importantly, it's ALIVE!!!

"Eehhhh..." I let out an undistinguishable sound as my mind raced with questions over my chances of survival.