The Dragon's Sword

Chapter 1

Eryn Stormn strolled down the street with a casual saunter that she had perfected. She kept her expression a cool, indifferent, slightly aloof smirk, although inside she felt a mixture of nervousness and excitement. She glanced up the the clock tower, 12:03, perfect. Eryn loved arriving fashionably late, especially to meeting with mysterious and slightly creepy strangers. Although she couldn't be too late, she didn't want to lose her chance at the reward.
The reward.

Gold, money, riches, fame; visions of all of these things were racing through Eryn's head as she made her way across town. Hopefully soon, she would have so much money she'd never have to steal a coin. Even yesterday she had eaten better than she had in a week, stealing was not easy as everybody of importance had already been stripped of their possessions by anybody not. 

She was so busy focusing on her apathetic walk that she almost missed the house. The house she had broken into the night before. It shouldn't have easy to miss, with its elaborately carved door and rich mahogany shutters that were shut tight, despite the gorgeous, autumn sunlight.
Eryn took a deep breath and strode up to the door, hesitating for only a second before raising her hand to knock on the door.
She was only standing outside the door for a second before a plump, round faced woman with ruddy cheeks and a white lacy apron cracked the door open and peered out. She saw Eryn and smiled slightly nervously.

"Welcome miss, please come in," she said, opening the door wider and stepping back.
Eryn stepped in without hesitation, and then, her conscious decided to be polite and thanked the woman. 

"No problem," the house keeper replied, smiling more easily now. "Please follow me, I'll take you to the master's study, please don't touch anything," 

"Oh, sorry!" Said Eryn who had been reaching out to touch a minuscule, but still intricately carved figure of a dragon. Eryn had always thought dragons were the greatest of the ancient beasts, but now dragons as well as all the other ancients (centaurs, griffins, unicorns and such) had been hunted to extinction by knights and other glory seekers. The problem was no one seemed to care, not that she did of course, she was too busy plotting heists to bother.
Eryn followed the woman she assumed was the housekeeper through the house, her hands clasped behind her back to keep her from touching any of the amazing paintings or sculptures of dragons that somehow had been managed to be moved into the house overnight. Eryn decided that person who lived here had a complete obsession with dragons. Eryn also decided that she wouldn't steel or break anything, even with fantabulous and unrivaled skills at thievery, she didn't quite trust herself not to get caught.

Finally after walking down endless winding hallways they reached the study where Eryn had first spotted the note addressed to herself. The large doors were closed as opposed to the night before where they were wide open. Now that there was light streaming through the huge windows, Eryn could see that the door handles were serpentine-like dragons carved into the brass. Their mouths were wide open and forked tongues emerged from them and coiled at the long snouts. But the most noticeable part of them were their eyes. Whereas the bodies were entirely brass colored, their eyes were red. Blood red.

They were terrifying.
The round woman laughed at Eryn's expression. Immediately Eryn noticed she was gaping and quickly shut her mouth and plastered a fierce expression on her face. The housekeeper noticed and said, while laughing, "Most are afraid of them sweetie, no need to be embarrassed."
Eryn tried her best not to glare at her but didn't quite trust herself so she turned away and hid her face in a curtain of hair. "I'm not like most."

She was pretty sure the housekeeper smiled, but she didn't know. Before Eryn could think of something to say the woman knocked on the door.

A moment later a suave, tranquil voice that somehow managed to sound commanding at the same time said, "Come in."
Eryn gulped.