Arongacle

Mountains Guardian, Dragons and Strangers

  Authors note,
This chapter has not yet been edited, if you find any mistakes or have any suggestions please leave them in the comments so I can fix them! Thank you!(this note will be copied into the next chapter after editing this one)
________________________________

Skylar's P.O.V.
It's been three years since anyone was able to successfully cross through the forest to get to the base of mt. Ralwhich. There's been only one reason for this, a dragon. Adventurers and merchants come from all over to make an attempt to gain access to the mountain. Each campaign that comes by shall be greeted where the forest begins by an ancient black dragon named Krux.
There are many people who are still trying to figure out what led to such a rare occurrence. I mean, an ancient dragon appears out of nowhere and attempts to guard a forest and mountain, a dragon who only kills out of defence and lets adventurers and merchants live if they turn back without attempting to putting up a fight. Strange isn't it? I'm almost certain that I'm the only person who understands why this is happening. After all, I am the one who put this plan into place and sees it through every time.

The sun was bright as usual, with the sky spitting rain. It's always a light misty rain that creates rainbows in the distance. I began sprinting to my barn set in the small village, it's a dark liver chestnut colour made of wood that has noticeably been rotting. Vines crawled up the outer walls. The barn is nested in between two small and cozy houses. The owner on the left rents me the old barn to do what I want with, I guess you could say that I'm the veterinarian of this small, vintage town. I moved here about three years ago to help protect the creatures in this town from hunter and adventurers, along with anything else that may danger them. It's been horrible, these villagers would always over hunt  "monsters" 'till they were gone from this regions. They almost killed Krux three years ago as well.
I'm a Beast Tamer which gives the unique ability to communicate with and "charm" creatures. Some of the worlds most known, deadly monsters will let me touch and interact with them without killing me. Most of the villagers are now upset with me but I'm just as annoyed with them. Every time guilds or clans want to get through to the next town beyond the mountains, they ask the villagers for help. The villagers who often tell the outsiders to seek me out for help because I'm the only one that can. 
Sparrow is "my" dragon. She lives in old barn with me. I opened the huge and heavy door to let her in the barn, hopefully without being noticed. She is soaking wet after being outside for hours in the spitting rain. The dripping off her is taking of her black paint to reveal glistening blue scales underneath. She layes down to let me wipe of the rest of the paint with cloths.
The heavy door opens, ugh.... more adventurers. Not only do I not want people passing the mountain or forest, I simply don't trust the people that want to. Ignoring the newcomers, I continued to clean Sparrow as their footsteps slowly approached me.
"You're Skylar Arlyle, right?" The woman who first approached me sounded sarcastic and almost bored.
"Say I am. Why would you care?" I couldn't help but reply with a tone matching hers. I have had enough of  these adventurers, I don't trust them. Sparrow stirred . All four of the outsiders stiffened and raised their weapons to attack. I panicked.
"Wait! She won't hurt you. This is Sparrow, please, please don't hurt her. I'm begging you!"
Sparrow narrowed her eyes since she sensed my fear but didn't she react any other way. There was a silence. They were probably wondering if I was lying. Within seconds I grabbed my bow and loaded four arrows, one for each stranger.
The barn had dim lighting without oil lamps, even with the sun. I could still see the expression on the paladin change, he was a tall man, kind of bulky yet well built for strength combat. He's a brunette with three short corn rose braid in the left side of his hair that ended at the top of his neck. The taller male word simple paladin armour and carried a huge two handed sword with intricate markings in the metal. He now had a soft smile on his scarred. He lowered is sword and raised a hand to signal the other to do the same. They simply stared at him in shock before doing the same. The paladin slowly walked over to Sparrow and I as he spoke in a low and husky voice, laced with curiosity.
"My name is Ariel Sinclair. My apologies for the rude threats. As you must we're adventurers and it's not every day that we meet a half-elf who has befriended a kind dragon."
The other three look at him like he asked them to jump off a tall cliff into rocky, wave crashing waters with anchors wrapped around their ankles. That would be very amusing to watch and probably well deserved.
I caved in, there is something different about this group. It might very well be their eyes, all except the woman who first confronted me have empathy, kindness and burdens of their own that show in their eyes. I decided to speak up.
"I know what you want, your request is no different from any one else who has been here,"  I paused for a moment to figure out if I trust them enough to let them walk right passed Sparrow and Krux safely to the mountain. "Wether or not you get through depends on you. I'm assuming you all know the stories of Krux defending the forest and the mountain, none of the stories of Krux over the last three years have been real." Ariel and the fighter near the door gasped. The woman from before cackled and the younger girl in the back appeared stunned. The sarcastic woman spoke up.
"You expect us to believe that some of the most skill adventurers in this world who have come here haven't been defeated by an ancient dragon? No. What else could slay such powerful people?"
"Sparrow and I take turns."
"Hah. You freaked out because we were defensive and now you're telling that you kill assassins and merchants, mercenaries and adventurers? You're weak so you're making up stories to make yourself feel better, it's quite pitiful actually." The woman scoffed. I felt my cheeks burn with rage.
"Just under a decade had gone passed since Krux was injured and fell ill, hadn't been heard from since. Then, suddenly he comes back as if nothing ever happened to defend land that's not his own territory? It would make sense if he had help from someone else." Ariel came to my defence. He gave Sparrow a good look and noticed the black paint I was attempting to scrub off before they interrupted. The woman once again scoffed since she was wrong. Ariel continued.
"Painting a dragon must be easy for you now since you do it so often. It's been a while since anyone has remembered he specific details of Krux as to was his looks like. It would be easy to get away with painting another dragon, especially when you set the guilds and people up to enter the forest in the dark or terrible weather."
"I'll take you to the real Krux then. You're the first people to notice what I've doing. How about we let him decide if you can pass." Krux can take care of them, if not, I will. It depends on why they want to want to reach mt. Ralwhich.