Feeling a tap on my shoulder I turned around to see Randol holding a mead out to me. "Charlle, my dear please could you tell these young men. How you acquired your armor?" Looking at the crowd of young adventurers I hope off my chair standing just a head shorter than Randol. 

“So I hear from the Guild master you lot want to know how I got my green dragon armor?” Smiling, I see many of them nodding some even starting to pull out parchment to take notes. “This tale I'm about to tell is as far-fetched as they come.” some faces seem to get a little annoyed at that “the reason for that is the dragon made my armor.” Many start to laugh at the ridiculous clam others just walked out of the room. A few stayed to hear a tall tale as I stood up on the table to begin my tale. “My first meeting with the dragon was outside the small village Calculus.”

“So you're telling me you're only going to pay me 30 copper to get rid of a dragon?” I stare at the mayor of this backhill mining village. The brawl man stares me down as I shake the crap amount I'm being paid for this job.

“That is just the upfront payment for your supplies. I have 5 gold for completing the job.” 5 gold isn’t any better for this kind of job. Shaking my head I shove the copper in my pack. I hate being on the bottom rung of the guild. I always get the worst jobs. 

“What kind of dragon are we talking about here?” Take a look at the man as he reaches into a pouch and produces a very small green scale. As I examine the scale I can feel it’s very soft unlike normal dragon scales.

“We don’t know how many there are? But one of my guys found that at the edge of our mining tunnel.” Great there could be more than one. Checking my pack I found some of my magic scrolls to cast identify pulling one as I set the scale in the magic circle. 

Casting the incantation my eyes roll back as information enters my head.

5 year old green dragon, scale from molting phase

Skills:

Dragon breath poison

Flying

Strong sense of smell and hearing

Str: 125 Magic: 250 Dex: 100 Speed: 120 Vit: 250 Def: 75

Blinking my eyes I focus on the now disappearing scale. I need to hurry now while his Defence is so low. Standing up I shake the mayor hand “I need to go know before he becomes stronger.” Grabbing my sword I rush towards the coal tunnel.

As I get close to the cave I can hear something trashing the area. Stopping behind some rocks I peek over to see a small green dragon scraping itself over everything it can find. As I watch he starts to rub up against a mining cart knocking it over. The sound of it hitting the ground makes it jump in the air startled. Before I can stop myself I laugh making it zero in on me. “Leave me be human.” A male voice rings through my head. His thoughts pierce my mind. This isn’t good if you could do that so easily then it might know some decent magic. Standing I step closer holding my hands up. Need to be careful who knows what else he can do. 

“I’m friendly, I promise ok, the village just wanted me to get rid of you.” He snarls at me with many, many pointy teeth. Wrong words crap more careful. 

“Human choose your next words carefully.” He put his teeth away as he started stalking back and forth behind the cart. Even being a young dragon his at least 12 feet long it 8 feet tall but on the skinner side.

“I’m not here to kill you just to get rid of you. That means if needed to chase you out of the area.” That seemed to stop his movements for a moment as he started to think.

“My home was invaded by goblins recently. With my current problem they would easily over run me and kill me.” He then walked closer to me as I kept my hands up. Even if I tried to attack he could easily kill me at this range. As he gets closer I can see that his scales are slowly peeling off and aren't growing back very fast. To take back his home is suicide attack for him i bet his defence even lower then before. “I would ask you to come with me to clear my cave.” His large head takes up my whole vision as I stare into his red eyes. 

“Ok, i guess i can help you out. But how many goblins are talking about if they're giving you this much trouble.” A sharp pain lanced through my head as an image of a large cave full of goblins some of them larger than normal. 

“There are at least 50 goblins, a King and Queen goblin. So by now their numbers could easily be tripled that now.” Blinking the image out of my eyes I look around to clear my eyes as they land on a cart full of magic blast stones. Walking over to them I picked one up “What are you thinking?” With a smile I explained my plan.

Standing in front of the dragons cave I pull out one of the stones. “HEY YOU UGLY GOBLINS. WHY DON”T YOU SEND OUT THAT HIDEOUS QUEEN OF YOURS.” I scream into the cave before backing up some more. A few moments pass till I hear the loud thods of a large goblin with 20 or so little ones. Looks like I got the KIng attention good. Pulling my sword out I backed up to the edge of the forest. As the goblin king screams charging forward with his people I wait till they get into position. Then I swing to my right as dive to the left. A bag of blast stone comes swinging by flying towards the group. The bag flies open scattering the rocks all around them. As each one strikes the ground a small explosion goes off blasting the goblins everywhere. 

After the explosions die down I take a look at the damage to see most of the goblins killed the king badly wounded. Standing quickly I rush the king as he tries to recover. Before he can block I sink my blade into his neck. A few moments later I can hear the dragon entering the clearing. “That is one threat down. But the Queen will be a problem still.” Looking on his back I can see the rest of the blast rocks. Reaching up I pull a couple bags down. Now I just need to place them above the entrance quickly. Climbing up the wall I place bags just over the entrance. “Won’t that cause a cave-in.” Nodding my head I climbed back down to grab my bow and place it in hiding in the bushes. 

“I’m only going to drop them on the Queen herself. If there is a cave-in I will help you clear it out.” Walking back over to the dragon I grab some oil flasks. “I’m going to go into the cave and set an oil trail out here, Ok.” His big eye gives me a concerned look. “I will be ok, I have done this before it’s a good way to smoke them out.” he nods slightly at this as I walk into the cave. 

Stepping into the cave I reach into my pack to pull out my magic goggles. As I step deeper into the darkness my goggles light my vision like it was daylight. As I quietly trek my way through the cave I keep an eye out for any splits, any offshots they could be hiding in. As I get to what I think is a good spot. Searching around I find some dried plants and old tattered cloth.  Turning one flask over I slowly pour the bottle on the pile emptying it out. Then with my last two I led a trail back to the cave entrance. Taking off my goggles I rush over to the dragon. “Care to light it up?”

“My cave is going to smell like burnt goblin for a while.” He shoots a small flame at the oil which catches in travels into the cave quickly. Soon we can hear them screeching as a goblin comes running out on fire. Before long, smoke started coming out of the cave and I quickly headed back to my bow nocking arrow. Goblins started to spill out of the cave coughing. Before any of them could notice the green dragon let loose a bellow of green acid cloud at them. Their coughing became worse as many fell over dead. Then before I could react a large arrow came flying out of the cave at the dragon. He barely dodged what now had destroyed a tree was a ballistic shot. Stepping out of the cave was a much larger female goblin carrying a ballistic in her hands. That goblin is easily 8ft tall. Pulling the arrow back I release it at the hidden blast rocks. My shot was a little off cause all i did was rip the bag. Well fuck as i reach for my next arrow she must of noticed me. Cause the next shot came flying where I was hiding, taking out the trees around me. Dropping my bow I pull out my sword and rush her low and quick. 

As she turned back to the dragon I took the opportunity to attack her ankle. My slash was deep to deep as my sword was then stuck inside her ankle. Shit, need to grab the bag then. She swings the ballistic at me as I dive out of the way. As I lay there I start to stand when the ballistic strikes just next to my head. OH SHIT that was close. Turning around as I start to stand she gets ready for another strike. But before she can swing down, jaws clamp around her arms. She lets a bellowing scream as she starts to be thrown around. I quickly grab a crude goblin sword as she goes flying into the forest. Standing her place was the dragon. “Well now that is taken care of.” Oh fuck i should of knewn that he would betrye me. I start to back up holding the sword up ready to fight to the death. He chuckles at me with a large toothy smile. “Please don’t think I would betray you. I meant for you to stab her heart she is still very much alive.” Looking over I could see her still moving around. Nodding at him a walk over to the goblin Queen as she struggled to stand up with her destroyed arms. Climbing up on her I stared down at her fierce eyes as I thrust my blade through her heart. Her eyes were fierce up till the end.

“So you have your cave back now. What are you going to do?” I turned around to see him swipe the goblins from his cave entrance. HIs cleaning the place already, what a strange dragon. He turns to me after a moment of cleaning.

“I will finish my molting then travel to a larger cave.” He comes closer to me as I climb off the goblin Queen. “I feel like i should reward you in some way. If it wasn’t for you then i would not of been able to claim my home.`` I mean I could always use more money. After a quick search I found my sword was snapped in two.

“You wouldn’t have a decent sword in your cave would you?” He shakes his head “Gold?” Shakes his head again. I thought dragons kept piles of the stuff.

“My keepsakes are buried in another land. I came here looking for something when my molting started. This cave is where I have been staying.” Dropping my head I walked over to him and slapped his cheek.

“I thought this was your home. You could have gone anywhere to stay.” I yell at him for making us take out a bunch of goblins for no reason.

“This is a dragon's nesting area. Since i was the last one here it was my job to keep it clear.” Sighing I walk over to the now pile of goblin bodies and find the most decent sword. “Are you heading out?” 

“Yes, I need to head back toward the village and let them know you won’t bother them anymore plus I need to head home to replace my weapon.” i was hoping for the funds for some new armor but looks like i need to take on more bottom feeder jobs. As I head to the forest I can see him climb back into his cave.

“Hope to see you soon, Charlle.” Freezing up at that, I turn to see him disappear into the cave.

Few weeks had passed since the dragon job when I got a knock on my door. “I’m coming one second please.” Sliding out of bed I check to see if my knife is stabbed behind my back. As I open the door a well dressed man in green is standing there. “It’s good to see you again Charlle.'' Who the hell is this man? “We met a few weeks ago. You helped me with a little goblin problem.” I helped a dragon not some rich human. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” He chuckles then leans closely to me to let his eyes shift from blue to red. Well shit this is new. 

“Not really, all of my kind can shape shift. Now may i ask that i come in.” Opening the door the rest of the way I let him inside my little shake. “So this is where you live Charlle it’s small and quaint like you. Do many humans live like this?” Leading him to my small table I take a seat at the table.

“I’m not human, well not completely i’m half elven. Also since you know my name what is yours?” He takes a seat across from me and pulls out a small bag setting it on the table.

“Ah, sorry about that we don’t have names often but some call me Venenum.” He then opens the bag in the process to dump it on the floor. Gold starts to spill out of it then an emerald sword then an emerald armor set. “I owed you payment for your job. Also the rest is hush money about the cave.” Looking at the large pile of money. There is enough here that I might never need to work again. “I have a request if you don’t mind.” Looking up at him I would almost do anything he requested at this point. “I need you to take any job you can that involves dragons.”

“Why?”

“Well I need someone to gather info for me on the dragon of this region. Also that job might involve innocent dragons like I was.” Turning from the gold I started to form the question I meant to ask.

“Why all this? Also why ask me to protect your kind?” Smiling, he picks up the armor setting it on the table.

“Cause you have a kind heart, also you have already been claimed by me.” What the hell does that mean? “It means” i hate that he can do that. “I claimed you as a future mate.” WHAT “Look i know this isn’t the easiest to understand but we choose those who are strong as mates.” He pushes the armor closer to me. “If you wear this armor then it will show the others we are mates. so no other dragon will touch you.”

……

My captive audience seat there waiting for my answer. Taking a sip of my drink I give them a look at their thickness. “So what did you say?” One of the female newbies asked as I slapped my head.

“Please, love stop hurting yourself.” In the back Venenum walks up to me. Smiling, I kiss him lightly on the lips.

“Glad to see your back”