Game On
Chapter 1
Light, or at least there was suppose to be light, the soul from before looked around well as much as he could where he was being so ungodly dark he couldn't see anything, he didn't feel uncomfortable but it was stifling. He shrugged, a sudden something calling his attention to his binder the last page inside calling his attention to it after, and with what would have been a nod with a oh yeah look, realized the page was blank, the male soul then saying,
'Oh yeah that thing, alright once more into character creation.’
As he was pulled inside his own mind rumblings in the outside world happened, a large earthquake rocked the land startling many who were already running for their lives; the monsters had been seen on the outskirts of the city they had been in; the town guard knew what was about to happen, they were about to die to buy the citizens more time, the townspeople were about to once again run for their lives. A small group was getting ready to go as well, saw what many others didn't, the mountainside fell away a passage down though hard to see; from the distance could be seen with a bright glint. One young man who seemed elven in nature looking up at it,
“Look at that, what do you think that is?”
He looked over to a young girl next to him also of obvious elven lineage the girl giving a shrug till an older woman then said,
“You two hurry up and help your father get the food we have to go now!”
The two nodded, going back into what happened to be a general store, the family inside packing away things namely food, and other necessities, the young man saying as he walked back inside,
“You're never going to believe this, that quake we just had knocked a portion of the mountainside away, it came down in a huge landslide.”
The older male most likely the boy's father said as he lugged a heavy basket of food stuffs out the backdoor to a waiting cart,
“That's fascinating son, but we don't have time for that we need to leave now, those poor guardsmen, gods bless their souls, won't last long against those monsters.”
A much much older elf clearly female however said as she put her hand on the far younger elf's shoulder the age difference enough to be that of grandson and grandmother,
“Was there anything else there my child,”
The old elf asking with something of a knowing tone,
“Anything at all?”
The young boy looked to the old woman then saying,
“Well it was kind of hard to see even for me you know how good my eyes are grandma, but I think I saw a door it went down into the mountain if i'm not mistaken.”
The old elf looked lost for a moment till as quick as she could she hurried back inside the man who was most likely the boy's father said,
“Mother please we don't have time get ready to leave.”
The old woman shouted from the staircase she was going up,
“And go where daft boy, how far can we possibly run before we start to swim??”
The woman went upstairs as the rest of her family stocked food away she went and fetched a book and old looking tome leafing through it till she found what she was looking for, reading from the book as she went back down stairs,
“And the earth trembled,”
The family stopped watching the old elf walk down the stairs reading from the book,
“As death marched on, the smell of blood and death on the horizon, the earth shuddered, and from the depths hope shone a lost light that called to any who dare venture into the bowels of the earth.”
Her family looked up at her as the old women read that last bit,
“Come to me, find the lost light and restore hope to the land, be warned though for there will be a price to pay.”
The older man the father of the family then said,
“Mother what are you reading?”
The old women said setting the old tome on the counter,
“Back in the first era when I was a child this was known as the lost light prophecy, I believe no one wanted to believe there would be a time that we would be pushed to the brink but like it or not we are at that moment, think about it, a mountainside suddenly falls away, that is no normal occurrence.”
Setting the book on the counter a vague depiction of a stone carved door, the artist most likely having tried his of her best to draw it as they could. The two elves started arguing about not having time for this, the older elf retorting with how far can we possibly run? The young boy looked at the page looking at the door then saying looking up to his father arguing with his mother,
“Hey I think that's the door I saw.”
The old women,
“You sure child?”
The boy thought about it a moment more then said pointing at a gem encrusted at the peek of the door,
“Something was shining over that door way, I've never seen something shine as bright in my life and the picture in this book it was a large gem in the door arch.”
The family then stopped looking at the book, the father then saying,
“What . . .what does this legend state?”
His mother then said putting her hands on the book again,
“It says that hope can be found in the depths of the earth, if we go into that ruin we might find a weapon or some lost magic art that could turn this tide.”
Finally closing the book the old woman then says looking to her family,
“We need to go there, if this legend is true this could be our only chance to save the world from this evil plague.”
The father rubs his chin for a moment then saying,
“It's in the depths of a mountain mother, if we go there and find nothing I doubt there will be a way out we'll be trapped, left to die by those monsters.”
His mother then said as his wife wrapped her arms around him,
“We can't run forever son, be in a mountain or at our last fortress, we're already trapped.”
He nodded then said,
“Then gods grant us mercy, lets go check out these ruins, if it is true that this ruin holds hope then we could be the ones who save this world, or the one you brought it to the light of day.”
His family agreed holding their hands together as they made their pact, to go to this ruin as a family, knowing if they find nothing it would mean their death; the father grabbing a sword he had tucked away in the cart. They got ready as fast as they could then left the city as the monsters mashed themselves on the walls, the battle such as it would be wouldn't last long. Carrying bags full of supplies the family looked back now on the mountain side having abandoned the idea of dragging their cart up the mountain, the city now in flames there was no going back. They could see the dark tide starting to follow them up the mountain. Now with a fire under their butts they rushed up the mountain till they finally found the entrance; the door, shattered in the quake, the monsters while still far off where behind them, the father then saying as he shoved a bit of rock out of the way,
“I'll be, look at that gemstone, that is a shine, let's hurry if there is anything here we have to find it, if those monsters get to us first then this would have been for nothing.”
The family nods, the father lighting a few torches and hurried inside, the ruins where old the stone walls littered with long burnt out touches but once they found the first chamber the older woman then said looking at the lettering on the walls,
“My word, I've never seen this script in my life!”
The old woman gave a torch to her grandson having him hold the light for her as she looked at the writing on the walls, the old elf then saying,
“In my childhood I made it a personal goal to learn every language, seeing as when i was a girl women had no need for the ability to read and write, after years of trying I succeed but this script, I never seen its kind before.”
The family nodded till there was a screech from the entrance of the ruins the father saying with a angry curse,
“They found us, we have to hurry.”
The family nodded they where now racing the clock, the family going deeper into the ruins till they came into what seemed to be the final chamber the family looking around and there seemed to be nothing; no weapons, no old tomes of magical knowledge, there was nothing. The father sighed cursing under his breath, their trip and by proxy their lives seeming to have been wasted, the sound of the monsters filling the ruins being heard, the father then opted to try and barricade the door to buy his family if at most a little more time. However at that moment torches lit themselves, a wall falling away the family seeing what looked to be a casket in the new room the father now however trying to hold the door his wife joining him. The rest of the family approached the casket the two children helping their grandmother push on the lid.
Meanwhile the male soul grinned he could finally hear things, people talking from what sounded far away then someone pushing on something heavy, the soul having just finished his page said with what would have been a grin,
“Oh man, I'm going to look like such a badass!”
The lid finally shifted and inside the family of elves found something they weren't expecting; they were expecting to see a skeleton, maybe with a weapon or a book of magic what they found was a half-dragon. The old elf stumbled back a few steps saying as she laid eyes on the figure inside the casket,
“My goodness, a dragon!”
Even the father and his wife looked from the door where they had opted to hold a heavy stone table against it turned and looked at the elderly elf as she said this, the old woman then going on to say,
“But dragons have been extinct for ages, they were killed at the founding of the first era, and he's clearly alive.”
The figure in the casket was tall at least two feet taller than any of the elves, his largely human looking visage was instantly cutoff by bright crimson red scales going down the back side of his head pulling into a pair of ears looking something akin to elven ears but covered in the same crimson scales, said scales then running down his neck. His head was covered in a shoulder length dark brown hair, they couldn't see much else though dressed as the figure was but a moment after the lid opened the 'dragon' took a breath, his eyes then opening and looking at the elves before him. He looked at the elves the two younger elves then the older of the three. The older elf shrieked saying as she stumbled back, the dragon sitting up in his tomb,
“It's awake!!”
There was now a large collection of the monsters at the door, the husband mother pair struggling against the creatures pushing on the table to try and get in. The dragon then looked at his surroundings then at his own hands a grin filling his face as he looked exactly as he wanted to, then saying once he looked at the elves in the room,
“Well hello there.”
A grin on his face saying as he got up out of his stone bed,
“Seems you lot are in a bit of a pickle, want me to save you?”
His voice was deep, richly so, it sounded nice truth be told when it didn't reverberate off the walls of the room. The older elf however remembered what the legend said, there would be a price, the dragon eyeing her grand daughter a lusty smile filling his face as he then said,
“If the girl here agrees to become my property i'll save you all.”
There it was the family rather mortified at his suggestion, but a slam at the door and a shout of the mother made all eyes turn to the door, the table was going to break, they were out of time, the girl with a sigh then said looking at the dragon,
“Alright then but you have to save my family, dragon, swear to me, you'll protect my family and I'll agree.”
He nodded with a smile the dragon then thinking to himself,
'Holy shit this elf is soo cute, god I'm going to enjoy this.'
With a nod he got up approaching the elves, the father and mother rushing over to him as the dragon then thinking himself as he watched the table shatter,
'I wonder if this will work.'
He took a deep breath then exhaling a gout of fire into the entrance the dragon then saying with a satisfied smile,
“Man that was cool wasn't it.”
The boy grinned saying as he did,
“No looked pretty hot, if you ask me.”
The dragon looked at the elf boy, a smile filling his face then said,
“Huh, I like you, don't die or I will be angry.”
The boy nodded as the dragon looked around he remembered his stats, and looked around asking,
“So what do we have in the way of weapons? Any swords?”
The father as he drew a sword from his belt,
“Not that'll help you much . . . uh sir . . .you can't cut the beast.”
The dragon nodded gripping the blade and readied for more, the elves cowering behind him. He looked back at his first acquisition, the elf girl in question being held by her grandmother the dragon thinking with a grin,
'Elves are so my fetish.'
What he expected to happen next was he'd easily power through the monsters, be a general badass, then go about things after, instead what he got was a claw in the gut, the dragon as moments into the fight he was wounded and badly, things crawling to a standstill, as if time itself had stopped the dragon looking over as the Storyteller made himself known, face palming as the soul now the dragon said,
“Hey shut up I've never seen monsters like this before in any game give me a break.”
The black hooded being then said,
“This is your only mulligan, use your dragon fire this time.”
The Teller grabbed a page of paper and a strange feather pen then saying aloud as he went back over his work rewriting the story that had just happened,
“The dragons sword exploded into a roar of dragon fire, the shadow beast receding from the unnatural light.”
As things wound back before the dragon's 'accident' he found himself holding a flaming sword the blade shifting from red, orange, and white, the shadow monster looking as if they were physically harmed by this magical light. Once they had fled the elves behind him looked amazed, or at least relieved, the dragon then saying as he was rather unsure of what to do next,
“Well then . . . shall we get out of here?”
The family looked at each other then at the dragon and gave a collective nod the dragon leading the way out where much to their surprise the monster were gone, and looking once more to the light of day, the group saw the city burning, the dragon said,
“Guess you don't want to go there then.”
The father of the family the safety of his family being the most important thing to him,
“Not sure I highly doubt anyone can be saved from that. Maybe we should continue to flee with the others, there might still be time to get ahead of the horde if we move fast enough.”
The dragon looked at the city and nodded, whatever chance there was that any could be saved from that now clearly hellhole wasn't worth the risk and followed after the elves which lead the way. Much later that night they had found their way to a large camp, survivors who had fled the city who had reluctantly stopped for the night and made a camp to rest, the appearance of the dragon caused a stir but was more then welcomed when it was discovered the monsters didn't like his flames, the camp fires started by the dragon who had remembered what the story teller had told him about using his fire, and did just that. By the time they went to sleep that night his presence was well at least tolerated, his fire was making the camp safe and that was just about the only reason there wasn't a panic about the being whose race had been dead for centuries.
When he woke that next morning he heard the sound of people packing the camp readying to leave. He looked over to the elf the girl who swore to be his property in exchange for the lives of her family, as lightly dressed as she was, he clearly enjoyed the eye candy. The elf was beautiful but that being said he didn't expect anything less from an elf, the girl saying as she started to wake,
“Oh uh . . .good morning . . . . uhh how . . .how do you want me to address you??”
The dragon looked down for a moment till he said,
“Uh you know Master has a nice ring to it.”
The dragon looking at the girl unsure as to the predicament she had put herself into thought to himself,
‘She agreed to be mine, if I wanted I could force her to have sex with me, but that's to easy I think it'll be more fun to make her want to come to me.’
With a nod the dragon then said to his elf,
“Do me a favor my girl, go and get me something to eat I'm starving.”
The girl nodded then saying with an uneasy
“Yes . . . master”
The girl left the tent as the dragon sat there waking up a bit and thinking about how he wanted to do this, as far as he knew it was all up to him, however this was going to go, he had to make the calls, it was his story. He opened his book the empty pages inside still blank say for the last page the eleventh page was his the page listing his physical description, his stats, and other things of importance, however he noted there wasn't a listing for any kind of hit points leading him to believe the obvious, this wasn't a game, there was no hit points if something killed you that's, it game over. He'd have to be careful as his first experience with combat instantly lead to his death. He went deep into though his inner gamer going into his plans how he'd fight, how he set himself up to fight, he made himself physically strong and with a high enough intelligence score if magic existed in this world he'd be smart enough to use it, but the trade off he was much slower and had to trade the use of dragon wings till he was a higher level. Knowing what he was going to do he said,
“Ok so I'm going to end up the tank with the ability for magic, if it exists, my party will need to be balanced to my needs, first things first I'll need to get some gear, considering I doubt it'll be as simple as doing some quest or going to an adventurer's guild, I'll have to plan my next steps carefully.”
The girl returned a few moments later with a plate of food namely rolls with some jam, saying as she offered it to her new master,
“Master, sorry there’s not much.”
He nodded taking the plate from her and giving her a pat on the head, then saying,
“Well I plan to join the others in a little bit, so make yourself ready alright.”
She nodded but a growl from her stomach made her face turn crimson, the dragon looking at her for a moment longer till he asked offering her some of his food,
“Hungry?”
She nodded taking a roll and some other items she had just given to him, the dragon eating for a moment till he motioned to the girl to do the same, the dragon then saying,
“Go on eat, you won't do me any good if you're starving.”
She nodded then did as he told her the girl putting some jam on the bread, the dragon then asking trying to hide a tone of concern,
“Your family get enough food?”
She nodded then said,
“It’s not much but we did manage to save most of the food from our shop, we had to leave the cart though so we didn't get everything.”
He nodded, looking at the elf girl eat, then deciding to ask needing to know how he was going to play this game,
“So first thing I want to ask, what is your name?”
The girl looked at him then said,
“My name is Jessica.”
He nodded, the half-dragon putting some jammed bread in his mouth, noting its sweet taste. He then asked,
“Alright Jessica, this might sound like a strange question, but do you know of magic?”
The girl looked at him for a moment, then responded with,
“Well I don't know any personally, but I have heard of it, it's not that common but not unheard of.”
He nodded asking before taking another bite of his bread,
“Tell me what you know about it then.”
Applying a little more jam to his bread the girl nodded then said,
“Well the most common types of magic are referred to as racial abilities, for example elves like myself have a very uncanny sense of sight and hearing, the only ones who outclass us for hearing would be the morphic races, the dog ones if I recall correctly.”
He looked at her raising an eyebrow,
“Anthropomorphic races?”
The girl nods the dragon then idly thinking to himself,
'Huh so furries exist in this world, well I think I know one of the things I want to collect then.'
The girl resting a finger against her chin as she said,
“Then there are the half breeds, though i've never met any of them so I don't know what they have in the ways of racial abilities.”
The dragon once more raised an eyebrow at her asking as he did,
“Half breeds?”
The girl nodded trying her best to clarify,
“Yes, the best description I could give you would be like a human with animal ears, tails, in rare cases hands and feet as well, and rarer still cases like yours, uh, master.”
The girl referring to the dragon scales that covered some portions of his body, The Dragon then idly thinking as he ate,
'Cat girls, so sold, where do I get one.'
He then got up already getting tired of just sitting there,
“Come on, let's go take a walk or something I'm getting kind of bored.”
The dragon then thinking to himself,
'God I miss my computer already, at least I could play some music or something, watch a video on youtoo or something.'
The girl then asking as they got up,
“Should we put your tent away . . . master, mom told me when I went to get you some food that the camp was planning on leaving soon, they're just . . .well”
He looked back at her saying as he did,
“They're waiting for you master, the other refugees don't want to leave unless they're with you, they've all heard that your dragon fire can keep the monsters away.”
He nodded then with something of a sly grin then said in a rather loud tone to make sure everyone outside heard him,
“Then they should start taking my tent down I think, if they can all manage to crowd the outside of my tent that is.”
Opening the flap entrance to his tent nearly half the camp were gathered around his tent, it seemed that several of the camp fires had gone out last night and to protect themselves they slowly had to move closer to his tent. Looking around at the confused and worried faces he then said looking to them all,
“You heard me, I don't mind protecting this group you have going here till we get to safety but I'm damn sure getting something out of it,”
The dragon then thinking,
'I'm not being unreasonable, just tired of being passive it's my turn to be the one large and in charge for a change.'
Looking at the group who looked at one another the dragon then said,
“Well what's it going to be people times wasting.”
There was some murmuring till the general consensuses was met and people started to pack away his tent for him, the dragon looking on with a somewhat cheeky grin till he felt someone pull on his sleeve a young boy asking once he held out a glass jar,
“Is it true your fire keeps the monsters away, could I get some mister dragon?”
He looked down at the young human boy then looking at the jar he held out to him, asking as he took the bottle,
“Whats this?”
The elf girl quickly chimed in with,
“Oh that's a candle jar master,”
The elf girl then saying,
“They're a little expensive because the glass has to be made from a special mineral only mages can handle, but they're enchanted to keep fire going without the need for fuel the only downside is they can't be made any bigger than your average oil lamp, a lot of people use them as a fuel-less torches.”
The boy nodded then saying,
“Yeah, my mama got hurt last night I'm afraid that if we fall behind the monsters might come for us, so I was hoping the candle jar would be enough to keep them away.”
The dragon looked around he was getting sideways glances from the others waiting to see how he reacted to the boys question, the dragon then thinking to himself,
'They're unsure of me, I'm most likely already pushing it with my act. I best not push it for now till they understand they want me to be on their side, after all what's the point of ruling an empty kingdom.'
Taking the jar from the boy he said,
“Sure, that doesn't sound like to much of a request, how does it work?”
The boy was unsure himself, that was till Jessica's father walked up and said,
“You have to press your thumb against the lid and state the command word patentibus, it'll put the current flame out and allow you to use the bottle as you see fit, after you put a new flame inside you say prope as you put the lid back on.”
He nodded following the instructions and opened the bottle, the flame already inside snuffed out as natural air rushed inside. Taking a breath he then exhaled flame into the bottle the flame going through a few different colors till it settled at a blue color the dragon putting the lid on with the seal command word, the flame flickering a few times before the enchantment on the jar took hold and the flame started dancing inside of it. Handing the jar back to the boy he said,
“There you go, don't say I never gave you anything now.”
The boy nodded thanking the dragon a few times before he scampered off, then thinking to himself as he saw the general attitude the others gave him change at least a little for the better,
'Looks like I'm going to have to grind my reputation, . . .and i never thought I'd have to say that outside of a game.'
Looking around he could see the elf girl, Jessica staying uneasily near his side despite the fact he could tell she wanted to be with her family, then saying,
“Go on Jess, I'll call you if I need ya.”
The girl looks at him then gave a quick bow rushing off to be with her family, the dragon idly wondering what he should do, the camp was a little more so than willing to pack his stuff up for him, the dragon looking around till he saw the girls father, if he wasn't mistaken Jessica had told him at one point her family owned some kind of general store, maybe her father would know more about magic then his daughter did. With a nod he walked over to the elven family where Jessica had settled in with her brother who was helping their mother with packing some things away, The dragon saying,
“I have some questions I'd like to ask you, first of which is what is your name?”
The Elf man offered his hand as he then said,
“Names Bartholomew Rivergreen, my friends call me Bart.”
He cocked an eye at that then asked,
“Ok new question is there a story to that last name or was it just for no reason?”
He chuckled then said,
“Eh something of a story, my grandfather, gods rest his soul, was conceived on a riverbank you see, my great grandmother and grandfather were both young lovers and had gotten their hands on some rather exotic wine, after the two of them had gotten very much pickled on the stuff, and shall we say very much in the mood, they ended up spilling the rest of the flask into the river, now mind you they didn't notice with how invested they were in each other, but the wine it seems had made both the river and their teeth a sickly green color; it turns out a friend of theirs had spiked the wine with a food coloring dye as a prank and when they returned to the village both the river and their teeth where the same color. When they discovered that my great grandfathers seed had taken it was suggested as a joke that the babe's last name be Rivergreen, they liked the idea and ran with it.”
He looked at the elf man who gave a somewhat haughty laugh, the dragon looking on as he mused in his head,
'He seems less frail then I would have pictured elves to be, I wonder how different they are from the elves in my games.'
He looked down after Bart then asked,
“Do you have a name.”
The Dragon looked at him for a moment thinking to himself,
'A name, crap I never thought of one, '
It took him a moment but after a few seconds of mulling it over in his head the dragon then said,
“Vito, or you can call me sir if you want to be more formal.”
The elf nodded as he looked up to the dragon, said person then thinking to himself,
'I doubt they'll even notice its my real name, still had to give them something or they'd keep referring to me as dragon that was getting old fast.'
The elf then saying with a nod,
“Alright then Vito, you had questions?”
Vito nodded then said,
“Yeah this morning I asked your daughter about magic but her insight on the matter was rather limited, seeing as you're a shopkeeper I wonder if you knew more about the subject.”
The man nodded then saying,
“That I do sir what would you like to know?”
With a nod Vito asked,
“Your Daughter told me a bit about racial magic, How does one go about learning actual spells?”
The man nodded saying as he quickly barked at his children to help their grandmother with something,
“You'd need a spell book, I once had a very limited supply of them but they've become rarer since, you see the book has to have been written by a mage who already knows the spells as such mage guilds formed around the idea of keeping their magic like one would treasures, now a days spell tomes are a rare commodities outside of spells of the utmost basic levels, parlor tricks really,”
Vito stopping and then saying,
“Because the mage guilds are refusing to sell their spells books as a means of keeping other guilds from getting an upper hand or learning what they already know is that the gist of it?”
The elf nodded then saying,
“Nail on the head sir, nail on the head, there is a lot of infighting or so i've heard between a few of the larger guilds but that's to be expected a group will always want more power, my store use to boast at least a small selection of actual practical spell books, but now a days with the guilds refusing to sell their spells I couldn't keep them stocked, so I gave up on it.”
Vito nodded the dragon then thinking,
'Well that's disappointing, seems if I want to learn magic i'll either have to knock some heads or make some friends, and it goes without saying that if I pick one guild the others will hate me, gah this sucks, I hate hard locked group reputations.'
The elf looked around it seemed the rest of the camp was ready to go then asked,
“Sir the others are ready to leave shall we give them to go ahead?”
The dragon looked around then said,
“Sure. I'm going, anyone who wants to follow me can.”
Everyone started to move the sound of wagons and pack animals as the large collection of refugees, Vito more or less just following the crowd no clue at all where they were actually going. As they traveled he asked looking to the elven shop keeper once more,
“So tell me something,”
The elf looked at him and quickly said,
“Sure, if I know what it is you want to know.”
Vito asked as he looked around, the group here was mainly humans with a few elves here and there,
“I'm unfamiliar with a great many things one thing I know as a fact is that knowledge equals power, so to start with what other races can I expect to run in to, you're daughter mentioned Anthropomorphic races and half breeds I get the gist of what they are, but are there any other races I should know about?”
The man nodded then said,
“Yes sir, well a man such as yourself would most likely want to get to know the Dwarves, they are legendary for their natural smithing and crafting skills outside of their love for ale, some of the finest blades are crafted by dwarven hands,”
Vito thought quickly,
'I should have guessed, this world has elves after all, next thing, the internet would want me to ask,'
The dragon then asking,
“Is there any kind of hatred between the Elves and the Dwarves?”
The elven shop keeper then said,
“Can't say I have ever heard of such a thing, if anything elves and dwarves get along rather well, good trade partners too now that I think of it.”
The dragon cocked an eyebrow at the elf who understanding the gist of it clarified,
“The dwarves use a substance known as Forge Fire, everyone calls it Dwarven forge fire, it's one of the hottest flames ever held by mortal hands, but the flame is picky with what it burns feed it a sub par wood and the fire won't light.”
The dragon nodded quickly saying “I see, that's where the elves come in I take it.” to which the elf nods then says,
“Yes sir, the forge fire burns very well with a wood known as steel bark, it's a very hard wood that is also equally hard to find rare as it is and only elves can grow it, the saplings, if planted by any but an elf, will die days after being put in the ground, so the dwarves, to get the best wood for their forges, often trade with elven clans. It’s a partnership that has brought both races a great deal of wealth, the dwarves because their forge fires burn a right long time on steel bark and also due to how cleanly the fire burns; Forge fire can burn other woods true but I'm told dwarven master smiths will only work with steel bark fed fires, and the elven clans get a good price for their steel bark, which means an elven clan can set up to build a life around these trees, knowing they won't have to go far to find people interested in buying the wood. It is without saying that we also get more than a fair price for it, they know no one will try to cheat them or else where are they going to get the wood, either find natural trees or find elven growers.”
Vito nodded the dragon then saying,
“I understand now, thank you. Now then onto the next topic; humans, what do you make of them?”
The elf sighed then said,
“Most of the commoners are right decent folks, but when you start to get up into the higher stratum of higher society you do start to run into some prejudice, some nobles will refuse to do business with non humans, or see other races as little more than means to an end, the beast races and half breeds have it the worst, of the nobles that are clearly prejudice most of them act as though the morphs and the half breeds are just smarter animals, sad to say most are seen everything from pets to outright slaves, most nobles who are decent people too will deny morphs or half breeds simply out of fear of backlash, if other nobles refused them then they lose their place in the world, and no one wants to lose it all simply to seem a decent person,.”
The dragon hid a low growl thinking to himself,
'This is why I hate the concept of nobles, i can understand his feelings, a bit strong though, bet there's a story to that but for no better not to ask.'
The elf looked up at the dragon who seemed lost in thought then asking as he saw the dragon crawl out of his head again,
“Any other questions sir?”
Vito looked down at the elf then said,
“None that I can think of lest you think there is something I need to know.”
The elf nodded for a moment then said,
“Well seeing as you're asking a lot of sorry to say basic questions I'm guessing you don't know what our money looks like.”
The dragon looked down to him, with a nod then saying,
“Right that is important, alright fill me in.”
The elf went over the basics of their currency with the dragon, four different colored coins made of a metal enchanted to be light weight if not weightless, the base coin was black, round in shape with a small pentagon cut in the center, it was the base coin and stood for one coin. The next was a silvered coin a bit smaller than the black coin but was worth fifty of the black coins, this coin featured a small diamond cut in the center of the coin. Then there was the gold coins worth a hundred of the black coins the elf explained, these coins where solid metal usually printed with the face of the ruling king from when the coin was minted then last but not least the platinum coins worth a thousand of the black coins, though these were rarely seen outside of a nobles treasure vault or a trade guilds coffers the now former shopkeeper confessed, these coins are larger than the others by a good ten inches, the elven shop keeper telling him of the hand carved eagles usually carved into these coins, the platinum coin being the largest of them next in size being the gold coins, then the basic black coins then the silver ones being the smallest of the lot. With his questions for the moment spent the dragon traveled with the caravan of refugees till once again the sun set, they once more stopped for the night both the people and the pack animals spent from a long journey they had, only to have to do it again the next morning or face the potential attack by the shadow monsters.
~End of chapter 1~
