Board Thread:What Would You Do?/@comment-32347114-20200107182708/@comment-34263048-20200108040139

This might be too much for some, but I ended up writing it, so it's exactly what you get.

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Terrorizing, well while that wasn't exactly true, the truth was that this large village, or small town, how ever you prefer, was more or less terrified of the dragon who had decided to make his nest just a days walking distance outside the village.

The terror was mostly due to her being seen every 4 of 5 months taking a cow, or horse, or some other larger animal and then flying away, thuogh often the owner of that cow has found some gold coins in the field where the animals had been snatched. One of the reasons for the fear was that the dragon was allways seen in her primordial form, at least 60 feet from the tip of her tail to the end of her snout, and the occasional footprint that was found, were nearly large enough that man could lay down in one, and there was still room to spare.

She never talked, only took what she needed, and "paid" occasionally much less than the taken animals were worth, occasionally much more. She made her first appearance 20 or so years ago, Since then we had sent 2 men a year to deal with her. According to records, few first had wanted to marry her, but they never returned, and the dragons still had made her appearances. after that majority had gone to slay her, though they hadn't returned either.

How ever, the largest worry wasn't really that the dragon made her appearances, and much like most reptilian creatures, the larger they are, the older they are. and she was literally huge. This created the issue. Nobody knew how old she was, which might mean she might be passing away relatively soon, which created the risk of very powerful Dragon Zombie would emerge in relatively near future. And for the village, that simply wasn't an option. She needed to get married, or she needed to die, and who ever killed her, needed to remove the threat of the newborn ghost dragon.

Only the warmongerers in our village wanted to confront her, thuogh during last 15 years the village was quikly running out of warmongerers. Some said that being gentle, and seductive was only way to deal with her, thuogh neither way had worked so far.

And last week the wheel of fortune hit me, a 29 year old farmhand, who had proven himself in combat when bandits tried to brake in to the farmers house. and who hadnt had any luck with the girls of the village. I would be the next would be dragonslayer, or so they think. Sure I can fight, I proved myself against the bandits with both axe an scythe. While neaither was designed for combat, I could weponize both, and with good results. But going against a Dragon, my skills and my weapons would be hopelessly insufficient, and I knew it.

Yet, for the village, I had to go, I packed up some supplies, and started my journey to the dragons den. How ever, a small part of me wanted to turn away, and leave this village behind with it own problems. How ever, if the dragon turned to Dragon Zombie, who knows where she heads in her pursuit of men. And I have heard how Zombie Dragons have turned small nations to zombielands. Therefore I must do what's right, and go confront her.

I had left early in the morning, and by evening I came to bottom of a large and steep hill. I knew the cave was somewhere on that steep hillside, but after walking whole day with rather brisk pace, I decided to set camp, and look for the cave tomorrow.

Early in the morning, I ate couple apples and some dried meat. and added some berries from berry bushes that I found on the way. Not exactly balanced breakfast, but something that was light to carry and would easily keep me going for half a day. Then I started to climb the steep hills. It took good half of the day before I located a cave enterance, way too small for her to fit trough in her full size, but while I dont know much about dragons, I know that they can turn in to more human like form, and for that the enterace was easily large enough, you could probably drive a small horse drawn carriage in from it, thuogh it would be tight fit. And after I had located the most likely enterance to her domain, it took nearly an hour to get there, just because the enterace was in quite hard to reach place.

As I reached the enterace, I took a short breather, then took out a torch, lit it, and started venturing in to the cave. While the enterace seemed too small for her, the cave narrowed down not much further, Still large enough for horse to walk trough, but not much more than that. As I took a closer look at the walls, it didnt seem quite natrual, it allmost looked like the the stone had been melted at least once to create this shape. and the tunnel seemed to slope so it was clear that I was descending in to somewhere.

It was allmost half an huor walk on this cave, or more like corridor, as the tunnel spiraled ever deeper in to the ground. when suddenly my torch just died. I was expecting to be plunged in total darkness, but I saw a dim light somewhere up ahead. I figured that I might be reaching the main cave, so I decided that I probably shouldn't light up the torch again, as it would most likely give my precence away. And so I continued carefully heading forward in the darkness.

It didn't take long, when I came in to enterace of massive cavern, and in the cavern was piles upon piles of riches, Gold, Silver, coins, goblets, fancy swords, scepters, gems of different kinds. Mindboggling amount of valuables, there was stone pillars coming down from the roof above, some stalctites and stalagmites reachign for eachothers, and in the walls were torches, flickering with magical blue flame. And in the middle of the room, on top of largest pile, I saw a figure of a woman laying down, I could tell even from the distance, that she was looking straight at me. even thuogh I could barely see her. I knew it was worthless to try to be sneaky, She knew that I was here, most likely she even knew why I was here. For couple seconds I just wanted to run away, but I steeled myself, and started walking towards her.

As I reached the bottom of the pile, which was larger than the farmhouse I lived in I heard a booming, yet somewhat feminine voice. -"Another one of your village ilk, is it? Come to slay me, or be my concubine? ...forget it, all of you are either too shallow or too terrified to bother."

From shallow, I don't know, but terrified, Well who wouldn't be terrified knowing what she's capable of. I thuoght as I stopped to look up at her. -"It would be stupidity, to challenge you, I would have to surprise you, if I wouldn't want a quick death, and even then odds are against me." I called back -"I'm not sure am I too shallow, I might be, but I'm neither here to be your concubine. I'm here, because many people fear you, and I am here to find out how those fears could be allevieated.

She stood up, and started walking down from the pile, that was apparently her bed. and as she got closer, I saw what might have once been a good looking woman. emphasis being on might and once. She definitely wasn't young anymore, how ever in human terms, years had treated her well. How ever her movement was still gracious like young high class women have. Life however, had not treated her well. She was scarred, it was apparent that she had fought hudreds of fights, and hadn't gone trough them unscathed. Legs, arms, tail, body, and even face, had their fair share of those scars. Which leads me to belive that she was around much before the current demon lord was in power. That's at least 700 to 1000 years, and I wouldn't be surprised if you could add another 700 on it. How long do dragons live? I don't know I thuoght it was hundreds, but still the way she moves, and how she looks, I would guess in human terms she would be barely much more than 45 years.

-"Yet you come here armed, and then claim you aren't here to challenge me? How do you explane that."

-"I am armed yes, Mostly for my own protection, roads are sometimes dangerous to travel. In fact as I was sent here, I was thinking that I would just travel to another village, wander around, and settle in somewhere far away, so I would be once again one who never returned. How ever, as I remembered how people in my village are terrified of your visits, I had to do what I concidered the right thing to do. Hence why I'm here. How ever if it eases your mind, I can disarm myself." I drop the axes but as I'm about to drop the the baldric that holds couple knifes I hear her chuckle. -"Oh a noble one are you, ready to sacrifice yourself for the others. But you are correct that your weapons wouldn't harm me, and you would be dead long before you could use them if you tried. But why do you talk about people fearing me, I have taken some animals for food true, but have I not paid for what I have taken?"

-"As I understand it, yes you have paid, but as you might know, in that village lives mostly simple people, Just when something so large as you in your, hmm... Larger form appear, they are very intimidated, They have noticed that you arent out there to kill them, but badly times swipe of tail, or changing your foots position could be fatal to anyone in that village, That's one thing that they are so afraid, Not to mention that few houses have had their roofs blown off by the wind when you have flown off. Simple as it might sound, they are afraid of you, when you are in the other form, and therefore they want to get rid of you, any means necessary." As I told about the fears of the villagers I intentionally didn't mention the fear of zombie Dragon running around in near future -"And you have sent men here to either slay me, or to be my mate, so I would't turn in to Zombie." And it appears that she can pretty much read my mind.

My expression as I relized that, certainly didn't escape from her, as I hear another chuckle coming from her. it was particularly embarassing moment for me, as I now knew that she most likely knows what I'm thikning before I'm thinking it. Then again I might be able to use this to my advantage, Maybe. -"You dont have to worry about that, I still have long life ahead of me, Even thugh I'm one of the oldest that lives right now. I have seen few demon lords rising and eventually falling. That got me even more puzzled, one of the oldest living, and still having long life ahead of her? -"Ah yes, Back in the day dragons lived millenias, but since this latest demon lord got to power, something changed. As you probably noticed, we are aging but the ones who were born in the latest millenia, after our males had passed away arent as long living anymore. Allso we got this weaker and smaller body that is more suitable to mate with your kind. How ever, as I'm from times long before that I dont really like this body. Wait what is she talking about now? I'm now confused.

I watch is shock as her body starts to grow, hear the creacks as he bones are taking new shape, and scales covering where there was skin. in couple minutes there is the terror inducing 60 foot long lizard in front of me. -"You have been mostly truthful, and I can see that you are honest man Jova. I noticed that you were thinking us together and I'm wiling to give you a chance."

Wait what, Yeah I thuogh about having sex with her, but in her human form.

-"You see, Back when I was young, our kind wasn't quite as pleasent with humans..." Yeah I have heard some stories about complete destruction of cities, but what has that gotta do with anything? I think. -"Yes those were jut one of the things we did to your kind. but now I'm going to test how far you are willing to go. As there was another thing that was allso very entertaining for us, privilige for those who served us, and absolute horror for those who were scared of us." Where is she going with all this? -"I will be your mate, if you please me as I'm in my preferred body." She said as she laid down, and spred her legs, and I saw a glistining cleft, just about same length as my shoulders are wide.

It took allmost 10 minutes for me to make up my mind, before I finally came in to my conclusion, ans started climbing her tail towards that cleft.

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I'm now nearly 100 years old, though I don't feel a day over 35, We have had our fun, me as I am, and she in both of her forms. We still live in that cave I went in to nearly 70 years ago. our food rarely contains any farm animals, and if there is even I can notice how one of the piles is missing notable chunk of valuables.

All in all we have a very happy life.