“Diamond Dogs abandoned writing long ago. The mining of gems they neither spend nor use is well known. To this Vault Keepers add ancestral duties to preserve their ancient vaults. They have many legends but the core of them all is the dawn war.”
—Pena “On the Origins of Ponies*(*and Others) and Magic”
Mournful and angry, Scorcher started away from the speaking circle. Dust had tried to convince him not to go, but Scorcher was determined. Dust and the others turned away and refused to watch as he walked straight up the mountain path of Dragonholme towards the halls of the council and Smolder’s cave. No dragon followed. His stomach grumbled again reminding him he still hadn't eaten.
Kobolds poked their heads up and out from beyond the edges of the amphitheater as he strode past. Several followed for a while, but most stopped. A single bright green kobold continued to follow him. She was probably working as a hunter, with a knife and pointy stabbing stick.
Pausing, he looked down at the large bright green kobold female, a young adult a bit larger than the height of a Dragon hatchling. Big for a kobold, though the females tended to be a bit larger. She had been following him all the way up from the circle. “Can you speak?” he asked.
“Yes, yes of course great dragon sir!”, the small creature said, bright orange eyes wide. It viewed him with a rapt gaze, panting slightly from the steep climb. She was about a fortieth of his length tip to tail. Kobolds always seemed so anxious when dragons addressed them.
Scorcher was looking for a witness, and this one would do. “Well, follow me then please” he said pausing, “Hey”’ he said, “what’s your name?”
“Rizi, Rizi is Rizi great dragon sir.” she stammered.
“It’s nice to meet you Rizi. I am Greenwood Scorcher, counselor to the Dragon Lord.” He turned and resumed walking.
The small green lizard smiled and bowed at him and made to follow. “Nice to meet great dragon, Rizi comes.” She scampered after him using the stick to help leap small crevices in the stone as he resumed his climb. Rizi was quite fast for a kobold.
Scorcher walked past the boulder outside the door and on through the doors into the mountain. He walked through empty greeting rooms and into the high hall of the council, passing the empty stone couches and chairs straight through to the arched entrance to the Dragon Lord’s hall - the great hoard chamber. Kobolds outside paused in their cleaning and housekeeping tasks to watch. He ignored them and strode past.
“Rizi, stand over here by the entrance. When Smolder wakes up, our words should be audible from here. If things go… poorly, I want you to go back down, find a dragon and tell them whatever you hear. Er, I might not be able to come back myself.” The little green kobold nodded.
Turning around he boldly strolled through the open doors to the hall of the Dragon Lord. Smolder lay atop an enormous pile of gold and gems. She was a bit larger than the last time he had seen her. She was as large as Torch had been. Larger even.
Lying on her back, she grasped the Bloodstone Scepter, the ancient symbol of draconic authority tightly in one claw. The primeval magical artifact was said to have been created by the first Dragon King and Dragon Lord to mark the leaders of all dragons. A later Dragon King had betrayed the dragons and for his tyranny had been locked in Tartarus for all time. There were only Dragon Lords now.
“Am I really going to do this?” Scorcher asked himself. He was large now, maybe not as large as a fully-grown dragon, but the yellow Smolder was enormous. She dwarfed him. He thought he knew how the kobolds felt when confronted with a dragon his size. He felt anxious. He might be large, but he had no illusions that if she woke up from her sleep in a rage that he would be in real trouble.
‘I guess I really am doing this’, he thought. The red dragon breathed in deeply.
“Smolder, time for you to wake up!” he said loudly. There was no response. Of course.
“Hey Smolder, wake up.” he shouted even louder and closer. She still didn’t stir or even change her breathing. He walked up and gently prodded her on the shoulder. Still there was no response. Scorcher kept telling her to wake up, shaking and poking her harder and harder. Finally, he shook her bulk as hard as he could, but she remained asleep. He even tried yelling right at her tympanum.
He decided to try another tactic that would usually wake even the sleepiest dragons up. “OK Smolder, if I can’t get you to wake up by shaking you or yelling at you, what if I just stole some of your treasure hoard? Huh what if I just started eating these gems? Would that actually wake you up?” Still, she did not move as he grabbed clawfuls of her gems and began to swallow them dramatically and noisily as they spilled out from both sides of his snout. Munch, munch, munch, crunch, crunch, crunch, went yellow gold and sparkling gems. Still, she made no moves - if anything her sleep became deeper. “Oh, this is ridiculous, you should be waking up and kicking my tail. Get up!” He shook her, beat on her, punched her, and slapped her in the face with his tail, even poked her in her heavily lidded eye, but nothing he did roused her from her slumber.
“Fine Smolder, if that’s the way it’s going to be you’re not fit to be Dragon Lord! Come out here and do your job! Wake up you darn lizard!”
Exhausted from his attempts to wake her he sat down and thought. “Someone else is going to have to be Dragon Lord. I think that someone’s going to be me.” He boldly walked over to her gigantic, clawed hand and began to try to prize the magical Bloodstone Scepter from it. To his surprise it came away easily. Her claw opened. And he took the scepter in both claws and stepped back. Smolder stretched her now empty clawed hands out.
Startled at the motion Scorcher stared at her, having suddenly come to his senses. Realizing where and what he was doing, a cool wash of adrenaline flooded his system. He prepared to flee for his life. With the magic gone he couldn’t even fly to get away!
In his imagination he saw a justly angry giant yellow Dragon Lord that had been insulted, stolen from, and punched awake tearing into him. She likely knew and remembered everything that happened around her in her sleep. After all, he remembered everything that happened around him when he slept, and Smolder was no doubt just the same.
Smolder turned and with her enormous now empty claw grasped a pile of coins, gems and other golden objects and dropped them into her mouth, she swallowed twice convulsively and without waking turned back over, shook her head once, swallowed a final time and then lay back asleep.
Scorcher stood next to her. As moments stretched to minutes, she remained lying quietly upon her gigantic horde and began to snore again, black smoke wafting up from her internal fires.
“Too much time with ponies” he said. What had he been thinking?
Still shaking from his scare, Scorcher took the scepter, had one last glance at the beautiful if dangerous sleeping dragoness and slowly walked back out of the caverns.
The tiny bright green kobold was sitting there by the door. Her eyes were wide, and she stared up at him intently. He looked at the kobold and said, “Did you hear all that?” Rizi nodded.
Scorcher said, “Well she didn’t contest it, so I think that makes me Dragon Lord.”
The kobold looked up at him with awe in her eyes. She spoke “So brave, great dragon Scorcher, bravest ever!”
After a moment she went on “Bravest dragon, ever seen, even hear of.” said the kobold worshipfully.
Scorcher nodded. “Sure, brave let's go with that.” ‘Stupid is more like it’ he thought. “Let’s head back.” he said, his heartbeat finally slowing.