Ember, Hoardsmelter

by Bugsydor

Chapter 1: Leaders Don't Listen

“I’m telling you, Talc, she’s gone crazy,” a disgruntled Garble said to one of his remaining cronies, a translucent white twig of an uncrested drake.

“I know what you mean. Dragonlord Ember is the biggest Cunning Optimist ever,” Talc said, eyes not rising from the mildly table-like rock he’d been seated at for the past quarter-hour. “What’s she done that’s crazy, again?”

Garble decided to let Talc’s obvious tail-kissing and backside-covering slide, once again. After all, Talc was a spineless wyrm. Primo minion material, and minions of any sort were nigh-impossible to find for a dragon not currently on the rise.

And, like most spineless wyrms, Talc was creepily good with math.

“What she's doing now is she’s put out a call to some elder dragons. The kind with literal mountains of treasure in their hoards. And for what? To burn down Pony Princess Land and capture their treasure? No!”

A gout of sulfurous flame roared out of his mouth, giving the table-ish rock a fresh coating of soot.

“So, uh,” Talc said, peering back up over the lip of the rock, “what does she want the elder dragons for?”

“She’s calling them 'advice-ers’ or something,” Garble said, fuming. “An advice-er’s job, apparently, is to tell the dragon in charge how to do their job. What kind of leader listens to their underlings?”

“What kind, indeed?” Talc muttered under his breath.

“A leader is somedragon who bosses people around. That's the whole point of being a leader. If you’ve got people bossing you around, you're not a leader at all! You’re just somedragon's lackey. And I won't be some lackey’s lackey! This just stinks of pony madness from letters from that pretty purple pony princess I almost got to thrash in the Gauntlet of Fire. Or worse, from that runt,” Garble said, smashing a fist through the corner of the table-oid rock.

“Why, I oughta walk right up to her right now and snatch the Bloodstone Scepter right out of her claws, rules be charred. Like she’d be able to stop me, with that weak, pony-brained nonsense her head’s stuffed with.”

Talc timidly raised a claw.

“Maybe, Garble, you should—”

“You can’t be saying you’re okay with this!”

“No, no, I’m not. And I swear I’m not trying to boss you around. After all, I’m just a spineless wyrm—”

“Spit it out, lackey, before I decide to rip it out of you and start looking for a new minion.”

“By my, uh, calculations, maybe we should, y’know, wait a little bit. Once everydragon sees how weak and crazy she is, you can swoop in, challenge her for the Bloodstone Scepter, and nodragon will complain at all about having a new, strong Dragonlord in charge.”

“Hmm… Just had an idea: Maybe I should wait for her to show everydragon how weak and crazy she is, and then I’ll challenge her for the Bloodstone Scepter! I’m glad I thought of that. Things like this are why I should be the dragon in charge!”

“Indeed, my lord,” Talc said, a warm smile blinking across his features.

---

Ember stood in a darkened cavern, with only a few flickering courtesy magelights to see by. They cast intriguing glimmers and shadows across the hoard of Soapstone, one of the few elder dragons to respond positively to her call for advisors. She'd grown a little during her few months of being Dragonlord, but she hadn't really felt like she’d owned the title yet, or, consequently, the Royal Hoard that came with it.

Ember looked up at the sinuous elder spineless wyrm, a wicked grin slowly unhinging her maw.

“So you're saying,” she said, “that doing that would not only grow the R— my hoard, but the hoards of all those around me?”

“Not only that,” he said as he lowered his snake-like neck to grin back at her, “the other dragons will see these growing hoards and throw themselves at your feet to join the fun.”

“I love it! You are quite the Cunning Optimist, aren't you?”

“Indeed, my lord.”

Comments

[Anmynous]

The r-?

[Bugsydor]

8038428
Ember, at this point, is still getting used to the fact that she is the head honcho now.

Love your profile pic, by the way. Both cats and snakes are pretty awesome.