”Why,” Arthur thought as he stared down the massive ancient dragon. He wasn't a soldier. He wasn't even supposed to be enlisted due to the deal his home had with the Traezzugary Kingdom. Yet, the so-called “Hero of the Nation” had pulled strings because of some stupid, petty reason. What was that reason, you may ask? Well, the “hero” had a thing for Arthur's new wife, Hikari, and wanted to remove Arthur from the picture completely. That must be why he gave all of the other soldiers the order to retreat and told him that if he retreated, his entire village would be charged for treason and executed, Arthur thought. He had seen the man at the tavern his wife worked at in the capital a couple of times, each time harassing her. 

“You poor human,” the dragon bellowed softly, “betrayed by those you thought allies. What will you do now, run home, or fight me here and die?” Staring intently at this human man, with short straight brown hair and emerald green eyes.

 “I have a question for you,” Arthur said, “why are you attacking the nearby towns?”

“WHY???” The dragon growled angrily, “Why wouldn't a mother seek revenge for the deaths of her children? If you weren't still standing here after talking to him I would have already killed that bastard that destroyed my eggs.”

”I have a proposition for you,” Arthur said, still shaking in fear, “a chase, if I can escape you, I get to go home, without any incident, but if you catch me, I will tell you the name of the man that killed your children, and you can do whatever you want with me afterward.”

The dragon's eyes narrowed, and smoke left its nostrils, “I have a condition, you must run towards those mountains behind me, I will not even fly, and you will get a half-day headstart.” She said, sniffing Arthur to get his sent. “Time is ticking, Human.”

Upon hearing that, Arthur started running; he just left his sword behind and ran towards the mountains. That was his plan anyway, it was the farthest away from home, and if the legends he had heard were correct, there was a labyrinth in there that he could use with ease to get away. Arthur knew he was going to die, but if he can take up as much of the dragon's time, to protect the innocent, then he will do so, even if it costs him his soul. 

* * * * * * *

As the soldiers returned to the city of, Marrowburg the second most southern city in the Traezzugary Kingdom, they were bruised and battered. The dragon was much older than reported, and they left someone behind. The media was already there, as well as the Adventurers guild's grandmaster Alosrin, an Elf. The soldiers were taken to the field hospital as their injuries were inspected. As they were doing this, their commanding officer, the hero of the nation, Narfad spoke to the media. “We failed to slay the dragon; it seems my report of its age was off, as it must have evolved recently. One of the soldiers stayed behind, even after I had urged him not to; his name is Arthur Shepherd, a citizen of one of the northern towns that volunteered for this event. Once the dragon has been slain, I will accompany the soldiers that inform his family. I also would like to ask the Adventurers guild to aid us in slaying the dragon; upon seeing its size and stats this time, I have determined it to be an Ancient Dragon. After the talk with the media, Narfad went to talk to the Grandmaster to tell him the abilities of the dragon. As he approached the Grandmaster, Narfad had a wicked thought running through his mind. “With the dragon enraged by the destruction of its eggs, it should be able to kill that lowly commoner.” He thought as Alosrin turned to him.

“Ah, Lord Narfad, I do believe that this is the first time we have ever met. I am Alosrin Thelana, Grandmaster of the Adventurers Guild. I heard your speech and have already called all of the high-ranking members of the guild that are in the area. They should arrive by mid-day tomorrow, and they will hunt down the dragon as  and, with luck, recover the fallen soldier.” Alosrin said, analyzing the hero of the nation. Alosrin has always had a good eye for people, even before he had obtained the skill Analysis, he could always tell when someone had, evil intentions. “So, when you first investigated the dragon, did you find out why it was attacking? Dragons that are around that age don't tend to attack civilizations, or wagons without a reason.”

Narfad flinched, for a moment he thought that Alosrin had figured out what he had done, but he quickly composed himself. “Sadly I do not, I believe it may have gone mad, but I was able to find out the general area of its nest. Somewhere around the fractured mountains. I'm going to get started on the paperwork for the deceased soldier, goodbye Grandmaster Alosrin.”

“Goodbye Lord Narfad,” Alosrin said, already feeling something was off, before quickly heading to the local guildhall. “I need any and all documents that pertain to someone by the name of Arthur Shepherd from one of the northern towns of this kingdom.” He said as soon as he entered the guildhall, taking everyone in there, including the receptionist by surprise. “I will be talking to the guild master of this town in his office.” The receptionist acknowledged the request and began working, after about thirty minutes the receptionist gasped in shock causing everyone in the hall to look up, they had never heard him gasp like that. He immediately printed out his finding and rushed to the guild master's office, the information he had discovered was shocking, to say the least. The guild master and the Grandmaster were talking in the former's office when the receptionist burst through the door with the freshly printed documents. “You got to see this,” he exclaimed, handing the documents to Alosrin. As Alosrin looked through the documents his eyes grew wide,  and he began to shake with anger. “Send an emergency report to the king, he needs to get down here immediately, we need to get to the bottom of this.”