Within the forbidden corner of Trammel between the endless horrors of the cruor swamps and the unfathomably deep ocean to the end of the world there lies a thin mountain range. The peaks of this mountain range are nature’s greatest attempt at grasping onto that fleeting star dancing up above. It is said that the mountains reach as high as the divine realm itself. The mountain range spirals deep into the cruor swamps like the land itself is valiantly defying the drowning depths of the swamp and reaching for a better world in the sky, it is this trait that is why the range was called the serpentine mountains, well that and one other reason. The few humans that live in this area are the Tarragon monks who reside near the base of the sheer cliffs forming the mountains. They reside in buildings that jut out of the mountain side above the poisonous cruor swamps but below the true territory of the mountains and its residences.

Not many creatures lived at the highest peaks of the mountains. Air was as thin as the ground one would have to traverse, and food was exceptionally scarce, this is not even to take in account the ones whom the Tarragon monks worship, the predators who dominate this region.

Residing comfortably above the clouds at a humble cave entrance on the second tallest mountain he sat. His eyes sharp and astute, easily peered through the clouds down to the end of the swamp’s spiraling valley. At the center of the spiral where the swamp reached its lowest point falling deep below the oceanic water level lied a fruitless tree.

He felt very conflicted about the fruitless tree. He wanted to kill the monstrous thing for the fact that devadoot blood flowed through its roots and trunk. The fact that the offspring of his species worst enemies lived so comfortably directly below their feet was insulting. On the other hand, it also had the blood of his species running through it. It and the creation of the entire cruor swamps are a blemish on the history of his species. The rest of the swamp was adequately vile, uninhabitable, and drowning, as such a forbidden birth should be; however, that fruitless tree had the audacity to be an unparalleled beauty that outshined the entirety of Trammel, the mokoi badlands, and even the divine realm. This child dared to sprout and strive right below his feet. He could swoop down and eradicate the child right now if he desired, but he still could not find it within him to kill it. At least he could find solace in the fact that it was no longer striving, leave it to a human to steal and ruin the innocent. Those wretched caretakers from the swamp have all left in search of the thief leaving the child wilting alone, its only accompaniment is the scorning gazes of its ancestors in the mountains above.

He had a tall and slender wormlike body which stretched out to be even longer than the height of a wealthy manor. His body was a sleek green covered in long flowing blue fur. A hundred lanceolate insect-like wings which were a broad glossy green jutted from his sides all along the length of his body. He had four powerful digitigrade legs extend from one third his body length from his tail tip. his sharp jade claws were sharp enough to shear apart any physical matter, he had to be careful as he walked as to not destroy the ground below him. Two thirds of his body length from the tip of his tail was a long muscular arm mirrored on the other side of his body by a festering scab. His head bared a horrifying maw lined with vicious teeth and deep penetrating pink eyes. His soft ears lazily drooping off to the sides covering his plump and full cheeks. He was one of the masters of these mountains. A being whose sheer physical prowess dominated that of the pathetic humans, and even dwarfed that of the menacing mokoi. A species heralded as gods on par with the devadoots.

There were not many of his kind, perhaps that is why they all let the child in the swamp live, but each one was extremely powerful and obsessive. Each one had some fetish they devoted themselves to collecting, for some it was treasure, artifacts, power, for him it was knowledge. His small cove carved into his mountain was littered with countless books of every language known and unknown, scriptures, tomes, carvings, all of it was collected by him. He found himself living in this confusing absurd world seemingly devoid of logic or sense and he couldn’t help himself but want to find out why. What exactly was the truth of this nonsensical place, how did the devadoot and mokoi come to be? What really was magic? What was beyond the end of the world? Who was the chauffer and what was their tournament?

He had lived for a very long time; he had witnessed the first tournament six hundred years ago and the discovery of fire and water thirteen hundred years before that. He understood he would never be invited to the tournament to find out what really happens from within, that realization was made perfectly clear to him long ago. Nonetheless he was still determined to unravel all the mysteries this broken world had to offer him.

He stretched out his sore wings and with a light pounce, slithered into the sky. He gracefully swayed across the endless expanse before him. The mountains were mostly barren, so he had to travel far to find anything desirable. The cruor swamp certainly wouldn’t have anything palatable so he had to make the long journey over to the human occupied country of Aegis. Thankfully, his many dexterous wings helped him fly over with unparalleled speed.

He scanned the ground for any easy target to satiate him. Finally, he found a lone caravan being pulled along a meandering dirt path by four scrumptious horses. He swooped down to right before the unsuspecting merchant and his group of guards. The horses released panicked neighs as they reared to a halt. The humans in the caravan were struck with disbelief and fear at the unimaginable encounter. The dragon very gently let his feet land on the ground while the rest of his long winding body hovered in the air as if weightless. The cowering merchant petrified in absolute terror could only mindlessly slap his hand against the back of his guard in a pointless plea of protection. The guard and his group of adventurers were a powerful and skilled group who had led their lives determined to help the weak and defenseless, so they quickly gathered their composure and readied themselves in front of the carriage. The leader of their group with his large sword unsheathed spoke to the creature.

“Foul and merciless beast, go back to whence you came or-“

A bolt of lightning shot from the creature’s hand evaporating the speaking man into a dark mist which wafted away in the wind. It was now the adventurers turn to be petrified as they watched their life-long friend destroyed within the blink of an eye.

“Foolish humans! Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air. I don’t want no funny business.”

The beast spoke in a deep and thunderous voice which shook the core of its listeners. The guards obeyed their commands in slow stilted movements.

“Good. Now I want you to hand over all of your books or face absolute judgement!”

The merchant was frozen in shock, a different matter of shock from which he was frozen by prior.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Did I stutter!? I will not repeat myself. I hate repeating myself! When I have to repeat myself is when people have to die, so for your sake I will not repeat myself!”

The beast bellowed unravelling his hundred wings. Sharp purple flecks spat out and danced between the many wings. The purple flecks moved violently as if at any second they would break free and unleash visceral carnage.

“No-no sir you did not stutter. All-all our books right away.”

The merchant disappeared into the back of his caravan while the group of adventurers had their hands pathetically raised to the unreachable star above as if it would come and save them. He watched the pitiful humans tremble before him, he noticed that one of them had a strange bulge in their leather armor. He lowered his head to be level with the human. The human let out a short cry before stopping themselves leaving only the sound of tears hitting the floor and their incessant vibrating to fill his ears. His head was nearly the size of the entire human, each tooth larger than the human’s forearms. He rose his one arm, titanic relative to the human, and gently tapped the human’s chest where the bulge was.

“What is this?”

“My armor?”

He snarled menacingly, covering the human in his viscous saliva.

“Do I look like a fool to you? Of course, I know it is armor. What is in it?”

The human didn’t reply, instead it just uselessly shivered in place. He realized that if he wanted to find out what was in the armor, he would have to find out himself. He took one of his fingers and placed it at the neck of the human; with a smooth surgical movement he drew his claw down the human’s body to tear its clothes in twain but still leaving it unharmed. With the leather armor opened, he used his claw to lift up the dangling piece to find a pocket on the inner hem of the armor.

“Pull out what is in the pocket.”

The human silently reached into their pocket; it took them quite some time to pull the object out since their arm was shaking so violently that they were practically convulsing. He hadn’t even touched the human, yet it reacted so melodramatically.

“What is it?”

The human held onto a small bounded rectangle.

“M-m-my diary.”

He stared at the ‘diary’ intently trying to decrypt its secrets.

“What is a diary?”

“I-I write what happened in my day.”

“Fascinating.”

It had been a long time since he had spoken with an actual human. By this point the merchant had reemerged from his caravan with a sack filled with papyrus. The merchant slowly approached the beast with the sack. The creature took the ‘diary’ from the unclothed human and placed it within the sack. He paused briefly, contemplating the benefits and deficits of his efforts; once he believed he came to an adequate conclusion he grabbed the unclothed human and put it in his sack.

“You have listened to my orders very well. I grant you your life. But I’m taking this.”

With a swift motion he stuffed two horses into his mouth then grabbed the sack of books and flew back to his mountain. The unparalleled endurance and strength of the creature aloud it to return quite quickly; upon arriving at its mountain the creature noticed that his sack was squirming all over the place angrily poking and jabbing as if some annoyed creature was desperately trying to break free from some sort of confine. He emptied the sack letting all of the books pour out to join the rest of his collection, the small human also painfully plopped out of the sack.

“Oh, I forgot about you.”

The human worriedly searched around the room desperately trying to collect some form of bearings after their surprising kidnapping. All around them they could only see stone and literature. The only other sign of life was its heinous capturer.

“What do you want with me? Are you going to eat me?”

He ignored the quiet whimpers of the human as he rummaged through his new collection. Finally, he found the small bounded rectangle; he gingerly unknotted its lock and opened the first page.

“Mhm, as I expected.”

He stared at the small page before him. The implement used to color the paper must have changed since his last collection, the structure was also slightly different. There were many words which he couldn’t recognize. He circled around the unclothed human curling his body around them tighter and tighter.

The human recognized this behavior, they had seen it in snakes before. This was going to be the human’s final throes in life, they closed their eyes and succumbed their body to its final few minutes of agony. After the sound of movement had stopped and the human could still comfortably breathe, they finally braved the task of opening their eyes. The creature was comfortably coiled around the human, but as a soft cushioning bed rather than a deadly stranglehold. The creature's face neatly nestled right next to the human; the soft fur of his floppy ears tickled the human's face. His massive closed fist gently pushed the human toppling them into a sitting position on the staggered steps of the creature’s continuously spiraling body. He opened his palm and in it was the human’s diary.

“Read it to me.”

The human locked eyes with the creature. His behemoth eyes were filled with anticipation and query.

“Read it slowly and explain the big words to me.”

Initially the human was unsure how to react. They turned back to their diary which looked miniscule in the powerful hands of the creature. The human carefully took the book and brought it closer to read. The creature started moving and shaking as he cuddled more comfortably against the human.

“Okay, now you can start.”

The reading session went on forever and the creature’s questions seemed endless. He quizzed the human about the places, people, relationships, feelings, grammar, sentence structure written within, it was a stark contrast to their initial meeting. Sometimes the creature would ask to take over so that he could practice reading. When he heard the human’s stomach grumble the creature would immediately seek out food and cook it for his prisoner. The human would sleep snuggled tightly in the enwrapping depths of the creature’s thick fur. These interruptions were only temporary though as the creature was always eager to return to reading.

One day their reading session was interrupted by the chime of a bell. In front of the two was what seemed to be a small pink rhombus, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards the creature holding a glowing parchment: It read.

You have been invited to The Tournament You are The Dragon