Rich gasped as the shape in front of him twisted.

But the scream of terror behind him snapped him out of his hesitation. He whirled to see one of the villagers stagger back at the entrance of the trail...

...stagger back and teeter, arms windmilling, as he was about to go off the cliff.

“No! Hold still!” Rich roared, and dove into a slide, claws outstretched, trying like hell to grab the guy.

And regretting, not for the first time, that dexterity was his dump stat.

His claws swiped out, and he missed the man by a good three feet—

“Vines!” Agnez snapped, her voice barely altered by her transformation.

Vines snapped out from the cliffside and wound their way around the falling man, catching him, straining and ripping out of the weak, rocky soil...

And gently, Rich closed his claws around the guy and put him back on the cliff. “There you go. Watch your step.”

Then a sudden smell made him look downward. Piss? No. It was... sweet?

It was the vines. They bloomed into fat grapes, sending a sugary scent wafting into the crisp, cold air.

“Grapevines?” he rumbled, turning his head to Agnez.

“It's how I get the raw materials for the beer,” she rumbled back. “But that's no matter now. You tried to save Tinty Bortiz. Why?”

“He was going to fall,” Rich said, frowning. “Is there some reason I shouldn't have tried to catch him?”

Agnez stared at him, and Rich took his time to look her over.

She was around the same size as he, perhaps a little longer but thinner. Her scales were green, and the horns of her headband had merged into her true form, providing branched, deerlike racks. Her eyes were gold in the darkness, and the slit pupils were locked on his. Her gaze was even more intense than it had been in her human form, and Rich tried, and failed to win the staredown. He was first to blink and look away, and the second he did she stalked a few steps closer.

“I'm trying to figure out,” Agnez said, “If this is a ruse to gain my confidence.”

“If it is, then I'm as clueless as you are,” Rich spoke. “Up until thirty seconds ago I had no idea you existed.”

Whimpering below him, and Rich glanced down to see the man— Tinty Bortiz curled into a ball. Yellow '1's and '2's flicked up from his head with distressing regularity. “He's going to freeze to death. Can we continue this conversation later?”

“No,” Agnez rumbled, and Rich looked up to find her MUCH closer. She had her neck up and her front legs at full extension, looking down on him from her small height advantage. “Not until tradition is fulfilled. Do you mean to challenge me, whelp?”

“Frankly, no,” Rich said, fighting down an urge to smack her for her insolence. Those were dragon instincts, he knew. This was the game messing with his head. Rotgoriel would have done it in a heartbeat. The memories that had overlaid his mind three years ago were clear on that. Fortunately, he was the one in charge for this, and he knew how to handle it. “But someone sure wants us to fight, and I'm thinking you'll be playing right into their hands if you try to take me down.”

Yellow numbers flickered past them. Agnez broke his gaze to glance down, then up again.

And though she tried to hide it, though he could tell she was trying for a poker face, that twitch of her scaly lips told him she was worried for Bortiz.

PER+1

“Here,” he offered. “Let me help the guy out. Blessing of Constitution on Bortiz, 50.”

ERROR! Your Cleric levels are insufficient for that level of blessing!

Rich blinked. The skill description hadn't mentioned a level cap... well, how much had he put on Geebo again? That he could do, at least.

“Blessing of Constitution on Bortiz, 20?” he tested.

Immediately the yellow numbers slowed down.

“What the hells?” Agnez burst out.

“What?” Rich looked up.

“That's a Cleric skill!”

“Yes. And?”

“Dragons follow no gods!”

“This one does,” Rich shrugged, felt his wings twitch and flare.

The green dragon hopped back, wings beating as she ended up thirty feet away. Then she glared once more. “You don't mean to challenge me?” she demanded.

“Nope. This is your mountain. You can keep it,” Rich said.

“And don't you forget that! Okay. Okay, business first. Forms.”

Rich watched in fascination as her body twisted and folded in on itself. The last to go were her horns, shrinking and bobbling as they snapped onto a headband.

“Bortiz?” Agnez said.

“Yuh?” The man shivered.

“Not a word to the others. Or else.”

“Yuh! Nuh! No, I won't. Tell them, I mean.”

“Come on, buddy,” Rich rumbled down at him. “Agnez, can you help him down the path? I'd carry him, but my dexterity is... lacking.”

“Yes, I remember how you flew up this last leg of things.” She shrugged and took the man's shaking arm. He flinched, but she set herself, and dragged him back from the edge. “Come on, Tinty. Don't be an ass.”

They picked their way back down the trail for a few minutes before she spoke again. “Your blue lady was talking about Anjuuta. I've never heard of that goddess.”

“And you won't,” Rich rumbled, trudging through the snow at a safe distance where he wouldn't risk causing a landslide or knocking them off the slope. “Anjuuta is a dark power.”

Agnez stopped so suddenly that Bortiz stumbled, feet flailing. She wobbled, and readjusted herself to haul him back up.

That's something, Rich knew, eyeing her. She's still strong, but that's not dragon's strength. I bet it chances with her shape. She's more vulnerable if so, since strength feeds into hit points.

She's taking a risk in front of me. Why? A test? This doesn't feel like one.

“A dark power,” Agnez spoke slowly, disbelievingly, when she had her feet under her. “Next you will tell me you're a Cultist.”

“Conceal Status,” Rich rumbled.

And immediately stumbled himself, as his status screen snapped open, with flashing prompts indicating editing was now possible.

“Uh...” he tweaked his Cultist class to True Believer, just to see what would happen. Nothing, but it DID change. “Close Status,” he commanded.

Your Conceal Status skill is now level 2!

When he looked up again, Agnez was as still as the stones his scales were made of. Snow was collecting in her hair, and her face was contorted in pure shock.

“How...” she whispered. “Were you deaf to the ancestors? Did they teach you nothing?”

“They have told me nothing,” Rich shrugged. “My mother was slaughtered by hunters as I hatched. You're the first other dragon I have met who wasn't a god.”

“Wasn't a...” she hesitated. “You're the most blasphemous thing I've ever met. You shouldn't be.”

“And yet, here I am.”

“On my mountain...” Agnez rubbed her face with her free palm. “One problem at a time. Come on, let's get back to the others and send them home before they do something else stupid.”

“Something else stupid?” Rich asked.

“They followed a strange woman up a freezing mountain without at least bringing torches or any other heat source.”

Bortiz wilted a bit, in Agnez' grip.

She continued, sans mercy. “If wisdom were bread, the entire village would have starved long ago.”

“Is that why they're still alive?” Rich asked.

“No, and it's damned hard keeping them all alive despite themselves!”

“I mean, if they were wiser, you would have been discovered before now.” Rich said, narrowing his eye. “You have to take the good with the bad. And if you were wiser, and more ruthless, then Bortiz there wouldn't make it back to the village.”

Agnez stopped there, on the trail. She looked to the shuddering man, who stared back at her, clueless, his face half-coated with ice.

Then she looked at the long, long drop down into the misty depths below the mountain.

With her strength, even in this form, it wouldn't be a challenge.

Agnez' gaze found his eye, then glanced away. “I don't need to,” she said. “He'll be silent. He may not be wise, but he's smart. He knows to keep his mouth shut.” she leaned in. “Extra beer for you, if you do.”

“Extra beer?” his face brightened up.

“See? I have matters well in hand. There's no need to tell me my own business.” Her glare found Rich again... and her eyes opened. “That was a test! You were testing me!”

“I was,” Rich admitted, not sure how he'd given it away. “You passed.”

And she had. If she'd pushed the guy over the side, he would have flown off and been done with her.

Geebo's stories and Rotgoriel's memories had confirmed that other dragons were usually not good creatures. They were violent, lacking in empathy, and self-serving beyond any reasonable measure. They came out of the egg that way, thanks to dreams that indoctrinated them into the 'proper' way for dragons to act.

But this one had some shard of decency, even if she wouldn't admit it. She was taking a risk by letting Bortiz live. There were dragons out there who wouldn't think twice about pushing him off the cliff if it helped their chances in even a miniscule way.

“Hmmf.” Agnez grunted. “Come on. Let's get this over with. After that we can talk freely, and then you can get the hell off my mountain.”

But Rich wasn't listening. “Uh-oh. You hear that?”

“Hear what—” she broke off and her eyes widened.

Shouting, from that point of light down the mountain. The group was yelling and screaming.

“I'll fly ahead!” Rich said, flaring his wings, and taking off.

Immediately he regretted it. The air currents up here were strong, and the winds did their damnedest to bounce him off the mountain.

Your Fly skill is now level 19!

But as he got closer, he realized that the commotion wasn't from fear, or anger, or sorrow.

“Holy hell! Look at all that stuff!” the small, weedy-looking pale one was shouting.

“I'm rich! I'm rich! I can finally afford to leave!” the tanned one in the heaviest furs was bellowing.

“It tastes like the real thing!” the bad-smelling one burbled.

But it wasn't until he was in sight when the one who dressed in all wool spoke and with those few words, Rich understood the cause for celebration.

“Darkspell Fool's Gold!”

Gold glittered in the firelight below. Gold coins covering the ground, and flashing in the air as the leaping, dancing people below threw coins around with reckless abandon, and Auanarox sat smug in the middle of the party, reclining on her own heap of gold.

“Ah, great one! Welcome back!” Aunarox smiled, and gave him a languid wave. “They are now all worshipers of our lady. We are among brothers, in her grace.”

“I told you we weren't...” Rich's voice trailed off as he realized two things.

One: he'd never directly told Aunarox not to carry on with the plan.

Two: he had gone off to talk with Agnez, and left her alone to talk with them. For nearly half an hour.

Rich came in for a landing, taking care to turn so the wind from his wings swept snow from a western batch of rocks, and didn't sweep the fire, the gold, or the men off the cliff instead.

“Darkspell Fool's Gold!” cheered the pale looking one again, then wobbled a bit. “Oof. My head feels heavy.”

“Feels like four cups of beer so far,” the smelly one confirmed.

“It uses sanity,” Rotgoriel said, padding back to the fire. “You might want to be careful, and not overdo it.” He made a scoop of one hand, and pulled up a palm full of snow and ice and rocks and gold, examined the coins closely.

They smelled... off. And the heads on the coins were crude pictures that varied from person to person. Some were like smiley faces with crowns, others bore a suspicious similarity to that pale, weedy guy's face.

“We can pay the tallyman to get away from here! We can leave!” The tanned one cheered.

Rich shook his head, dropped the gold, and turned to look back at the oncoming horned figure, pushing through the snowy night with Bortiz trailing behind her, fighting to keep up.

Then she stopped, at the edge of the firelight, and took in the entire scene in a heartbeat.

“Ooooooh boy,” Rich whispered. “I'm pretty sure this one's going to go over like—”

Agnez' enraged scream echoed through the peaks like a dying eagle's last breath.

Twelve minutes later, after they'd managed to calm her down and the gold coins started disappearing, she herded the villagers back down the mountain, carrying plenty of torches to keep them from freezing solid.

On the upside, all of them (except Bortiz,) had gotten a new job that night, and it had replenished their depleted stamina pools. So the risk was minimal.

Only when they were far, far down on the mountain did Rich hear the soft tap of smaller claws against stone. He turned to find Geebo standing next to him, staring down the trail.

The drakkit had spent long hours learning to sneak around dragons. It had paid off now.

“She's something, isn't she?” Rich asked. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Little, oh great one. I was far back in the darkness, so she could not see me. And when she revealed her true beauty, I retreated even farther.”

“Is she good looking then? In dragon terms?” Rich asked.

“What a strange question!” Aunarox said, coming forward to join them. “You are a dragon. Are not such things yours to judge?”

“I'm... complicated,” Rich said.

“Regardless, her force of personality is strong. Good charisma there!” Aunarox said, putting her hand on his flank and leaning against him as she gazed down the mountain.

“I assume you were watching our discussion up top?” Rich nodded toward the peak.

“Of course! Where the wind goes, so see I.”

Rich didn't reply. A notion had struck him, and it was pretty worrisome.

How will Rotgoriel react when I log out and his personality activates? He might challenge Agnez, or fall in love, or do something else that'd be really stupid right now. And then I'd have to live with it.

INT+1

Yeah, that tore it. Rich knew he couldn't leave this problem up to chance.

And that meant doing something he didn't want to do.

“Geebo. I need the mirror.”

The drakkit nodded, the frills dangling around his neck bobbing. Wordlessly he contorted and pulled the pack off his back, and reached into it, before handing the mirror over.

It took a second to remember the words. They were from the part of his memory that he hated to go, the part that psychosis and questionable game code had built in his brain.

It took more strength than he thought to say them. But Rich hadn't gotten this far by being weak.

“Activate Planar Contact.”

And as had happened so long ago, everything went dark, dark with green light gleaming around the edges.

But where once he had been staring at a dragon, now he was looking at a human. At his human shell, a stocky, sturdy young man with the beginnings of stubble, and two eyes that gazed into his one with shock... shock that turned to anger.

But not at him.

“Brother,” Rotgoriel said, "you come just in time. We have been betrayed!"