“Ahh, baby dragons. I’ve tried raising a few the natural way. They always told me not to. I should’ve listened.”

- Brakkis Allblythe

Percy yelped as he dodged another fireball. He couldn’t tell if the three hatchlings were playing with him or seriously trying to kill him. Either way, he was certain that they would kill him if he let them. Rafael simply chuckled as he watched Percy roll out of the way of a blast of liquid fire. The wall steamed where it was struck.

“Use your magic, Percy!” the kobold advised. He was crouched in a safe position behind a boulder near the door. That was easy for him to say. He wasn’t playing dodgeball with killer lizards.

Rolling behind one of the piles of treasure, Percy drew three blank cards from his deck box. He took a deep breath, steeling his nerves.

C’mon Percy, he thought. You’ll never get anywhere if you can’t handle a trio of baby dragons.

Shaking his head, the boy dashed out from around the pile of treasure, a card held out in front of him. The baby dragon, a short stubby creature without any wings which was closer to a komodo dragon than to Silvaroth, squawked in surprise and tilted its head.

Then it blasted a wave of fire at the boy.

Percy’s eyes went wide. Each time until now, the babies had made a show of hacking before they could release any flames. He’d expected to catch it by surprise and bind it into the card before it could burn him alive.

The flames connected with his outstretched hand before he could react. And a burst of magic was released from the card he was holding. The flames vanished.

With no time to examine the card, Percy swapped it out for a blank one from his other hand, slapping it against the baby’s scales. The dragon squawked again, hissed, and then vanished in a rush of magic light.

Percy rolled behind the creature’s perch as the other two babies approached. He stored the two used cards away, drawing a handful of blank ones. If they were going to spit fire and the cards could stop it, he’d take advantage of that. The flames whooshed toward him, and he pushed his cards out in front of him, quickly tossing them into his pockets and slapping the other babies’ necks with blanks, binding them.

As the heat dissipated, Percy dropped to his knees, sighing. He breathed heavily, thanking whatever god had brought him here for their assistance in keeping him alive. After a minute of relaxation, Percy examined the new cards. There were two new card names, three of each, and the dragons each had unique card art. Two were coppery like Silvaroth, while another was the color of obsidian. One of the dragons was breathing fire in its picture, while another stared down from above a perch. The third was sleeping.

Percy would’ve thought the card art was a depiction of how they were when they were captured if it wasn’t for that third one. Perhaps the images on the cards reflected their personalities?

Next, he read the card texts.

Hatchling

Cost: 3 Mana

Summon - Dragon

Generates 1 Fire RPT.

750 / 650

Dragonfire

Cost: 3 Fire Res

Spell

Deal 500 damage to target Summon.

Channel: Any Dragon Summon.

“Oh wow, the fire became a spell?” Percy gaped. He hadn’t obtained any spells yet, but if that was how you got them, he couldn’t imagine them being very common. Not without putting the person who bound them at risk.

Of course it’s a spell! Silvaroth hollered incredulously in Percy’s mind. Do you have absolutely no idea how magic works?

The boy’s cheeks turned red. “Um, no.”

Silvaroth didn’t bother explaining, instead just muttering incoherently.

“Well,” Rafael said as he approached, examining the searing pieces of the walls and floor. “I think that went well. How many more times can you use that binding magic of yours?”

Percy shuffled through the cards in his deck box. Three Hatchlings, three Dragonfires, three Explosive Eggs, three Basalt Golems, and one Night Light Crystal.

“Looks like I have eight more blanks. So, eight times.”

The kobold nodded, closing his eyes and stroking his beards. After a moment, he shook a finger at the air and his eyes snapped open.

“Well,” he said, “I have only a couple more things I can offer you. And you’ve done such a good job keeping to threes that I’d hate to break that now. After all, it’s a magical number.” He requested Percy set three of the cards down, so the boy did.

Directing him away from the cards, Rafael positioned himself before them. He breathed deeply, then suddenly jabbed at the air three times. A bolt of darkness formed in the air before his fist each time, flying off toward the cards Percy had placed on the stone floor.

Each vanished in a burst of magic, and Percy collected the cards.

Shadowbolt

Cost: 2 Shadow Res

Spell

Deal 500 damage to target Summon.

Channel: Any Summon.

“Wow, thanks, Rafael!”

The kobold nodded again, saying, “I wouldn’t have done that if you hadn’t captured the dragon’s fire in front of me. I didn’t realize human magic could bind spells, too. It’s truly fascinating.”

Percy smiled. It was pretty fascinating. After everything he’d been through, he hadn’t really had much time to appreciate how cool the magic was, and he might’ve still not been appreciating it as much as he could if he was relaxing on the couch reading a good book. He hadn’t dissected it as much as he normally would. But that was something for later, when he’d reached the academy, another thing he’d nearly forgotten about in all the commotion.

He followed Rafael out and up into the tunnels. The two of them walked for another few minutes, taking branches of tunnels Percy would never have figured his way back out of without guidance. When they reached another room filled with eggs every color of the rainbow, the kobol called out into the darkness, speaking in a language of shrieks, hoots, and squawks.

Another kobold shuffled out of the darkness, moving in a sort of half-walk, half-crawl as it approached. It was the kobold Percy had met after his fall into the volcano. Or, it seemed like it was, at least. The two spoke in their language for a moment before the newcomer vanished back into the darkness, returning with two more kobolds.

Percy’s tome hadn’t vibrated once upon meeting these creatures, so he assumed that he must’ve already registered them, which could only mean that they were all Kobold Caretakers. At Rafael’s insistence—and the other three’s apparent permission—Percy bound them into new cards.

Kobold Caretaker

Cost: 2 Mana

Summon - Kobold

Spend 1 Fire Res: Target Dragon may attack again.

Spend 1 Fire Res: Heal target Dragon for 100 damage.

Generates 1 Fire, 1 Shadow RPT.

500 / 500

The boy stared at the cards. Sure, their stats were weak compared to the other monsters he’d bound so far, but the ability to heal the hatchlings and make them attack again had to be powerful effects, right?

I told you they’d all be happy to serve, Silvaroth quipped as the three kobolds vanished.

Percy just looked at Rafael. “What’s up next?”

---

Up next turned out to be sneaking up to a larger dragon with two legs and two wings—a wyvern—as it lay sleeping on the ground in a cave seemingly devoid of all other life—kobolds included. Rafael had warned Percy that this particular dragon was very dangerous. It was infected by an unknown disease and couldn’t be cured. He’d be doing them a favor by removing it. Silvaroth agreed.

If you don’t bind it, they’ll have to kill it, he said. And in doing so, lose many of their people.

That solved that for Percy. He crept slowly across the floor, blank card in hand, towards the back of the slumbering beast. When he was almost within striking distance, he ignored his buzzing tome, instead raising his hand and preparing to slap the monster and get it over with as fast and as easily as possible.

The wyvern had other plans. With a shriek, it leapt into the air, flapping its wings and knocking Percy to the ground. He stumbled back to his feet, preparing to run for his life from the fire he knew was coming.

Then, just as suddenly as the creature had burst to life, it settled back to the ground, eyes closed and snoring. Percy slammed the card into its shoulder.

Rabid Wyvern

Cost: 6 Mana

Summon - Dragon

Spend X Fire Res: Rabid Wyvern deals damage to target Summon equal to the amount of Fire Res spent times 100.

Generates 1 Fire, 4 Wind RPT.

1,250 / 1,100

Percy appreciated the card’s art and statistics before storing it away and striding back to his kobold tour guide.

“What the heck was that?!” he asked Rafael as he returned to the tunnel.

The kobold shook his head sadly. “The sickness. The poor creature is nearly always exhausted because of those spasms. Perhaps your magic will provide a reprieve. A time to rest.”

It’s certainly… mind-numbing, Silvaroth complained.

---

Rafael led Percy through several more tunnels, asking him questions and returning surprised looks whenever Percy mentioned something he knew about dragons. The kobold hadn’t expected a human to be so familiar with the various kinds of dragons, like wyverns and knuckers, but Percy seemed to be well informed.

The boy was more curious about how the different kinds of dragons were born here, though, and so Rafael happily obliged.

“Kobolds and dragons come from the same eggs, you see. Dragons very rarely produce eggs of their own, though if they do, you can be certain it will produce another dragon. Very often, it is one of the same type, and sometimes, even stronger than its parent. We kobolds produce and fertilize eggs like chickens, though I despise the comparison despite how effective at conveying my meaning it may be. Sometimes, the fertilized eggs degrade, turning black and corrupted. And rarely, those black eggs will shed their corrupted exterior, revealing a white egg within. The baby dragons hatched from those eggs grow into new forms, often evolving to fit their environment.”

“So… there’s no way…. to guarantee… what kind of dragon… you’ll get?” Percy asked between breaths as the two hiked up a steep sloping tunnel.

Rafael didn’t seem to have the same problem, speaking smoothly. “Not necessarily. For instance, were I to trap those three babies you bound within a small tunnel, they would certainly become knuckers. But that would be unnecessarily cruel to them. And for what reason?”

The crystals were becoming dimmer as the two approached a light at the end of the tunnel, eventually failing to produce any glow at all. Rafael held up a hand at the tunnel exit.

“You still have a single blank card left, yes?” he asked. Percy nodded. The box had only contained 21 cards, and he’d used 20 of them. The kobold pointed out of the cave and into a heavily wooded area. “If you continue this way, you’ll reach an area filled with humans. Now, hold out your last card.”

Percy did as requested. Rafael reached out, and touched the parchment. In a flash, he vanished, his words the only thing left behind.

“Forgive my selfishness, Percy, but I’d like to come with you.”

Rafael, Servant of Silvaroth

Cost: 1 Mana

Summon - Kobold

This Summon counts as a Dragon.

At the end of your turn, draw a card.

Generates 5 Fire, 5 Wind, 5 Shadow RPT.

200 / 1,000

“Well, after everything you’ve done for me, I wouldn’t have denied you that, anyway.” Percy gently placed the new card away, heading in the direction the kobold had pointed in.