{Town's POV}

Benny watched the huge-ass dragon leave with the little goblins and hulking bugbears in tow. His fellow guard to his left whispered, "If that thing decides to attack us, no way I'm going to be in the front line!" Benny turned to the young guard and slapped him upside the head, growling out, "Shut it boy. If you wanna watch every innocent in this town burn while you piss yourself in some hole, be my guest. But don't talk like that round me." The young'un grumbled something while rubbing his head, moving to the other side of the watchtower they were stationed in. The grizzled old man turned back to watch the dragon's posse finally disappear into the trees, getting out of his clearing. "Don't trust em, not one bit." He grumbled to himself, continuing his watch for any trouble.

~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm telling you, we need to send word to the king to kill it quickly!" The town master Donald's assistant stated for the umpteenth time today. "That dragon is different, feels different, mags. I won't cause thousands to die simply because your scared of what it MIGHT do! Besides, it said it would protect the town, not destroy it!" Donald said to her, dabbing his forehead with a handkerchief to get the sweat off. "As long as it doesn't cause trouble, there's no need to send for the blasted army! It brought back five people safe and sound for god's sake!" He said with a reddened face, even now flipping through papers on his desk. His assistant huffed and stormed out his office door, closing it loudly without another word. Don rubbed his face, sighing in exhaustion. What. A. Mess. Sighing again, he wearily started reading through reports and the endless requests he got from his people once more.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marilyn brought the new adventurers their food, which they scarfed down as soon as the bowls hit the table. The sight made her happy, and she turned to one, a tall and handsome elf sporting a longbow, and said in her scratchy voice, "That all hun?" The elf paled for a moment when he looked at her, who said after swallowing, "Uhm, yes. Thank you..madam?" Marilyn didn't notice him pause, smiling at him and moving past them to go clean out some more dishes. One of the adventurers, a human woman who was probably a wizard by the look of her robes, shouted to Marilyn, "Is it true a red dragon took a quest for this town?" Marilyn turned back to them and said scratchily, "My, word sure travels fast. Yeah, a big old dragon marched up to town and took a quest. And the sucker completed it in the same day too! You lot better watch out, or it might just take all yer jobs!" cackling, Marilyn went into the back of the tavern and got back to work scrubbing bowls and tankards. She thought wistfully of that night with that satyr, Alek. A shame he's dragon food now, she thought.

~~~~~~~~~~

Mags sat down at her office chair with a thud, stewing in her own frustration. She glanced at her desk, and an idea formed in her mind. She took out a piece of parchment and her pen and ink. "You'll see, don. This is for the good of this town. We can't let that creature live!" She started scrawling out her letter...

{Alek's POV}

Alek reminisced about his conversation with those poor captives. They had explained to him that the orc would keep some of the captives that he liked for himself, doing unspeakable things to them. Alek was glad Arthur had killed them. His thoughts turned to the dragon. To be honest, he didn't know what to make of him, but his gut told him he should stick with Arthur, at least for now.

Alek was gonna miss that town, but he could practically feel the hostility coming from all of the guards. He bet they blamed him for bringing Arthur there, which to be fair they weren't wrong. He hoped he didn't have to deal with these goblins all day though Alek thought wryly, as he watched one hock up some phlegm onto the ground as it walked.

{Arthur's POV}

After around twenty minutes of traveling, the group finally got to the mountain which Arthur had claimed as his home. They went up, and six bugbears had to carry the cart the rest of the way, unhooking the horses and leading them up as well. After a good trek, Arthur and his group made it to the entrance of the cavern.

After the bugbears set down the cart to the side of the entrance with a thud, Arthur turned to them all and said, "I will be in my lair practicing magic. I want all of you to set up a camp outside here, and hunt for your food. DO NOT KILL OR HURT HUMANS OR ANY INTELLIGENT CREATURE, got it?" The bugbears dipped their heads in acknowledgment and the goblins made quiet sounds of displeasure, which Arthur quickly shut up with a glare. "You all must listen to friend Alek, understand? He is to be protected above all else."

Done with his commands, he allowed the bugbears and goblins to quickly unload everything they would need, leaving all the gold and spell scrolls in the cart for Arthur. He told two bugbears to roll the cart into the cavern, which they did. Arthur had to give it to these bugbears, they had remarkable endurance and have done his orders to the letter so far. After they put the cart in the cavern about 25 feet, they hustled outside to help their brethren set up camp. Arthur walked in and sat down next to the cart. He could tell this cavern was pretty dark, but he could see just fine inside it. Arthur decided in the future to build a door for the entrance and to place torches all around the cavern's walls.

As he was rifling through his loot, counting it up, he was struck with an irresistible desire, both from himself and his dragon instincts. Arthur grinned and got to work. When he was finished, all of his gold, 6000 gold pieces in total, 2500 from the town and the rest from the bandit camp, was laid in one pile in the middle of the cavern.

The sight made him vent smoke from his nostrils unconsciously, and a stab of greed went through his mind, wanting more to add to his hoard. Arthur caught himself and shook his head to clear it. He would not go down that path, all for stupid coins in the end. The pile itself was relatively small. Arthur didn't know why that information popped into his head, but it seemed important to his dragon instincts.

Arthur had placed his scrolls on top of his hoard, and he laid down on the floor, his front claws unconsciously running through the gold. He picked up the first scroll and delicately rolled it open. Arthur leaned in and squinted his eyes to see the words better. He could see the writing surprisingly well, his remarkable eyesight coming in handy once more. The scroll seemed to be written in some sort of mystical cipher, although already Arthur's brain was beginning to decipher and make sense of it. Arthur settled in and began to read...

{Bivran POV}

Setting up the tents and gathering firewood was easy and had been done a hundred times. What was a priority right now was food. Bivran the bugbear called over his brothers in arms, all of them walking over and waiting for his orders. "We hunt today, brothers. Let us bring back prey that will make the boss proud!" Bivran said to them in their native tongue, raising his new magical greataxe above his head and letting loose a bloodthirsty cry, mirrored by the other bugbears. While they were preparing to hunt, Bivran noticed a goblin running down the mountain towards the camp. Ah yes, he had sent some of the goblins to scout their surroundings. This must be one of them.

The goblin reached the camp, briefly looking around before spotting Bivran and running towards him. It stopped five feet away from him, panting. "What is it?" he growled out. The goblin replied quickly,

"There be some bug critter up there, bigger than you! They chewing on somethin nasty!" Bivran nodded and stated,

"Well done, for a goblin. Go guard the camp or collect firewood or somethin now." The goblin nodded vigorously and ran off one more. Bivran rallied his bugbears once more and said,

"We got some possible prey up the mountain. Let us move out!" The bugbears all said their confirmations and followed behind Bivran up the mountain.

All eight bugbears were running on padded feet, making little noise as they spaced themselves from each other, making a long line. Bivran led, taking the most direct route towards the top. As they quickly and quietly approached the very top, Bivran's keen nose caught the familiar smell of death. He signaled, and the bugbears immediately crouched into stealthier forms and crouched over to where Bivran was spying.

When Bivran approached closer to the source of the death smell, he saw a large grub-like creature chewing on a decaying ogre corpse. It was like a centipede and a grub shaken together to form this monstrosity. It had multiple tentacles on its face, which were shoveling rotten flesh into its open mouth. Bivran and the other bugbears were to the left of it, covered by sparse trees and tall grass. Bivran signaled again, and went prone, followed by the others, and started to slowly approach using the trees and grass as cover to sneak up on their prey.

However, when Bivran was just about to pounce, the bug suddenly reared up, turning sharply to its left, directly where Bivran was. He scrambled up, but the bug was faster, quickly crawling over and lashing out with its tentacles. Bivran managed to roll to the side, avoiding the blow. "GET IT!" He yelled, causing the seven bugbears to jump up and swarm the bug. The thing shrieked out, biting an unlucky bugbear on the arm and drawing blood. The bugbear was covered by his comrades, who retreated before going back in. The bug was being beaten by the multiple bugbears, and it shrieked again. Bivran yelled right back and hefted his greataxe, charging into the fray and aiming for its huge bulbous eyes.

His hit landed true, he felt the ax guide itself slightly where he intended to hit the bug, making it easier to hit and it slid through its flesh like butter. At this point, the bug was thrashing and failing to hit any of the bugbears who saw its attacks coming a mile away, and under these many vicious blows it succumbed quickly to its wounds, twitching violently before dying. All the bugbears immediately checked on one another to make sure everyone was fine.

One smell of this creature and Bivran decided this would be the goblins dinner. They weren't picky anyways. "We will bring this back to camp, and hunt once more!" He growled out, the bugbears congratulating each other on doing well. He hoped for something more savory next time.

{Arthur's POV}

It took ten minutes for Arthur to fully decipher the spell scroll. It went into detail on how to harness the magic to cast this spell, the spell itself is one of his favorites, fireball. He thought it fit. If only he could figure out how to properly cast this... Arthur suddenly felt some unseen force inside him burst out and surround the spell scroll, turning it to ash in his claws after a flash of light.

Arthur didn't move for a moment, baffled by what just happened, mouth agape. Arthur felt a surge of knowledge flow into his mind rapidly, describing the steps needed to cast fireball properly and the necessary words. Arthur didn't understand what happened just now, but he considered this a success. Of course, he stood up immediately and moved to the far left of the cavern to cast this thing. He would finally use proper magic!

Arthur waved his claws briefly, saying three unintelligible words rapidly at the same time. Arthur again felt some unseen force, fiery feeling this time, surge out of him to where he pointed, engulfing a 20-foot area in an explosion of fire that snuffed itself out just as suddenly. He felt the force quickly refill itself, becoming brand new once more in just a couple of seconds. Arthur pondered on this 'force'. Was it his magical energies? Maybe his reservoir for magic spells? Arthur decided to test his theory out by casting fireball three times in quick succession.

Three explosions of fire came after one another in seconds, which Arthur found easier to cast each time, doing it a fraction of a second faster. Again the force felt like there was less of it each time before refilling itself almost as fast as he cast. Could he.. cast fireball at will? This fiery force felt like it was coming from Arthur himself, so maybe he could cast fireball this many times because his body was naturally in tune with fire? Did the fire come from him instead of whatever usual place it came from?

Arthur was interrupted from his internal conflict by Alek, who walked in nervously. "Is.. everything alright?" He called out to Arthur from the cavern entrance. Arthur turned to him and explained,

"Yes, I am testing out spells. Would you like to see?" Alek raised his eyebrows and said,

"You already learned a spell? Holy crap... Uhm, sure, I guess id like to see." Arthur nodded and cast it once more. Again, the same result and feeling. Alek whistled, impressed.

"That's powerful stuff." Alek looked at Arthur's hoard, smiling to himself about something. "Well, ill let you get back to it I suppose." Arthur nodded once.

"I hope the goblins aren't causing too much trouble. Goodbye, Alek." Alek laughed briefly, saying,

"they arent yet at least. See ya." before walking out of sight.

Arthur continued his musings for a few more minutes before he suddenly felt a form enter his senses. Arthur hadn't paid it much mind until now, but in a certain radius around himself, he could just simply feel and see everything without actually looking at them, his ears and senses working constantly to detect the slightest twitch in the air. His brain automatically processed any unnatural movement and sent a sort of alert to his conscious mind, which happened just now.

Arthur turned to see who had entered the cavern but saw nothing there. But his senses were sure a humanoid figure was standing right in front of him, the person in question seemingly freezing when Arthur looked in their direction. Was this perhaps invisibility? The figure seemed to be ebbing away to the cavern entrance.

Arthur had moved back to his hoard when Alek had left, and he rose to confront this threat. Arthur called upon his presence magic, invading the figure's mind with the sense of fear. They put up a token resistance, though they failed to stop it. Arthur rushed over to the figure, swiping at them once he was within range, causing them to tumble and end the invisibility. Aha! Arthur had been right.

A tall man with pointy ears, an elf Arthur realized, was on the ground in front of him. He raised his arms to shield himself from Arthur, still affected by his presence magic. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my lair?"

"I'm L-Leo, I was scouting this place out! My friends made me do it, please spare me!" He cried out, crawling away from Arthur five feet, hands still raised. Arthur grabbed them, holding them firmly in his grasp.

"You will point out your friend's location and I may consider sparing you."

"O-of course! We camped just down the mountain, oh gods please don't kill me!" Arthur wasn't actually going to kill him, he looked like some sort of adventurer, armed to the teeth and in some fancy clothing. He knew it was their job to 'scout' out monsters like him, he wasn't going to kill over that.

That didn't stop the smoke from coming out of his nostrils though. He would teach these trouble makers a lesson at the very least.