{Arthur's POV}

After the bandits were finished stacking his loot onto the yellow-ish floating disk, Arthur counted up the total profits. four chests, each filled with roughly 250 gold, and one containing his spellbook. Another chest was a third full of loose jewelry, necklaces, rings, and bracelets which when he measured them all seemed rather expensive. Four bags filled with gold, again about 250 each.

All in all, he had gained 2000 gold excluding the jewelry. Good. The seven bandits were stock-still behind the disk, some occasionally glancing at the broken and charred bodies of the other bandits before looking back to their shoes. The suddenness of what happened probably hasn’t set in yet for them. Arthur sure hadn’t slowed down any when he attacked them. When he ordered them to gather the gold, it was as if they were on autopilot. Arthur noted this all with detached attention. A lot of things seemed unimportant to him than when he was human, the small details not really mattering to him. Was that himself, or his draconic instincts? Becoming this big was really shifting his perspective to a lot of things.

Done observing his loot, he looked at the group of bandits. Not one met his gaze, the wizard leader looking off into space again. He rumbled out, “I am going to Graycott. You will follow me.” The bandits seemed to agree, nodding their heads silently.

He set the bandits in front with him behind them, the disk floating in the middle of them. Most of the bandits knew where Graycott was from the camp, so Arthur just followed them. During the half-hour trek, one bandit tried to leg it into the forest. Arthur cast reduce on them before they took their fourth step, making them stumble. He easily caught up and grabbed them, his claws encircling them. He roughly threw them to the ground near the others, rumbling out, “Your first and last warning. If any of you dare run from me, I will BURN all of you. Understand?” He couldn’t help but say ‘burn’ with intended maliciousness, his mind naturally doing so. The bandits all nodded with vigor, apologizing for the ‘idiots’ actions, it wouldn’t happen again, blah blah. He silenced them with a snort of smoke and said,

“Continue.” As they hastily continued through the forest, he observed the silent wizard. Seems they had nothing to say so far, as they hadn’t said a word the whole trip. No matter.

Arthur and his prisoners made it the rest of the trip with no issues, emerging from the forest into the massive field that had no end in sight. It looks as if Graycott was made just a few hundred feet away from the forest entrance. He moved to the right as the bandits walked, which looked more anxious as they approached Graycott. The wizard was still silent, staring ahead with a hard expression. When they were within sixty feet of Graycott, he stopped, and said to the bandits,

“Stop. We wait here.” He sat, and the others reluctantly stopped as well, standing fifteen feet to the right of Arthur.

The town was a flurry of movement, not as hectic as the first time but still pretty chaotic. In just a couple of minutes the town master elf was walking towards him, a group of guards behind. Arthur spoke first, rumbling out,

“The bandits are slain, these humans are the survivors. Isn’t that right?” He directed the last question to the bandits, who nodded, looking at Arthur nervously. The leader was reserved, as usual. The town master spoke up, saying,

“I humbly thank you. Sire, if you need anything, please tell me and I shall provide it immediately. These cretins will be taken in for questioning-” Arthur interrupted, saying,

“I will be questioning the leader myself.” The leader in question looked to him in surprise, and nervousness began to seep into him as Arthur continued, “After I’m done, you can have him. I also need a cart, which I will pay for.” The elf looked startled when he said pay, stuttering,

“Y-you want to pay for it?! Please Sire, you don’t need to-!” Arthur stopped him, holding up his claws slightly. “I’m paying for it.” He rumbled out in a firm tone, causing the elf to go silent.

After a second of the elf standing there in silence, he rumbled out, “Well? Take the bandits to your dungeon.” The elf snapped out of his thoughts, apologizing profusely and calling over the guards. Under Arthur’s gaze, the six bandits didn’t resist as they were shackled and taken away, the guards seeming all too happy to leave his presence.

The wizard watched them go, the town master backing away thirty feet at Arthur’s request. Arthur fully turned to the bandit leader, standing to his full height. The wizard backed up as he approached slowly, Arthur rumbling out, “I overheard your lackeys talking about captured elves.” Arthur closed the minor distance with one stride, encircling the startled wizard and making sure he had nowhere to escape. “Tell me where they are being held, and I will not see how you look on FIRE.” He added a growl to his words for extra effect, which felt easy to do. The bandit leader muttered something incomprehensible, and Arthur growled out, “Speak up.”

“I said no. You can threaten me, creature, but I will not give up that easily!” The wizard looked desperate as he finished, out of breath for seemingly no reason. Arthur allowed low, rumbling laughter to escape him.

“So be it.” He grabbed them by the waist, throwing the wizard up into the air thirty feet. This was a gamble. He knew the wizard could cast spells and was banking on them knowing feather fall. If they didn’t, well, he would hope he was a good catcher. The wizard let out a startled scream as he went up, instinctively casting a spell that made him fall slowly. It seems Arthur was correct. He allowed them to float all the way down. The second the wizard touched the ground, he grabbed them again and threw them up into the air, repeating the process. He did this two more times, the second they touched the ground he threw them right back up. Every time the wizard grew more panicked, screaming louder. He rumbled out, “How long until you run out of magic? I will not stop once you do. You will die here if you do not tell me where the elves are located.” He grabbed them again, and the panicked wizard shouted,

“You’re insane! Please, stop! I am out of spell-AHHH!” Arthur threw them up again twenty feet, using his strength and tossing them like one would a baseball into the air, catching them when they fell. He could hear an ‘OUF’ come from the wizard when he landed on his scaled palm, knocking the breath out of them and possibly cracking a rib. Arthur saw the disk that was still floating nearby flicker and disappear, his loot falling to the ground in a disordered pile onto the grass. Arthur turned back to the wizard, shaking them and saying roughly, “Are you ready to talk, bandit?” The wizard gritted his teeth and didn’t reply, looking down at the ground. Arthur rumbled out, “Fine then. I will burn your arm away, and I will ask the same question.”

Arthur opened his mouth, revealing his large teeth, all finely sharpened. He willed the inside of his mouth to heat up, which immediately did so.

He grabbed the struggling wizard’s right arm with his other claw, slowly bringing it to his mouth, which had the heat of an incinerator at this point. Once the wizard’s arm was three feet away, his skin already turning red from the heat, The bandit wizard shouted out, “ALRIGHT ILL TALK, JUST STOP!” His eyes were screwed up from the pain, and his voice wavered as he shouted.

Arthur left him there for a few seconds before pulling him away, depositing him on the ground. He gazed at them balefully, rumbling out, “Spit it out, or I will be picking my teeth clean with your bones.” The wizard held their reddened arm while stuttering,

“T-the people we capture are ransomed, but some are sent to Caesar, the biggest slave trafficker this side of the country. I deliver them to his main den of operations, located a few miles northwest of Graycott. It’s hidden underground, under a village! Please, that’s all I know!”

Hmmm. Alright, very informative.

“Good. You will live, at least today. Now go.” He pointed to the guards that had stayed with the town master. The wizard practically scampered as they went towards them, the two guards shackling them and hauling them off into town, the wizard wincing every time his arm was jostled. The elf approached Arthur and said,

“Is that all you need, Sire?” The elf’s voice was low, anxious hope on his face as he looked up to Arthur. He replied, looking down to the elf,

“Yes. After I get my cart, I will depart. I expect your guards to load it for me.” Arthur could allow himself some comfort. Picking up everything with his claws, he could easily break something and all his gold would spill out, and that would be very annoying. The town master nodded, saying,

“Of course. I will have it prepared immediately. Thanks once again, Sire.” The elf bowed his head, then returned to the town. After waiting for a couple of minutes, a wooden cart was wheeled out towards him by four guards. They stopped near his loot and began loading it under the watchful eye of Arthur. When they were done, he gave one of the guards three gold for the cart, which they took tentatively. all four of them hurriedly went back to town, giving him a lot of anxious glances.

He grabbed the sides of the cart with both claws, flying up into the sky with it underneath him. Arthur decided to drop this loot off at his lair, collect the quest reward in the process, and then come back to deal with Caesar.

Satisfied, he flew off in the direction of Mirfield, enjoying the moment in the sky.

As he flew, his mind wandered back to when his mind overflowed with draconic arrogance. And to when his anger had gotten the better of him during the fight with the Yochlol. Was he… changing? Even now, in his most peaceful state he’s felt in this world, Arthur felt violent urges beneath his mind. Start a forest fire, kill something, start a fire AND kill something, declare supremacy over a town. These were the most prominent, the ‘biggest’ urges. He controlled himself, distracted himself, but when Arthur wandered in his mind like this these desires were clear as day.

He shook his head to clear it. He took a deep breath of fresh air. It seemed cliche, but the air here really was hundreds of times better than earth, he couldn’t deny it. Every breath made him feel alive, energetic. And that was saying something considering he was an ancient dragon. He continued his flight.

After roughly fifteen minutes, the cart making the trip slower, he spotted Mirfield in the distance. He circled it once, landing at the gate entrance as usual. The guards did their usual scrambling, one going to fetch Donald. Arthur idly picked through his loot as he waited. After a minute or two, Donald came into view, approaching the gate and exclaiming excitedly, “Ah, Arthur! Here to collect the reward? It seems you’ve come back with quite the plunder once more!” Arthur rumbled out in reply,

“Yes. The bandits are dealt with, and I learned of a slave traffickers location. I plan to deal with them next.” He let satisfaction seep into his words at the end. Donald just gave a somewhat forced smile and motioned a guard to get his reward. As they waited, Donald said,

“When you say slave trafficker, do you mean… Caesar?” His voice grew lower as he spoke, as if he didn’t want others to hear him. Arthur nodded, slightly confused. Donald nodded grimly, saying,

“I thought so. I am fairly positive you will be in no danger, but Caesar is crafty. And also very rich. He has many resources at his disposal and many people beneath him. One time, long ago, I tried to investigate him in my younger days as an adventurer. It did not go well, ending up with me barely coming out of it alive.” Arthur absorbed this information, nodding at Donald.

“I appreciate it. Although, to me, this will only end one way.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “Donald, the slaves I free need a place to go to after I am done with Caesar. Can you provide one?” Donald nodded once, saying,

“Yes, of course I can. The whole process of figuring out where their families are located and returning them safely is an entirely different process, but you leave that to me. You are doing too much already, Arthur.” He smiled up at him with a happy expression. “This is going to do much good! I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” He bowed his head, and before Arthur could reply the guard came back with the gold. He threw it in the cart and said his goodbyes. Donald saluted him, and Arthur took off with the cart once more, heading to his lair.

He flapped his massive wings, gliding before flapping them once more. Flying was now officially his favorite pastime.

After an eight-minute flight with the cart, he made it back to his lair. He landed in the goblin camp, setting the cart down before he fully landed next to him. Alek wasn’t here, and so weren’t the goblins. The bugbears were here however, skinning some wolves and other animals. They stopped what they were doing and waved at him, saying their own hello’s. He greeted them in turn and rolled the cart inside the lair, passing through the stitched-up furs.

The kobolds had been doing good work for the hour or so he was gone. There were multiple piles of dirt and stone around the lair, and the ‘ramp’ was really starting to take shape, about ten feet at the deepest, and twelve feet wide so far. That was pretty deep for twenty small kobolds in an hour’s work. Perhaps the bugbears pitched in?

When he walked in with the cart to the side of him, observing the progress, the kobolds all gathered around, dropping their tools or food. He was reminded of a kindergarten class as they crowded in front of him, shouting praise and happy greetings. “Kobolds, wonderful job so far. Now move, I need to increase my hoard.” He saw Kaia approaching while the kobolds shouted thanks and more praise as they parted for him. He moved to the middle of his lair, where his hoard was. Kaia stood by his side, beaming at him and watching. He set the cart down, pulling out a bag of gold and dumping its contents out. Kaia spoke up,

“Sire, let us kobolds dump your gold for you. You are better than this menial labor, especially after just coming home.” Arthur turned to Kaia, who was looking at him with determination. Sigh. If he said no she would probably do it anyway. He rumbled out,

“Very well then. Don’t dump the jewelry chest, I want them in there. Besides that, go ahead.” Kaia nodded eagerly, rallying the kobolds who all jumped onto the sides of the cart and quickly created a sort of assembly line, dumping the five bags of gold and three chests remarkably quickly, adding roughly 2,500 gold to his hoard, excluding the jewelry. And of course, the wizard’s spellbook, which Arthur placed on top of his hoard next to the few magic scrolls he still had. After he dealt with Caesar, he was definitely camping out in his lair the rest of the day and learning all of this magic.

Satisfied with the drop-off, Arthur turned to go outside again, saying, “I am going to go out again, take care of some rich slave trafficker. All of you kobolds take a break. You have all done well today.” As he was walking away from the disappointed but at the same time somehow happy kobolds, Kaia ran to his left, saying hastily, “Sire, did you say slave trafficker? Can i...Can I come with you?” He stopped and turned to Kaia, who was looking hopeful and anxious. Hmmm…He was making the kobolds take a break, so she didn’t really need to be here, and he was fine with Kaia tagging along, but…

“Why do you want to come with me, Kaia?” He was curious why exactly Kaia seemed so interested.

Kaia looked down, her tail nervously swishing behind her as she said, “I used to be a slave, by the humans I mean. I feel this would be sort of...enjoyable if I went with you?” Kaia gave a nervous smile, looking up at him, her tail still swishing behind her. He gave out a low, rumbling chuckle.

“That’s reason enough for me. Come along.”