He extracted his claws and walked me back out into the throne room area where he pointed to the ground and commanded, "Sit!" He took a seat in the large, stone chair.

I complied knowing I didn't have much of a choice and thinking maybe I could at least get some information from the exchange and maybe formulate a plan.

"Who are you and what do you want?" I asked the monster.

"I'll be asking the questions here, but I do believe some introductions are in order. In good faith, I will go first," he said smiling again, "I am called Tekosh. I am the arbiter of the mighty Tsagor. Who are you?"

"I am called Theodore. I fell from a great height and am awaiting the great awakening," I said trying to match his pompous tone.

"Great awakening?" he asked furrowing his brow as much as a lizard person can.

"I will try to give you a breakdown of my current situation. I am physically laying down in a hospital bed, probably in Flagstaff or somewhere nearby, in a coma after I fell into the Grand Canyon. This land is a construct of my comatose mind which I think is trying to protect my brain from damage or something similar. I'm kind of foggy on the why. Hopefully, sometime soon, I will wake up from the coma and be able to live out the rest of my life as if nothing happened. Modern medicine is fairly advanced now so I should be fine," I said being completely serious.

He shifted in his seat visibly confused. "Why do you speak in riddles? Almost nothing you said makes sense," said Tekosh.

"This land and everything in it, even you and Tsagor, are all a figment of my imagination," I said pointedly, "This isn't real."

He backhanded me across the face hard enough to knock me over.

"Did that feel real?" he asked, smiling again. "I think you will find that working in the mine until you die of exhaustion will feel real as well."

"That wasn't very nice," I said as I picked myself back up into my seated position.

He glared at me and asked, "Where is my map?"

"I have it in my inventory which only I can access," I said hoping he didn't take option two which was killing me and taking it off my corpse, "I tell you what, if you answer a few questions, I'll give you the map back."

"I am feeling nice. I will agree to this exchange," he said with a sly grin.

My first question was an easy choice. "Did you attack Roseglen? The small town to the South of here."

"Yes, I did. I demanded they give me authority over them and they pay tribute to Tsagor and they refused," he answered with no sign of guilt from killing half of the town.

As soon as he answered the question an exciting notification flashed in my vision.

Quest Completed!

You've discovered the attacker.

Reward: 2,500 XP

You are now Level 8

"What's with the map?" I asked. I didn't really care, but I figured it would give me some time to spend my attribute points and plan my escape.

He answered with some bologna about domination, crushing Tsagor's enemies, and lamentations of blah, blah, blah. I was already in menus and only half-listening. I had 5 points and was thinking either 'Brawn' for more strength or "Nimbleness" for the escape. I figured that 5 points wouldn't make me strong enough to really help, so I threw all five into 'Nimbleness'. I felt a surge run through my body and hoped I had made a good choice.

He finished speaking and I asked my final question which was phase one in what I dubbed in my head 'Operation This Will Make Him Unhappy'. "Do you want to see how my dimensional space works and get your map back?"

He nodded and motioned for me to approach. I walked over and held out both hands to show I had nothing in them. I flourished a little with my hands only a few inches from him, raised my left hand up, and his gaze followed. That was exactly what I had hoped for since it allowed me to position my right hand close to his chest. I lowered my left hand with another flourish and simultaneously made the map pieces appear in my left and a common rarity sword I had grabbed off his lackeys outside during the initial attack in my right.

The sword appeared in my hand and was, in an instant, pinning him to his chair straight through his chest. That's when phase two started. I ran faster than I had ever run before. I headed straight out of the cave and used my new and improved nimbleness to dodge a couple of attacks from the goblins and orcs outside who had turned towards me as soon as they heard the terrible roar from their boss.

I made it to the edge of their camp quicker than I expected. I hadn't looked back to see if he was following so I thought now was the appropriate time. That's when the speed boost from my attribute increase decided to form an alliance with the uneven ground and my decision to look back. I tripped hard and tumbled forward. I got up and realized that the amount of time I had spent tripping and feeling like an idiot was the same amount of time it took Tekosh to turn back into a full-sized dragon and dig his claws into me.

He flew straight up into the air carrying me with his back claws like an eagle with a fish. I saw enemies in the camp getting smaller and smaller until I could hardly see them. I looked out over the land stretching out to the West. If I wasn't absolutely terrified it would have been beautiful. That's when I heard his booming voice.

"That was a pretty good escape attempt, but as you can see I'll have the last laugh," he said as his massive wings kept us aloft, "by the way, you left your sword down there."

He released me and I began falling to my death.

"This is not ideal," I said to myself as I hurtled downward, "I guess I'll find out what happens when I die here." My hope was that I would just wake up in the hospital and I think that is what was making me unnaturally calm.

I remembered the feeling of weightlessness from when I fell before, but I was falling from a much greater height this time so I had a little more air time. I was getting pretty close to the ground at this point so I just closed my eyes.

Once again I was surrounded by blinding light. I felt the comfortable pressure of cushioning under me. I blinked repeatedly trying to focus my eyes.

"Please be in a hospital. Please be in a hospital. Please be in a hospital," I repeated as my eyes began to adjust and I could see again, "Dang it."