Author’s note: Hey there, since almost everyone voted for me to write, I will comply. A friend of mine will be reading Mind you, at some point I will ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rob’s POV:

I woke up, but didn’t open my eyes yet. I didn’t want to get up, lying down was comfortable and made life easier, I could forget about everything around me and just sleep. But I couldn’t shake off feeling that something was wrong, so I forced my heavy eyelids to go up.

The first thing I noticed, was that I couldn’t move much. I raised my head, only to see that I was bound by a big chains inscribed with some kind of runes. In front of the heavy doors, facing me, were 2 heavy armored dwarves. When they saw me raise my head, their grips on their axes grew tighter, and one of them shouted that “he is awake”.

I just looked at them curiously, not knowing what to make of this situation. Last thing I remembered was burning every spider around me. Did I kill Brom and Romulus? Is that why they kept me chained? But why bother with the bed than? Why not simply throw me into some cell or kill me? My thought’s were interrupted, when door were opened suddenly, almost smashing into one of the guards inside, and familiar giant figure came in. He was followed closely by another 3 armored dwarves, but he didn’t mind their protest and simply came up to me and started talking.

“Drake! You are fine! That’s great, we were worried about you. You didn’t wake up after a day. I am sorry about the chains, me and Rom tried to persuade them you posed no danger to dwarves, but they didn’t listen. Rom was so mad, they had to confine him to his house. Anyway, since you are awake, we can get rid of these …”

“Hold it Brom! I told you before, until I spoke with him, he was to be bound!”

A dwarf dressed in a golden embroidered robe walked in, with another 4 guards. I could see behind him, that there were many more of them standing outside the door, with their weapons ready. The giant frowned when hearing newcomer, but stopped in his track and allowed the dwarf to come closer to me. I looked at him with interest. He had short black hair, deep gray eyes, and certain charisma about him. He was probably some kind of a leader around here, his voice was used to giving orders. After we evaluated each other for a while, he broke the silence.

“Welcome to Rasgar Hold, Drake. I am Lord of Rasgar Hold, Durin II, and I apologize for the circumstances you find yourself in. Especially since you saved Brom and Romulus. But I can’t risk my people’s safety on a basis of you being friendly so far.”

He sighed loudly, and continued in a stricter tone.

“From what I heard, you suffer from an amnesia. I want to know whether there is anything you can recall about dragon attack, or yourself. We have magic placed in this room which will detect if you lie, so don’t even bother to do so. If you do, we will not hesitate to kill you.”

“Hey, that wasn’t what we agreed on!”

“Shut up Brom, it’s my kin that’s on the line here. We never dealt with dragons or their like before, so we can’t cautious enough. Now, back to you. Even if you are capable of somehow cheating the lying detection, know, that we will also accompany you to the temple to have you checked. That will prove without doubt, whether you are dragon spawn or not.”

I was growing rather nervous. I didn’t recall anything, just some flashes, but nothing I could relate to. I told them that, after which they nodded their heads, and after a brief pause, said that I didn’t lie. The giant was dissatisfied, taking my side and saying that of course I didn’t and that he told them already, but they didn’t mind him.

The chains on my legs loosened by themselves, but still hovered in the vicinity, ready to restrict me again at any moment. I was told to stand up and follow them. We walked out of the room, Durin leading the way. The guards encircled me and Brom, who refused to leave my side, saying that I was treated unjustly and had to have at least one friend nearby. I was really glad I met someone like him.

The room where I was held was situated in Lord’s Mansion, so that in case I went on rampage, he would suffer first, as the one taking the risk. The temple we were going to was lord’s private one. We passed long corridors, filled with servants and guards on each corner, whispering and pointing at our formation. I looked around me, but my view was mostly obstructed, so I dejectedly abandoned the idea of sightseeing and focused on counting my steps, and encouraging words of giant beside me.

The temple was just another room, with a statue of dwarf, leaning on a large stele, looking down on us. The guards spread around the room, with two going behind my back. Lord, standing in front of the stele, gestured me to come closer, and pointed at a glowing spot on the stone. I looked at him confused, and he told me to touch it. The bind around my hands loosened just so much, that I could free my hand and extend it.

The whole situation was getting slowly on my nerves. I was led like a cattle to a slaughter, with no freedom to move, and with no knowledge what was going on. Were dragons really that dangerous? What if I was a dragon? Would they kill me? Why? I wasn’t doing anything to them, was I? Nervously, I placed my hand on the glowing spot.

The moment I touched the stone, I felt as if some heavy burden was lifted off my chest. Something akin to a breeze swept through my mind, clearing all the fog, leaving my memories bare before me. I remembered everything, who I was, Earth, Lumber, Plenty, Lars…Cynthia…

Deep sadness enveloped me, my vision blurred. Tears flew through my eyes, as I watched and recounted happy moments I spent just a few days ago. An emotional swirl existed in me, I felt satisfaction from killing the beast, grief from losing my new found love and home, happiness that I was alive, confusion because of my current state…

That’s right, my current state! I shook my head to get rid of tears, and looked at the stele showing my status.

Rob King

Half-Human, Half-Dwarf

Jobs: Forge Master in training

Titles: Drake

Level 15

Hit Points: 1000

Mana: 1000

Strength: 212

Vitality: 210

Agility: 220

Wisdom: 201

Intelligence: 203

Charm: 199

Luck: XXX

Fame: 53

Points available for distribution: 4

Passive Abilities: Race Progenitor, Dragon Legacy, Life Gambler, Intermediate Prospecting, Basic Mining, Advanced Smithing, Intermediate Negotiation, Intermediate Adaptability, Ascendency Candidate, Basic Staff Handling, Basic Two-Handed Fighting, Basic Mana Sense, Basic Unarmed Combat

Skills: Smash, Dodge, Block, Shapeshifting, Ancient Magic, Dragon Aspect

I was baffled. I was expecting something more, much more! All of my stats raised by 100, with minor changes here and there, and my health and mana was 10 times bigger. But that was it?! I killed dragon, didn’t I?! I was racking my brain, for what reason I didn’t have loads of points to distribute, when I recalled the necessity of absorbing Life Force. What the fuck?!!!!! So I killed dragon for nothing???

My head cleared somewhat when I looked at my skills. I had couple of new ones, some of them glowing in deep purple light. It made them easily noticeable when compared to pale white of other skills. Everything that read dragon was clearly connected with the fact that I killed the fucking beast. But others? Race Progenitor? And instead of Divine Protection there was Ascendency Candidate?

There were also Ancient Magic and Shapeshifting. First one I had no idea about, but if the other thing was what I thought it was, I had a hope of returning to my normal look. Hell, I could probably get back my appearance, if I wanted to. Not that I did, I didn’t look very nice, but still.

The dwarves in the room stiffened when the screen shined showing my status, but then after reading it they relaxed a lot. I didn’t notice when, but chain surrounding me disappeared at some moment, and all the guards silently left the room, leaving me alone with Durin II and Brom. When I finally turned away from stone stele, towards them, the lord spoke first.

“From your reaction, I assume you recalled your memories, Rob. I am deeply sorry, whatever happened to you must have been tough. I also hope that you will forgive me about treating you as I did, I will reimburse you for that in any way you will deem appropriate.”

“But how do you know I am not the enemy? I could be shapeshifted dragon or worse…”

Brom was the one to answer that.

“Drake, I mean Rob, it’s impossible for monster to acquire a job. It was proven many years ago, when mages tried to use goblins and kobolds as free workforce. And besides, your level and stats are too low to pose any danger to Rasgar Hold, so notion of you being some evil person trying to infiltrate here is rather stupid.”

I felt somewhat dissatisfied, what did he mean too low? But I let the matter go and focused on my current situation. Durin offered me to stay in his mansion, seeing as I was homeless. That was great and all, but what did I wanted to do from now on? What were my goals for the future? I had to take time and think about that. We left the temple, with light from the stele growing dimmer and dimmer.