Jay's POV

"Shit, shit shit, shit shit," I shouted as I slammed my now armored hand into the wall. I should most likely be a bit quieter considering that my only companion is lying unconscious on the ground next to me or maybe I should make some more noise and wake her up so that she can enjoy the last few moments of her life before that fucking dragon is going to eat us. I mean does that dragon think that I'm fucking retarded. Claiming he is going to have these lizards make a god damn feast for us, I know that he meant that he is going to have these lizards make a feast out of us.

After raging for a few more minutes, Lisabeth starts to wake up. She lets out a small yawn and sleepily trying to stand suddenly remembers what happened just an hour ago and screams again.

All she has been doing for the past few days is screaming and crying and it's getting on my nerves. How did I even get in this mess, I was a respected mercenary for years and now I'm going to end up as the meal of an oversized lizard.

Actually, I know exactly how I ended up here. It is all because I have a soft spot for a pretty woman in trouble. It all started when I saved Lisabeth from some thugs who apparently were assassins in disguise sent by her dear cousin who usurped the position of family head of her noble family by killing the previous head, Lisabeth's father.

One thing led to another and before I knew it I had fallen head over heels for this girl but the fact that we were getting chased all across the allied territories by her cousin's henchmen and that Lisabeth is denser than a rock kept her from realizing my feelings for her.

After getting chased for almost a year we ended up in one of the border territories and decided to take the gamble and try to cross the Silverpeak mountain range. If everything went well we would have been able to start a new life in the free city, a sort of safe haven for all the members of the races of the alliance who had enough of the political games played in our homelands.

By entering the mountain range we were able to get away from the assassins but in the end got captured by kobolds in one of the most stupid ways that I have ever heard of. After a long day of traveling we were completely exhausted and when we found this cave and since we could not sense a Nightmare, we decided to sleep in there. When we woke up we were captured by the kobolds.

I mean come on Kobolds, what were they even doing here? Don't all the kobolds live in the southern part of the continent, in that thing that they call a holy mountain? How could we have expected that?"

Then after getting captured they brought us to this massive dragon corpse and they planned to use us as a sacrifice for one their rituals and then the fucking corpse starts moving. Normally I would not have accepted my end this easily and would have tried to go down fighting but what am I supposed to do against a dragon? Correction a dragon who's eyes and heart glow in an ominous red light and like everyone knows don't fuck with enemies that glow, that never ends well.

While I was getting distracted by rethinking everything that happened in the past year, Lisabeth was able to collect herself and she asked, "Jay what is going to happen?"

I sighed, "I have really no idea Lisabeth."

She cried, "It's not fair Jay, we worked so hard to escape. We were able to outrun my cousin's goons for a year."

I walked over to her and pulled her into a hug, "I know Lisabeth, I know."

She tightened her hug and whispered, "I sorry Jay, I am so sorry for getting you dragged into this."

I patted her head and calmly said, "You don't have to apologize. Even if I knew it would end like this I still would have helped you. This last year was the happiest year of my life."

After crying for a few minutes Lisabeth raised her head and asked, "Jay how did you get your armor and weapon?"

I let out a desperate laugh and said, "The dragon gave it back to me after I answered some stupid questions."

Lisabeth tilted her head and asked, "What kind of questions?"

After I told her about my little conversation with the dragon, Lisabeth simply started laughing and said, "Jay, you really called the kobold chief a liar and then told the dragon the church their view on the races? The same view them labels both of them as mindless killing machines?"

I just lowered my head and said, "Yes."

"You really are a big idiot you know that," She said with a smile.

"An idiot that is big enough to ruin his stable life to help a lady in trouble.", I said with a smile on my face.

She smiled a bit sad at me and said, "Thank you for being an idiot Jay."

I chuckled, "No problem, it's hard work but someone has to do it right?"

"So what do we do now?" asked Lisabeth, while she was putting on her leather armor.

"I guess the dragon wants to see us go down fighting. Why else would he have given us our weapons back, "I said as I banged my right hand on my kite shield.

Lisabeth tested out the string of her bow and said, "I guess you are right. So are we going to attack the first thing that opens that door or are we going to wait to see what the dragon planned for us?"

I shook my head and said, "Don't think that we can escape from a true dragon."

"But isn't he stuck in that room?", asked Lisabeth confused.

"Why would you think that?", I replied.

"Well the only exit was that door and it is way too small for a dragon.", she answered.

Lisabeth has got the be joking with me. I mean even she can't be that stupid right? I carefully said," Lisabeth are you serious?"

She looks strangely at me and says, "Jay why are you looking at me like that?"

I let out a groan and say, "Lisabeth that is because he obviously has a secret way to leave or enter that room. There is most likely an exit behind him. I mean what idiot would place a dragon in a room that he can't exist.

Somewhere Chaos let out a sneeze and suddenly felt the urge to smite down a few mortals.

Before Lisabeth could enter an argument with me the door opened up and the kobold chieftain beckoned us to follow him.

After what felt like ages we arrived in front of the ritual room.

I turned towards Lisabeth and said, "Lisabeth if this is our end then I would like you to know that I l-"

Before I could declare my love I heard the dragon shout, "My friends enter the room, did no one teach you that being late is a show of bad manners?"

Lisabeth opened the door, turned towards me and said, "Oh sorry Jay were you saying something."

I silently mumbled, "Fucking dragon has to ruin god damn everything." while following Lisabeth into the room.

The dragon smiled and said, "Oh did I interrupt something?"

I shook my head but in my mind, I shouted, "That piece of shit knew, he did it on fucking purpose. Why me, what have I ever done to your dragon. First, you capture me and then you interrupt my confession. It took me nine god damn month to muster up the courage to tell her that and you ruined it. Don't you have anything better to do than to ruin the love lives of us mortals?"

The dragon just smiled teasingly at me and said, "Ah good to know that I did not interrupt anything of importance. Now that you have finally arrived let the feast begin."

I place my hand on my sword and see Lisabeth's hand reach towards her bow. Both of us are ready to fight for our lives. It might be useless to try to kill a true dragon but it's not my style to just roll over and die. And who knows with a bit of luck, we might be able to take on of his eyes considering that he can't fly into the air in this cramped cave.

The door of the room gets flung open and a group of kobolds enters the room. Five of them are carrying a whole roasted ox, four of them a giant urn filled with wine, two of them are each carrying a plate filled to the brim with meat and vegetables and the last kobold is carrying a jug of wine and two cups. The kobold chief guides us towards a table and the other kobolds place the plate and a cup of wine in front of me and Lisabeth before leaving the room.

The dragon takes a huge bite of the roasted ox and with a full mouth

said, "Would the two of you be willing to answer a few questions?"

Lisabeth who is already stuffing her mouth full of food nods.

"Perfect", chuckles the dragon,"My first question is what can you tell me about the demons?"

Lisabeth swallowed the food in her mouth and started explaining, "Well the demon race is a race created by the Nightmare of Chaos with a bit of help from the Nightmare of Fire and after the great war from 5 years ago, the demons were completely wiped out by the heroes and soldiers of the alliance."

The dragon looked confused at me, slowly swallowed the food he was eating and asked, "What do you mean with Nightmare of Chaos? Is she not a Goddess?"

Before I could give the dragon a vague answer like 'Some consider her one' Lisabeth said, "The demons and the other races that are considered monsters say so but the higher ups of the alliance claims that she is just a very powerful Nightmare."

The dragon took a sip from his wine and said, "What is a Nightmare?"

This time I was able to answer before Lisabeth and said, "A nightmare is a normal person or animal who has been corrupted by negative energy. Almost all Nightmares are completely mindless killing machines."

The dragon nodded and said, "Claiming that your enemy is nothing but a dangerous animal is given human shape. A smart move if you want to gain more public support."

"Now a more important question, what can you tell me about the heroes?", asked the dragon.

Lisabeth also takes a sip of her wine and said, "Well there are five of them and they each are given a weak blessing by the God of War and the God of Knowledge and one strong blessing by gods that they serve. The gods are the same ones that created the races that are part of the alliance. I only know that the hero of Order, Aria is their leader and the hero of wind uses a bow. But to be totally honest I don't really know a lot about the heroes."

The dragon nodded his head once more and asked, "Tell me, how did you end up here?"

After telling him about the last year of our life the dragon just flashed a big grin at us and asked, "Is one of you able to use magic."

I looked at Lisabeth and tried to tell her to not tell him, but being as dense as always she just nodded happily and said, "Yup I do, my house had a good relationship with some elves and they taught me how to use some wind magic."

The dragon his grin just winded and he asked, "Tell me do you two want the power to take revenge on your cousin for killing your father? Or maybe revenge on your whole family for allowing it? Oh, maybe you even want to see your entire country burn for allowing this to happen to you?"

Lisabeth just shook her head and said, "No, not really I just want to build up a life with Jay."

"Oh, I think I can make that happen. So tell me, are you ready to make a deal with the devil or well dragon in this case?", asked the dragon with a big toothy smile.

I simply shrugged and said, "It is better than dying."

Lisabeth just jumped out of her seat and hugged me with her stupidly strong arms. While I was getting thrown around like a ragdoll by Lisabeth I thought to myself, "This is the perfect moment to declare my love. She even said herself that she wanted to build up a life together with me. It is now or never."

I scraped my throat and then heard the few words that could make even the bravest of men quake in their boots with fear.

Lisabeth released me, walked towards the dragon and hugged his nose while squealing, "I can't believe I made a new friend, before meeting you Mr. dragon my only friend was Jay."

My mind went black and could only reply those last words 'my only friend Jay' 'my friend Jay' 'my friend' 'friend'. I could not believe my ears. I fell to my knees and thought, "I had been friend zoned all this time without even noticing it. I am not allowed to call Lisabeth dense anymore." Even the dragon somehow managed to look sympathetic at me for getting friend zoned, maybe he is not so bad after all.

The dragon suddenly took out two small vials and said, "Oh before you leave you might want to drink these."

I walked towards to dragon and asked, "What is inside of it?"

The dragon shrugged and nonchalantly said, "Nothing big, just the antidote for the poison that I had the kobolds mix in your meal."

I just let out a deep sigh, drank the antidote and thought, "This is going to be a long week."