The moment I grabbed the helmet the world outside of the clearing faded away, almost like someone reduced the render distance. I had a feeling that I might have to start punching trees soon, but then the air in front of me began to shimmer. I guess this is better than having to run from a massive boulder.

Standing in front of me was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She had black hair that ran down to the small of her back with two French braids joining in the back. Her eyes were a deep blue that swirled with apparent power. She had a sly smile on her perfect pouty lips that were colored a deep crimson. Her skin was perfectly smooth, and cream colored with hints of pink that peaked through her diaphanous blue dress that clung to her curves. She was at least as tall as Hawk and looked fit, but not overly muscular. My heart was beating fast, my hands were sweaty, and my eyes were unable to blink or look away. She floated forward and her dress swirled with wind that was exclusive to her, which made me think that it was completely silent not like quiet I mean SILENT. I couldn't even hear myself breath, or my heart beat although I am sure it was pushing my white tee out with every pump. Which brought my mind to exactly what I was wearing, seriously I meet the perfect woman wearing this clown outfit? I look like the thrift store had a sale, and I meet the woman of my dreams?

“Where is your dragon?” She said without moving her lips. Her voice was just as beautiful as the rest of her, but it was strange because there seemed to be several voices speaking at once, and at least two of them had accents.

As soon as you get a baby dragon nobody cares about you anymore! “Uh, Andrea? I left her with Hawk, didn't want anything to happen to her. She is still young, and I figured what I was doing was pretty dumb even by my standards.” I was stammering and had a hard time looking her in the eye, whether that was because they were beautiful, or intimidating I cannot say, but in either case they were both captivating and scary.

“She has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen! You will have to bring her to meet me sometime.” She made a sound like a Japanese girl saying kawaii, and gave me a heart stopping smile.

“If this belongs to you, I will give it to you, but I promised it to Hawk as a gift. If you give him a kiss, I am sure he will forget all about it, and everything else.” She chuckled and my heart melted. “This isn't an exclusive event? We will be seeing each other again sometime?” I asked sitting on the edge of my seat, like watching the DVD screen saver hit the corner.

“I see no reason to limit our visits to just once. I came here to give you a quest if you choose to accept it.” She said really pouring it on with that smile as she grasped her hands in front of her and turned to the side placing her chin on her shoulder and batting her eyes.

I am powerless here, Drew isn't exactly a looker, and he doesn't smell like a fresh Hawaiian breeze, but I can't say no to him. What am I supposed to do here? Not that I want to turn down a quest, but I would at least like to be given a chance. Turning her down is like saying no to Jordan Two Echo, just couldn't do it! “I don't like to enter into negotiations with this much of a handicap, you think you could put on a lot more clothes, and maybe cool it with the eyes of enduring beauty a bit? I am having heart palpitations over here.” You ever asked the sun to stop shining, well it doesn't hurt to ask.

She giggled and then had a full on laugh, like an ugly laugh, that made her somehow more attractive. “I have never had a mortal ask me to put on clothes before! You are interesting!” She swooped down quickly and gave me a full on kiss right on the lips and I felt her powerful hand on the back of my head pull me in. That is when my heart stopped and I felt my HP take a plummet, pretty sure this is the best death ever! Unfortunately, she pulled away and my health hung on by a thread. My massive ten constitution was putting in some overtime on that one. My ventral opening was starting to get a bit crowded. I wish I could say that it was the best thing that had ever happened to me, but I am not going to lie I was a bit scared by the whole event.

“You are interesting, we can meet at a later time to discuss the particulars, but I think you are already planning on doing this. I will catch up to you on the road and we can discuss what I need of you and what I am willing to give you in return.” She was slowly running her finger up the split in her dress, and had a suggestive longing look on her face. I felt heat in my face and looked away.

“Could you not! I am highly uncomfortable with this whole situation. I have always liked to think that I would own this situation, but I am uncomfortable and would like you to take it easy on me here. I am at an extreme disadvantage.” Don't judge me! I am a five-foot-tall lizard man and she is a ten foot tall Amazonian princess! I feel like I am a mouse and she is just batting me around softening me up for the kill. I know that she isn't really interested and is basically just taking advantage of my uneasiness in my new body.

“Alright I will quit! Don't have a heart attack little lizard man! I am just having a little fun, I don't get to play with mortals very often, and you just make it so easy!” She was chuckling to herself as she talked.

“I am Xanthos, nice to meet you.” I extended my claw and she just looked at it. “It is a gesture of greeting; we grasp hands and shake.” I said with my hand still hanging in the air.

She moved in a blur grabbing my hand in one of hers, her long delicate fingers wrapping around my hand. She pulled me in close and ran one fingernail over my left eye sliding over my scales the seam between scales made an almost metalic click as she looked into my eyes and I was transfixed by the swirling maelstrom of deep blue. I could feel her breath on my face as her disembodied voice rang out. “My name is Adelpha and I am the goddess of good fortune, we would make a good pair you and I. Don't get yourself killed before we have a chance to meet again little lizard man.” Her voice was more breathy and her hair brushed across my face as she quickly turned and when I opened my eyes again she was gone and the valley reappeared minus all of the warring immortals.

I walked up the slight slope holding the now plain looking helmet, noting that it wasn't very large, and would most likely fit me well. I casually tossed it to Hawk as I walked by and placed my hand on his shoulder for Andrea to climb over.

“What are you doing? This is a priceless artifact of my people!” He was holding the helmet in both hands as if it was about to explode.

“I got a prompt when I snagged that little helmet there and I have a few questions for your elder council.”

You have found a God Level Artifact! Helmet of Strategy! This helmet can only be worn by professed Scholars and magically maintains the wearer as the most brilliant strategist alive or dead. You must study for at least an hour each day while receiving the benefits of this helmet. The helmet automatically sizes to fit the user.

“God Level!” Hawk said as he also received the prompt.

“You are missing the point, there are several parts of your elder's story that don't check out.” I said as we started walking back toward his village. “First problem with their story, that wasn't a group of gods. They were demigods enchanted to be immortal. The second part is that this helmet can only be worn by a scholar and it is the Helmet of Strategy, which obviously doesn't coordinate with the elder's story of the great Juggernaut Kaidu. The third part is if he was the last one to wear that helmet he must have been a lot smaller than the skeleton in the longhouse. That helmet would fit me.”

Hawk looked down at the helmet and noted the small size. “It has been thousands of years.” He said clearly unsure of the validity of the legend.

“One thing checks out though.” I said still walking a couple strides in front of Hawk.

“Stop making a show of this and just spit it out!” Hawk was starting to get a little testy.

“Alright! Look what did you see in the valley when I grabbed the helmet?”

“You just sort of grabbed it, then there was a blinding light. You walked out of it a second later holding that helmet and the killing field was cleared.”

“So there was only a second between me grabbing the helmet and then walking back? That is strange it must have been at least three minutes between me grabbing the helmet and walking back.” Hawk was eyeing me real hard at this point. “Alright, look after I grabbed the helmet the world blurred outside of the clearing. Then the most beautiful woman I have ever seen showed up and told me that she wanted to give me a quest.”

Hawk just gave me some side eye. “What does that say about their story?”

“The woman I met was the Goddess from the story and trust me she lives up to the hype.”

“What was the quest?” Hawk asked still holding the helmet in front of him with both hands.

“I told her I didn't want to talk about it, because she was basically naked, and I have a weakness for beautiful naked women that are ten feet tall.”

“Let me get this straight,” Hawk pulled up in front of me and held his hand out to stop me as he held the helmet under his arm like it was third and short. “You received a quest from a goddess that was the most beautiful woman you have ever seen, and you just denied the quest without even hearing her out first? What were you thinking?” He was basically yelling at this point.

“Look I have seen this scenario a bunch of times, and often it ends with the hero; that's me, being dead or going through something extremely difficult just to barely survive and all they get is some bogus life lesson. Or I could finish expecting to get some sweet reward from little miss I have legs longer than your body, and it turns out she is just some evil demon that rips my junk off and sacrifices it to her evil overlord.”

“That seems a little unlikely.” Hawk began, until I cut him off.

“Look if I want to get to know her before I accept some raid level boss quest from her that is my business.” I said with one clawed finger in Hawk's upper abdomen, because I couldn't quite reach his chest. “Next time someone needs to walk through a collection of blood thirsty suicidal immortals bent on destroying each other with massive weapons and magic powers you do it!”

“Sorry bud, I just haven't ever heard of someone meeting a Goddess and you actually got a quest from one! This is a rare opportunity, but you are right caution is advisable when Gods give quests to mortals.”

“Why don't you just put that helmet on and see what happens?” I said pointing under his arm. He looked a little scared but grabbed the helmet in both hands. As he lifted it up and swung it onto his head it transformed completely, from a full visor black knight helmet to something entirely less intimidating.