A Scale of Sapphire

Aoife

3 Days Earlier

Goblins, huh? I mean, there was only one thing to do, right?

I had to say hi.

I mean, in classic fantasy novels, a large group of goblins converging on your location was bad news, but those same novels painted dragons as greedy pricks who sleep on a pile of gold. Admittedly, I knew one dragon who probably fit the bill, but I sure as shit didn’t.

If common knowledge was wrong about me and my kind, it could totally be wrong about theirs too. There was little debate among our collective about whether we should make contact, the only point of contention was in how we did it.

Personally, I just wanted to fly over real quick and say hi. I could get there the fastest, and the fact is, I had the best shot at surviving if things turned violent. I took a telephone pole to the face without even a cracked scale, the odds of these goblins being capable of inflicting any meaningful harm were vanishingly slim, but the same couldn’t be said about the others.

On the flip side, my wings still presented a weak point, and anyone clever enough to exploit that could realistically ground me and push until I bled out. The best thing to do, if you asked Cass and my girlfriends, would be to send a small group with me at the head. The centaurs could travel fast enough that we’d still reach them fairly quickly, and the added numbers might deter anyone who would’ve tried their luck against a lone, small dragon.

Of course, I had my own rebuttals to that, and they all had responses yet again, and on and on it went. This group was the largest we’d tried to make contact with, and that made it tricky. If things went well, they’d go very well, and if they didn’t, it could be catastrophic. We needed to do whatever was most reasonable before they arrived, or we’d be caught totally unprepared.

In the end, it was a compromise that won the day. I was strong enough to carry someone with me, and that someone had to be either strong enough to protect themself or fast enough to run away.

Evelyn was the easy choice. Ever since she and Cass met the centaurs, she’d become crazy fast. Still not as fast as me when I slowed down time (still weird to think that I can do that), but fast enough that I was sure she could run away if it came to it.

That’s how we ended up here, landing softly on the ground a short distance away from the approaching caravan. Evelyn quickly dismounted as I shifted to my more human form, and I took an extra moment to make sure that my presence was thoroughly suppressed before we began our approach. I wanted to talk on even footing, so I wasn’t going to go full death lizard unless they made me. We’d speak honestly, make our case, and if they wanted to join us, then great! If not… we’d cross that bridge when we got there.

I wanted to make sure I didn’t startle them too much, so before we were even close enough to see them, I called out.

“Hello?” I began walking in the caravan’s direction. “My name is Aoife! I heard we had a few new visitors, and I figured I’d introduce myself!”

The sounds of rustling branches and murmuring voices faded away almost immediately as the group came to a stop. After a few moments, I began to pick up on hushed whispers as they considered their response.

“You said ‘we’! How many is that?” A raspy voice rang out in response.

“Two of us here, and well over a dozen back home!” My pace had slowed since our conversation began, but I was still moving closer, slowly and steadily moving to make contact. “We know what you are, and we neither hate nor fear you for it! We just want to talk!”

The whispers returned in force, with increasing urgency. Apparently, I’d surprised them. Eventually, a new voice replied, still rough and raspy, but notably higher.

“Well what do you want to talk about?”

“A lot of things. Whether you’d like to make friends with our group, whether you might want to join us, how we might be able to protect each other, or maybe why I can smell your friends behind me!”

I hadn’t noticed it immediately, but the sharpened senses of a dragon aren’t easily tricked. These goblins clearly had some kind of sneaking magic similar to the Fletcher’s, but substantially weaker. When I’d heard the barest rustle of a branch to my right, I’d immediately closed in on Evelyn, focusing on nothing but awareness of my surroundings. If it came down to it, I could return to my lizard form and shield Evie with my body.

It better not come to that. I had more than my fill of killing back at Cyrus’ town.

The moment I said that, three squat, green-skinned people emerged from the foliage at my back, reminding me eerily of my first encounter with Rob. All three seemed to be armed, one carried a crossbow, another had a steak knife, and the third had some kind of old shotgun. Their weapons were clearly too large for them, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t do any damage.

I wanted this to go well, and that meant disarming them would be a poor choice, but I still needed to take my own precautions. With half a thought, I allowed my scales to fully encompass my body, allowing the claws of my hands to grow and for my legs to shift in something more akin to a raptor’s.

I wanted to talk on even footing. If they had weapons drawn, so would I. I thought that was only fair. I thought it was important to prove that I could pose a credible threat. I only intended to show them that. I only intended to protect Evelyn.

That’s not what happened.

With a shriek, the goblin at the head of this small group leveled their massive shotgun at my chest, the others following suit. Hearing that sound, the goblins I’d been approaching before sprinted into the clearing I now found myself at the center of, surrounding me completely.

“She’s like him!” The lead goblin cried. “She’s like Cyrus!”