Within the forbidden corner of Trammel, between the endless horrors of the Cruor Swamps and the unfathomably deep ocean to the end of the world, there lay a thin mountain range. The peaks of this mountain range were nature''s greatest attempt at grasping onto that fleeting star dancing above. It was said that the mountains reached as high as the divine realm itself. The mountain range spiralled deep into the Cruor Swamps like the land itself was valiantly defying the drowning depths of the swamp and reaching for a better world in the sky; it was this trait that was why the range was called the Serpentine Mountains, well that and one other reason.


    The few humans that lived in this area were the Tarragon monks who resided near the base of the sheer cliffs that formed the mountains. They lived upon the behemoth leaves of ever more behemoth trees that grew high above the poisonous bogs of the Cruor Swamps but not quite high enough to invade upon the territory of the mountain''s true inhabitants.


    Not many creatures lived at the highest peaks of the mountains. The air up there was as thin as the ground one would have to traverse, and food was exceptionally scarce; this was not even to take into account the ones whom the Tarragon monks worshipped, the predators who dominated this region.


    Residing comfortably above the clouds at a humble cave entrance on the second tallest mountain, he sat. His eyes, sharp and astute, could easily peer through the clouds to gaze down at his usual mark at the end of the swamp''s spiralling valley. At the center of the spiral, where the swamp reached its lowest point and fell even deeper below the oceanic water level, there lay a fruitless tree.


    He felt very conflicted about the fruitless tree. He wanted to kill the monstrous thing for the fact that Devadoot blood flowed through its roots. The fact that the offspring of his species'' worst enemies lived so comfortably directly below their feet was insulting. On the other hand, it also had the blood of his species running through it. It and the creation of the entire Cruor Swamps were a blemish on the history of his species. The rest of the swamp was adequately vile, uninhabitable, and drowning, as such a forbidden birth should be; however, that fruitless tree had the audacity to be an unparalleled beauty that outshined the entirety of Trammel, the Mokoi Badlands, and even the divine realm. This child dared to sprout and strive right below his feet.


    He could swoop down and eradicate the child right now if he desired, but he still could not find it within himself to kill it. At least he could find solace in the fact that it was no longer striving; leave it to a human to ruin the innocent. Those wretched caretakers from the swamp had all left in search of the thief, leaving the child wilting alone, its only accompaniment being the scorning gazes of its ancestors in the mountains above.


    He could only watch for so long before he worried he might do something rash. He tore his penetrating pink eyes away from the wretchedly beautiful tree below, his large, soft ears flapping in the movement before resettling over his plump cheeks. He let out an irritated snarl, revealing his horrifying maw line with vicious teeth.


    He rose from his resting position, uncoiling his massive worm-like frame and stretching his four tired digitigrade legs. His form was so unbelievably massive that he accidentally rose into a drifting cloud and had to irritatedly shake the dampness out of his blue fur. He carefully used the jade claws of his sole arm to scratch at the festering scab where he once had a second.


    He was one of the masters of these mountains. A being whose sheer physical prowess dominated that of the pathetic humans and even dwarfed that of the menacing mokoi. A species heralded as gods on par with the Devadoots.There were not many of his kind; perhaps that was why they let the child in the swamp live, but each one was extremely powerful... and obsessive. Each one had some fetish they devoted themselves to collecting; for some, it was a treasure, artifacts, or power; for him, it was knowledge.


    His small cove carved into his mountain was littered with countless books of every language known and unknown, scriptures, tomes, and carvings; all of it was collected by him. He found himself living in this confusing, absurd world seemingly devoid of logic or sense, and he couldn''t help but want to find out why. What exactly was the truth of this nonsensical place? How did the Devadoots and mokoi come to be? What really was magic? What was beyond the end of the world? Who was the Chauffer, and what was their Tournament?


    He had lived for a long time; he had witnessed the first Tournament six hundred years ago and the discovery of fire and water thirteen hundred years before that. He understood he would never be invited to the Tournament to find out what really happens from within. That realization was made perfectly clear to him long ago. Nonetheless, he was determined to unravel all the mysteries this broken world offered him.


    Out from under his blue fur, he extended the hundreds of glossy green lanceolate wings that covered his entire body and, with a light pounce, slithered into the sky. He gracefully glided across the endless expanse before him.


    The mountains were mostly barren, so he had to travel far to find anything desirable. The Cruor Swamp certainly wouldn''t have anything palatable, so he had to make the long journey over to the human-occupied country of Aegis. Thankfully, his many dexterous wings helped him fly over with unparalleled speed.


    He scanned the grounds of the human lands for any easy target to satiate him. Finally, he found a lone caravan being pulled along a meandering dirt path by four scrumptious horses. He swooped down, landing upon his four powerful legs and sending a cloud of dust to envelop the unsuspecting merchant and his group of guards. The horses released panicked neighs as they reared to a halt. The humans in the caravan were struck with disbelieving fear at the unimaginable encounter: they had just been accosted by a dragon.


    The monstrous creature barely touched upon the sodden land as his many small wings whirred at blinding speeds too hold his winding body afloat. The cowering merchant, petrified in absolute terror, could only mindlessly slap his hand against the back of his guard in a pointless plea for protection.


    The guard and his group of adventurers were a powerful and skilled group who had led their lives determined to help the weak and defenceless, so they quickly gathered their composure and readied themselves in front of the carriage. With his large sword unsheathed, their group leader spoke to the creature. "Foul and merciless beast, go back to whence you came or-"


    A bolt of lightning shot from the dragon''s hand, evaporating the speaking man into a dark mist that slowly wafted away in the wind. It was now the adventurer''s turn to be petrified as they watched their lifelong friend destroyed within the blink of an eye.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    The beast spoke in a deep and thunderous voice, which shook the core of its listeners. "Foolish humans! Drop your weapons and put your hands where I can see ''em. I don''t want no funny business." The guards immediately obeyed, discarding their armaments and raising their arms in the air. "Good. Now, I want you to hand over all your books or face absolute judgment!"


    The merchant was frozen in shock, a different matter of shock from which he was frozen by prior. "I beg your pardon?"


    The beast bellowed angrily as sharp purple flecks danced across his hundreds of small, lanceolate wings. "Did I stutter!? I will not repeat myself. I hate repeating myself! The moment I have to repeat myself is the moment when people have to die, so for your sake, I will not repeat myself!" The purple flecks sped up violently as if they would break free at any second and unleash visceral carnage.


    "No-no sir you did not stutter. All-all our books right away." The merchant disappeared into the back of his caravan while the adventurers raised their hands to the unreachable day star above as if it could possibly come and save them. He watched the pitiful humans tremble before him; he noticed that one of them had a strange bulge in their leather armour. He lowered his head to be level with the human, who choked back a short cry and left only the sound of tears hitting the floor and their incessant shaking to fill his ears. His head was nearly the size of the entire human, each tooth larger than the human''s forearms. He raised his one arm, titanic relative to the human, and gently tapped the human''s chest where the bulge was. "What is this?"


    "My armour?"


    He snarled menacingly, covering the human in his viscous saliva. "Do I look like a fool to you? Of course, I know it is armour. What is in it?"


    The human didn''t reply; instead, it just uselessly shivered in place. He realized that if he wanted to find out what was in the armour, he would have to find out himself. He took one of his fingers and placed it at the neck of the human; with a smooth surgical movement, he drew his jade claw down the human''s body to tear its clothes in twain but still left the frail being unharmed. With the leather armour opened, he used his claw to lift up the dangling piece to find a pocket on the inner hem of the armour.


    "Pull out what is in the pocket."


    The human silently reached into their pocket; it took them quite some time to pull the object out due to all the frightful shaking. He hadn''t even touched the human, yet it reacted so melodramatically. "What is it?"


    The human held onto a small bounded rectangle. "M-m-my diary."


    He stared at the ''diary'' intently trying to decrypt its secrets. "What is a diary?"


    "I-I write what happened in my day and how I feel i-inside it."


    "Fascinating."


    It had been a long time since he had spoken with an actual human. By this point, the merchant had reemerged from his caravan with a sack filled with papyrus. The merchant apprehensively approached the marauding beast, raising his sack of script as if it could protect him. The creature took the ''diary'' from the unclothed human and placed it in the sack. He paused briefly, contemplating the benefits and deficits of his efforts; once he believed he had reached an adequate conclusion, he grabbed the unclothed human and put it in his sack.


    "You have listened to my orders very well. I grant you your life. But I''m taking this." With a swift motion, he stuffed two horses into his mouth, then grabbed the sack of books and flew back to his mountain. The unparalleled endurance and strength of the creature allowed it to return post haste.


    Upon arriving at its mountain, the creature noticed that his sack was squirming all over the place angrily, poking and jabbing as if some terrified creature was desperately trying to break free from its confinement. He emptied the sack, letting all the books pour out to join the rest of his collection; the small human also painfully plopped out of the sack. "Oh, I forgot about you."


    The human worriedly searched around the room, desperately trying to collect some form of bearing after their surprising kidnapping. All around them, they could only see stone and literature. The only other sign of life was its heinous capturer. "What do you want with me? Are you going to eat me?"


    He ignored the quiet whimpers of the human as he rummaged through his new collection. Finally, he found the small bounded rectangle; he gingerly unknotted its lock, opened the first page and stared at the small page before him. "Mm, as I expected."


    The implement used to colour the paper must have changed since his last collection; the structure was also slightly different. There were many words that he couldn''t recognize.


    He closed the book shut and started to circle around the unclothed human, curling his body around them tighter and tighter. The human recognized this behaviour, they had seen it in snakes before. This was going to be the human''s final throes in life; they closed their eyes and succumbed their body to its final few minutes of agony. After the sound of movement had stopped and the human could still comfortably breathe, they finally braved the task of opening their eyes. The creature was comfortably coiled around the human but as a soft cushioning bed rather than a deadly stranglehold. The creature''s face neatly nestled right next to the human, the soft fur of his floppy ears tickling the human''s face. His massive closed fist gently pushed the human, toppling them into a sitting position on the staggered steps of the creature''s continuously spiralling body. He opened his palm, and in it was the human''s diary. "Read it to me."


    The human locked eyes with the creature, brown to pink. His behemoth eyes were filled with anticipation and query. "Read it slowly and explain the big words to me."


    Initially, the human was unsure how to react. They turned back to their diary, which looked minuscule in the mighty hands of the creature. The human carefully took the book and brought it closer to read. The human was just about to begin when the creature abruptly started shuffling as he cuddled more comfortably against the human. "Okay, now you can start."


    The reading session went on forever, and the creature''s questions seemed endless. He quizzed the human about the places, people, relationships, feelings, grammar, and sentence structure written within; it was a stark contrast to their initial meeting. Sometimes, the creature would ask to take over so that he could practice reading. When he heard the human''s stomach grumble, the creature immediately sought out food and cooked it for his prisoner. The human would sleep snuggled tightly in the enwrapping depths of the creature''s thick fur. These interruptions were only temporary, though, as the two would inevitably return to the ever-enthralling texts about the cave. The human even started to find themselves joining in the beast''s passion buried in a library, the likes of which they had never seen before, filled with uncountable knowledge that they would have never been allowed to gleam in their old life.


    One day, their reading session was interrupted by the chime of a bell. In front of the two was what seemed to be a small pink rhombus, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards the creature holding a glowing parchment: It read.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 71.8534%; background-color: rgba(255, 213, 171, 1); border-color: rgba(235, 164, 57, 1); border-style: ridge" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">You have been invited to</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">The Tournament</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">You are The Dragon</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>