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"My lady." Mazzirog grinned thru his beard and made a bow while he was still on his horse. He then dismounted and without a flinch approached, the soldiers around Arthur and the princess lowered their polearms, spears and pikes, but he casually pushed the weapons aside and made a half bow again. "I see that your memory serves you well." He straightened himself and it was then, that the princess noted that Mazzirog was nearly as tall as Arthur (in his human form). "And I suppose, this man here is the brave knight that leads these soldiers." He raised his hairy brow.

"That is none of your business, why have you come here? Do you come to surrender and seek mercy? If not, then leave now, or we will run you thru." Lillian barely sustained herself from yelling, she knew that she should let her half brother handle this, but her pride and temper kicked in.

"HA!" The orc raised bandit warrior yelled. "I may be large, but I'm not stupid and don't treat me as such, I arrived in your camp alone, ALONE amidst your army, if you think I'm so stupid to arrive and fight this way, then princess, I am disappointed at you. As for your question, NO I have not came here to surrender, but YES I am here to seek mercy. WE need to talk." He extended his mace and then suddenly felt a hand sticking a dagger from up his shield, which was on his back, the person must be small, as the hand just went over the shield and into the spot where his shoulder, chest and head plates merged, the dagger ran into the opening, only to be caught by the chain mail from inside, still it scraped some flesh from Mazzirogs neck and boy did it hurt, he screamed and reflexly swung his mace, only to miss as the short person quickly and easily ducked and hissed at him.

"SHIT, didn't get him." The small person yelled, as it tried to kick Mazzirog in the right leg on the opposite side of the knee, which should send him to the ground, but instead, he only flinched as his plate armor absorbed the impact.

Mazzirog moved to the said and drew his mace and shield and went into a fighting stance. He got a chance to observe his enemy. The person was small, wearing mixed armor filled with what seemed to be decorations, despite being made grandiosely and slightly flamboyant, the red white and yellow armor was obviously battle worthy. It was made mostly from very light plate and thick leather, though some parts were chained. The person wore a yellow mask, concealing the upper part of its face, but not its long black hair, its weapons were a light long longsword in the main hand and the weapon in the other. The person stood in an unusual, but strangely familiar fighting stance.

"LIURA, ENOUGH!" Arthur yelled and everyone faced him.

"Lets hear what he has to say." Lillian crossed her arms.

Liura made a circular swing with her sword and put it back into its sheath and made a normal stance. She then threw a small vial to Mazzirog. "For the poison." She said.

Mazzirog looked at the vial and thru it back. "If it's farmers tears poison, then no thanks, I took it myself a few times and now I'm immune to it." He eyed Liura.

"Clever boy." She half grinned at him.

Before she turned away, he told her. "You know, I would have sensed you, you got lucky this time."

She turned around and eyed him up and down. "I'd give you a 50-50 chance at that, being a seasoned warrior and all."

"Just tell us what you want!" Lillian interrupted. "I don't suppose you plan to sit there and chat all day." She crossed her arms impatiently.

"Sorry my lady." He made a mocking half bow again. "I came here to ask for your assistance and offer my assistance in return."

"Speak rationally." Arthur commanded.

"MY LORD, MY LORD!" A soldier came panting heavily. "Captin Falcol reports... oh." The man went silent, as he saw the bandit lord.

"May I suggest we speak somewhere more privat?" Mazzirog suggested.

"Fine, but give up your weapons first and you soldier, follow me, you will report in my quarters." Arthur said and turned around in a 'follow me' manner.

"Here." Mazzirog gave his one hand mace to a soldier, who nearlly fell down from its weight. "Guard it with your live, you lose it and I'll use you as my mace." Mazzirog threated the young man, who was visibly scared.

A few moments later and the four were in the privat tent of the commander in chief, Arthur. Everyone was sitting at the table, except for Lillian, who was examining stuff, but still listening to the conversation the three had.

"Explain yourself Mazzirog and be quick, I'm not known for my patients with people who attempt to kidnap my sisters." Arthur said.

"Well I'd argue with that, but we have more pressing matters. I'll start from the beginning, but first, tell me knight, who are you?" Mazzirog asked.

Arthur raised both his eyebrows and then realized, he failed to introduce himself, but has caught himself saying that Lillian is his sister.

"I am Arthur, bastard son of the king and I command the forces here, that is all you need to know." He said.

"Fair enough." Mazzirog relaxed back in his chair and crossed his plated legs with ease. "Now to start... A few months ago, in our mountain hide out in gola voda, some shady fellows arrived. Now over the last few years we managed to build quite the stronghold there, we had some... 3000 people there..." He would go on, but he saw that Arthur rose his eyebrows to the sky and if he had been drinking or eating something, he would have most certainly choked.

"It was a hide out from way before, when I arrived first, there were some 500 bandits there, now there are 2000 bandits and 1000 people just living there, merchants, beggars and other folk, the mountin isn't very populated and no one ventures there often. Over the years it has grown into a small city actually." He explained.

"Back to the story. Anyway, a few months ago, as I said, some shady fellows came and started to preach about some god of theirs, most of us didn't pay two copper about it, but some beggars started listening to them and they seemed normal at first. But slowly the beggars started to spread... it among their kinsmen and they to their's. After a while, the beggars that first listened to the cultists, started to... change... they started to smoke and drink a lot, which was nothing special, but people who never touched booze started drinking their.. your pardon... arses off. Then it just got worse, they started using these strange annoying words, which no one understood and that ain't half of it, after that, they started to grow this... dribble all over their eyes and the men started to spit out.. black stuff... it was terrible. Before anyone knew what was going on, the beggars and unfortunately everyone who had ANYTHING to do with the cultists, started to degrade into the same monstrosities and those most loyal to them, the cultists would take and make a cultist out of them. Only those lucky enough, the ones that weren't there often enough didn't catch it, I heard you had a camp here, so I rallied all off them... some 500 men and I came here, to offer my aid to destroy the bast... (he remembered that Arthur was one so he changed the word) monsters that did this, I am no brave knight who seeks justice, but the things they did to those men, were... disgusting beyond description of any human or orcish language. For the first time in my life I say this, I'd rather be in the orc gladiator arenas again, than to become... That!" He hissed."Orcs at least let you to keep your honor and dignity, no man, no matter his crimes, deserves the fate the cultists gave those men." He finished frowning, but brightened up. "So I came to you, to warn you, when the transformation was complete, they brought by ships another 2000 of their men, but these were in full armor and trained, but even more... degraded than our men were, so now they have 4500 men. I know from... personal experience, that you have a dragon at your side and certainly this isn't all the military Detomia can muster, I say we join forces!" He slammed his fist rather joyfully on the table.

"And even if we win, then what? Will you turn against us? Use us and kill us off? And what guaranty, aside from you being here alone, do we have that you're telling the truth?" Lillian asked not turning to face him.

"E-excuse me my lady... but I can corroborate that." The soldier said and everyone turned to face him. "I am scout privat Mlinar." He saluted. "Captain Falcal send me, to report to you that... well... Mazzirog was coming." The man blushed hardly, as it was obvious that he failed his task. "But I can assure you that he did not made up these cultists and in fact, we even saw him and his men running away, he speaks the truth and in fact, we have captured one such... victim and we will deliver it here in a couple of hours."

"You did your job admirably, just watch the timing next time, you are dismissed, but call me when the prisoner comes in?" With that the privat left.

"What do you say sister, I'd say we keep Mazzirog here and his men as well, so we can watch on them before we interrogate this prisoner." Arthur looked at his sister, who looked back at him.

"I agree brother, but I tell you Mazzirog, just do one small thing out of the ordinary and that will be the end for you." Lillian said.

Mazzirog made a 'meh' face and with that they left the tent.

As they left the tent, Arthur ordered two of his lieutenants, to organize Mazzirog and his troops, he specifically ordered, that they put them in such position, that if they decided to do something, they would be surrounded. They would be located at the edge of the camp, surrounded by imperial soldiers, with their backs against the walls of Malions mountain and if that doesn't stop them from attacking, nothing will. Arthur feared, that this was some kind of elaborate hoax and that Mazzirog was smarter than he showed and he knew Lillian thought the same.

"Sir." Captain Valorfar, a slightly older soldier, still in his late 20ies, with a beard, was a son of a peasant and Arthurs second in command, while not in rank, this was his field, as ordered by the king, so he had supremacy over other officers, for in the times of old, Lord-Generals had second in commands, who assumed command if the commanding officer was for any reason unable to lead. The captain saluted his superior. "I'm sorry I couldn't arrive sooner, I hope the bandit business went smooth."

"No time for pleasantries Valorfar and yes it did, if what Mazzirog and the scout say is true, then we may face a even graver threat to the kingdom. I have decided, that I'm not going to risk it, as soon as the prisoner comes in and we interrogate him, you will write missives to the king and my brothers, to amass all of our army and come here." Arthur stared towards south west, where the mountains were at, even if he didn't see them, he felt menace from that direction.

"Pardon m'lord, but I'm not familiar with the situation, all I know is that we are letting these bandits stay here with us, when we should be fighting them. And for some strange reason, these... men all speak of dark magic and demons and how some sort of evil cult has taken over their hide out." The captain talked in his north eastern accent, as he was from a small village there and the sight of him shaking his golden helm as he talked would be funny, if it was not dangerous, for the man was a very skilled combatant.

"I suppose we have to believe him then... ahhh." Arthur exhaled and turned to face the captain and to explain everything to him.

"I see." The captain responded.

"Well, the problem is, should we trust him, I am a skeptic, but I admit it is very hard to convince 500 men to tell the same tale and the scout confirms what he says, so now we wait for the prisoner to come." Arthur lifted his heavy war hammer on his shoulder, as his arm was falling asleep and he turned away, still looking south west.

"I also have news sire." The captin stood left of his superior. "That assassin friend of yours, that everyone was afraid of, he left after Mazzirog came, so it seems, he wanted me to give you this." As he was taking out a note Arthur shouted at him.

"WHAT, WHERE IS S..." He wanted to protest more, but he realized that she probably didn't want people to know of her gender so he just calmed himself and took the note.

"Arthur, I scribble this so I can inform you of something. First, I want to say I'm sorry, but I left town as soon as we left the inn, I was supposed to be out with the scouts way earlier, but I had to save your pretty giant arse from being potentially eaten by a dragon. I didn't want to come to you, for I know you hate good bye's ever since your mother died at childbirth and that you fear, that maybe I'll die. After I left, I found a rather large group of men, dragging their feet on the kings road, led by Mazzirog. I overheard their conversations and Mazzirogs own whinings, but I dear not come near him, for the fear of being detected, he is a foe not to be underestimated and if I guess correctly, he will tell you about some cult that took over their camp, I believe him, I don't have time to explain, so I'll just say that my people met the cultists before. Call to all the army that will listen, this is a fight you can't afford to lose, that this entire isle can't afford to lose."

"I... I'm confused." Arthur took the paper closer to his eyes. "This IS his handwriting, though somewhere it borders on untenable. It was written in a hurry and on different surfaces." He frowned and looked again south west, then he turned to the captain. " Everything stays the same, we interrogate the prisoner and then decide the course of action." He was angry and he left for a walk around the camp, silently yet angrily talking to himself.

It was evening and no one paid any attention to the babbling bastard prince. "How did she, she must have walked two hours..." He huffed and decided that he will have a chat with the assassin when she returned.

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Under the cover of night, a scout party led the badly assembled cage on a cart, which they had to push themselves. A sheet was over the cage, but it didn't stop the... being from underneath it kicking and babbling. The scouts greeted the tired guards and brought in the cart, but the noise it made was making everyone aware of its presence.

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Arthur was sitting in his tent, with his legs on the table and with a huge frown on his face, he had his arms crossed and still continued talking to himself, despite Lillian sitting close to him, reading a book about dragons, which Malion gave her. She decided to give it to Arthur, to read it when he calms down a bit.

"SIR, SIR!" Valorfar rushed into the tent. "They brought it sir, they brought in the prisoner." And with that, the three rushed out and into the town square, where everyone gathered around the cage and see the commotion.

The night was windy and it was late spring, spring wanted to bask in its glory one more time and for the past few days the entire village was windy, but not too much. Now however, a strong breeze hit the village and everyone held to their cloths and purses, but unfortunately it blew the sheath off of the cage on the cart and even despite it was dark, a clearly deformed... being appeared and it was no longer able to be described as human and in fact it was barely humanoid in shape as well.

The creature scratched and with the dim light, a great commotion was casting shadows that played everywhere. Some of the women even screamed and every villager was shaken. Luckily it was dark and the creature didn't speak then, so no one saw it really good and the officer quickly ordered his men into action to cover the cage once again.

"Move along, nothing to see here, go back to your homes." A low ranking officer was dispersing the crowd as Arthur and his entourage arrived.

"TAKE IT TO MY TENT AND SUMMON THE OFFICERS!" Arthur commanded in a voice, which he knew, was too stern, but his troops sprang into action non the less.

Soon after the cage was in the biggest tent the army has set up, it was a dinning tent and it held a huge dining table, which the soldiers made from wood when they arrived here, since there was no way they could move such a colossal thing. All high ranking officers, Arthur, Lillian and Valorfar were there.

Two soldiers brought in the cage and left.

"All right gentlemen, let's see what we have here." Arthur took off the sheath, only to reveal the monstrosity that no amount of Mazzirogs words could describe. The being was... changed.... Corrupted... twisted both in the body, mind and by all accounts the soul as well. As Mazzirog described, it's body had withered away, but it was still alive, alive and kicking that is! It had shrunk and its body had started bending forward, as if it had tried to conceal itself. Its face was its most degraded feature, its teeth rotten away and some even fell out, its eyes were covered in dribble, mucus that was leaking out of its nose, was unnaturally spreading all over its face and when it spoke, it made an awful, discussing noise.

"Alo BRACO cobraja cobrini!!!" It screamed at the officers, many of whom were seasoned veterans and all of them had formal military training. But no amount of training could prepare them for this, nearly all took a step backwards and some even threw up. Then the horrid creature spread its arms as long as it could and started spreading itself as long as it could in its small cage, so because of that today we have the term "Širenje" when someone spreads himself in order to appear more dominant, aggressive and tough.

"LI?E! Imaš PO MARKE ZA POSUDITI!" It continued to talk as it faced Arthur, who was holding back the uncontrollable rage within him, it seemed to boil within his belly and he quickly put the sheath back on.

"SO, it seems that our bandit was telling the truth after all." He turned around and faced the officers, failing to notice how shaken Lillian was.

All of the officers were informed of Mazzirogs arrival. "It changes nothing, maybe he is the cause of this." One older officer said.

"Kill it now, before it spreads to us and all of Detomia!!!" A younger one officer screamed. A commotion started, which lasted for good 5-10 minutes.

"ENOUGH!!" Arthur yelled and felt a hand pulling his sleeve, he turned around and faced Lillian, who looked at him sadly. "What?" He stepped back.

"Do they..." She nodded to the officers. "Know?" She rose her eyebrows.

Arthur eyed her and had a puzzled look. "Know what?"

She leaned in. "That we have a dragon at our side?"

He opened his eyes wide open and for a moment there, he looked like his father. He meekly nodded to her and turned around.

"Gentlemen, as you all know, aside from our... primary mission." He noted at the still shaking cage. "I was also send here to negotiate with a dragon, you were supposed to find out the results later, but seeing as we are forced to stay here, I might just as well tell you, so please sit down." He then took the leading chair and everyone followed suit.

"First, I want you Valorfar, to write this to my father." He leaned back to his chair, but got up. "No, better yet I'll do it, as he knows my handwriting." He took a piece of paper and a pen and read out loud.

"My Lord, we ran into unexpected difficulties. First off, the good news are, that I negotiated with the dragon and he will help us." The officers started whispering to each other, but he continued and they all listened with great care. "We haven't yet negotiated the terms, but there are more pressing matters. It turns out that the bandits are not our primary concern, Mazzirog came to us and told me a story of some cultists occupying the bandit camp, which turns out had more soldiers than we expected, scout reports confirm this and I have Mazzirog and his men in my camp. I don't want to risk loosing lives where they can be saved. We have captured one such cultist and I assure you, this is a very big threat to the kingdom. Rally all the men you can muster and bring them here I beg of you, we must eradicate them before they spread, when you arrive I'll give you a full explanation. Your humble servant Arthur." He sealed the letter and gave it to Valorfar, who gave it to his best messenger to get it delivered.

There was a silent tension and the awkward silence lingered as everyone eyed Arthur, who relaxed back in his chair.

"Uhhhh fine. Lillian and I went there and talked to him, yes dragons can talk. He seemed like a nice fellow, but I don't suggest you tell your men to roam his mountain freely, I doubt any of us want strange ant like people following us around, would we?" The officers laughed at this. "Lad that's the first good thing I hear this day." The oldest officer said, ignoring the rank, Arthur ignored this, knowing there was no ill will in it.

"Tell your men, not to harm the dragon, even if I doubt they could. He will undoubtedly kill many cultists for us." Lillian said.

"May he burn them like matches." Someone from the back yelled.

"Sir, can we put... this thing down?" Someone pointed to the cage that was still shaking.

Lillian whispered something in Arthurs ear and he nodded. "No, we will take it to the dragon tomorrow, maybe he will give us more insight in it." He commented.

"S-Sir, how do you k-know it is a-a he?" A young man asked, he must have been someone's assistant.

"I asked... what do you think? That dragons have no gender and they multiply by swimming in unicorn blood?" Arthur knew he should have been more polite, but his patience wasn't there anymore, not since he saw the monstrosity in the cage.

The man blushed hard. "Of course sir, sorry sir." And he fell back in the table line.

After the display of the thing in the cage, no one was in the mood for dinner, Arthur had the cage moved to a secure part of the camp, that night, he had no sleep at all, he shuffled in his bed uncomfortably. He dreamed, that he was surrounded by monstrosities such as the one that was captured, but he didn't fight them, no, he thought they were his friends and even that they were. "Gotiva." He never heard such a word, but he assumed it must mean cool or something like that. He was drinking... ale... that tasted like piss and smoking tobacco that tasted like pig drooping's wrapped in the leafs of Dirtborrow plant. He glanced over the side and saw two figures looming in over him. One was large and bald, even higher then him in his true form, but was much, much skinnier and had strange clothing, its degradation was much worse than anyone else's, it was despicable beyond description. The other one was a rather tall man by human standards, but he seemed sooo... normal, compared to the rest, he was surrounded by cultists, but he wore different clothing than them and had a strange black head piece, that Arthur didn't recognize before, (it became known later as sunglasses) he had a well-kept short beard, that was two or three nails long, short hair which most certainly had something on it, (now we know it was gel) he wore weird casual clothes that looked unlike anything Arthur ever saw, it was very strange... it was bright, (it was called urban and modern where the man was coming from so we adapted the term) the man was constantly smiling and was nothing like the rest. He approached Arthur with the mirror and Arthur saw something that made his bones chill, he became one of them. The man patted the back of Arthur and said to him "Svaka ?ast momak samo naprjed" with a smile, but as soon as Arthur was 2 steps away from him, he heard. "Mrs retard jedan." Somehow, he knew that was directed at him, but he didn't understand anything.

He woke up in sweat and his entire bed (as well as his light brown jeans and white shirt he was wearing) was soaked with it. He was shaking, but he had little time to recover, as he sensed someone with him and he jumped to sitting position (if that is the proper term).

"I see you are already awake sir." Valorfar was standing at the entrance to the tent, he caught so as to show himself. "You might want to come sir, the men were getting restless and especially Mazzirogs men, they seem to be disturbed, Sir." He saluted with his posture and by making a slight bow with his head and left, so the half giant could get dressed.

Thanks for its special design, it took only 20 minutes for Arthur to fit in his armor, normal plate wearing troops need at least a hour, to get all the pieces together. As soon as he got his black plated armor, he went outside and followed his second in command to a small clearing, only to see a large number of people forming around the cage, it was not covered with anything and the being was seen clearly now by everyone.

"Out of my way, let me pass!" Arthur found out the source of the commotion, the cage was in the center of the crowd and the sheath was off, everyone could see the babbling thing.

"HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN! Why are the guards not at their posts? Explain yourself captain!" He turned around to face the now red faced captin.

"Sir, I assure you I was not informed-" He tried to explain.

"Damn it, Valorfar it is your job to-" Arthur saw a man with leather pelt armor standing out and pointing his weapon (a pitchfork) to the cage slightly.

"I know this man Sire, I recognize him by the tattoo." He pointed to the tattoo of a woman's head on the monsters belly. "There was no better, or kinder men than him. Yes, I am a bandit and he was one as well, but he was forced into it, to feed himself and his family, he left the job off pillaging and looting and became a merchant in our small city. "The man looked down, clearly sad, in fact, he was barely holding back tears and this was a man that looked a bit older than Valorfar.

It was then, that Arthur for the first time in his life felt it, he felt something that normal people feel between the ages ten to twenty, he felt a sudden need, the sudden urge and rage to ask himself... why...

Why is this happening, why is there evil on this world, why has it come here, why is it polluting everything that was good and right in this world. For the first time in his life, he felt the urge and the rage to smite evil out of the face of the earth, to protect the innocent, to protect his people. He was holding back tears of his own, the creature spat some black gooey material out of its mouth onto the grass and the dirt and the grass around it seemed to change, twist, corrupt. It didn't die, no, but became something more, something different. This snapped Arthur back into reality and he realized, he must not waver, he must not falter now, not for his men, not in front of them, it is because of them, that he must be strong, for all of the people on this isle he must stand firm and he was just going to do that.

"Captain." He calmly said in his deep voice with a huge frown on his face. He nearly closed his eyes.

"Aye, milord." Valorfar stood firm.

"Let us bring this... thing, to the dragon, lets see what he can tell us." He didn't turn around, but the commotion started behind him, people loudly whispered to each other. After a few moments he turned around, but a soldier shouted to him.

"Milord what is this?! I beg your pardon, but how can we bring this to him, let alone get near the dragon, it will kill us!!!" The man tried to control his speech.

"No he won't my friend, no he won't." Arthur approached the soldier and put his armored gauntlet on the man's shoulder plates.

The man eyed his superior with questioning and confusing looks.

Arthur stepped back and shifted his glance between the soldier and the people around him. "NO he won't! FOR I SPOKE TO HIM!!!" He made everyone aware and a rather big commotion erupted.

Instead of calming down, some people of the crowd started yelling towards Arthur, sadly he saw those were his own men.

"The lord is in league with the dragon! How could you do this milord!!!" One young shouted.

"THE DRAGON IS COMING TO SAVE US! WE ARE SAVED!!!" Another one yelled. "THANK YOU MILORD!"

"ENOUGH!" Arthur growled thru his teeth and turned around to face the now really big crowd.

"Good people... my countrymen, hear me. Listen to my words, before you make judgment. We don't know anything about this new threat we face, we don't know how... this..." He pointed to the creature. "can spread here, we don't know how this will affect us, our lives... our children. I went up there." He pointed to the mountain. "And talked to a dragon, I went there with fear for my life in my heart, but now I know that I have nothing to fear, I have talked to the dragon and I'll tell you what, he is nice and has agreed to help us, he told me personally, that if there is a battle, he will aid us for he feels responsible for you all." He was about to continue, but he heard a voice behind him.

"Is that right, my lord?" A sly voice of a rather older low ranking officer was heard, from the looks, a man would say that he was twice Arthurs age. "I beg your pardon." He stepped forward and made a mocking bow. "What guaranty do we have, that this dragon of yours even exists, yes some of us saw it, but how do we know that he lives here at all? How do we know that you talked to him? How do we know that he is not lying?" He got closer and closer to Arthur, until the young general could feel the man's breath, which was repulsive.

"I... Have... mine and his word." Arthurs veins were starting to show on his face. "IF a man can't trust another man's word, then WHAT CAN HE TRUST." He yelled, so that everyone could hear him.

"Such a naïve young thought I'd say." The officer said. "Even if that's all true, what if the dragon switches sides, if he has not done so already, what if he harms us, what if he betrays us, I don't want dragon fire on my back!" People nodded to this comment.

"And I say, such a old doubtful thought." Arthur responded. "What interest has the dragon with people like... like this." The creature shook the bars at the mention of it. "This is clearly more a threat to him, than us and if he wanted to kill us, then he had plenty of opportunity, but he chose otherwise, he saved you from Mazzirog and his bandits..."

"That I can corroborate, one does not forget dragon talons so easily, especially not when he had them on his back." Mazzirog added, no one noticed he was there, the people frowned, they were still unhappy he was there.

"And if what you say is true sir, then he should strike us now, when we are few and until the main army arrives." Arthur added. The older man frowned. "SO I ask you, my friends, my brothers, what would you say, would you be honored, to rid this land of this taint with a dragon backing you up, with dragon fire burning this foul beasts while you strike them down?" The people looked at each other and soon whispers broke out.

"After all, he did save us." Was the most common comment, followed by. "I'd rather have a dragon fighting by my side against this, than to have to face the 2 combined."

"Long live the prince! Long live the dragon!" Someone shouted and soon the entire village was chanting this.

As Arthur was hailing the cheer, he heard a rather annoyed voice from behind him. "Tell me... my lord... what else haven't you told to us?" Arthur turned to face the frowning man.

"I don't know myself." He whispered.

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"Move, hurry it up lads!" Arthur, Lillian, Valorfar, Mazzirog and a small entourage that followed the cart with the cage, slowly progressed up to the cave, the poor horse was both frightened by the being and having trouble climbing.

"Valorfar, a word." Arthur took the captain slightly forward from the rest. "About what happened back there, I'm... sorry I was..."

"No need for that my lord, you felt the burden of your post for the first time, I understand for I had a similar situation when I became a officer." The captain said and then started panting as he climbed in his heavy plate.

Arthur nodded to him and said, "thank you" but soon everyone started panting, luckily the climb was short and they were soon there.

"Malion!" Lillian shouted and soon enough a curious young dragon appeared in front of his cave.

"Hello there, I see you brought company." Malion tried to be polite. Luckily, Arthur predicted this and brought with him only the men who had steel nerves, still the sight and thought of a talking dragon, made more than one men skip a heart beat and gasps were heard in the small company.

"Whats that horrible stench, I felt it the entire day, but now it's even worse AND what is he doing here?" Malion hissed when he saw Mazzirog, the man who dared to hurt his Lillian!

"Dragon, you gave me quite a whopping back there, but right now we need to talk." The bandit lord said.

"Yes, we have some questions about... well about that, BRING HER UP BOYS." And the cart and the cage appeared. Malion nearly roared and screamed. He hissed a lot. "GET THAT OUT OF MY SIGHT, DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS!!!!???"