Follow me!!
They stared at one another, enveloped in a silence that was slowly becoming awkward. Aten the Knight lowered his sword shakily, unsure of how to move forward while the young dragon scratched at her arm.
Before him stood Vesta the Great Dragon, Slayer of Armies, but rather than the creature he expected to face, he saw a young woman with wings. She seemed equally disappointed with him.
"So this is what it has come down to? Sending me children barely meeting the call to manhood?" the dragon asked, more to fill the silence than to actually make conversation. He was surprised to be insulted rather than attacked, though she was right. He was a few months shy of eighteen years of age.
"Just because I'm young in age—"
"Save it," she waved a wing carelessly, "I have heard it all before. I am young in age but old at heart. Or, you have never met someone like me before. Or... or..." she snorted fire in frustration, unable to think of another example, even while turning back to look at the pile of skeletons behind her.
"That may be…" Aten began but faltered. He was going to use the line about being old at heart but could not think of anything better. He cursed his predecessors for their wit, then felt ashamed of defiling their names while standing on their grave.
"Well then, explain the plan," the dragon said, turning her back to him and walking across the graveyard of bones toward her treasure hoard.
"Beg your pardon?"
"Your plan. How did you intend to defeat me? You at least brought a sword, so I will commend you for being more competent than those that trespass on hands and knees," the dragon spoke, picking through the glittering shapes before her.
"I uhh..." he blinked. "I suppose I would start by sneaking up on you."
"Ah, the element of surprise is always important," she agreed.
"Then I would wait until you fell into a slumber and slash your..." he shook his head, removing the idea that this was a woman from his head. It was a dragon. Vesta had killed many who came to slay her from his village for as long as he could remember. "Your throat."
"Mmmhm, and if I was sleeping on my hoard, as I normally do, how would you get around that? The bones I have lined up would be quite difficult to surpass without waking me, no?" she asked, picking up a diamond and admiring it reflect the soft light of her chamber torches. Her cave was a wide path that led to a massive pile of treasures surrounded by a moat of blood-stained bones of those that came before Aten.
"Not at all, bones only make noise when you step on or through them, therefore I would climb along the side of your chamber using the outstretched rocks as handholds until I was able to—" he stopped when she approached him with the diamond in hand. He raised his sword defensively, shaking in his fusion of nervousness and adrenaline.
"And what if you found that your sword—"
"Stop right there!!" he demanded as she passed the bones, only feet away from him now. She didn't slow at all, a mischievous smile stretching over her face. At this distance, he could see that her pupils were slits rather than orbs.
She continued until she was arm's reach away. Aten breathed in heavily, bracing himself, and slashed sideways to her neck. His sword shattered on contact.
"What if your sword was ineffective?" she whispered, a coolness in her voice that turned his blood to ice.
"I... I would find another weapon?" he said, his voice cracking. At this, she bellowed a roaring laugh loud enough to make the knight cover his ears. She reached forward and Aten recoiled, covering his vital points. She dropped the diamond into one of his hands and turned around, returning to the pile of bones. Aten slowly untensed, looking confused.
"What... What kind of trickery is this? I won't work for you, dragon!" he said, as his courage returned to its rightful place while he voiced his defiance.
"No tricks. You are the first trespasser not to come in either completely smitten by me or charging without a plan. I am interested to see where you go from here," she said, waving him off.
"Are... you are paying me to leave?" he asked, flummoxed.
"I am paying you to buy a better weapon and try again. I await your return, oh nameless knight," she said patiently.
"Aten..." he said, looking at the diamond, then back to her. He couldn't shake the adrenaline out of his system, causing him to begin shaking in place.
"I will... I will be back, I suppose," he said, walking out backward so as not to turn his back to her.
"Do be quick. Every day I am left without company will lead me to want to raid villages, and we would not want that," she said slyly as he reached the mouth of the cave.
The game was on.