Arad smiled, “Even though he’s still very young, I bet that dragon has a few coins down his pocket.”
Jack smiled, “With all the people attacking and stuff. That must be right,”
“You two,” Aella stared at them, “Isn’t that dangerous?”
Arad looked at her, “Those tree house seeds you talked about were expensive,” He said.
It clicked in her head. She smiled with sparkling eyes, “I hope he has enough gold,”
Dragons are dangerous creatures, and only a fool would challenge them in a fight for fun. Yet, over the ages, humans raided the dragons’ lairs over and over for a single reason. Those holes are filled with wealth and gold.
The three looked at each other, “We first snatch the treasure and hide it in my stomach,” Arad said, “After that, we can deal with killing the dragon.”
Jack looked at Arad, “We can just take the treasure and hit the road.”
“No, we need the heart,” Aella said with a sigh, “And Arad, you do need the dragon, right?” ｂ𝚍𝚘𝚟ｌ.ｎｔ
Arad looked at her, “You still haven’t eaten anything, have you?” She said.
Arad opened his hands, and the blood bottle and the flesh slap appeared, “I feel like I can’t go back if I ate them,”
[You will be fine. But I don’t suggest using your vampiric or wyrmwolf powers before eating, as those would make you starve faster.] Mom explained.
Arad stood, hiding them in his stomach, “I will eat when I need to,” He stretched his arms, “Should we start working?” He said.
Jack and Aella stood, smiling, “Let’s go. But we need to move the tent to another spot.” Jack said.
“To where?” Arad replied.
“Behind the tree,” Jack pointed at the big tree they hid under, “That patch there has some dirt, and they won’t notice us if you can dig well,”
“Arad can dig pretty well. He’s also fast.” Aella said with a smile.
“Well then, we will move the tent and use that place as a start. Let’s hope the dragon won’t attack immediately,” Arad said with a smile.
[Tell Jack to pretend to be preparing traps. We need the dragon to think we’re trying to bait him to attack. That’s why he won’t attack us the place,]
“Jack, can you pretend to make some traps? The dragon won’t attack us if it though we want him to attack,” Arad said with a smile.
“So, want to make him feel like we’re trying to bait him in a trap? Easy enough,” Jack smiled as he walked around, gathering sticks and creating weird contraptions that did nothing and hid behind bushes and leaves.
Aella helped as well. She walked around drawing fake magical circles in the ground and hiding them with dirt and grass. She wanted to make it looked the place is ready to blow up the moment the dragon get close.
The dragon is bound to be watching from afar, and this makes it seem to like attacking the place is a bad idea.
Arad, Aella, and Jack retreated to the tent that Arad moved and hid inside, “Good, be careful, I’m transforming,” Arad warned them as he morphed, the tent wasn’t that big, and they had to curl in the corners to give Arad enough space.
Arad extended his claws and started scratching at the ground, digging and hiding the dirt in his stomach. He kept doing it for a few moments until he got enough room to slip inside. He then transformed back into his humanoid form to talk, “Since you’re two, can you latch under my wings?” Arad looked at them.
“We can’t just crawl behind you?” Jack asked.
“The hole is only big enough for me to fit, and you would be better protected from a collapse if you hid under my wings,” Arad replied.
Jack nodded, “We’re getting a ride under a dragon’s armpit, no wingpit?”
“It doesn’t matter, does it?” Arad looked at him.
“Fair enough,” Jack replied, and he and Aella latched onto Arad’s wings. “This is better than I thought. We’re even protected from dirt,” Aella said with a smile.
“What did you expect?” Jack sighed.
“Last time, I latched onto his stomach. I still had my hair dragged on the ground,” Aella replied with a smile.
Arad lept into the hole and started digging. He then closed the hole behind him when he got deep enough.
“I can’t believe we’re carried by a dragon, digging underground like a mole,” Jack said.
As the two chatted, Arad was looking around with his [Void eyes] for dense magic. The denser it gets, the closer they are to the dragon’s lair.
One claw after the other, Arad chased the magic till he stood beneath the densest part, ^This should be it,^
[Don’t go out. Sit and watch for a while.] Mom said, [If it started to move, we knew it was coming from the dragon.]
After an hour of waiting, the dense magic finally moved. Mom was right, that it was related to a living being, the dragon.
As Arad looked up, he could see the magic move and leave. The dragon must have been resting after Arad got his left eye.
[The place seem safe, got out slowly,]
Arad turned his head toward Aella and Jack, and they understood that it was time.
Arad slowly clawed out, only digging a small hole enough for him to peek through. They were inside a cave filled with the dragon’s smell. It is the lair.
“Sulfur and pumice, this has to be the place,” Jack said with a smile.
“This smells horrible,” Aella closed her nose.
Arad turned his long neck and looked at Jack, “I heard that red dragons smell like that. Any rogue or druids wouldn’t miss it,” Jack said, smiling.
Arad dug the hole out and exited, letting Jack and Aella stand. “Where is the gold?” Jack asked.
Arad morphed back to his humanoid form, “That way is the exit,”
Jack smiled, “So the treasure is this way,” He turned around, but Arad stopped him, “Traps,” He said.
Jack stopped, looking down with a sad face, “Yeah, we can’t have the dragon come back and eat us before we can get the gold.” He bent down and started pulling wires from his pocket, “You two go deeper and look for treasure. I will make sure this place is a death trap.”
Arad smiled, “Thanks, Be careful from the dragon’s return,”
“Don’t worry. I know how to hide.” Jack smiled, “And how to make some nasty traps,” He pulled a small glass bottle from his pocket that had a black powder in it.
“What is that?” Aella asked.
“I call it, Kaboom salt,” Jack looked at them with an evil smile, “It’s a fun toy to use,” He immediately started digging small holes in the ground, pouring some Kaboom salt and putting steel spikes on top.
Arad and Aella looked at each other and then walked down the cave.
Aella kept her nose closed. The strong smell was more than she could handle. “How big is this place?” She mumbled.
“I don’t know, but we should be close,” Arad replied, smiling.
After half an hour of slowly crawling in small crevices, they finally reached the last room.
Arad lifted his palm and ignited a flame, revealing what the room hid from them. “Is this a pile of trash?” Aella sighed.
Arad looked around he could see armor sets, weapons, monster heads, and steel carriage wheels. They are what the dragon hunted on the road. His treasure wasn’t going to be pure gold and gems.
“The dragon was hunting and killing travelers around here,” Arad said, crouching beside the pile of items.
“In this sense, he seems more like a crow, picking anything shiny.” Aella said, lifting one of the armor sets, “Can we sell this for money?”
“Of course, but look here,” Arad smiled, pointing with his hand at a strange clawed part of the stone ground, “Let me dig,” Puff! Arad transformed back into his draconic form and ignited the flames on the tip of his tail like a light. He then used his front claws to dig.
Suddenly, Aella smiled, “This is it!” She saw a silver coin in the dirt Arad was taking out, “Keep digging. He buried the gold there,” She said.
Arad kept clawing and clawing He first picked copper coins and then silver coins, and lastly he started pulling gold and gems.
Arad morphed back into his humanoid form.
The two then started counting the coins one at a time. There weren’t that many gold coins, but there were a ton of copper and silver coins.
[Not that many people carry gold coins when traveling. And commoners barely see them. If the dragon was attacking travelers, it makes sense that he would have more copper and silver coins than gold.
After a while, Arad and Aella gave up counting the copper coins, and Arad started putting everything in his stomach, dirt and Coins alike. He can clean and count later.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The cave shook as multiple explosions were heard.