Varewulf

I Am A Delight

Old queer trans woman from Norway. Mainly post in English. I write stuff sometimes. Expect bad jokes. Girls and cats are nice.


[ A/N: I did another short story, this time about dragons. ]

There is a saying in this world.

"Be careful about stepping on tails. One of them might be a dragon's."

Most of the time this is meant figuratively. A caution that if you mistreat, or attack too many people, you could offend someone you're unable to handle. You could see it as a simple way to discourage children from turning to misdeeds, but considering how it can be hard to judge from appearances who the truly powerful people are, it is also a valid warning.

Some people do dress according to what you would expect of someone with a high level, and rank, but some of them can be rather eccentric in how they choose their fashion. Perhaps they even dress themselves to attract trouble on purpose.

Even their appearance, and build might not necessarily reflect their strength. A small, unassuming girl could be a level 100 S-rank. It is unlikely, but not impossible. Not to mention there are other dangerous entities to beware.

There are still people who become bandits, organisations built on crime, and so forth. Perhaps they see themselves as the dragons of this metaphor, or simply think it won't happen to them. They might believe they can handle even the most dangerous individuals, and situations.

However there are times when the saying is meant literally.



The city of Cainrad suffered a series of arsons across the span of a single night. The afflicted buildings were spread all across the city. The most curious part was how the fire behaved. It burned only the specific buildings, and didn't spread to the surrounding houses, even if they were wall to wall. It was also impossible to put out. Only when there was nothing left but ash did it stop. As if it put itself out. As if it was magic. Even the parts that were stone, or metal weren't spared. If there was a basement, that plot was now a scorched hole.

Survivors were few, and there weren't a lot of witnesses (that were willing to step forth) either.

Investigations quickly showed that most of the locations were known to be associated with a criminal syndicate that had been impossible to touch because of the lack of hard evidence, and the strong influence they wielded. Some of the buildings were not known to belong to that same syndicate, but unless they secretly were, then why would they also be burned? It was possible that they had been targeted by the culprit for unrelated reasons, but that hypothesis was considered unlikely.

Bribery of high ranking officials, and nobles was part of the accusations against the syndicate, and a big part of what made it so hard to deal with them. Keeping some locations hidden wouldn't be that hard in those circumstances.

Not to mention the actual literal force they could display. Some of their enforcers could match high-rank adventurers, and knights. And they had a lot of people. At least part of the City Guard was suspected of being on their payroll as well.

Yet now there was practically nothing left. It had all been crushed, and burned. How? Who, or what could possibly do something like that?

Talking to witnesses let them establish a timeline of events. Three days prior a certain individual had arrived in the city. The person appeared to be a human woman in good clothing, who fit the 'naive tourist' type. She explored the sights with open excitement, and freely spent money on whatever caught her eye.

Those types of people weren't unheard of. It could be some big-shot from a different country, or a badly disguised noble. Someone who would undoubtedly catch the syndicate's eye. They didn't always go after those people. Perhaps after investigating them, and uncovering their identity, they would be designated as too much trouble to target.

This woman had not been one of the lucky ones, and people had seen her get 'approached' in an alley the evening prior. Shortly afterwards there had been a big flash, and nothing had been left in that alley. Upon checking the scene all they had been able to find was ash, and scorch marks. It was hard to pin down the exact time of this event, as apparently none of the witnesses had checked, but it was believed to have happened just before the first fire started.

Putting all the pieces together left the investigators with a rather uncomfortable likely culprit.

A dragon.

Dragons were rare, and usually kept to their lairs, and roosts. They were said to be highly intelligent, immortal, unspeakably powerful, and thankfully were supposed to have little interest in the affairs, or even existence of mortal races.

But every so often one would take on the appearance of one of the mortal races, and visit their lands. This was something most people believed, and there were records to support it. Considering they were in disguise it was hard to say how many of them there were. Likely very few, but how obvious they were likely depended on how savvy they were. It was easy to imagine that a being that had only watched mortals with curiosity from afar might not understand the ways and customs all that well. So maybe they would appear like a naive tourist.

It was uncertain whether there was any truth to the existence of dragon-slayers. At least there were no openly proven instances in recent times. So the options for dealing with a dragon that caused trouble were extremely limited. Most people would probably just hope it went away on its own, because if they tried something that only agitated it further, they might all get wiped out.

Dragons probably did not have the same common sense, morality, or inhibition as mortals, so they might respond very personally to being offended. They might not care about laws. If the culprit was truly a dragon, maybe they should be thankful it didn't burn down the entire city. The extremely localised fires might be a form of mercy.

That left the question of how the dragon had known which buildings to burn. They could at least pin down the order in which the buildings had been set on fire. The one closest to that alley had been first, and next had been what used to be the suspected headquarters. From there it had spread outwards rather quickly.

The culprit must have interrogated the members they came across, but it was weird how it had managed to uncover so much. Torture and terror had limited efficiency, since people would just say what they thought their attacker wanted to hear, and not necessarily the truth. Even if they did tell the truth then they might not remember to say everything.

Had they used some sort of charm, or hypnosis? Considering the full powers of dragons were unknown, it was technically possible. Maybe they had managed to find, and follow the syndicate's documents on all of their activity. Some people said that dragons could even read minds, which if true meant they could have probably found out everything quite easily.

If they had that level of information, depending on how offended they felt, they might go after any part of the syndicate that existed elsewhere too. While this city was believed to be the origin of the syndicate, and its main headquarters, they were suspected to have branches in other places too, or at least be tied to other syndicates, and smaller organisations.

Perhaps there would be arsons in other cities, and towns soon.

As it was, all prominent figures, bosses, and enforcers of the syndicate in Cainrad were missing, and presumed dead. If any of them had managed to survive, it might take a while before they dared to surface again. Assuming they wouldn't be hunted down before then.

In the days that followed it was discovered that even some of the people, high-ranking and otherwise, suspected (or known) to be affiliated with the syndicate had gone missing. Whether the dragon had gone after them, or they had fled on their own was unknown.

In the end Cainrad was left shaken, but arguably better off? The fact that all evidence of the syndicate's misdeeds had burned along with the buildings was regrettable. It made it hard to go after any collaborators that were left, but it was unlikely the culprit cared.

Regardless, that became an example of why one should be careful about stepping on tails. One of them might actually be a dragon's.


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