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The Effreet and his simple proverb was right in this case. In seconds I have gained many answers to many questions, and many more questions. First, I feel some relief, she hasn't laid eggs, so those won't keep her tied to the lair. Second, I feel some concern, she has the power and the will to hex those villages? Third, if she's after a male, maybe we have something we can negotiate over... Fourth, she's that "political" a thinker that she's trying to use the villagers to drive me, their Baron, off? Calling her a beast is definitely stretching the word to it's breaking point.
"My Lady Dragon, do you recognize that your lair is no longer safe for your progeny?" I ask.
"It will be safe again once my worshippers become strong."
Hmm, that's probably my queue to exit the scene. The obvious follow through on that statement is a quick breathing exercise that leaves me resembling burnt toast. I hold my breath a moment... and the truce holds.
"Forgive me for being ignorant in the ways of dragons, my lady, but do you seek a specific mate, or will one of many do?"
"You are being presumptive, human, that any dragon would reveal such detail to the likes of you." I hold my breath again.
"Surely it is a harmless question, asked with the best of intentions." intercedes the Effreet Nazul.
"And what would you know of matters of the heart, you sexless interloper into this realm?" retorts the dragon.
"I have a heart. It's right here." he says this as he points to the center of his body.
"My point, exactly."
Eww... She is a hard case! No wonder she can't find a mate. Smart, a tongue with more sting than a scorpion's tail, and vain as well. No wonder she is desperate for Feminine Potion. But, then again, maybe that's just my human perspective.
"My Lady Dragon, let me be blunt: can you raise your brood elsewhere but the lair you have in my... our valley?"
"Many of my kind have retreated to this Plane of Fire to bear young, human, but life is too easy here, and the young grow up as spoiled brats and dilettantes. I will not have that for my progeny."
"My Lady dragon, your aspirations are truly worthy of respect. But have you considered how quickly humankind is changing the Prime Material Plane? Surely in your wide travels you have seen how humankind changes the landscape, and you have seen that these changes now come to our valley. Can your progeny survive their tender years there?"
Without warning the dragon breathes fire at me. My protections against the ravages of this plane will hold off damage for a few seconds; my response spell will let me escape with my life, but not undamaged. But before I can start responding, Effreet Nazul moves between me and the blast and absorbs it, seemingly without damage. The dragon does not seem taken back at all by this.
"You are not foolhardy, human. Pledge to me. Rule the valley in my name. Hold off the changes for both our sakes. For, those changes will harm you as surely as they harm me."
"At midnight on the night of the full moon, give up these last women you stole to me, and pledge to me. If you do not, I will make my... our valley suffer in ways it has not suffered for generations of your kind."
She breathes again, and flies off.
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