Cora felt that the darkness lasted forever, but her common sense told her that it was only a few scant seconds. She opened her eyes to find herself in a cavernous room.
Germaine's bulk was dwarfed by the room. Her head didn't even reach halfway up the archways that lined the room. Most of the archways were dark, empty corridors, and a few had doors. The ones just in front of them, further into the room, held thrones just as enormous as the archways.
Sprawled on the thrones were dragons in all colors. The most massive one was dead center, staring at their little company with eyes of molten gold. It bore a slight resemblance to Sycamore and Dewalt as they all had jet black hides.
"I've brought the savior of the little princess," Germaine said with a huff of black smoke.
The other dragons turned their attention towards them. Some of them had been sleeping and some had been admiring little trinkets caught in their claws. A few were reading from giant books and scrolls held open by attendants of all sorts.
"This is the one? It's one of the new two-leggers," the large black dragon said, interest seeping into its voice. "I would have thought it was one of the more enterprising villagers, a mayor's son or hopeful shepherdess."
"She saved me from crazed two-leggers," Sycamore said, her voice subdued. It rang so small in the large room, echoing from the walls.
Cora could tell that if not for the echoes, the other dragons wouldn't have been able to hear what Sycamore was saying. The little dragon's voice was that low. Dewalt glanced over at his little sister before striding forward, head held high.
"We petition that the two-legger that saved my sister be given a reward," he said in the loudest voice he could summon.
The echoes made his words roar. An elder dragon the color of rubies turned its attention from a scroll being held up by a young elf. The elf's livery matched the dragon's colors, complete with ornate gold filigree along the sleeves and legs.
"Since my granddaughter's charges are in agreement, why not reward the two-legger?" The red dragon asked in a mellow soprano.
"Grandmother," Germaine hissed.
"See? Even she agrees. What would you like, two-legger?" The red dragon blinked enormous green eyes at Cora. Beside her, the elf also looked over with bright, curious eyes.
Cora gulped. She had no idea why the dragons had abducted her in the first place, though she was happy to not be in the beginner area anymore. The party she had liberated Sycamore from wasn't happy with her still from what her cousin had told her. There were a litany of unanswered messages from him blinking in her interface that she kept ignoring.
She glanced around the cavern again. There were precious little clues about what she could ask for. The cavern itself was decorated in tapestries and gems. There were even murals of gemstones set far above her head height. From what she could make out from a quick glimpse, it was about dragons using their claws to close some sort of hole in the sky. She kept trying to tell herself that that didn't seem ominous.
"You're giving the two-legger a choice without even telling her what the choices might be," another dragon, this one's hide a sky blue laced with white like a cloud strewn sky. It turned its head to accept a giant slice of meat its attendant hefted out of what looked like a golden platter. "That seems passingly unfair."
Its attendant, a minotaur, sneered at the red dragon, causing black tufts of smoke to waft from its nostrils. The sky blue dragon, however, slowly chewed as a wicked smile curled its lips.
"You, two-legger, should ask for riches or magical things," it advised Cora who glanced at Sycamore and Dewalt. Sycamore minutely shook its head in the negative. "That seems more than fair for such a magnificent task."
"Enough, Derwin," the giant black dragon huffed. It looked increasingly annoyed. Then it looked around the thrones. Most of the dragons looked away except for the red dragon who flexed its claws on its throne, leaving fresh claw marks. "Stop sharpening those talons on your throne, Elysses. No one has the time or interest in sourcing you a new one."
"I have many grandchildren. I'm sure someone's done something that needs punishing," the red dragon, Elysses said. It snorted one last blast of black and red smoke before looking away. "I do have some errant grandchildren, right, Mick?"
"Of course," her attendant murmured back to her. He snapped his wrist, making the giant scroll he carried close. "I will get you those names right after Enclave is over."
"If you please," the black dragon snapped with a gesture of its claws. It turned its attention back to Cora.
"I am the current head of the Dragon Enclave, Macallan. For the good deed of preventing my youngest granddaughter's imminent death, I am willing to reward you handsomely. We are dragons. We have treasures beyond your ken." Macallan leaned forward, a toothy smile appearing. "Pick wisely."
"But what can I pick?" Cora whispered, half to herself.
"Just come up with anything," Dewalt hissed at her. "Grandfather has a short enough temper."
"Wait! What is that you have?" Macallan asked, leaning forward in true interest.
Cora looked up at him and gulped. She was finding that whatever he'd said before had to have been him faking interest in her answer. The real interested look was far more scary as was the interest the other dragons were taking. They were all looking in her direction. She felt as if she was standing on a stage in front of a very critical audience.
"Let me see," Macallan said, stretching out a taloned paw. It clenched it into a fist, and Cora's pack glowed in response. "Such an interesting treasure."
Cora watched in disbelief as the dirt filled helmet she'd found earlier levitated out of her pack. Packs were supposed to be inviolate according to the forums. Once something was stuffed in there, no one other than the owner was supposed to be able to get it back out. No one had ever said that one of the NPCs would be able to go into them and acquire stuff.
"Now that brings back memories," Elysses said to the agreement of a few of her peers.
The sky blue dragon sat up on its throne, eyes fixed on the little helmet.
"Impossible," it said. "That thing was supposed to be buried until─," it broke off, frowning unhappily.
"Well, it's here now, and we should deal with it. Looks like it's just initiated so at least we have time and warning," another dragon, this one green as grass said. Wavy lines of rust and brown striped its hide.
"Well, this changes things, my dear two-legger," Macallan said, its voice warmer.
"It does?" Cora asked. She warily looked around the Enclave. The previously nonchalant dragons were hissing and muttering to each other, totally ignoring their attendants and her.
"You didn't say that you found that," Dewalt hissed to Sycamore who looked bewildered.
"It's a dirty, smelly old piece of metal," Sycamore hissed back.
Cora agreed with her. The quest attached to it was interesting, but she hadn't had the time to actually read the details. Looking at it floating in front of Macallan, it wasn't very impressive. It reminded her of an ancient Roman helmet minus the little red brush.
Macallan made a gesture and the helmet arrowed its way back to her. She caught, trying not to grimace at the dirt that fell off of it. She'd really just thrust the thing in her pack when she found it, though she'd been running for her and Sycamore's virtual life at time.
"What can I ask for," she finally asked, glancing up at Macallan.
"Oh, that? No, no, I've got a specific reward for you now." Macallan said with a careless wave of his talons.
Cora felt a sense of unease descend. It intensified with the sky-blue dragon barked a laugh. She was feeling a definite dislike of that dragon forming.
"A specific reward, Grandfather," Dewalt asked cautiously, glancing at Cora. Cora could feel that the little dragon wasn't sure of what was going on.
"Quite specific," Macallan assured them. "Now stand still, little one. This might sting a bit."
Cora opened her mouth to ask just what he meant when a golden light descended upon her. She wasn't reassured when Sycamore gaped at it and Dewalt grabbed her by the simple expedient of biting the back of her neck and hauled her backwards out of its radius. Then Germaine swept a protective black wing across them, looking at her in concern. Cora was very, very concerned about that concern.
Then the golden light started to burn and then hurt as if she was being cooked from the inside out. Cora froze and then frantically started looking for the logout button. Her display showed that it was greyed out. The only button available was her status and it had a little pulsing golden frame with red, white-outlined words saying 'upgrade in progress...please wait' dancing around its edges.
Cora bit back a scream as the pain increased. Her vision started to white out, and then the pain was gone as if it had never been. She stood there, swaying, her head aching from the effort of not just curling up and crying.
"Not bad, not bad at all," Macallan said.
"I thought that it would die midway, and then we'd be relieved of the responsibility," the sky blue dragon groused.
"It wouldn't have gone away. Just been delayed a bit," Elysses retorted sharply. "And even that wouldn't have been a given."
Cora ignored them in favor of her display. She usually ignored it, keeping it minimized in the corner of her vision. The little blue box usually held three buttons and a minimap. The status button was now glowing golden with 'upgraded' in that same strange, red white-outlined script. Her logout button wasn't greyed out any more and her message button showed an additional thirty messages. She briefly wondered why but realized that the little ellipses on the bottom of the display that denoted the chat held a little 'F' beside it.
Cora winced internally. She'd forgotten that she'd friended her cousin and had been idly chatting with him on and off before the whole Sycamore thing happened. They'd only stopped chatting because he'd been heading towards a dungeon. He'd told her that the chat would let him keep track of her health but she'd totally forgotten about it. In retrospect, his call during the last upgrade made sense.
She clicked the status button and stared at the revealed screen. Her HP had grown tremendously as had her SP and MP. She didn't even know what good MP was since she'd yet to see any spells in-game. Her cousin had assured her that they existed but only once you reached level 10 and could go to the job trainers. They were the ones who helped you set your class. Cora's class was now set to 'Leader of the Wildlands.' She stared at it for a long moment before tapping it.
'Leader of the Wildlands' - You have a long way to go. Train hard and gain allies! Unlocks Mayoral position.
"I'm a mayor? A mayor of what?" Cora burst out. "Is that even possible?"
"Of course it is! Consider it a learning exercise," Macallan said jovially. "Let me send you to see your new domain."
"Grandfather, no!" Sycamore said, pushing free of Germaine's wing.
Cora turned to see the little dragon scampering towards her. Then another blast of golden light covered her. When she could see again, she was standing in the middle of a ruin.
She cautiously scanned her surroundings. There were buildings lacking walls and roofs everywhere she looked. Glancing down, she discovered that she was in the middle of what seemed to be a plaza, the stones overgrown with grass and buckling from the innocuous vegetation.
Cora opened her mouth and then paused. There was no one to complain to. She clicked on the chat, looking for her cousin.
"Hey? You there? Okay?? Guess what? Some idiot said that they bought a cottage near the village I'm at. They got ganked and robbed of the title. Lol! Idiot!" Nate cheerfully wrote.
Cora paused and closed the chat window after sending that she was alright. Her cousin had a big mouth and a large party he ran around with. She needed to think on this a bit more.