I was wandering around, not really knowing what to do. I was sort of looking for clues that would lead me to the Ruler Of Dragons, but given that the people were genuinely terrified of me, I didn't know where to start. That didn't matter all that much, though, because my luck helped me out. Well, luck is easily said, I would have almost died, to be honest with you. Let me tell the tale.
I was, well, wandering around, when I heard a noise. Not much of a noise, but still enough of a noise to catch my interest. It was some sort of thud, followed by something breaking. Quickly, I ran towards the noise. Once I had reached my destination, I was stunned by what I saw. In front of me, lying on the floor, lay a dragon. Dead dragon, that is. With its head cleanly lopped off. It appeared that it was slain by a large sword.
For context, the dragon wasn't exceptionally big or anything. But it was a dragon all right. however, something still felt off. Although the dragon was obviously dead, I still felt an Aura in the air. It wasn't as strong as the one of the Ruler Of Dragons, but it was still overwhelming, and I felt really uneasy. I carefully approached the slain dragon. I quickly realised that the Aura wasn't emitted by the dragon. That was when the Aura started growing, and the pressure started rising. I was getting a headache. I turned around to see where the aura was coming from, but it was already too late. A strange man was holding his white shining sword against my throat.
I started seriously sweating. The Aura that guy was emitting was seriously concerning. It wasn't nearly as dominant as the Ruler Of Dragons', but I started getting flashbacks. I tried to regulate my breathing. Now was definitely not the time to panic. I knew that one wrong move would lead to my head being cleanly removed.
I tried to strike conversation with the guy. Not necessarily the best choice but I had to do something alright.
"Why hello there", I said. I know, that was not necessarily the best way to start talking to someone who is about to kill you, but it was the first thing that came to my mind.
"Who the hell are you", the guy asked.
"Are you asking for my name?" Hear me out. I know, not directly answering was pretty much playing with my life, but I didn't want to give him everything for free if he was going to kill me anyway.
"Why the hell would I care about your name?" That guy seriously was in a bad mood. Unfortunately, I had no Idea what to answer. I wasn't a conversationalist alright. He did not see, to like my silence. He swiftly grabbed me by my neck and threw me. I know saying that sounds weird, but that was quite literally what he did.
I was thrown straight into the mountain. The one my cave was in. So about 400 metres far. I felt every single rib of mine breaking. I couldn't describe the pain. Not necessarily because of how bad it was, quite the opposite actually. For some reason, I didn't feel ,much at all. It did hurt alright, but not nearly as bad as it should. I didn't get a break to breathe, though.
Before I managed to get up, the guy appeared above me. He had this look in his -bloody red- eyes that just screamed : I am going to kill you, bastard. Surprisingly though, He had switched swords. He was now wielding a basic single-hander. Not shiny or anything. Oh and by the way, when I said he would kill me, I meant it. He did kill me there. I think. I am pretty sure, to be honest. He lopped my head clean off.
Now, I did die. I am one hundred per cent positive. That being said, It looked like I wasn't dead for good. I woke up tied to a tree. Next to a campfire. The bloke from earlier was sitting on the floor, staring at the flames, looking cool as hell. I was going to talk to him, but given the reaction I had received earlier, I found maybe I should let it be.
Oh and by the way. For context. I don't know why I was alive, to be frank. I had a hunch, being that I was immortal, but that would make me an overpowered main character, which would really suck. Honestly. That would be boring. Oh, I forgot to mention, I suffer from main character syndrome. I was convinced that I was the main character from the day I was born. Call me weird, I'll take it.
Surprisingly, I didn't feel any pain. I mean, I had just died. I did plan on asking the guy in front of me why he killed me, but I let it be for now. Considering the expression on his face, I guessed he would just kill me again. That chap was definitely suffering from main character syndrome as well.
Then, suddenly, without warning, he released his Aura. It felt less bad than when I first met him, but It was still very much painful. I closed my eyes. No particular reason, I just did. And I was happy to have done so. I suddenly felt his gaze resting on me. It doesn't make sense, but it just.. felt like he was looking at me. He didn't say anything, though. I tried not to move, If he realised I was still alive, that surely wouldn't end well. Still alive, not so much as alive again, but you get the point. He retracted his Aura.
Over the course of a few hours, he kept releasing and retracting his Aura, I didn't know why, though. It felt weird, though. The Aura felt especially dominant around my neck. Instinctively, I tried feeling my neck, with my hands. Of course, given that I was all tied up, I couldn't. Is what I thought. Turns out the ties weren't very firmly tied. So I scratched my neck. And the guy who had killed me, whom I will refer to as "That Guy" from now on, saw me move.
I thought I was done for, for real this time. Surprisingly, though, he didn't kill me. Yet, anyway. He didn't even look mad. He started laughing. Not a psycho or madman type of laugh, more of a sad or relieved laugh. What a madman.
"Finally done pretending to be a corpse, eh?"
Now that I thought about it, that guy had a really nice voice. A storyteller kind of voice. I didn't know how to react, so I stayed silent.
"Since you already cut your ties, might as well come sit next to me", said that guy. So I did.
I managed to get a closer look at his face. He looked sad. Or traumatised. Or both. His eyes were red like mine, but his hair was grey. I guessed it had been black once. There were some white strands mixed in it as well. Though, he didn't look old. He definitely didn't look young either. I honestly couldn't guess his age. It was kind of irrelevant, though.
"Not much of a chatty fellow, are you", that guy said.
"I-" I had no Idea what to say. I was nervous. It looked like he wasn't going to kill me, though.
"Why the hell did you kill me?"
"Why does it matter? You're alive, aren't you?"
"I'm not joking"
"Neither am I"
"Who are you?", I asked that guy.
"Are you asking for my name?" He was seriously mocking me at this point.
"I'm a Dragon Duke", he answered after a few seconds of silence. "And so are you"