[ IP ] Dragon

“ I ’ m just concerned sir ” 
 Harding shifted his pack nervously as he made his way up the hill behind his commander, who had thought today would be a wonderful time to scout the fields ahead, in full plate no less. 
 “ No need to worry son, they ’ ve not been spotted in months since the magic took hold, and we can ’ t let our rivals get to what remains of their hoards first ” 
 Commander Warren was right, none of the dragons had been seen anywhere near their territory in the last 6 months, ever since the nations stopped paying tribute and did…something instead, Harding was fuzzy on the details of the event, only that magic “ happened ” and lots of dragons weren ’ t around anymore. 
 “ But there were no corpses, no bones, no scavenger beasts, isn ’ t it a bit presumptive to think they died? ” 
 The commander fell back to walk in pace with his subordinate so he wouldn ’ t be heard and spoke in a light whisper: 
 “ I don ’ t need you sowing fear amongst the new recruits, we have it on good authority they haven ’ t been spotted in the skies for months, and the elves are shit at lying, so calm down and think of what we ’ re going to do with all that gold. ” 
 As unreliable as elves normally were, Warren was right, the elves were terrible at lying and had more reason to fear the winged-fire as they called them. They saw entire canopy cities turned to ash for a few pieces of choice jewelry, the elves hated them more than any other race, Harding wagered. 
 The group slowly made their way down into the valley that lead to the cave no-one had seen in thousands of years. Legends said that the hoards were large enough to see the shine from miles away, but Harding only saw black. Perhaps the gold was further into the cave, perhaps someone else got to it first, not that they could leave on speculation, they needed to confirm the situation. 
 As they made their way through the valley, the land became rougher than it appeared from hilltop, with small, long hills, and large grooves cut the earth in all directions, with no damage to an untouched layer of grass on the surface. 
 A look of worry slowly crept across Harding ’ s face, Warren quickly spoke up to dissuade another complaint. 
 “ Look, Silas the biomancer is feared even by the great Naga of the sea, whatever he did should have dealt with the dragons as well as the rot-wing disease he made dealt with all of the flying rats in Storburg. ” 
 Harding was about to respond until one of the recruits spoke up 
 “ Look! There it is! ” 
 Sure enough there was enough gold to fund an empire, sitting inside the stony cave, intercut with dark circles in between the mounds that dwarfed men, with claw marks becoming more pronounced as they got closer to the cave. 
 It wasn ’ t until Harding heard a low rumbling noise all too late from underneath that he knew what it meant. 
 
 Sorry about formatting- first prompt, comments appreciated
