[ WP ] As a dragon of innumerable age you have guarded your gold horde for millennium . Many heroes have come with long speeches on how they will slay you , the great evil , none finish . However this one is odd.He throws a coin on your stash , looks you in the eyes and says `` I have a proposition for you . ''

Drawing myself to full height, I prepared to roast the man alive for his folly. 
 
 `` Wait wait wait, you like gold right?'' he inquired nervously, `` That's what they all say about the mighty Akoratraxis, just mad about his gold.'' 
 
 `` You dare to mock me here, in my own lair? What a fool you must be, have the townsfolk run out of brave warriors, that they now send jesters?'' Oh for the good old days, when knights would enter on virtuos quests with glinting plate, talking was such a bother. Below him the man trembled, visibly. 
 
 `` Oh my goodness no,'' he tittered nervously, `` not mocking, just establishing a report.'' He stretched out a palm, before seemingly realising that any attempt at a handshake would likely crush him under its weight. He drew it back quickly and began to wring his hands in discomfort. I stared, silently, intrigued. Stammering, he continued with a speech that he had clearly rehearsed several times. 
 
 `` It's just that you've got quite a lot of gold, and you're not really putting it to use here, in a cave, sitting around.'' 
 
 `` It is my prize mortal, the reaping from the deaths of thousands and the toppling of empires. Would you deny me that right?'' I snorted flame from my nostrils, that always put the fear into them. It succeeded. But strangely the man continued, unabated. 
 
 `` Nope, not at all, deaths of thousands got it. Cities ablaze, right-o. But what if I told YOU, that you could double, nay, **triple** your earnings in just a few seasons time, without lifting a talon!'' He grinned sheepishly, palms raised imploringly towards me. 
 
 `` Triple you say?'' More flame. 
 
 `` Did I say triple?'' he squealed, `` I meant quintuple.'' 
 
 `` Go on.'' The man seemed taken aback, dumbstruck for a second, as though his preparations had not progressed beyond this point. But then, all of a sudden, a vigour seemed to fill him from the inside, the same sort of thing that I had noticed countless times before, it was self-assurance, although this kind was not clad in mail, but perhaps instead, in inspiration. 
 
 `` Alright! Well, how about this then. You've got gold, most of the gold in the old kingdom, in fact, but what then? You sit and wait with it? What if we put that gold to work for you?'' 
 
 `` I do not understand, gold has no will, no hands? How does it work? Are you a sorcerer?'' 
 
 `` No, not literally work, but it pays people *to* work. At the moment they're all hiding in fear, but if we take the gold-'' 
 
 `` Take my gold?!'' 
 
 `` Or just a portion of it! If we take *some* gold from the pile, then we can turn that small, tiny insignificant amount of gold, into much much more. And you do n't have to do anything at all.'' 
 
 `` You lie, you would have me give you a part of my horde and then run for the hills! How does the coin triple? Answer me that!'' 
 
 `` Quintuple,'' the man reminded him, `` and there are lots of ways! Maybe we use the gold to pay people to make clothes for people on the New Shorelands, and then those people pay us more for it because our tailors can perfect their craft without having to rush to finish? Maybe we take a big pile of gold like a hundred or so pieces in a chest, and tell the whole kingdom that *they* could win it if their name comes out of a hat, we could call it a *hat draw*, but we take a gold piece off everyone who enters, there'd surely be thousands of people so that's profit right there!'' 
 
 Now I was dumbstruck. The man misconstrued this as anger. 
 
 `` Or you know! If you do n't like that! We could just pay townspeople to mine lots of gold, and bring it to you, rather than hiding?'' 
 
 `` And what is to stop these people from fleeing with my treasures.'' 
 
 `` I'm glad you asked, I've spoken to the prince and bishop and the local lords and they're actually quite keen, because it means they can build bridges and castles and things, and as for the serfs, well, if you're regularly giving out the gold, then why would people want to risk that for whatever they can carry? If its coming once with every full moon, then over a lifetime everyone's making more than they could possibly steal. Plus, if we're helping you make more gold, you would n't want to burn us all to death, right?'' 
 
 He grimaced, as if unsure how I would respond. I reached out towards him with a razor sharp, talon watching the sweat bead from his forehead as I did so. Stretching down my slender, jewel encrusted neck, I lowered my reptilian eyes until they were directly level with the man's. I wondered... 
 
 `` Tell me more about this'hat-draw'?''
