Please don't steal my work. This is a serious matter to me. If you suspect someone is stealing my work then please message me telling me so I can sort it out.
I spend a long time writing what I publish. I'm a one-man-band. It's only me. Everything I write is either requested or my ideas...
Don't steal my work. Take inspiration and credit me but don't steal. It's not okay.
I may not make money from my work but that doesn't make it okay. It's still mine.
••
••
He stood there with the paper in his hands, reading the poster with a scowl upon his face.
"A dragon? Really?" Geralt thought to himself as he approached Roach and climbed up.
The reward for killing the dragon was high. Nobody dared to kill dragons.
Most believed they were simply tales to scare young children into going to bed. Other believed they were gods themselves, come down to punish the people for their sins. Some believed that they were shapeshifters, people that roamed the streets and then turned into dragons at their own will. Most believed them to not exist altogether, as only a few had ever seen a dragon.
Deep in the woods, hidden in a small cave was where the dragon was rumoured to be living.
Geralt climbed down from Roach and attached him to a tree and began walking into the woods. He had no idea the size, the colour, the gender of the dragon let alone if it was one dragon. Most people expect it to be just one dragon because they only ever see dragons by themselves but as you go looking for them, there tends to be more than one.
Geralt began to grow more annoyed as the hours went along. He felt like he'd walked past the same trees multiple times. They said the cave was deep in the woods but how big were these woods? He'd hoped to have found the cave by now, slayed the dragon and be doing back into the town for his reward. But alas, no. No dragon, no cave and no money.
Geralt sat down and began to light a small fire. There was no point struggling around in the woods trying to find the dragon. He needed to look for prints if there were any and he'd began to grow impatient as he walked around.
He didn't know how long he'd been asleep, he didn't even know that he had fallen asleep. He was slumped against the tree as he opened his eyes. The low rumbling of the ground had awoken him and he hoped it was the dragon. For once, Geralt wanted this over and done with. The amount of gold almost didn't seem worth it. The sun had just begun to light up the sky and Geralt could see a bit more clearly.
There were light tracks in the ground, of feet. Not dragon feet, but human feet. Was someone else also looking for the dragon? Did Geralt have to fight someone else for the dragon and then fight the dragon too?
Geralt picked up the pace and began to walk at a more rapid pace in the direction of the tracks.
He heard a deep growl and the earth vibrated almost again. He was close. He just hoped that he would arrive before the other person, but judging by the footprints he'd be lucky if he made it there before them. Very lucky.
After walking through even more trees than yesterday, he finally saw what he thought was a cave.
He picked up the pace and slowly approached the cave, hand on his sword, just in case of course.
He stuck his head into the cave slowly and saw nothing. Geralt growled in annoyance and slowly walked into the cave. He slowly walked deeper into the cave when he felt the ground vibrating again. "FUCK" Geralt growled to himself as he slowly turned and was face to face with a dragon.
There it stood. A gold dragon, with deep blue eyes, was staring him down. "Those eyes, so blue," Geralt thought to himself, almost mesmerised by how blue they were.
"What are you doing here witcher?" a voice asked, appearing in his head.
"You're female?" Geralt asked, holding his hands out in a surrendering motion.
"You sound surprised"
"Female dragons are very uncommon. I've never encountered a female dragon before. Let alone a gold dragon"
"Ah yes. Gold dragon. I'm more than just a dragon witcher. Why are you here?"
"There's a bounty out for the dragon lurking in the woods. A lot of gold"
"Of course there is. Humans can't just leave us dragons alone. Want our body parts for magic and collections. It's fine for humans to hunt us down and lower our numbers but as soon as I defend myself I am the monster for attacking them when they attacked me first. So they put bounties on me so that someone, like yourself, will kill us so they can trade us and use us" the dragon said, slowly walking into the cave and collapsing to the floor.
"You're injured," Geralt said, slowly approaching the dragon after seeing her wing slowly bleeding.
"If you're here to kill me witcher, can I ask that you at least allow me to have one night of sleep please"
"One night of sleep?"
"I want to watch the sunset one last time and watch it rise. Please witcher"
"If you want to go that way, I'll value your final wish. I shall stay here"
Geralt walked a small distance away from the dragon and began to build a small fire. This isn't how he had imagined this hunt going. He was expecting a fight. Not the dragon to surrender its life.
He sat down by the small fire and pulled some bread and fruit from his bag and began to eat. If he was spending the night he could at least eat. Keep up his stamina in case others came looking for the dragon.
He still couldn't make sense of where the person went. The footprints led him to the dragon. But where did the person go? The dragon sacrificed her life. She wouldn't have killed someone if they came in. That was evident. Which was also strange for a dragon. Notorious for being large beasts that are extremely dangerous, why was this dragon so different? Maybe it was the fact that she was also gold. The freak mutation that made her gold may have also made her tame.
He laid down next to the fire, his sword right next to him ready to sleep. He took one last look at the dragon and succumbed to sleep.
"Wake up. Please wake up witcher!" He heard the dragon say as he was shaken away. He sat up and looked and saw a girl? A small blonde woman with the same blue eyes sat beside him, completely nude but completely scared.
"They are here. Others from town are here to kill me for the reward. It's not safe for me to turn but they will kill us as they'll believe we killed the dragon first" she said, tucking her hair behind her ear as she tried to cover herself.
He'd never encountered a dragon that was also human. They weren't even told as tales. It was unheard of. Even for a witcher. Nobody spoke of such tales as the fact of gold dragons were believed to never exist, transformations that could be controlled were unheard of. If it was true; which it seemed to be true, the same magic used to make witchers could have been used to make her. A golden transforming dragon. If people found out, the price on her head would go sky-high. People would want her for magic and testings.
He sat up, grabbed his sword and threw his jacket at her.
"Cover yourself and hide. I'll protect you. You have my word"
Geralt ran out of the cave and was met with four men. They'd anticipated needing men to kill the dragon but these were regular men. They'd be lucky to even make a dent with the swords they had. If you could call them that. Chipped, broken and falling apart their swords were. They couldn't even kill a man before they'd break.
They seemed startled to see a witcher. Everybody always seemed that way but these men seemed more unsettled.
"The dragon is dead. I arrived last night and I killed it myself. There's nothing here for you. Leave" Geralt said, his hand ready to draw his sword.
"Dammit. I told you we should have come earlier! That dragon is ours Witcher!" one of the men shouted and charged at Geralt. Of course they'd want to fight. Classic men of course. Always wanting a battle to seem tougher.
She sat at the back of the cave with Geralts coat covering her. She was worried about the witcher. She knew that he wouldn't hurt her yet if she asked. She hadn't expected to change back. But she panicked and changed when she heard the men coming. She changes when she wants, but every time she changed she slowly lost energy. She'd even collapsed once. She changed so much she collapsed in the woods and woke up about 4 days later. Someone found her and brought her back to town. They thought she wouldn't wake up. Normally people who didn't wake up after 4 days they'd deem as dead. Luckily she woke up.
She heard someone approaching the cave and she began to panic.
"You still here?" she heard the witcher say, she stuck her head out and saw him standing there, slightly bloody. She ran up to him and threw her arms around him.
"Thank you. Are you hurt?" she asked, looked over his body to see if he was injured
"I'm fine. But I think you have some explaining to do" he said as he sat down on the ground and looked at her.
"I'm a dragon. But I'm also a human. I can change from human to dragon when I want but it slowly drains my energy so I have to be careful with how many times I change. I assumed you've worked out that it's not normal. I am a gold dragon. I'm the result of a mutation. My mother was a dragon apparently and my father human. My mother gave birth to me and then disappeared and left me with my father. She was like me, except she was a red dragon. So the fact that I'm practically exactly like her, except I'm gold. The bounty on my head is high for my colour. If people found out that I can also transform, I'll be hunted down" she said, looking at the ground.
"I am Geralt of Rivia. I don't expect you to know who I am if you've been a dragon and human as you've probably been hiding from humans your whole life"
"I am Y/N," she said, drawing her legs closer to her body.
"Let's get you into town and cleaned up and then we can talk properly. You are probably freezing" Geralt said standing up and holding his hand out to her. She took his hand and together they walked down the hill to roach, Geralt keeping an eye out for anyone else looking for a dragon and Y/N with a blanket wrapped around her in hopes it will keep her warm.