The human hatchling looked around the dragon’s lair, searching for any evidence of goblins. While he looked, he made sure to bite his tongue about the lacking size of the lair. Inside of the cave was little else besides exposed stone and dirt, kicked up and tossed around due to the presence of the dragon.

  He sifted through the dirt, hoping to find any trace of the goblins, whether big or small. He’d seen them before, when he and his friends had gone too high up while playing in the mountains. They were small green humanoids, around his height yet far more muscular. His group had spotted them at a distance, a saving grace for the young children. If they’d been caught, their death was all but guaranteed.

  Goblins were cowards when it came to combat, spending most of their time hiding within their burrows. According to the stories, the only times they’d leave safety would be when they searched for food or treasure. So, if the goblins realized a dragon had brought treasure to their mountain, then the shifty monsters were sure to have tried to steal it.

  However, as minutes stretched on, the kid found himself facing an unfortunate reality. There was no evidence left behind. Any possible footprints had been swept clean by the dragon’s thrashing, and since they hadn’t needed to fight, it was unlikely for them to leave anything behind.

  “Have you found anything, whelp?” asked Burdenus. “I feel my patience thinning and my hunger growing.”

  “Uhhh,” said the human, upturning another rock to find nothing but bugs. “I… have! I have proof that goblins were here.”

  “Oh? Well, what is this proof?”

  The child stood up, placing his hands on his hips to exude as much confidence as possible. “I can sense that they were here! They didn’t leave anything behind, but they were here! I know for sure!”

  “You can sense they were in my lair?” Burdenus asked, doubt apparent in his voice.

  “Yup, that’s a special human ability. Dragons can fly and some humans can smell goblins, it’s just one of those things,” the kid lied through his teeth. “Everyone knows that.”

  “Oh, right!” Burdenus said, snapping his claws. “Of course, I just had a lapse in memory. But as you say, everyone knows it, and only an idiot wouldn’t know that. So, can you sense where they went?”

  Burdenus knew he was lazy, unmotivated, a glutton, fairly uneducated, and not well suited for most dragon activities. These were all facts his siblings repeatedly drilled into his head, but this human didn’t know that, and he wasn’t going to allow word to spread that he was unaware of how humans operated.

  “I… uh… I can’t,” the child replied. “Because these are crafty goblins, they managed to really hide their scent. But don’t worry, I can tell that they’re still on the mountain. You just need to fly around until you find them.”

  “Very well,” Burdenus said while picking up the child again, much to the human’s surprise. “We’ll just have to keep looking until we find them.”

  “Woah, woah, woah,” the child sputtered while being knocked upside down in the dragon’s palm. “Why do I need to go along?”

  Burdenus began to beat his wings once more, lifting them off of the ground and into the air. “Because you’re not free until we find my gold. If the goblins don’t have it, then that means your village must have taken it.”

  The child wanted to complain about how unfair this was, but as Burdenus shot through the sky, he found himself more focused on not falling between the gaps in the dragon’s fingers. It was a painful ride, his body crashing against the dragon’s near indestructible scales, almost knocking him unconscious by the end of it.

  When the boy was finally released from the dragon’s grasp, he felt himself roll through the dirt like a bowling ball before smacking into a thick collection of bushes. The child looked up to see Burdenus standing upon the mountain, his claws dug into the dirt.

  Burdenus stared at the small wooden structure in the distance, having decided to land only a few hundred feet away. Through the growing dimness, he could see silhouettes moving throughout the building. They were miniscule in size, no larger than the human whelp who had guided him towards their existence.

  One of the silhouettes broke free from their habitat, exposing itself to Burdenus’s gaze. It had putrid green skin with the appearance of worn leather, a set of gnarled teeth that poked free from its hideous visage, and its lanky body was only covered by a small loincloth wrapped around its waist.

  It waved a wooden club as it looked around, possibly having sensed the arrival of Burdenus. The dragon stilled, waiting for the child to climb out of the bushes he had ended up in. Once he escaped the bushes and stumbled to the dragon’s side, Burdenus spoke.

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  “Tell me, are these the ones who stole my gold?”

  The kid had no clue if they were guilty. He’d only ever seen the one goblin, and it could have been from an entirely different burrow. But if he said no and they failed to find another swarm of goblins, then he’d find himself becoming a quick meal for the dragon.

  “Yeah, they’re guilty. I can smell it,” he lied.

  Burdenus shot forward, destroying the small outcroppings of plant life as he headed directly for the goblin outpost. The human hatchling was left behind, knocked over by the sudden burst of movement. He could only lay back and watch the carnage unfold.

  The goblin who had been outside was the first to notice the danger swiftly approaching as the dragon charged towards them. With unsteady hands, the monster raised its club, before shouting out a warning to its fellow goblins.

  “Biggun! There’s a biggun appr-” before it could finish its warning, Burdenus unleashed his first strike.

  A burst of flame shot from the dragon’s mouth, the sun blossoming throughout the dark of the night. The fire surged through the mountainside, turning any trace of plant life into nothing more than smoldering ashes. In a second, it reached the goblin outpost, engulfing the goblins in an all-consuming flame.

  The scent of charred, spoiled flesh filled the sky, as the goblins didn’t have so much as a moment to feel the agony of their end. Death lay in his wake as Burdenus marched forward, peering into the charred outpost to find nothing but corpses.

  “Are any of you still alive?” Burdenus asked.

  The crackling of fire was the only response. As moments passed, he began to feel a bead of concern. He’d hoped his first attack would be nothing more than a warning shot, but if they were all dead, then that meant he’d need to find his gold himself.

  As the ruined outpost fell to the ground, his flames quickly ate through everything that could be burned. It was through the collapsing of the structure that he saw the burrow built into the side of the mountain, the entrance hidden by the building.

  Burdenus stomped through the remains, until he reached the entrance of the burrow. “I really don’t want to go looking for my gold,” Burdenus calmly spoke into the cavern. “Well, I’d have to send in this human to find it for me, but there’s the chance that someone might be hiding down here, and they could kill him. Then I’d need to go find another human to do it for me.

  So, I’ll need to torch the inside of this cave, killing everyone inside to make sure it’s safe. Or, if someone can hear me, then you can come out and bring me my gold. It’s up to you.”

  With his threat delivered, Burdenus allowed himself to rest for a moment, catching his breath from his latest exertion. It was a minute later that he heard scuttering come from inside the cavern, quickly approaching the entrance until they finally emerged.

  A small horde of goblins came out, almost all of them working to carry a stone pot filled to the brim with gold. It was an even larger sum than Burdenus had lost. Yet, while he stared greedily at the treasure, he couldn’t help but take note of the one goblin not helping to haul it towards him.

  The goblin stood at a height much shorter than the hatchling, with a physique that was much heftier. He was draped in a mixture of filthy leather scraps and vibrant feathers. His face was obscured by a wooden mask which covered his entire head, crudely carved with a scowling face, alongside an embedded chunk of copper giving it the appearance of a beak.

  The goblin carried a wooden staff much larger than him, which he placed on the ground before bowing to Burdenus. Burdenus watched as the goblin’s forehead was pressed against the ground, an indisputable act of subservience.

  “I am the goblin chief Cygnus, the one who bears many feathers. We apologize to the biggun for taking your gold. It was done by dumb heads Fringi and Passer.”

  “And where are these two?” demanded Burdenus, hoping for a decent snack.

  “They have been char-burned by the great biggun, which is you.”

  “Ah, well that’s good then,” Burdenus said with a grumble, not feeling interested in eating any charred goblin. “Okay, bring the gold back to my lair and then I won’t kill you.”

  With his orders given, Burdenus began to turn around, preparing to go back and wait for their arrival. Yet, the small voice of Cygnus spoke out to him.

  “Biggun of fire, we have no more home. You have char-burned it, and we cannot build-make another one before the wolves get us. If you leave us behind, then we will all be kill-eaten.”

  “That sure does suck.”

  “Could maybe the Aves Tribe live with you? We will loyal-serve you, and we can even build you many things and stuffs.”

  Burdenus paused at the suggestion. To be honest, he didn’t quite like goblins. They were small annoying creatures who couldn’t help but stick their fingers into other people’s gold; however, he thought back to his parent’s lair and how they had loyal minions stationed throughout.

  Lesser monsters and creatures would not only keep away intruders, but they happily served any demands given to them. As Burdenus’s stomach grumbled once more, he realized that while goblins weren’t very good meals, he could have them go find him better food.

  “Fine, you goblins can be my minions. I’ll keep you safe in exchange for doing everything I say. Now, bring my gold to my lair, and hurry up. I'm feeling sleepy.”

  “Yes, biggun, we will do so,” replied Cygnus, who picked himself up from the ground.

  As Burdenus began to leave once again, another small yet irritating voice spoke out to him.

  “Excuse me, sir dragon,” said the human hatchling, “Can I go home? I helped you find the goblins, but it’s now very late and my mom is probably worried.”

  Burdenus let out a sigh. “Yes, human, you can go home. You’ve done a good job, I’ll make sure not to eat you in the future.”

  “Well, we are very high up on the mountain and it’s night, so I was thinking maybe you could give me a ride back home?”

  Burdenus chuckled. “Unfortunately, hatchling, you’ll need to find your own way down.” Burdenus pointed a finger at one of the goblins, causing its eyes to widen in fear. “But that one will help bring you back, since it wouldn’t be good for my image if you died without a good reason.”

  Before anyone else could bother him with any more interruptions, Burdenus beat his wings and took to the skies. He watched as the goblins scampered below, one of them splitting off to the side of the human child. They would probably figure everything out.

  When Burdenus reached his lair, he curled up inside of his cave. If the goblins didn’t come by quick enough, he’d eat one of them as punishment. After all, how dare they deprive their master of a good night’s rest?