Fawnlum joined the people looking skyward, as a shout went up, and then another.

Sabers and axes were raised, and wizards and clerics started the early invocations of spells and gathering power.

The crowd drew back as the body descended, its shadow making lazy circles as it claimed the ground.  It made tighter and tighter turns, as a spot cleared underneath it.

Fawnlum and Sienna pushed their way through to the inner edge of the crowd, Honee right behind them.

On the top of the cliff, with Dregor at the fore, the nobles and their guards all stepped up to the edge, hands gripping but not drawing their weapons.  As Honee strung her bow, other fighters came to the inner edge with Fawnlum and Sienna, with the civilians at their back, as Felldrake the red dragon touched down, kicking the ground with a dull ‘thud’ on impact.

Nobody spoke as he looked around with his vertically slit eyes, smoke rising up from his nostrils.  He picked out and looked right at people in the crowd, fixing his terrible yellow gaze on individual humans with his aura of intimidation.

His body was longer than three wagons, with his neck nearly as long and his tail longer still.

The shovel-sized talons on the end of each toe chewed into the earth, as he made slight adjustments in his stance.

Each scale of his armored hide reflected the sunlight, shining with invulnerability against nearly any attack.

His head rose with a maw that could easily snap up a six foot man, brimmed with spotless white fangs, each one stronger than steel.  From the top of his serpentine neck rooted to his muscular chest, he kept his head elevated high above the crowd.  His haughty visage was framed by a collection of swept back horns, the two longest and most terrible ones on top.

Many winced, but none looked away.  He flexed his wings once, then twice, before folding them gracefully against the back of his giant reptilian form.

His tail twitched and swayed over the ground, displaying its swept-back spikes.

He opened his mouth, using basic – for a dragon –  magical means to broadcast his voice, and form the words of the common tongue.

“Greetings, Good King Dregor.”  The pronunciation was gravelly, but the arrogance dripping on each word was unmistakable.

“What do you want here, Felldrake?” Dregor called defiantly.

“I have come for your answer, human.  For my petition to search your kingdom with your protective wards removed.”

“No.”

“Bold answer, little one.  But also, folly.

“I seek only an object – a thing that I can make use of, with no loss to your nation.  And for you to deny me in this, will not stand.”

His voice became more threatening.  The light in his eyes became more intense and shining.  “If you’re keeping me from searching for it, it means you already possess it.  But you would not answer that question when last we spoke.”

A long silence followed.

“Well?” he hatefully growled.

“I’ll answer no question of yours.”

“I could easily reduce your people to chaff, and I take what I want.  But if you order your wizards to dispel the wards, it need not come to that.”

He and Dregor stared at each other, neither giving an inch.  Dregor stayed quiet.

Assured of himself, Felldrake broke the silence.  “Will you do it or not?”

“No.”

“I shall return with my fire-kin, and your people will die for your stubbornness.  But I am willing to arbitrate this insult with,…a compromise.”

Dregor kept his face focused, while Fawnlum felt her own eyes blink.  She certainly had not expected an offer of negotiation from a red.

“Surrender to me one family member, which I will take in place of my rightful prize, as proof you do not simply seek to keep it for yourself.”

Dregor locked Felldrake’s oversized irises with a look sharper than his saber.

“No family or citizen or even livestock will I allow to pass into your hands.”

“Is one worth the risk of all your precious subjects?” Felldrake asked with a long hiss on the last syllable.  “Dragons know when to give in order to get.”

“These aren’t subjects,” he announced with a wave of his hand.  “They’re kinsmen!  And you will get nothing.  Leave here.”  There was a note of finality in his voice, although he had still had not drawn the saber on his hip.

“Very well, human.  It now means war.  Make peace with your – “

“I’ll do it!”