The Dragons of Decay Read Free Page A

primal hatches a new dragon to replace one of its lesser
dragons that have fallen due to accident or in battle or whatever.
They don't sit on them like hens roosting. They enforce their will on
the egg and, just like that, they have a new minion. I think that the
eggs are simply neutral; blank slates that await the will of whatever
primal chooses to use them.”
    “ Crap,
that's a lovely thought.”
    Simon sipped
his tea and stared blankly past the elementals.
    “ You
know, that does actually make sense,” he said finally. “And
if Daniel says that hundreds, or even thousands, of brown dragons are
searching the elven realm for survivors, then maybe the primal
actually hatched all of its eggs to use in the hunt. Which means that
if it wins, this world will be inundated with masses of blood-thirsty
dragons fresh from wiping out the elves and eager to root out all of
the surviving humans. Oh great.”
    “ A
terrifying thought, master.”
    “ That
is it. Okay, setting that aside for now, because just thinking about
it makes me nauseous, what do we know about brown dragons?”
    “ I'll
get your book, master,” Kronk said quickly and hopped off of
the table. He tip-tapped across the room and scurried up the stairs.
    “ My
book?” Simon said curiously to Aeris.
    “ I
assume he means that book of fantasy monsters you used to use back in
the old world when you played those games of yours.”
    “ Oh
right. Well, it is surprisingly accurate, considering that the people
who wrote it were just basically pulling ideas out of thin air.”
    “ Ah
but were they?” Aeris asked archly.
    “ Meaning?”
    “ Meaning
that we already know how the old gods of Light liked to drop clues
and hints on the cataclysm to come. Think of all of the ancient
spells and runes that your friend Daniel found long before the
dragons returned. It is quite possible that these fantasy writers
were struck with divine inspiration rather than just having good
imaginations.”
    Simon rested
his chin in his hands and stared at the elemental.
    “ You
really are smarter than you look, do you know that?”
    “ Well,
thank you,” Aeris responded with a smile. Then he scowled.
“Wait a second...”
    “ I
have it, master,” Kronk called out as he hopped down the stairs
with the heavy textbook held over his head.
    The wizard
grinned at Aeris and reached down to take the book from the earthen,
who then hopped back up on to the table.
    “ Why
are you looking so crabby?” he asked Aeris, who sniffed and
ignored him.
    Simon opened
the book and flipped through it to the section on mythical beasts.
Both of the elementals moved to stand by his shoulders so that they
could see better.
    “ Dragons.
Dragons.”
    The wizard
ran a finger down several pages until he found the proper paragraph.
    “ Okay,
here we go. Hmm, there's not a lot on brown dragons, is there? I
guess they weren't that popular with gamers back in the day.”
    “ Well,
I'd say that attitude's changed,” Aeris muttered, his
irritation forgotten.
    “ I'd
say you're right, at least where this former gamer is concerned,”
Simon replied bleakly. “Okay, so what have we got here?”
    He mumbled
under his breath as he read what little there was on brown dragons.
Then he hissed, a look of disgust on his face.
    “ What
is it, master?”
    “ Yuck.
Listen to this. 'Besides using their fire breath, a brown dragon's
principle weapon is acid. They can belch gallons of corrosive liquid
which dissolves anything organic that it touches. Plants, animals,
nothing is immune to this acidic attack.' Well, that's delightful,”
he added with a shudder.
    “Acid, master? Oh, that is bad,”
Kronk said with a look of horror.
    The little guy's reaction was more
emotional than usual and he glanced at Aeris with raised eyebrows.
    “Acid dissolves rock,” the
air elemental said wisely.
    “Oh, I see. Sorry, Kronk. Didn't
mean to shock you. But don't worry; there aren't any brown dragons
around here.”
    “Yet,”