Hut of Gold

It was never a well known fact that the Thieves’ Guild of Filigree did more than just train royal family approved perverts and pyromaniacs. The peasants and lower nobility believed that the spies and saboteurs that came out of that particular government house of sin were more concerned with satisfying their own lusts. Such an ill reputation made every guildmaster and those above them in the Silgolnese Empire happy for two reasons:

1. It kept the city of Filigree and its neighbouring settlements on high alert for criminals of every sort.
2. It deflected attention from the real reason for the constant absence of Filigree’s Thieves’ Guild’s graduates.

They were drops of oil, so to speak, dedicated to greasing the finances of the empire without affecting anyone living inside its borders. This practice extended to every foreign source of value imaginable including banks, private collections, hospitals, mines, graveyards, loose coins off the street, and dragon lairs.

Nobody liked trying to loot dragon lairs. Bian, three year veteran and famed for having the slimmest body in the guild, certainly didn’t.

A few days prior, reports had suggested that a dragon had been sighted at a mountain far, far, far outside the borders of the empire. And that was it, the beast had only been glimpsed but never reported as terrorizing the countryside or eating livestock or anything else worth a scream. None of that mattered to the guildmaster. All he saw was the word, ‘dragon,’ and that was enough for him to sigh and order the usual non-imperial approved steps to be taken.

Bian had already accomplished two of the three steps on her way to the dragon's territory. She’d partially burned a spare set of clothes and stolen a thick gold bar from a passing caravan. Both would allow her to claim that she had gotten close to the monster (and the latter would pay for her travel expenses). The last step was to create a convincing description that matched up with the reports by asking the locals. Once everything was put together and given to the guildmaster, who’d pass it on to the higher-ups, the Silgolnese Empire would slap another bright green marker on their maps and avoid every settlement around it like the plague.

But Bian’s report from this venture would be a little stranger than the guildmaster expected.

After running around three separate villages in her gray traveling robes, the thief found something odd about the answers from the locals. Everyone swore up and down that a dragon’s hoard capped the lowest mountain in the area and could be seen shining like a small star on particularly sunny days. But the people claimed to have never been stolen from and didn’t seem to be any worse off than villages without a dragon nearby. They were merely fearful of its presence, having seen the beast take demi-human form from far, far away. Bian’s better judgment and foolish curiosity fought one another, but she decided to visit the hoard in the end.

It would have been an easy climb if Bian had taken the obvious route. The mountain had rough stairs hewn into its surface on one side, the legacy of some long dead civilization most likely. But whatever people carved out those steps certainly weren’t the ones who kept them free of leaves and dirt.

‘It must have been the dragon,’ is what Bian shivered about as she snuck through the bushes close to the left side of the stairs, focusing on watching the sky and staying low. What a surprise it was to finally see where the stonework ended.

The very last step ended at the peak of the mountain which had been carved into a triangular hole. Bian reckoned that it would fit a few large dogs at best before kneeling to get a better look at what lay in the summit. Sitting in the hole were hundreds of coins and a few flat ingots, all gold.

They weren’t scattered about nor made into a large pile. They weren’t pressed against the back of the hollowed rock nor arranged to ring the center. What the gold was formed into was a house. Columns of coins made up the walls, stacked upon one another as evenly as possible. But an animal’s face too thick here and an edge too thin there resulted in thin wedge-shaped holes almost everywhere. It was a wonder they were still standing, especially while supporting the ingot roof and door (not that there were any hinges supporting the latter). ‘House is too good a word for this,’ thought Bian. ‘But this is the most expensive hut I’ve ever seen.’

Bian peered around it, trying to look over as much of the golden hut as she could without entering the hole proper and triggering any possible traps. It was such a small hoard, maybe the sum of a month or two of taxes from the nearby villages. But it was a hoard nonetheless. Where was the dragon? And how was this pile obtained without drawing more attention?

Suddenly, there was a sharp cracking sound, as if the point of a sword had slammed against stone, and Bian's attention was immediately drawn to the golden ingot about to smash into her right knee. All thoughts flew away, all of the world around her faded. There was nothing more and nothing less than blinding pain forcing tears from Bian’s eyes and screams from her throat. She was barely able to conjure even one thought and that was simply to wonder, ‘who sent that door flying at me?’

“WHO dares?!” Screeched a husky voice coming from the golden house, louder than any of Bian's pained yells.

The thief quickly raised her head and forced her bleary eyes open, trying not to scramble for the poultices hanging from her belt or panic. The dragon had come, and the thief wasn’t ready to die. Her mind raced, too quickly to consider anything that lay before her properly. She looked to and fro, looking for whatever giant limb that must have burst from the ground. Surely the dragon was as large as the mountain and used this spot as a decoy.

“Down here, you intruder, you.” Or perhaps not.

Bian watched through slowly clearing eyes as a brightly-coloured fairy strode out from the clearly intact house, straight-backed, angry looking, and with her claws planted firmly on her hips.

‘Claws?’ wondered Bian. ‘Claws,’ Bian confirmed. ‘CLAWS!’ She almost swore out loud.

Fairies could certainly grow to the size of a man’s head and appeared human-like with wings but fairies didn’t have claws. Or wings with scales and webbings. Or horns or even more scales running up and down much of their person. Green, red, bronze, black; Bian had only ever seen those colours at their darkest adorn the great beasts known as dragons. But here stood bright turquoise scales, sapphire blue braided hair, pink diamond lizard-like eyes, amber claws and horns and pearl skin.

Bian had heard of dragons being able to take human form but this baby-faced demi-fairy-lizard was something else altogether. Her size explained why all the witnesses thought they were seeing a transformed dragon from far, far away when in fact, she was much closer than they’d realized. The thief’s kneecap was still swelling and more than painful to touch, however, and that was all the warning she needed to never consider the miniscule monster before her anything but a dragon.

“You look scared,” with a mouthful of sharp fangs and that adult voice, the dragon sneered upwards. Somehow, it was all the more intimidating to Bian. “Good.”

Bian’s mind hurriedly pulled up the guild’s lessons on escaping from dragons and she knew right then and there that the gold bar she’d filched earlier would have to be sacrificed along with her pride.

“So, what reason do you have for disturbing I, Jhalicetorahdza the dragon? Is it to steal from me? Is it to capture me? Did those thrice-damned faeries point you here, thinking that this curse made me weak?”

“Great dragon, I was only curious about the shining star I saw from the villages down below. I didn’t know someone like you made this place your domain,” pleaded the thief, retreating a step to try and make herself look as small as possible.

For a single heartbeat, the dragon looked confused. For three more, she looked all over herself, as if something was wrong with her too bright and too small gem-like body. “You are right to fear me!” She suddenly shouted, crossing her arms underneath her uncovered breasts and flapping upwards to Bian’s eyes. Such a smug face the little dragon had put on. It might have been cute on any other occasion. “Cursed I may be, but this hoard is mine. No human can steal it without my knowing.”

Bian found it obvious that this dragon had a complex regarding her appearance. It wasn’t something to take advantage of (‘Never try to take advantage of a dragon for any reason, you’ll regret it only once,’ the guildmaster had said many times in the same grim tone) but the thief couldn’t help but become curious about how this shrinking and brightening came about.

“Allow me to present something for your hoard in exchange for my worthless life,” Bian produced the gold bar from a secret pocket in her cloak as quickly as possible, trying not to fumble, and lay it next to the gold ingot that had struck her before.

“Ooooh!” cooed the dragon, folding her wings inward and dropping from the air to land right next to Bian’s tribute. ‘Finally!’ thought the injured supplicant, hoping that Jalis-whatever would allow her sudden scramble to apply first aid to her knee. The trip back to the village inn much less Filigree was going to be very painful.

“Hey, thanks!” called the dragon, looking up with cheer in her eyes as she jumped up and down on the bar like a child on a bed. “It’s not hard stealing from humans at this size but nothing beats proper tribu- Oop!”

The two stared at each other silently. Bian raised an eyebrow and Jalis tightly pressed her lips together. That energetic moment was nothing short of embarrassing, a spot where the hoarder seemed more fairy than dragon. Suddenly, the dragon’s head twisted to where Bian wasn’t sitting and let loose a stream of fire. A thin blazing hot line blasted past the gasping human before expanding into a cone, then a ball, and finally, a storm that blackened the air outside for one heart-stopping moment.

“Yes! Thank you for your tribute! But get out of here unless you want to become ashes on the wind! My power hasn’t diminished at all, you see!” Jalis sputtered far too quickly, bending over and digging a claw each into the bar and ingot before hurriedly dragging them towards her gold house. “And tell no one of this encounter! NO ONE!” But Bian shook off her fear of death, more intrigued by Jalis’ words than afraid of her power.

“Wait, uh, Jhalicetorahdza (‘Yes! No mistakes!’)! I’d like to hear your tale if it pleases you!” Bian swore mentally for not sounding submissive enough but her sudden and foolhardy curiosity had finally gotten the best of her.

“My tale?” Jalis scoffed, not stopping her loot collection, “So you may mock my size?”

“So I may praise your thieving ability. I have never met a dragon that shared my profession and successfully remained hidden at that.” And again, Bian felt she wasn’t being submissive enough. She was too excited, more than a little of her statement was truth and not just empty praise.

Jalis released the bar and ingot from her grasp and began stroking her scaled chin and the air below it thoughtfully as if a beard were present. Though the gesture looked like it was supposed to be grandiose, Bian only saw it as rather silly and wondered if the dragon was starting to act honestly on purpose instead of by mistake.

“You never laughed at how stupid I look,” Jalis finally sighed, looking up at Bian’s face and crossing her arms again, “Can I count on that continuing while I tell my story?”

“You have my word as a member of the Thieves’ Guild of-” Bian stopped herself, wondering if even a misinterpreted cough would be enough for Jalis to burn Filigree to the ground.

“Good enough. I don’t need to know,” and then Jhalicetorahdza hopped up onto the gold bar and eagerly threw a tantrum.

Faeries are so troublesome.
Faeries are so small so how can they have so much power?
Faeries have their own special gold but they also have their own special magic.
Faeries hate it when you ask for a tiny bit of their gold every week as rightful tribute.
Your volcanic island lair is nearby anyway so why not charge for protecting their forest?
But then they summoned all of their spellcasters- ALL OF THEM- to get a single curse past your natural resistances while you were sleeping.
Then they stole all of your hoard and squirreled the lot away into their secret places to slowly be enchanted into the fairy gold you so politely asked for.
The faeries made damn well sure you knew what they did too.

“... And they chased me for a week just to laugh,” Jalis fumed, thrashing about on Bian’s tribute as if it were a bed. But despite her wild angry flailing, the cursed dragon had noticed that the thief had kept her promise (partially from being distracted by binding her knee) and not laughed once, not even her face had twitched. “Someday, I’m going back. I didn’t know I still had all my power back then and ran away to go hide where nobody could see my horrible bright and tiny body.”

“You could go back now. Terrorize them and show how their magic didn’t work completely.” Bian ventured.

“Because I want to come back big. Big and red. I want a total victory,” Jalis sat up and slapped the gold she was sitting on, “and THIS is going to pay for whatever wizard or old book I need.”

Right then and there, Bian saw an opening.

“Forgive my asking, but do you think you'll find a counter curse by staying here?”

Jalis frowned but didn't incinerate Bian on the spot. “Of course not. But it’s just so hard to let this go,” she pointed at the coin walls and ingot roof, and suddenly Bian realized that they had been partially melted to keep it all together. “My little house hoard here. It took me a year to put together from picking up coins off the streets and cutting holes in the tax collector's sacks. If people heard that a dragon like me,” Jalis spat out the last word venomously and slapped a claw against her chest with the same intense self-loathing, “was here with gold, I'd probably be fighting thieves that think it's easy money because I'm small and stupid looking. And they’d keep coming because of that too, no matter how many times I drive them off. Plus it’s just not in any dragon to give up gold, you know?”

‘How long has it been since Jalis’ last decent conversation? And why a house?’ That is what Bian wondered.

“I know. It's why I want to offer you a job,” Bian finally said what was on her mind and instantly regretted using the word, ‘job.’ Again, she was very surprised to still be alive a moment later.

“Job?” Jalis snorted in contempt. “And why would a dragon work for a thieves’ guild?”

Bian didn’t scramble to recover her position in the conversation and instantly responded. After all, she wasn’t working out of love for the Silgolnese Empire. “Not for a human, or for anyone else, but for gold. Great Jha-”

“I didn’t say human. I said thieves’ guild. Whatever treasure I steal would go to someone else and the payment would never be equal in value,” Jalis huffed, finally hopping off the gold bar and giving it a mighty shove with one foot into her house. It was as if she was protecting it from her visitor who represented such a guild. “Human. I appreciate that you gave me my first tribute since being cursed, and acknowledge my skill at theft but you’ll have to offer a much better deal for me to steal for your boss.”

Bian was flustered at Jalis’ response. She couldn't stop expecting to be dead but was also at a loss as to how to end the conversation. After all, Jalis hadn’t outright rejected the prospect of working and looked almost eager for her visitor to stay. It took one awkward moment of silence for Bian to think of an answer, clapping her hands once when she considered the dragon's power and wounded pride.

“The guildmaster would probably agree to whatever you say. You are a dragon after all, Jhalicetorahdza.”

“And what terms would make us all rich?” Jalis didn't ask the question harshly. She honestly wanted to know what Bian had in mind.

“Have you ever stolen a diplomatic report? Coded messages? Research and development plans?” asked the thief.

“And why would I steal a bunch of words?” the dragon shot back, her voice as dry as could possibly be. Yet she flew upwards again and leaned in towards Bian’s eyes.

“Because humans will pay you gold to have them.”

Jalis dropped back down to the ground, stroking her invisible beard again. She looked towards her painstakingly crafted golden house and then at Bian’s tribute.

Could a dragon, even a cursed one, really do such a thing? Work for a human? Jalis found that the prospect was more tolerable than expected. Maybe it was because she’d already spent so much time hiding in the shadowy corners of houses and not setting fire to entire towns. Maybe it was because she would definitely be able to add more than a sheet of paper’s weight- more than a coin’s weight- in gold with every theft. And if the thieves’ guild, which presumably had all sorts of contacts, liked her enough, maybe they could find grimoires and hire cursebreakers for her like minons. Maybe work was the wrong word. Mutually beneficial, yes?

“Deal,” Jalis smiled to Bian’s absolute delight (at getting out of this alive). “On one condition.”

Several moments later, the villages below gained a tale to tell at the inns about how the mountain peak suddenly rose into the sky, removing itself from the rest of the stone entirely, and flew away towards the Silgolnese Empire. When the half-cone-like rock was at its lowest, a few swore that they saw a calm and composed woman riding inside, clutching the gold inside like it was her child. There was even one drunken report of the woman conjuring a gemstone that shined all the colours of a rainbow to carry the peak through the sky.

And that's how Jhalicetorahdza made a (temporary) servant out of Bian, who was made to hold the golden hut aloft with the dragon standing proudly on top, forcing the guildmaster of Filigree to look up as she made her demands.