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Description
Legend says of a volcano, one like any other seen before. This volcano was one that was rumoured to be blessed by the gods above, allowed to perform a miracle whenever it erupted, for this volcano didn’t erupt molten, smouldering lava but it erupted gold. The volcano shot gold into the air and rained riches down from the heavens. Many villages have been settled at the foot of this volcano to receive the gold from the blessed volcano. It is said they live comfortably in a life of luxury.

But only the villagers themselves know of the horrible error in their greed when they first established the villages on the foot of this volcano. People waited with glee as the volcano rumbled loudly, announcing its oncoming eruption, but the villagers did heed its warning. When the volcano erupted, the gold was shot into the air, some it oozing down the sides of the volcano, the villagers cheered as their wealth was well on their way to them. But when the gold began raining down, it was as if the sky was on fire. The gold was molten and burned through anything and anyone that it landed upon, anything that wasn’t destroyed was coated in a thick layer of burning, smouldering gold. After the disastrous eruption, the villages that had been built were nearly destroyed completely, left in a heavy blanket of burning gold.

Despite the destruction that the gold giving volcano had brought, the greed in the villagers’ hearts overcame. The villagers that weren’t killed or scared away from the destruction, mined the gold and used it to build bigger villages. But sadly, that wouldn’t be the last time that the volcano would erupt, in fact, the volcano would go on to blow out the gold many more times in the lifetime of the village.

The eruptions truly tested the willpower and greed of the villagers that lived in the villages at the foot of the volcano. With each eruption, the villages were destroyed and coated in gold and few would die in the disaster and the remaining would question whether staying at the village was worth all the gold they could have and even few would return. This destructive cycle went on until a single village remained. But this village was no longer a simple village. With the gold they collected from all the abandoned, destroyed villages, and the gold that rained down after the eruption, the village grew into a town and the town grew into a kingdom and the kingdom kept expanding until eventually it surrounded the entire volcano, not daring to grow further from the volcano to keep the greedy from keeping all the gold to themselves.

This kingdom flourished beautifully, no one was poor, everyone lived in luxurious mansions and the kingdom was built on golden blocks from the surplus of wealth that the citizens retained. They had it all, even a plan to keep the number of deaths to a minimum for when the gold-smudged volcano erupted. The king had a shelter built underneath the kingdom for everyone to vacate to if the tell-tale signs of the imminent eruption began showing, the citizens would only die if they declined vacating the premise, leaving them to boil in their golden house when the molten gold began heating things up. Once everything was over, the kingdom’s citizens would emerge and begin mining for their newfound wealth.

Indeed, everything was perfect for this wealthy, flourishing kingdom. There was talk that the kingdom might look into expanding technologically, maybe open a library to document all the wisdom that has been flowing. Nobody in the kingdom was unhappy.

Except for one sad citizen. But this was no ordinary citizen, he was someone of utmost importance, he title was that to deserve respect. This person was the next in line to be the king. Not-Yet-King Ulysses. His heart was as easily influenced by the devil gold that rained from the cursed mountain. He didn’t believe risking the countless lives of the greedy citizens was worth all the gold in the world. He wish he could do something to fix all this, something to save the citizens of this doomed kingdom.

He stared down from the castle, which was much more luxurious than any castle that any Traveling Jester has ever seen. He stared at the citizens as they traded and talked and shopped, as if they were unaware that someone of them might die soon. With each passing month, the eminent eruption grew ever so closer, hanging over the kingdom’s head with each year it didn’t erupt. The eruption happen often, but never has the kingdom gone five whole years without the volcano erupting. And this year was a horrible year, year five. Quoting his greedy father, “The longer it takes for the volcano to erupt, the bigger the pay-out!” Which means that this year is going to be an incredibly dangerous eruption, the King was having a mini-freak out. Mostly because they were already 7 months in and didn’t know how bad it’ll be if they ever make it to the sixth year. Are they prepared for a year-six eruption?

Ulysses, panicking and feeling like he has no one else to turn to, looks up to the sky and directs all of his prayers to whichever god or gods he believed in at the time, “Please, oh please listen to my pleas, all I wish is that you give me the opportunity for me to save these people from the evil volcano that rains down destructing from the sky from time to time. If you give me the chance to change this greedy kingdom’s fate, I promise I’ll take full advantage of the opportunity. I won’t make you regret it” He continued to say his pray until a knight barraged into the room.

“Sir Ulysses! The King, your father! He’s dead!” the knight yelled in a frantic panic, as if he doesn’t see death in his work area.

Ulysses stared awestruck, mouth agape. He didn’t know what to say, he slowly turned back to the sky, “Ummm… okay, that’s not what I meant!”

The funeral that followed was a beautiful one, one that was dedicated to a wonderful King, one that deserved the tile legendary. Few people ever got to wield that tile, all of them were kings. The funeral went on smoothly, except for the few hiccups were some of citizens killed each other for some odd reason. Ulysses was a bit shocked by their behaviour, wondering what would have happened had he organized a wedding.

After the funeral, Ulysses was crowned King and he was sat in his proper throne. The knights kneeled and the Captain stood to Ulysses’ side, “What is your first order, King?”

The King pondered briefly, “I have a mission for you,” he responded, looking up at the stained glass ornament above the throne room entrance, the gold-spewing volcano depicted on it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Captain gathered a small team of knights, preparing for a royal mission given by the kingdom. They were tasked with gathering recon on the volcano to investigate why the volcano would erupt gold instead of lava and find out if there was a way to either stop the volcano from erupting, stop the lava from turning into gold or just the flow of gold to keep the volcano from erupting. They also carried buckets of water as methods of slowing the eruption countdown.

They set of early in the morning, before the sunrise, resulting in a groggy group of knights fumbling out of the castle to start their hike up the towering volcano. Predictably, throughout the whole journey, the knights complained about how the King was planning on destroying all the progress that the kingdom had done and plunge the economy into a Grand Depression. The Captain had had enough of their complaining.

“Shut up!” the Captain interrupted, the other knights quieting down, “The King is only looking after his citizens’ safety, he’s tired of everyone killing themselves living in this ‘volcano-cursed-kingdom.’ His words.”

“Then why doesn’t he just build something to protect us, instead of have us cut off the gold?” asked one of the knights.

“I don’t know,” mumbled the Captain, enjoying the silence for once.

The journey was a treacherous one, it took nearly the whole day to climb the gold coated surface of the volcano, taking precaution to not slip on the gold and end up tumbling down to their deaths. It took longer than estimated for the knights to hike up to the top of the volcano, and once they finally reached the top, the sun had already crossed the sky, nearing the edge of the world in its descent. The knights gasped for air as they finally reached the summit, trying to keep a steady foothold on the slippery gold surface that covered the entire rim of the volcano.

“Alright, men,” called the Captain, panting, bending down in exhaustion, “We’ve made it… to the top. Time to... to dump the water.”

“Wait, shouldn’t we investigate first?” one of the knights ask, puzzled by the Captain’s orders.

“There is nothing, phew, for us to investigate. Just dump the bucket.” The Captain ordered, exhausted.

The knights approach the rim slowly and carefully as to not slip on the gold and tumble down into the volcano. Before they dump the contents of the buckets down the hole, they a deep, sickening noise come from within the volcano, almost like a moan.

“Wh-what was that?” Asked one of the knights in the back.
“Is that a sign that the volcano is going to be erupting soon?” Asked another knight.
“How would I know, this sound isn’t loud enough for us to hear from the bottom of the volcano.” Answered a third knight.
“Well I think we should investigate it!” Proclaimed a knight bravely.
“No way!” Panicked one of more cowardly knights, “We should turn back now and hide beneath the kingdom with the rest of the citizens!” The knights began arguing among themselves in deciding whether or not they should descend into active volcano that may or may not possibly erupt very soon.

“Everyone Shut! I’m the one who decides whether we go down into the volcano or not and I decide that we go into the volcano!” The Captained to a whining majority, “The noise didn’t sound volcanic-” “How do you what volcanic sounds like?” “Okay, Firstly, Shut up! Secondly, that sounded almost... human-like.”

“Are you saying someone is down there, moaning like a... volcano, is that what you’re saying?” asked one of the knights, unsure what metaphor to use.

“Yes, and if someone down there is shooting molten gold to our kingdom by force, or worse by choice, we must save/stop that person... and take all of their gold reserve, of course. Now, who’s with me?”

The knights stayed silent for a while as they pondered whether or not it’s worth saving someone’s life for gold that will one way or the other already make their way to them in the long run. “Maybe you can check if there is someone down there worth saving?”

“Fine, but you guys better come and help when I call, alright?” The knights nodded half-heartedly. “Alright, so now I make my-shit!” As the Captain tried to get foot on the edge of the gold-coated rim of the volcano, his hands slipped, along with his feet and his footing, as well as his balance and somehow managed to fall into the volcano. The knights watched as he disappeared into the dark hole, hearing nothing but a dull thud followed by the same noise as earlier.

“Captain?” One of the knights called out, “Are you dead?”
“He’d want us to leave.”

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At the bottom of the volcano, the Captain awoke with a heavy daze. His head was pounding after such a fall. Luckily for most knights, their armour protects them from too much brain damage. Muscle damage on the other hand... “Augh, crap!” the Captain cringed, trying to get on his feet, his body ached and he was quite sure he broke a bone or two. Scanning his surroundings, he saw nothing but the steep walls of the volcano, predictably coated in gold, though it seemed to have hardened or burned to a darker crisp. I guess that’s what happens when you heat gold too much.

Wait, where’s the gold?

Captain looked around, there wasn’t any gold anywhere, there’s nothing here. The surface did seem a bit odd to the Captain. It seemed slightly spongy, just soft enough to help him avoid falling to his apparent death. He studied the surface carefully for it was quite an odd one, he had never seen anything like this before. Not that he studies soils or surfaces for a living, but it’s an important skill if the Captain wishes to find his way around the valleys. Upon closer inspection, he realized this surface was made of leather, dragon-skin to be exact. It was stretched, far beyond its expected elasticity. It would be impossible for leather like this to expand without ripping apart, even if it were attached to a dragon, whatever was helping the leather keep someone its elasticity (fat, muscle, nerves) would as well been brought to its limit long ago.

He wanted to touch the surface but the heavy creaking that resonated from surface as it seemed to try to stretch farther than it already can. He removed his gloves and brushed the surface careful with his fingertips and immediately felt the heat. If what he theorized was correct, the molten gold is trapped beneath this failing leather cover. He tried to hypothesize what he could do to both keep this surface from exploding and also collect the gold from beneath the creaking surface. He trekked around the surface in search of an answer to this puzzling puzzle. But as he searched around the “bottom of the volcano” some more, he realized the surface was slanted, no not slanted, domed. The center (where he fell), was the highest point of this dome and it sloped down to the sides of the volcano. Suddenly, he came up with a solution.

He could find the weakest point on the side of the dome, cut a downward incision on the side of it and it’ll cause the dome to explode into the side of the volcano instead of up and then the kingdom will be saved and everybody can still have their gold. Mine and repeat. Oh, also not die in the process, obviously.

He circled the dome, trying to find a weak point when halfway through he something truly surprising. This dome was connected to a dragon. Probably, all he can see is the dragon’s head poking out from above the dome, seemed this orb had grown too big to fit the rest of the dragon.

The dragon was grey skinned and was obviously pushed up against the wall by its enormous gut. These were the most defining traits the Captain could identify. Whether it was male or female was impossible to tell as the gut had either covered, crushed or stretched any identifiable features of this creature’s body. Though given the groan from earlier, the Captain expected a woman. “Dragon!” The Captain called, but the dragon didn’t responded, didn’t look like it was aware of its surroundings. “Dragoness?” The Captain repeated, wondering if it was a case of gender that the dragon didn’t respond. The dragon simply moaned loudly, the Captain took this as a response. He watched try to strain her neck, the surface of her gut heaving and creaking loudly as it tried to contain the high amount of liquid gold, nearly throwing the Captain off balance. He approached the dragoness’s head, determined to find the meaning of this.

“Dragoness! I am Captain Bram from the Kingdom of Gold.” He introduced himself, the dragoness didn’t even pay any attention to him, and she just laid her head against the wall, her mouth agape, leaning her head back below a crack on the wall. A quiet moan could be heard coming from her mouth. “Dragoness? I’m here because my king wishes for you to quit showering our kingdom with the gold in your gut!”

That got some of the dragon’s attention, apparently. He eyes, dull and glazed, rolled to look at the knight standing on her gold-filled gut before mumbling, “No... Gold mine... Almost five... Go... away...” Another heaving tremble swept through the gut, causing the dragoness to moan in pain. Had her hands not end up pinned to the wall by her gut, she would have tended to her tightening gut. Just then a drop of gold appeared from the crack and made its down to the dragoness’s already open maw. She extended her tongue and lapped the gold, adding the drop to already pressurized pact of gold within her.

Captain looked at the quivering surface beneath him, hearing the tell-tale rumbles of an imminent eruption, or in this case, explosion. “Dragon, I don’t know what you’re trying to do but you better stop or I’ll slay you and take your gold!”

“NO!” the dragoness yelped, a look a strain and anger in her face, “This gold...” she tried to speak, struggling through the gut growing pressure, the skin beginning to expand one final time, the gut on the verge of giving out, “Is all...” she gritted her teeth she could feel the gold within her push out one final time, she hoped she could have lasted long enough to enjoy all the loot she had collected over the years. The Captain realized he hadn’t given enough time to form an escape plan if anything went wrong and cursed at himself in the short amount of time he had left.

“MINE!”

King Ulysses heard a voice scream in the distance, one filled with anger and greed, it was shortly followed by the volcano erupting violently, beating the records of all the other eruptions before it. The King dropped his head in disappointment as the knights lead him down to the underground shelter, where the citizens cheered as they celebrated the new found wealth the will befall them shortly.

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“So what do you want me to do?” asked a large dragon, she was brought to this volcano by some cloaked men.

“Madame, we wish for you to keep the gold from entering our small village, for you see, we live below this volcano, down that hole.” He points to a small opening, only big enough for the small cloaked man and his subjects to fit through, “And from that crack behind you gold seeps through continuously. If we let it drip for even a month, molten gold will pour into our small village, burning everything and destroying everything we love.”

“So what do I get in return?” asked the dragon, crossing her arms.

“Well, if you manage to keep the gold away from our village for five years, you get to keep all the gold you’ve managed to collect.” The cloaked man bargained.

“All the gold?” the dragoness thought, “Five years?” after some quick calculations (in terms of how much gold will have dripped in a month to manage to reach the tiny people’s hole) her eyes shined bright, “You got yourself a deal!”

“Excellent! Thank you!” The cloaked man grinned before gasping in fear, “Look!” A drop of gold had from the crack.

“I got it,” she scooped the gold with her finger and looked at it, “That’s already a hefty amount of gold, but no worries,” she licked it clean off, “Dragon’s regular diet already includes gold, you’ll be fine.” She grinned. She was excited for the five years to end, all that gold in her belly, she couldn’t believe. The old geezers are such fools.

“Thank you, Madame, you’ve saved us all.” The cloaked man cheered, walking into the hole to his village, before muttering under his breath, ”All you dragons are the same.”

Description
Legend says of a volcano, one like any other seen before. This volcano was one that was rumoured to be blessed by the gods above, allowed to perform a miracle whenever it erupted, for this volcano didn’t erupt molten, smouldering lava but it erupted gold. The volcano shot gold into the air and rained riches down from the heavens. Many villages have been settled at the foot of this volcano to receive the gold from the blessed volcano. It is said they live comfortably in a life of luxury.

But only the villagers themselves know of the horrible error in their greed when they first established the villages on the foot of this volcano. People waited with glee as the volcano rumbled loudly, announcing its oncoming eruption, but the villagers did heed its warning. When the volcano erupted, the gold was shot into the air, some it oozing down the sides of the volcano, the villagers cheered as their wealth was well on their way to them. But when the gold began raining down, it was as if the sky was on fire. The gold was molten and burned through anything and anyone that it landed upon, anything that wasn’t destroyed was coated in a thick layer of burning, smouldering gold. After the disastrous eruption, the villages that had been built were nearly destroyed completely, left in a heavy blanket of burning gold.

Despite the destruction that the gold giving volcano had brought, the greed in the villagers’ hearts overcame. The villagers that weren’t killed or scared away from the destruction, mined the gold and used it to build bigger villages. But sadly, that wouldn’t be the last time that the volcano would erupt, in fact, the volcano would go on to blow out the gold many more times in the lifetime of the village.

The eruptions truly tested the willpower and greed of the villagers that lived in the villages at the foot of the volcano. With each eruption, the villages were destroyed and coated in gold and few would die in the disaster and the remaining would question whether staying at the village was worth all the gold they could have and even few would return. This destructive cycle went on until a single village remained. But this village was no longer a simple village. With the gold they collected from all the abandoned, destroyed villages, and the gold that rained down after the eruption, the village grew into a town and the town grew into a kingdom and the kingdom kept expanding until eventually it surrounded the entire volcano, not daring to grow further from the volcano to keep the greedy from keeping all the gold to themselves.

This kingdom flourished beautifully, no one was poor, everyone lived in luxurious mansions and the kingdom was built on golden blocks from the surplus of wealth that the citizens retained. They had it all, even a plan to keep the number of deaths to a minimum for when the gold-smudged volcano erupted. The king had a shelter built underneath the kingdom for everyone to vacate to if the tell-tale signs of the imminent eruption began showing, the citizens would only die if they declined vacating the premise, leaving them to boil in their golden house when the molten gold began heating things up. Once everything was over, the kingdom’s citizens would emerge and begin mining for their newfound wealth.

Indeed, everything was perfect for this wealthy, flourishing kingdom. There was talk that the kingdom might look into expanding technologically, maybe open a library to document all the wisdom that has been flowing. Nobody in the kingdom was unhappy.

Except for one sad citizen. But this was no ordinary citizen, he was someone of utmost importance, he title was that to deserve respect. This person was the next in line to be the king. Not-Yet-King Ulysses. His heart was as easily influenced by the devil gold that rained from the cursed mountain. He didn’t believe risking the countless lives of the greedy citizens was worth all the gold in the world. He wish he could do something to fix all this, something to save the citizens of this doomed kingdom.

He stared down from the castle, which was much more luxurious than any castle that any Traveling Jester has ever seen. He stared at the citizens as they traded and talked and shopped, as if they were unaware that someone of them might die soon. With each passing month, the eminent eruption grew ever so closer, hanging over the kingdom’s head with each year it didn’t erupt. The eruption happen often, but never has the kingdom gone five whole years without the volcano erupting. And this year was a horrible year, year five. Quoting his greedy father, “The longer it takes for the volcano to erupt, the bigger the pay-out!” Which means that this year is going to be an incredibly dangerous eruption, the King was having a mini-freak out. Mostly because they were already 7 months in and didn’t know how bad it’ll be if they ever make it to the sixth year. Are they prepared for a year-six eruption?

Ulysses, panicking and feeling like he has no one else to turn to, looks up to the sky and directs all of his prayers to whichever god or gods he believed in at the time, “Please, oh please listen to my pleas, all I wish is that you give me the opportunity for me to save these people from the evil volcano that rains down destructing from the sky from time to time. If you give me the chance to change this greedy kingdom’s fate, I promise I’ll take full advantage of the opportunity. I won’t make you regret it” He continued to say his pray until a knight barraged into the room.

“Sir Ulysses! The King, your father! He’s dead!” the knight yelled in a frantic panic, as if he doesn’t see death in his work area.

Ulysses stared awestruck, mouth agape. He didn’t know what to say, he slowly turned back to the sky, “Ummm… okay, that’s not what I meant!”

The funeral that followed was a beautiful one, one that was dedicated to a wonderful King, one that deserved the tile legendary. Few people ever got to wield that tile, all of them were kings. The funeral went on smoothly, except for the few hiccups were some of citizens killed each other for some odd reason. Ulysses was a bit shocked by their behaviour, wondering what would have happened had he organized a wedding.

After the funeral, Ulysses was crowned King and he was sat in his proper throne. The knights kneeled and the Captain stood to Ulysses’ side, “What is your first order, King?”

The King pondered briefly, “I have a mission for you,” he responded, looking up at the stained glass ornament above the throne room entrance, the gold-spewing volcano depicted on it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Captain gathered a small team of knights, preparing for a royal mission given by the kingdom. They were tasked with gathering recon on the volcano to investigate why the volcano would erupt gold instead of lava and find out if there was a way to either stop the volcano from erupting, stop the lava from turning into gold or just the flow of gold to keep the volcano from erupting. They also carried buckets of water as methods of slowing the eruption countdown.

They set of early in the morning, before the sunrise, resulting in a groggy group of knights fumbling out of the castle to start their hike up the towering volcano. Predictably, throughout the whole journey, the knights complained about how the King was planning on destroying all the progress that the kingdom had done and plunge the economy into a Grand Depression. The Captain had had enough of their complaining.

“Shut up!” the Captain interrupted, the other knights quieting down, “The King is only looking after his citizens’ safety, he’s tired of everyone killing themselves living in this ‘volcano-cursed-kingdom.’ His words.”

“Then why doesn’t he just build something to protect us, instead of have us cut off the gold?” asked one of the knights.

“I don’t know,” mumbled the Captain, enjoying the silence for once.

The journey was a treacherous one, it took nearly the whole day to climb the gold coated surface of the volcano, taking precaution to not slip on the gold and end up tumbling down to their deaths. It took longer than estimated for the knights to hike up to the top of the volcano, and once they finally reached the top, the sun had already crossed the sky, nearing the edge of the world in its descent. The knights gasped for air as they finally reached the summit, trying to keep a steady foothold on the slippery gold surface that covered the entire rim of the volcano.

“Alright, men,” called the Captain, panting, bending down in exhaustion, “We’ve made it… to the top. Time to... to dump the water.”

“Wait, shouldn’t we investigate first?” one of the knights ask, puzzled by the Captain’s orders.

“There is nothing, phew, for us to investigate. Just dump the bucket.” The Captain ordered, exhausted.

The knights approach the rim slowly and carefully as to not slip on the gold and tumble down into the volcano. Before they dump the contents of the buckets down the hole, they a deep, sickening noise come from within the volcano, almost like a moan.

“Wh-what was that?” Asked one of the knights in the back.
“Is that a sign that the volcano is going to be erupting soon?” Asked another knight.
“How would I know, this sound isn’t loud enough for us to hear from the bottom of the volcano.” Answered a third knight.
“Well I think we should investigate it!” Proclaimed a knight bravely.
“No way!” Panicked one of more cowardly knights, “We should turn back now and hide beneath the kingdom with the rest of the citizens!” The knights began arguing among themselves in deciding whether or not they should descend into active volcano that may or may not possibly erupt very soon.

“Everyone Shut! I’m the one who decides whether we go down into the volcano or not and I decide that we go into the volcano!” The Captained to a whining majority, “The noise didn’t sound volcanic-” “How do you what volcanic sounds like?” “Okay, Firstly, Shut up! Secondly, that sounded almost... human-like.”

“Are you saying someone is down there, moaning like a... volcano, is that what you’re saying?” asked one of the knights, unsure what metaphor to use.

“Yes, and if someone down there is shooting molten gold to our kingdom by force, or worse by choice, we must save/stop that person... and take all of their gold reserve, of course. Now, who’s with me?”

The knights stayed silent for a while as they pondered whether or not it’s worth saving someone’s life for gold that will one way or the other already make their way to them in the long run. “Maybe you can check if there is someone down there worth saving?”

“Fine, but you guys better come and help when I call, alright?” The knights nodded half-heartedly. “Alright, so now I make my-shit!” As the Captain tried to get foot on the edge of the gold-coated rim of the volcano, his hands slipped, along with his feet and his footing, as well as his balance and somehow managed to fall into the volcano. The knights watched as he disappeared into the dark hole, hearing nothing but a dull thud followed by the same noise as earlier.

“Captain?” One of the knights called out, “Are you dead?”
“He’d want us to leave.”

--------------------------------------------------------

At the bottom of the volcano, the Captain awoke with a heavy daze. His head was pounding after such a fall. Luckily for most knights, their armour protects them from too much brain damage. Muscle damage on the other hand... “Augh, crap!” the Captain cringed, trying to get on his feet, his body ached and he was quite sure he broke a bone or two. Scanning his surroundings, he saw nothing but the steep walls of the volcano, predictably coated in gold, though it seemed to have hardened or burned to a darker crisp. I guess that’s what happens when you heat gold too much.

Wait, where’s the gold?

Captain looked around, there wasn’t any gold anywhere, there’s nothing here. The surface did seem a bit odd to the Captain. It seemed slightly spongy, just soft enough to help him avoid falling to his apparent death. He studied the surface carefully for it was quite an odd one, he had never seen anything like this before. Not that he studies soils or surfaces for a living, but it’s an important skill if the Captain wishes to find his way around the valleys. Upon closer inspection, he realized this surface was made of leather, dragon-skin to be exact. It was stretched, far beyond its expected elasticity. It would be impossible for leather like this to expand without ripping apart, even if it were attached to a dragon, whatever was helping the leather keep someone its elasticity (fat, muscle, nerves) would as well been brought to its limit long ago.

He wanted to touch the surface but the heavy creaking that resonated from surface as it seemed to try to stretch farther than it already can. He removed his gloves and brushed the surface careful with his fingertips and immediately felt the heat. If what he theorized was correct, the molten gold is trapped beneath this failing leather cover. He tried to hypothesize what he could do to both keep this surface from exploding and also collect the gold from beneath the creaking surface. He trekked around the surface in search of an answer to this puzzling puzzle. But as he searched around the “bottom of the volcano” some more, he realized the surface was slanted, no not slanted, domed. The center (where he fell), was the highest point of this dome and it sloped down to the sides of the volcano. Suddenly, he came up with a solution.

He could find the weakest point on the side of the dome, cut a downward incision on the side of it and it’ll cause the dome to explode into the side of the volcano instead of up and then the kingdom will be saved and everybody can still have their gold. Mine and repeat. Oh, also not die in the process, obviously.

He circled the dome, trying to find a weak point when halfway through he something truly surprising. This dome was connected to a dragon. Probably, all he can see is the dragon’s head poking out from above the dome, seemed this orb had grown too big to fit the rest of the dragon.

The dragon was grey skinned and was obviously pushed up against the wall by its enormous gut. These were the most defining traits the Captain could identify. Whether it was male or female was impossible to tell as the gut had either covered, crushed or stretched any identifiable features of this creature’s body. Though given the groan from earlier, the Captain expected a woman. “Dragon!” The Captain called, but the dragon didn’t responded, didn’t look like it was aware of its surroundings. “Dragoness?” The Captain repeated, wondering if it was a case of gender that the dragon didn’t respond. The dragon simply moaned loudly, the Captain took this as a response. He watched try to strain her neck, the surface of her gut heaving and creaking loudly as it tried to contain the high amount of liquid gold, nearly throwing the Captain off balance. He approached the dragoness’s head, determined to find the meaning of this.

“Dragoness! I am Captain Bram from the Kingdom of Gold.” He introduced himself, the dragoness didn’t even pay any attention to him, and she just laid her head against the wall, her mouth agape, leaning her head back below a crack on the wall. A quiet moan could be heard coming from her mouth. “Dragoness? I’m here because my king wishes for you to quit showering our kingdom with the gold in your gut!”

That got some of the dragon’s attention, apparently. He eyes, dull and glazed, rolled to look at the knight standing on her gold-filled gut before mumbling, “No... Gold mine... Almost five... Go... away...” Another heaving tremble swept through the gut, causing the dragoness to moan in pain. Had her hands not end up pinned to the wall by her gut, she would have tended to her tightening gut. Just then a drop of gold appeared from the crack and made its down to the dragoness’s already open maw. She extended her tongue and lapped the gold, adding the drop to already pressurized pact of gold within her.

Captain looked at the quivering surface beneath him, hearing the tell-tale rumbles of an imminent eruption, or in this case, explosion. “Dragon, I don’t know what you’re trying to do but you better stop or I’ll slay you and take your gold!”

“NO!” the dragoness yelped, a look a strain and anger in her face, “This gold...” she tried to speak, struggling through the gut growing pressure, the skin beginning to expand one final time, the gut on the verge of giving out, “Is all...” she gritted her teeth she could feel the gold within her push out one final time, she hoped she could have lasted long enough to enjoy all the loot she had collected over the years. The Captain realized he hadn’t given enough time to form an escape plan if anything went wrong and cursed at himself in the short amount of time he had left.

“MINE!”

King Ulysses heard a voice scream in the distance, one filled with anger and greed, it was shortly followed by the volcano erupting violently, beating the records of all the other eruptions before it. The King dropped his head in disappointment as the knights lead him down to the underground shelter, where the citizens cheered as they celebrated the new found wealth the will befall them shortly.

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“So what do you want me to do?” asked a large dragon, she was brought to this volcano by some cloaked men.

“Madame, we wish for you to keep the gold from entering our small village, for you see, we live below this volcano, down that hole.” He points to a small opening, only big enough for the small cloaked man and his subjects to fit through, “And from that crack behind you gold seeps through continuously. If we let it drip for even a month, molten gold will pour into our small village, burning everything and destroying everything we love.”

“So what do I get in return?” asked the dragon, crossing her arms.

“Well, if you manage to keep the gold away from our village for five years, you get to keep all the gold you’ve managed to collect.” The cloaked man bargained.

“All the gold?” the dragoness thought, “Five years?” after some quick calculations (in terms of how much gold will have dripped in a month to manage to reach the tiny people’s hole) her eyes shined bright, “You got yourself a deal!”

“Excellent! Thank you!” The cloaked man grinned before gasping in fear, “Look!” A drop of gold had from the crack.

“I got it,” she scooped the gold with her finger and looked at it, “That’s already a hefty amount of gold, but no worries,” she licked it clean off, “Dragon’s regular diet already includes gold, you’ll be fine.” She grinned. She was excited for the five years to end, all that gold in her belly, she couldn’t believe. The old geezers are such fools.

“Thank you, Madame, you’ve saved us all.” The cloaked man cheered, walking into the hole to his village, before muttering under his breath, ”All you dragons are the same.”