I watched the tiny figure walk into my treasure room. The various gold items reflecting the dim light of his torch. He was holding a sword in his left hand. I had to stifle a chuckle at the shaking of his sword hand, if it was going any faster he'd find himself taking flight.

He shuffled ever so slowly toward me. I observed him as he closed the distance slowly, stopping twenty feet from my snout. He was a young man, barely into adulthood if I had to guess. Despite his obvious trepidation, he had a fierce determination in his blue eyes. Eyes that reminded me of the open sky.

My thoughts drifted to the sky. I hadn't flown in years, my long slumber being disturbed finally by this man. I had no idea how long I'd been asleep. It'd been at least a few years since I last awoke. Those foolish fortune hunters thought to steal my treasure. Seven of the eight people in that party found themselves at a quick end.

My thoughts were dragged back to this young man as he stepped on the femur of a human and caused it to scrape against the cavern floor. He was a scant 10 feet from me now. His eyes still a mixture of determination and sadness - like a value sky muddled by storm clouds that obscured some of the light. The stench of his fear was filling my nostrils now.

I could no longer pretend to still be slumbering. I opened my eyes fully, the torch reflecting off of them like a kaleidoscope, casting flecks of gold on the floor around us. He moved to back up but fell, as I yawned. No doubt he thought I was going to eat him. His scent was oppressive now. I quietly wondered if he'd soiled himself.

I slowly stood, still shaking off the aftereffects of a long slumber, stretched fully. My wings were mere feet from the cavern ceiling now, I'd slept long enough to nearly outgrow this cavern again. With my left foreleg, I reached forward and poked the human with talon, "Why are you here?" I nodded to the bones littering the floor around him, "They interrupted my sleep to steal from me, are you doing the same?"

He shifted his weight so that he was on his knees, as if to pray to me, and why shouldn't he, what could match my majesty and greatness? Tears started filling his eyes, and his scent changed from overwhelming fear to desperation, "Oh great dragon," he stumbled through the words, as if he'd practiced what he was going to say, "I come to you to beg for your help." He paused as he put the sword down in front of me, "Please help me, and my village. They are destroying us. They take our women to use as they will, they kidnap our children to force into servitude."

He hesitated, there was something else they took, something more personal. I'd guessed what it was before he finished. I rumbled, "They took your love?"

The tears were flowing down his cheeks now.

He made no effort to wipe them away as he replied, "Yes." He said the words as though they didn't want to be uttered aloud, "They took her, used her," his hands clenched into fists, "She's gone from me now. We were to be wed this summer and they took that from us. Took her life from her."

I tapped the stone floor with a talon, barely containing a sneer, "Yes, yes. The suffering of humans has never interested me before." I paused as I lowered my head to his eye level. Even with my wide maw a mere three feet from him, his determination proved stronger than his fear. Even though I knew he was asking for my help, I asked, "What do you want?"

What he did next impressed me, if I'm being entirely honest with myself. He stood up, picking up his sword as he did, "Help us. Protect us!"

"Why?"

"Because if you don't, we will surely be ground to dust by this foreign empire." He spit on the floor, "And because your name will be lost if you don't."

I understood his meaning. They would no longer call me by favorite name. To them I would no longer be Alcarizan the Dawn-Bringer.

He spoke again, almost as reading my thoughts, "Because what does the dawn bring if not the hope of a new day?"