I can't say anything stupid now, otherwise I'm done for, thought Aodhan as he looked into the three pairs of curious eyes in front of him.

  "Well, um, now, dear guest, I think we're all curious to hear your story," began Albert, who was sitting opposite him at one of the round tables in the tavern, which, according to the sign, was called the Happy Dwarf, whatever that meant.

  "You could start with your name," added Ivar wo sat next to Albert.

  I can't tell them my name, what kind of names do Humans have, damn it, I have to buy myself some time , he thought and reached for one of the water jugs that the innkeeper Boris had put on the table and began to drink, determined not to put the jug down until it was empty and he had hopefully thought of a name.

  Now even drinking in this strange form was a challenge for him and he quickly realized that people could swallow significantly less at once than dragons.

  After about four gulps, he finally choked and began to cough uncontrollably.

  Damn! Somehow, they already knew who I was and poisoned me! I don't want to die like this, not like this, wheezing miserably and gasping for air, he thought in a panic.

  His eyes began to water, and his vision started getting blurred, while he was frantically haggling for his life with gods, he did not believe in.

  After a while of surprised silence Boris finally stood up, half circled the table they were sitting at so that he was now standing behind the suffocating Aodhan and raised his arm with the flat of his hand and began to strike his wheezing guest between the shoulder blades a few times.

  Suddenly Aodhan felt a burning pain on his back, which miraculously meant that he could suddenly breathe properly again.

  He was still a little suspicious, since the human had simply whipped him with the flat of his hand, but since he could now breathe again, he assumed that it had to be some kind of healing technique.

  Apparently even a sip of water was capable of killing a Human, as long as no one else was there to use this special technique.

  He suddenly realized why people always stayed in large groups; when Humans were drinking, there always had to be another person there to prevent the drinker from accidentally drowning.

  What kind of sick whim of the gods created these creatures, he thought to himself, almost pityingly.

  "Just don't forget to breathe," Boris murmured, sitting down next to Albert again.

  "So, now that you've quenched your thirst, you can start with your story, because believe me, we're all more than excited after this performance in front of the gate," Ivar said with a hint of impatience in his voice.

  “Haha… yes, that was exciting, hmm where should I start?”, Aodhan began, but was interrupted by Albert.

  “As I said, preferably with your name,” he said in a patient but determined tone that Aodhan didn’t miss.

  Okay, you’ve already managed to get a bunch of people to do what you want in the past, you can do it again! Back then you were still a big and powerful dragon and not a puny human who almost dies from a sip of water, but you’re still a dragon on the inside! he thought trying to encourage himself.

  Just as Ivar was about to open his mouth to ask him to speak again, he finally raised his voice.

  “So, my name is Wyrmus Lind and I…” he began, but this time he was interrupted by an exited Boris.

  “Wyrmus, like the old word for dragon?” the innkeeper asked curiously.

  Damn it, how does he know that? he thought in panic.

  “Uh, yes, it’s spelled similarly, why, is that a problem?” he snapped, hoping to calm the panic in his Voice by feigning anger at the interruption.

  "Er, of course not, I've just never heard a name like that before, I was curious whether..." Boris began to explain, slightly uncomfortable, when Albert interrupted him.

  "Please don't interrupt him Boris, this is important," the mayor said, motioning for the self-proclaimed Wyrmus Lind to continue.

  "Now as I said, my name is Wyrmus Lind and my partner, er, what was it again, er, yes, Stephan Sturm, I mean, that's the name he used to introduce himself here, right?" asked Aodhan, hoping to gain some time and banish the rising panic from his mind that had arisen when he tried to remember the name of his supposed partner.

  When his three interrogators simply nodded their heads silently instead of continuing to inquire about the wanderer, this hope was quickly squashed, and he finally continued.

  "Well, it's true what this Bartold said at the gate, er, unpleasant fellow, like the whole gang, by the way. My partner and me were after the treasure of the great and powerful Aodhan, stories of the size of his hoard are heard all over the continent, as well as of his cunning and intelligence, he used to reactivate the mechanisms of the old dwarven fortress," Aodhan continued his story.

  Yeah, it's good to mix lies with truth, he thought contentedly after his self-eulogy.

  The only question is, how do I make sure that no one asks about me in the future. Damn, I can only think of one way, even if it is painful, he thought angrily.

  "But Bartold was wrong about one thing, we actually managed to kill the dragon Aodhan Stormbringer," Aodhan finally announced, trying to sound triumphant, even though saying these words almost caused him physical pain.

  After this sentence, the three men across from him leaned forward at once in their chairs, their eyes wide and their faces full of disbelief, with Albert's glasses almost slipping off his nose.

  "You're joking, aren't you?" asked Boris, whose face had previously been slightly flushed and had now had lost all its color.

  "You just explained yourself how powerful and cunning Aodhan was, and now you want to tell us that you and this storm guy killed him?" Albert blurted out, sounding almost hysterical and adjusting his glasses with shaking hands.

  "And how in the name of all the gods who care did you do that?" demanded Ivar, who looked as if he could jump out of his chair at any second.

  Yes, how can you actually defeat me? A really difficult question, he thought.

  It wasn’t like he could really explain how the wanderer had done it, especially since he didn't really understand it himself, which is why he decided to use the only weakness he had that he was aware of.

  "Yes, I can understand the surprise. Of course, we knew that we had no hope in a direct fight, so we resorted to trickery," he said, pleased to note that he had the entire attention of the three in front of him.

  "While I was secretly following a small group of the dragon's men, I overheard a conversation about how much dwarf mead Aodhan drinks. Apparently when he took over the old fortress, he came across a huge warehouse full of the stuff and had been helping himself to it every now and then," he continued, while realizing with horror that he now no longer had access to the aforementioned supply.

  Another crime against me for which this stranger will have to answer, he thought grimly.

  Just as he was about to continue his story, he was interrupted again by Boris.

  "He had a whole supply of dwarf mead in the mountain with him?" he asked almost reverently.

  "What is so special about this mead?" Albert wanted to know.

  "Well, it is extremely valuable, I mean really valuable, it compares to gold like gold compares to cow shit. That's because only the dwarves knew how to brew it, and they don't exist anymore. Plus, it's supposed to be damn good and last almost forever," the innkeeper explained enthusiastically.

  "Yes, and he had a whole hall full of barrels," Aodhan agreed, looking into the air with a little longing.

  "Hmm, that would explain a lot. I don't know many dragons, but the circles that Aodhan made in the sky every now and then sometimes looked as if he was drunk. If I remember correctly, a few years ago he even crashed and left a new clearing in the forest. I always wondered how that happened and now I know that he was just drunk,” said Albert incredulously and began to chuckle slightly at the end of his sentence.

  Outrageous! I am the Stormbringer, a master of the skies and my crashing was a one-off incident. I should destroy your entire village for that impudence... life is so unfair, thought Aodhan, who had once again taken the now familiar journey from anger to the realization of his own helplessness.

  “Dwarves made great mead, well understood, can we now talk again about how you and your partner killed a dragon?” asked Ivar, tearing Aodhan out of a little daydream in which he had burned down the village and then treated himself to a barrel of the said mead.

  "Uh yes, me and Stephan sneaked into their camp, where we pretended to be bandits with a little illusion of Stephan. Originally, we just wanted to scout out the situation a bit, but while we were looking around, Aodhan asked for another barrel. We seized the moment and immediately volunteered to bring him the mead. We took this opportunity to poison the mead and brought it to Aodhan in his lair. We were a little afraid that he would smell the poison, but he drank the whole barrel in one go and that was it for him," Aodhan finished his story, already nervously thinking about what kind of questions they might ask now.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Wait, where is Stephan then?" Boris asked curiously.

  Yes, where is that bastard? he also asked himself in his thoughts, but answered: "My partner is… well, I'm afraid he was a little too careless. You see, the poison we used usually makes the victim calm down and fall asleep before it has its deadly effect, but unfortunately, we miscalculated the amount. Aodhan didn't fall asleep as quickly as we had hoped and noticed that something was wrong. First, he let loose a huge jet of fire to kill us, which we were barely able to dodge, then he staggered around for a bit before finally falling down. When Aodhan was lying there quietly and had apparently stopped breathing, Stephan went to the supposed corpse to try to get the dragon's teeth, which are worth quite a bit. Unfortunately, Aodhan wasn't quite dead yet and rolled over onto his side one last time, unfortunately crushing poor Stephan in the process. I probably should have mentioned that up front, but I hope you understand that the inglorious death of my long-time partner is not something I like to talk about,” he explained in what he hoped was a depressed and sad tone.

  However, he was pretty sure that he pulled of the lie successfully.

  After all, he only had to think about his current situation to ensure that real gloom and despair crept into his voice. And even though it was still a lie, he resolved to make it the truth one day.

  After he had finished the story of the supposed death of his supposed partner, there was a moment of silence, which was finally interrupted by a sigh from Ivar.

  “That explains that big cloud of smoke from earlier. Well, that's what happens when you're after dragon treasures, he should have just listened to me and left Aodhan alone,” he said, throwing the self-proclaimed Wyrmus Lind a look that the former dragon couldn't quite interpret, which he didn't like at all.

  “The first new guest in years and a dragon killed him, I hope that doesn’t scare off future guests,” Boris grumbled into his mug before emptying it.

  “My condolences for the loss of your friend, compared to the others, I unfortunately never had the pleasure of meeting him personally, but from what I hear he must have been, let's say, a remarkable person,” Albert said to Aodhan, who was still trying to look like a heap of misery.

  Another brief moment of silence passed as Boris, Ivar and Albert finally understood the significance and meaning of what had just been said.

  “So, is all of this really true? Is Aodhan really dead?” Albert finally asked with wide eyes and a slightly trembling voice.

  “And you just poisoned a barrel of dwarven mead, no magic, no swords, all it took was a poisoned barrel of mead?” asked a shocked Boris, who almost seemed a little disappointed that there had apparently been no glorious battle against him.

  Yes! Yes, they believe it, they really believe it, Aodhan cheered inwardly and considered adding tears of relief to his feigned grief but decided that it might be too much of a good thing.

  I really managed to convince them, now I can... plan my funeral, his thoughts suddenly took a turn when he saw Ivar's thoughtful expression.

  "If what you're saying is true, then I don't really understand why they're suddenly attacking us, especially now that their greatest advantage has passed into the afterlife," Ivar thought out loud.

  "True, that's a good question, I would say they're bluffing but why would they hand Wyrmus over to us for a fee when he can then just tell us what happened to Aodhan?" said Albert uncertainly.

  False alarm thought Aodhan reassured and jumped at the opportunity that had now presented itself.

  "That's because they don't know themselves. The only one who has seen Aodhan's body is this Bartold, and he has convinced the others that it is the dragon's will to rob your village," he said quickly and urgently.

  “Why would he do that and more importantly, why didn't he just kill you?” asked Ivar, who had stopped making the effort to pretend to have a normal conversation and was now interrogating him quite openly and even if Aodhan no longer had the fine senses of a dragon, even in his current form as Wyrmus Lind it was impossible to misinterpret the change in body language and tone.

  Damn, he wants answers and the way he looks he can tell if I'm lying, wait, does that mean he's seen through me the whole time, damn, I have to think of something, it shot through his head frantically.

  He waited a moment longer, hoping that one of the other two people would call on Ivar to be a little more polite and tactful, considering that a few moments ago he had been complaining to them about the loss of his supposed partner, but was disappointed.

  “What's wrong, Mr. Lind? Do you want something to drink before you answer or just a little more time to think? Ivar asked with a friendly smile, that didn't reach his eyes, which seemed to be drilling into Aodhan like two brown wooden stakes.

  Damn, I've been thinking for too long, he thought in panic.

  "So he actually wanted to kill me, but luckily he wasn't alone when they captured me and the others voted to exchange me for a ransom instead, uh, I'm also sorry that Schlucht got involved in this, I tried to explain to them that you had nothing to do with the whole thing but they either didn't want to believe me or didn't care," he answered, slightly rushed, trying to at least gain some time with his apology.

  "Well, thank you for at least trying..." said Boris, who was interrupted by Ivar in the middle of his sentence.

  "Did you also try to convince them that Aodhan is dead?", the Captain of the Guards asked sharply.

  Give me at least a moment to think!, thought Aodhan frustrated and finally answered with a slightly pained smile.

  "I tried, believe me, but apparently Aodhan's privacy was very important, and it was not usual for the bandits to disturb him in his lair, which is why no one but Bartold dared to look into the matter. So he went to Aodhans hall and when he returned, he told this lurid story that Aodhan had ordered them to attack your village and it was my word against his. Believe me, everything grows on Bartold's dung, I swear on my name that if he really looked at the lair, he must have seen his master's corpse there," said Aodhan in a fervent tone, placing the palm of his hand on his chest.

  A gesture he had once saw two of his subordinates make when they swore, they weren’t responsible for the missing dwarf mead. Naturally he had eaten them anyway, since he could smell the mead on them.

  Aodhan could already see in Ivar's eyes that he was about to ask another unpleasant question, but this time Albert got there first, groaning and starting to massage his temples.

  "So this whole mess is just because the dragon's men are too afraid of their dragon to check whether he is still alive. Bartold probably wants to take advantage of the chaos and go on a big raid one last time before others get wind of Aodhan's death," said the increasingly frustrated mayor of Schlucht.

  "Then Bartold must have been seriously pissed when we paid the ransom for you," said Boris and grinned.

  "Maybe but the question remains, what should we do now? Even if we know that Aodhan is dead, it won't do us any good as long as we can't convince these lunatics of it," Albert stated soberly.

  They were all silent for a moment before Boris finally spoke up with a mischievous smile.

  “Well, basically it's like poker, only with the advantage that we know our opponent is bluffing.”

  “Unfortunately, the stakes are much higher than a few mugs on the house, it could well be that they attack us with or without a dragon,” Albert replied, slightly indignant.

  “Besides, it's only a bluff if Wyrmus' story is true,” he continued.

  After noticing the questioning looks, Albert turned to their guest.

  “I don't want to insult you, of course, but I can't just hang the safety of Schlucht on the words of a stranger, no matter how much I wish they were true,” he explained in an apologetic but also serious tone.

  “Well, I do believe that he is telling the truth about Aodhan,” Ivar spoke up thoughtfully.

  Six pairs of eyes now looked in Ivar's direction with varying degrees of surprise.

  "What? If there is one thing you can trust, it is the healthy instinct for self-preservation. If we tell them to fuck off and a little later an angry Aodhan flies past here and turns Schlucht into a pyre, our guest here is just as done for as the rest of us," Ivar explained his point of view.

  "So, you think we should call this bluff, as Boris put it so eloquently," asked Albert surprised.

  "I didn't say that" Ivar answered evasively and before Albert could ask any more, Boris spoke up.

  "Well, let's be honest, we don't have the money they are asking for. How could we? around here it has been more likely to meet a dragon than a merchant over the last few years. That means they will get their money in another form, and I don't think I have to explain to you what that means, when they are finished with us, we can be lucky if we make it through the winter," said the innkeeper in an urgent voice.

  “Maybe yes, maybe no, but are you aware of the risk? It's quite possible that they'll attack us even without the support of their dragon. Please explain it to him, Ivar,” Albert replied, turning to the captain of his guard for help.

  “It's possible that they'll attack us, but it's also possible that they'll think twice when they realize that we might fight back, and no dragon will come to their aid. After all, they've made a comfortable life for themselves here over the last few years as self-appointed tax collectors and haven't really had to resort to the lets say honest bandit work”, Ivar explained, shrugging his shoulders, to Albert's surprise.

  “And we're in the majority,” Boris added.

  “We're still no soldiers,” Albert replied, annoyed.

  “Neither are they, do you think that bunch out there had any military training,” Boris countered.

  “No, well a few maybe, what do I know, Boris, you are a Innkeeper, can you please explain to me why you are so keen on picking a fight with them?” asked Albert, confused.

  “I don’t want to, I just think we should call Bartold’s bluff. If we refuse and they call for Aodhan and no one shows up, Bartold will have to explain himself to his people. Then they can discuss things among themselves for a while and leave us alone, heavens, they call themselves the dragon’s men, it could well be that they will just disperse when they realize that their dragon is dead,” Boris explained in a confident tone.

  “So you want to act as if we were ready to fight back and counter Bartold’s bluff with one of our own,” asked Albert doubtfully and looked in Ivar’s direction again to ask Silently for his opinion.

  “I actually think the idea of a bluff is a good one. If we prepare a bit more, I think we can make it seem convincing and I’m sure most people would go along with it,” said Ivar, who was now starting to grin.

  “Yes, I know they would. Well, what do you have in mind for our charade?” Albert finally gave in with a groan.

  “We’ll let the people know, they should take their hammers, saws, axes, pitchforks and whatever else is flying around and gather at the gate. They’ll pretend they’re tax collectors, then we’ll give them the biggest fear of all tax collectors, an angry mob of farmers,” Ivar explained with a grin.

  “We can also ask around whether a few people know any form of magic that could be useful,” Boris thought out loud.

  “I hope you’re not expecting fireballs or anything like that from the people here,” Albert laughed dryly.

  “Didn't you tell me that when you left home you lived with the Djinns for a while and studied magic and all sorts of other stuff at one of their universities?” Ivar asked with sudden interest.

  “Uh, yes, but I had to stop after the fourth semester and the sixth increase in semester fees,” Albert answered, slightly embarrassed.

  “Well, that's still four semesters more than anyone else far and wide, maybe you can think of something else, I'll go and spread the good news,” said Ivar and left the inn.

  “Hmm, I can think of one or two people who could help us a bit more,” Albert explained and stood up.

  “Um, well, I'm afraid you'll have to stay our guest for a while longer, Mr. Lind, you may have to repeat your story a few more times. Right now I wouldn't recommend anyone to stay outside the village anyway. Until the matter is settled, you can consider yourself our guest and stay here in the happy dwarfs until then," Albert explained, said his goodbyes and left Boris rubbing his hands in anticipation and a Aodhan rather perplexed.

  All in all, things went much better than expected. I'm still alive and they decided to fight Bartold almost without my intervention, which can only be good for me. And Boris is right, without me they are nothing, they'll probably all hide in the nearest hole when they find out that I'm no longer supporting them, maybe they'll even lynch Bartold for lying to them, Aodhan thought happily.

  But what still surprises me most is that I convinced this Ivar, I was absolutely sure that he had seen through me, well, as a dragon it's just easy for me to manipulate lesser beings like humans I guess, he thought contentedly and asked with a smile whether Boris might have something to eat.