Far away from Idiskand, in the mostly-open field that came in between the large town and the surrounding forest, a small fire was going on in an equally small pit of rocks. Three shapes surrounded it at varying distances, taking in the heat amidst the cold night, and each one had reptilian features to them. They were kobolds.
In spite of their typical reclusive natures, these three kobolds had the boiling blood of adventurers running through their veins, and so were quickly and unritualistically kicked from their clan. Not despairing, they traveled the land in search of one they could serve; a new master, hopefully a dragon in need of revering who traveled often. Who they found was Syvanarosk. The bronze dragon did not expect to possess her own servants, but she allowed the three to be her companions, so long as they could keep up with her.
Like the forever loyal servants they made themselves out to be, they had now followed her here. They wished, and were also told, not to trail her into the human town however. They might not have hated them as much as gnomes, but they still despised humans with a fiery passion.
And so the three camped out. Fathis, a kobold with steel armor covering over his brown scales and wearing a slightly-converted knight's helm over his head, was the one currently assigned to watch for their wise and noble master's return upon a large boulder several feet from the fire. Verit, a long spear resting against his leather armor and green-scaled skin, was sitting on a hewn-down log with his claws held on either side of his head, trying his best to blot out the accursed noise that was his last associate, Ree, who was currently singing a song.
"...and so all that falls is the rain!" Ree sang, running his claws across the strings on the overly-large lute he held, producing an honed musical sound. A 'bard' (or so he claimed to be), Ree wore blue-and-yellow clothing over most of his body as his choice of attire, with a poofy red beret holding a white feather quill sticking from it atop his head. While not utterly despising humans, but also not liking them to a fair degree, that wasn't to say he had a queer fascination with them. Finally finished with his piece, he bowed low and humbly as Fathis clapped enthusiastically from where he was. Now that he was done, Verit exhaled a loud breath of relief and was finally able to take his hands off of his ears, after which he picked up the half-eaten squirrel he had cooked a few minutes before on a stick and resumed consuming it.
Despite his happiness that Ree had finally shut his mouth and stopped his senseless strumming of his stupid instrument, the patient silence eventually became too much for poor Verit. Turning back to Ree, he threw the now-empty stick into the fire and spoke up. "Do you know why we're here, Ree?"
"What's it?" asked Ree, using a claw to push his beret up enough so that his glassy, dull-yellow eyes could see through it. "Oh, the Lady said a great and terrible red dragon haunts these lands. S'been scaring the humans like the pissants they are. She wants to fight him and chase him off."
"A red dragon? Fierce, fierce!" yelled the high-pitched voice of Fathis from where he stood far off, still looking through his helmet's visor for a sign of their master.
"Red dragons are amongst the strongest of their kind," agreed Verit. "Our lady must be brave and powerful to challenge one on its own turf."
"For she must be the greatest of all dragons, and simply wants to show it. She wants to flaunt her skills and reveal to all why she deserves our fervent worship; to dance with death itself and come out as the one leading," continued the eccentric, self-proclaimed bard with a hand held to the black sky. "Oh, such a noble one our master is. Defending the weak and wretched from the wrath of the evil and powerful. It reminds me of another song I wrote, in fact! Shall I play it?"
"N-no! Stop!" cried Verit. Too late the plea was, for Ree had already begun after clearing his throat with a cough.
"Oh great Syvanarosk, one who is worthy of praise! Worthy of love, and admiraaation! To only you, we-"
"Hark! Our lady returns to us!" suddenly came the excited and happy squawk of Fathis, thankfully interrupting Ree before he could properly get into his song, stopping his tongue where it fluttered in his snouted mouth. Ree and Verit both turned from the fire and toward their ally, who was pointing to a shape walking closer to them through the night. Indeed, true to the words of the watch-kobold, it was Syvanarosk in her human form. She walked up toward the fire with Fathis in tow, and knelt in front of it. The orange flames seemed to dance about as she silently sat there with a peaceful mien about her.
"How fared your visit with the humans?" Verit respectfully asked in a quiet voice as a few minutes passed.
"It went well. I have all the information I require," Syvanarosk responded in the gentle tone she always treated her kobolds with. "And now I will put it to use."
"What is your plan?" Fathis curiously inquired.
To this, Syvanarosk let out a hum. "For tonight I must meditate and prepare my attack on the creature. When dawn comes, I will enact it."
"Shall we help you?" again asked Verit, moving his spear into a different position in his hands, his eagerness showing.
"No," said she, raising a hand to calm him. "This is a fight between dragons only. Your lives would be like ants attempting to combat a frog."
"Our lives are paltry compared to your mighty well-being," came the insisting tone of Fathis. "As long as we serve a form of distraction toward him, long enough for you to defeat him, our fates will be complete and without regret."
Though their enthusiasm amused Syvanarosk to a degree, her answer was still the same. "You will only get in the way, my servants. Leave this red wyrm to me."
"Then very well..." sighed Ree. He took his lute's strap off of his body, put the object away, and began to ready himself for sleep through what remained of the night. Following in his example, Verit and Fathis also got into restful positions where they lied, leaving Syvanarosk as the only still awake in front of the dwindling flame, still plotting away within her collected mind.
Morning came swiftly to the world. With the first rays of yellow light striking against Mount Idrasange, Keligastrimask's eyes slowly began to peel open and awake as he started to stir. His mouth expanding wide and long tongue lolling out, he yawned loud enough to cause the walls around him to quiver with its magnitude. As he gradually uncovered himself from his precious horde of wealth, his pile shifted around, scattering about the various gold coins and other miscellaneous objects that made it up.
Without much delay in his stride he began to head for the exit to his lair after making a final glance toward his fortune. He knew that upon leaving to search for a meal, the kobold tribe living within his mountain would come out to tidy up and clean his lair of whatever dust and dirt happened to have gotten in, and later on would present their offerings of jewels and valued metals they mined up during the week. Bearing such loyal and venerating servants inflated the great wyrm's ego tremendously, and only reinforced the vain beast's view of himself as a figure worthy of respect, envy and admiration.
As he exited the cavern and allowed the sunlight to illuminate his brilliantly red scales he noticed the yellow sun was now a fair distance above the partially cloudy blue sky, indicating that it was late morning. Approaching the edge of the area that faced over the countryside, he looked out to it with a puffed chest and a rigid expression on his face.
Staring over the forest of his vast territory, he glared at it all possessively and proudly. Sucking in a deep breath of the cool autumn air into his lungs, he unleashed a thunderous roar that echoed throughout the entirety of the land, telling all rival dragons who were simply passing through and heard his call of who its rightful proprietor was. When the noise died down several seconds after he had finished, Keligastrimask stretched his wings out as far as they would go and leapt from the edge of the cliff; pushing off from it with his long, thick, muscular and sinewy forelegs and skinnier rear legs. Flapping hard, his wings quickly bore him through the sky at a great velocity.
There was much game of a grand variety to be hunted in these expansive woodlands. While he found elves and female humans to be of a more exquisite flavor, as did the rest of his kind, the former was scarce in these parts and the latter didn't feel worth the effort of attempting to snatch up this morning. So instead he decided to scan over the forests, looking for any animals unfortunate enough to grace his view.
As Keligastrimask became a red speck in the mountain-strewn horizon, Syvanarosk moved from her cover in the trees sitting under the looming shadow of the mountain. Having shed her human disguise and now appearing in her true form, the world could see that the bronze dragon's scales bore a vibrant, reflective copper color, and her wings had specks of green along them, most prominent at the tips. On her head, three main horns of a large size protruded from each cheek, pointing back towards her long, fin-like, and altogether deadly tail. Two horns of a greater size sat in a similar fashion on her crown, two smaller horns stuck out from either side of the base of her jaw, as well as another pair that rested on the tip of her chin; curved slightly inward and pointing down.
She quickly flapped her large wings and took of into the air, circling around the mountain until she found a spot where she could perch herself on the rock that jutted out from its middle. Landing on it, she eventually stopped flapping her wings and clung to the surface of it as well as she could manage until she felt stable on it.
After getting a good grip on the rock, she retracted her flight appendages and began to look into her mind to what magic she knew, and a few seconds later she used the spell she thought was best. It was one she learned a long time ago in her youth from a mischievous and tricky old copper dragon.
Syvanarosk was not invisible, but the illusion she cast made it so a similar effect took place. Only if one happened to focus their sight directly on where she was lying would be able to make out her draconic form against the mountainside, but even if she was just out of the corner of their eye, they would fail to notice her. She knew it had worked, as some birds who had roosted on the mountain's cliffside or emerged from the forest began to pass her by; flying and tweeting their tunes, not sensing anything wrong in the slightest.
Her plan had been set in motion. The red dragon would inevitably return, and when he did however many hours later, she would be ready to ambush him.
And there, with calm patience a lesser being would be unnerved at, she waited.