The Smiling Red Wyrm, once upon a time a title that for many folks, would be associated with a red dragon with a forever macabre smile at the blood and fire of the massacres it would cause for entertainment. However, few would believe its actual meaning for Launairk, a young adult red dragon.
Launairk came from unknown origins, speculated to be similar as every red dragon, but at some point, he had a change of heart. The suffering caused by his parents upon the lesser races caused him disgust of such barbaric acts, which would later form his mentality once he was forced to leave his mother's lair with his siblings.
The young dragon flew north, into the Spine of the World mountains, a quite popular spot, especially for red dragons and their wishes to settle upon the highest of peaks.
He settled into a lair upon a remotely populated area, not far from a small fishing village at the coast. Knowing such village had nothing to offer him, nor to gain from attacking it, he posed a very passive stance on the scared villagers, constantly seeing its wings shadow over it. Times later, he formed a small hoard, raiding over the traders who come to the village; He however, noticed such acts caused the town's economy to collapse, as fear of his raids caused traders to change course or not come at all.
It was when a normal day in the poor town, a kobold, more properly clothed than most of the village folk arrived, announcing the arrival of Launairk, who appeared soon afterwards. The villagers were frozen in fear, many ran, very few took arms, a very foolish idea, he thought. Launairk had yet to fully control his emotions, the anger to the defiant stance, the hunger for red meat, he hadn't eaten… Pratically since he arrived there, his last meal might have been at his mother's lair, months ago.
While its true he even prefers the young tender flesh, thing he is guilty of, he had no intentions to demand sacrifices of younglings. Then controlling such feelings was required, for the elder, leader of the village came for the surprise meeting.
"Oh, mighty red dragon, we have no coins… or gold, but… But we may offer you sacrifices to satiate your hunger!" The old man dropped into the ground, bowing to him, his voice cracking in fear and desperation.
Launairk couldn't deny he liked it, the hopelessness, the fear, but he had not come to this village to such petty scares and then leave, he wanted a deal.
"You may address me as Launairk, elder of this village. I come here not to demand sacrifices or gold." He took a deep breath, causing some to panic, "I am here to offer you a deal, which I ensure you, it will bring benefits for both of us."
"Oh. Oh, as you say, mighty Launairk, what is your deal?" The elder quickly brought his head up to listen.
"The matters of my appetite are not one I wish to discuss." He sighed, "But, my desire for red meat brings me to this, I offer you a few cows I can bring, you breed them, nurture them, so I can come here and have my meal. In exchange for your services, I offer you my protection and passivity, no attacks shall come from me."
Many villagers were, if anything, confused, many still were holding their loved ones, waiting for the moment the dragon crushes or burns them alive, mothers and fathers holding their children as tightly as possible, expecting to have to sacrifice them for the sake of the village, were took by surprise.
The elder stood up in shook but with a delightful smile. "We do agree with your deal." Extending his arm but quickly backtracking for the fool he was making himself to shake hands with a dragon.
"I am most glad you accept." Launairk said, surprisingly, lifting up his talons in offer to shake with the elder for a moment. "I will be bringing the cows tomorrow."
He smiled, certainly a horrifying sight for most, but not for the elder of the village, he actually had done it, this peculiar red dragon come by and they made an agreement, no lives lost, no lives to be sacrificed, not even a single fire started, it was truly marvelous indeed, but he would start thinking if this was a trick, some kinda of sick joke, but why would it be? What this village, at best in the path of traders and ships, at worst of no importance would have for him to destroy? To lie to them all and later destroy them?
Barely did he knew, but Launairk had plans for the village indeed, but none of which them expected at all.
The followings months were as expected, Launairk brought cows to the village and attacks on caravans ceased, allowing traders to reach the village, its economic activity soon would restart, but also its need for grains to mainly feed the cows. The village was lacking in agriculture terms and winter would soon come.
The early optimism of the elder and the villagers would soon turn into an anxious wait. The elder thought so much about the marvelous side of dealing with a red dragon, that too late he thought about the consequences if they failed to meet his expectations. Of course, Launairk never mentioned he wanted a certain number of cows, but the elder was not betting he wanted one or two, but far more.
To worse the matters, goblin and orc attacks halted their loggers, shrinking their wood reserves for winters, as well as killing and stealing a few of the cows, no sights of Launairk to help them in those dire times at all, as a matter of fact, the red dragon had pratically no contact with the town's folk whatsoever, to the point the elder started to really think this was all a trap, one which the villagers would have to live with, since what would they do? Face the red dragon? Hire adventurers who hardly come by those remote parts?
'This dragon might laugh at us from its lair, in its twisted joke to set up the village to its doom, in the failure of meeting his expectations, what will he do to us? This was all a very foolish business, which in the least worst scenario, I will exile myself and let a younger mind replace me, for my terrible, terrible mistake.' The elder thought.
At the morning of the deadline of their deal, the villagers woke up in anxiety, prayers and in many cases, waiting for their deaths. The elder was among the first ones to wake up, with a letter ready to be read to his people, should this not end well, but also not end terribly.
Much like the first time, a fancy-looking kobold came to announce the arrival of his master, who soon arrived.
"Greetings, Humans. Today was the day set in our agreement for me to take my livestock." The dragon landed, spreading and then folding its wings, who for a brief moment overshadowed the entire village.
The elder gulped down and signaled for the herder who brought the astonishing three cows, one more than Launairk brought, a month ago. The dragon stared at them for a moment, its nostrils ever smoking in an ever fumming state, it wasn't exactly pleased, but soon come the answer.
Launairk neck brighten up as he started breathing fire on the cows, nearly missing the herder. The animals burned alive as he approached its corpses and started gobbling up and ripping apart an entire cow, with audible crunching noises from its breaking bones, even though the dragon couldn't chew it up, the strength and brutality of its bite was enough.
Once he finished the first one, he turned to the villagers, "My apologies. Haven't eat such sweet roasted meat in months, couldn't hold myself with those cows on sight"
Once he recomposed himself, though, he was less than pleased.
"I see there was only one cow more than what I brought here, aside the calves. I have to say I am slightly disappointed with your progress on this matter." The dragon snarled.
The elder gulped down even harder this time, but he had to tell the truth of what happened to the dragon, especially its failure to meet its end of the deal.
"Mighty Launairk, apologies for the slow progress… B-But I need you to understand, t-this wasn't completely our fault. The cows we nurtured and fast-grow with magic were… Stolen! They attracted bands of goblins and orcs, who killed or took them. We had no contact with you all this time, y-you did not protect us from those raids… You didn't fulfill your part." The elder said it, as he took a step back.
Launairk growled, its yellow-ish eyes so fixated on the elder, angrily burning him with the power of his mind alone. But then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Indeed. I understand, I failed my part of our deal." He snarled.
The elder couldn't believe he had won the argument, but what this actually meant for the village, as he was a DRAGON, argument victories matter so little to them, maybe a metallic one would be ashamed, but a chromatic dragon?
"Due to my failure to upheld our deal, I don't feel like I deserve those two roasted cows." Launairk said, sounding quite defeated, but as he turned and was ready to fly, the elder halted him for a moment.
"W-Wait! T-This doesn't mean we have to end our deal, huh…" The elder said, as he held the dragon's talons for a moment, before swiftly letting it go.
"What are you proposing, elder?" The dragon spoke, turning back to him.
"Uh, the goblin and orc raids we had recently didn't also took cows, but also scared many of our loggers, as consequence, we don't have enough wood to keep fire for this winter. After so much effort of the town, I… I don't want anyone freezing to death…"
"That's unfortunate to hear. What can I do for you?" The dragon said, surprising everyone.
"C-Could you break some trees around? You don't need to carry them to us, we will take care of this part, but we just need those trees would the ground swiftly."
Launairk nodded and soon went up flying away, then returning and with great speed and force, he knocked down a large amount of trees within a certain area down into the ground, and unexpectedly, begun picking them up and dropping nearby the village, after a few good minutes, he was done and landed back nearby the villagers.
"I hope this can fix my broke part of our deal this time." The dragon said, which the elder nodded.
"Mighty Launairk… I… We can't thank you enough for this but small act of kindness from you."
"You can sing praises to me, I appreciate the it" The dragon laughed.
Out of nowhere however, a thunderous gurgling sound was heard by everyone nearby, with all looks on the Launairk.
"Oh… Apologies, villagers, the fires of my stomach are angry with all this work, so, I hope my part of the deal could finally be pardoned, for I will take those two roasted cows." Launairk said, as he took the cows and was ready to fly away.
"Wait! ..." The elder said, as Launairk turned back to him "Do you mind some… Huh, way to call you in times of need?"
"Oh, of course. Hmm. You have a bell, right? Upon times of need, ring it, I shall answer as fast as I can." He pointed to the small church's bell at the center of the village.
"Of course, mighty Launairk" The elder bowed down, one last time.
"Ah, also please diversify your titles for me…" He joked, "I think I am already the mightiest dragon around here by title alone and I haven't even fought my first battle."
"...Of course, gracious Launairk…?"
"I like this one more." The dragon nodded in approval and then quickly set up in flight back to its lair.
For the rest of winter things went as well as they could be, the village had enough to fish to sustain itself, the wood for fire was now plentiful and the cows protected into a hastily built cattle shed. After winter everyone hoped things would get better, the traders would return, the required grain to fully sustain the cows would finally come from the farms of the south, the deal could finally be set in full motion, for real this time.
As for Launairk, he was still young for a dragon, young and foolish, though should not be counted that his ignorance of his duties weren't some shy form of his natural malice towards the lesser races, but he would wise up, make a name for himself and of course, attract less desirable company, for even if he is a rogue for his kind, he was no less of a target, as the ancient red rule still stands, "to have is nothing, to keep is all", others will come for him.
Will he stand above his future foes and change the entire perspective on the red dragons?
Or will he die young, forever a mockery for a foolish hopeless project?