Clark bowed before his liege, “Yes your highness, I shall do as you command.” The knight’s chainmail shined brilliantly as light shined down from the paned window directly behind the king.

                The king smiled, “Thank you Sir Clark, I wish you luck with fighting the monster. If you need any sustenance or weapons, feel free to visit my stockroom or armory.”

                The knight rose off of his knee and smiled at the king, “You’re far too gracious your highness; I have everything that I need. If you need nothing more, I’ll be on my way now my lord.” The king bowed his head, the ruby upon his crown glowing with a dull crimson glow.

                “Go with my blessings.” The king said simply, Clark smiled and nodded before turning away from the monarch and walking out the doors of the castle. As the knight walked down the tall steps of the castle, Clark was moderately surprised to see that a crowd of peasants had gathered in front of the kingdom.

                As the knight looked the crowd over he saw the combined look of fear, hunger, and a spark of hope in their faces. Clark was silent for a moment as he looked over the malnourished people, he then slowly drew his sword from his sheathe and lifted it high into the sky. A ripple of excitement passed through the crowd, “People of this kingdom, don’t you worry about the winged demon any longer. I shall destroy it and I will return your treasures to you, don’t you worry any longer!” Clark called out for all of the kingdom’s inhabitants to hear.

                A deafening cheer roared from the crowd, Clark smiled as he heard the cheer echo throughout the city. The knight slid his sword back into his sheath before walking down the stairs and passing through the crowd, as he walked past the thousands of peasants he felt hands briefly touch his armor in reverence. “I have to do this…” Clark muttered to himself before walking out of the kingdom.

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                Clark wiped grime off of his face as he walked through the swamp; the locals had explained to the knight that the monster resided somewhere in the swamp. As he stepped through the mud and muck Clark had to stop himself many times from losing his lunch, the mud would occasionally bubble and let out odors which no man or animal should ever have the misfortune of coming upon. “Where is this cave…?” Clark muttered to himself as he started to become disheartened, as the sun drew high in the sky marking midday the knight was contemplating just leaving the swamp.

                “Did the locals lie to me?” He muttered to himself honestly perplexed, but before Clark could move a roar echoed through the swamp shaking the very mud under Clark’s shoes. “I think I found him…” Clark muttered, a smile forming on his face as his hand darted towards his sword.

                The knight quickly went off in the direction of where the roar had originated from, as he drew near to an enormous cave he noticed bones scattered around the entrance. “Well… this could be harder than I thought…” The knight snuck up to the entrance of the cave and noticed a brimstone like smell floating through the air.

                The man slowly approached the edge of the cave and slowly peeked in; Clark immediately noticed that the dragon was in a deep sleep. The human took a deep breath and slowly stepped from the shadows of the cave’s entrance and tiptoed towards the dragon, the rattling of his armor made Clark slightly nervous but he knew that if the dragon awoke now that he would be dead.

                As the human finally reached the sleeping dragon’s body he realized how gorgeous the monster’s scales were, the dragon’s topaz scales glowed as if lit from within by the fire lizard’s own fire. Clark was tempted to reach out and touch the glowing scales but was able to resist the temptation, even one small touch and the dragon could likely wake. Taking a deep breath the knight bent down low and slowly moved towards the dragon’s head, drawing even with its neck Clark stopped and narrowed his eyes and searched the creature’s neck.

                He finally found what he was looking for, a pulse which beat in the creature’s neck. He rose his sword slowly aiming for the pulse, “Goodbye monster!” Clark shouted as he pulled back his sword arm, the dragon opened his eye in shock but it was too late. The sword stuck true and from the monster’s neck a waterfall of crimson flew through the air, Clark screamed out as the creature’s burning blood touched his skin. He dropped his sword to the ground and ripped off his armor and ran towards a pool which he had noticed on the way into the cave and dived in.

                As the human submerged himself, the dragon roared in pain as his life rippled out through his neck. The roar echoed for miles as the dragon struggled to stay alive but it was no use, by the time that Clark finally pulled himself out of the water the dragon was laying on the ground in its own blood.

                The knight looked himself over and sighed in relief, other than some inflammation the blood hadn’t done much to him. “Thank god…” Clark muttered as he slowly climbed to his feet and walked past the dead dragon, his eyes flitted through the darkness of the cave until he saw what he had been looking for, the glint of gold.

                Clark walked towards the gold and grinned as he saw the dragon’s stash of goods, “It’s time to return these to the people!” The knight spoke as he pulled a bag from inside his tunic and swished it through the air to extend it, as he started towards the giant pile of precious metals something glowing caught Clark’s eye. One of the dragon’s scales laid on the top of the pile, “Wow… did he really think his scale was so beautiful that it required a spot in his hoard…?” Clark muttered, but as he looked at the scale an odd sense came into his mind.

                The human dropped the bag and drew close to the scale, the topaz scale started to glow with a bright yellow aura. Clark slowly reached out with his hand to brush the small object, everything he had ever learned as a squire told him against this but it was so entrancing that the knight couldn’t resist its charms. As his bare hand brushed the scale the yellow aura suddenly ran up Clark’s arm, feeling an extreme pain pass through his body the knight collapsed to the ground. “Son of a…!”

                As the human laid on the ground the dragon’s body slowly faded leaving nothing but a pool of blood, on Clark’s body small scales slowly started to form. “W… what’s happening to me?!” Clark shouted out in a panic.

                His clothes slowly started to distend as his abs became covered in an impenetrable armor of scales, any piece of flesh quickly swallowed up by the beautiful scales. The scales spared no bit of his body as they passed down his shoulders and onto his hands and feet, Clark moaned in pain as his legs and arms snapped and reformed into legs fit for a quadruped.  The human’s body was quickly losing any of his original shape as he slowly grew and two growths protruded from his back, the growths didn’t take long to grow out and start to flap showing off two wings which were light and veins were easy to see in them.

                A snapping pain made Clark lunge forward as a tail pushed out ripping his pants right off; at first the scales on the tail were dull but quickly took on the familiar glowing aura earlier seen on the other dragon.

                Clark felt as if his head was splitting as his face slowly pushed out into a muzzle, flame licking the sides of his mouth as his body developed the ability to breath fire. Clark’s eyes slitted and became a dark red color and he found that the dark no longer bothered him, in fact it was extremely easy to see in the dark. In fact, he could see so well that he could see every single little diamond’s facet in his… the dragon’s hoard.

                Letting out an extremely deep grunt Clark set his han… claw to his changed face, “What’s happening to me? I’m not greedy, this isn’t like me.”

                What he didn’t realize was that the dragon’s personality had imprinted itself onto him, even though he still was Clark. The dragon’s corruptness and greed were now easily overtaking any sense of good that Clark had, Clark grunted in pain as memories of being human were stripped away. Soon the dragon found himself becoming entranced by his riches, thoughts of getting more and more shiny objects filled the dragon’s mind.

                Clark thought about his name, “Clark isn’t a name fit for a dragon of my stature… my name is now Clartheon, I am now the lord of this hoard.” Clartheon hissed in his deep bass voice as the dragon stood at his full height, shining majestically with a deep golden glow. As the dragon turned to leave to look for more gems he froze, a memory from his predecessor came to mind. Clartheon turned and walked back to his hoard, he pulled a scale from his neck and set it upon his hoard. “For any foolish human who will attempt to steal my hoard…” The dragon muttered with a grin on his face before turning and walking out of his cave.

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                The people of the kingdom waited for their savior, the knight to return with baited breath. After hours of waiting they were becoming anxious when they heard a noise, something that made them all freeze cold. A dragon’s roar echoed through the kingdom, the dragon was there once more for their treasure…