The Thief of Shagrim

One of the most important skills one learns when becoming a thief is not to panic in sticky situations. Afeek, unfortunately, had never been much good in that respect. Now, with a black dragon grinning at him from behind a flimsy piece of glass, the young Katrin grew weak at the knees. His head swam with a number of ridiculous ideas, none of which made any sense.

The infant dragon cocked its head to a side and blew a smoke ring out of the corner of its mouth as if to say "hurry up, I haven't eaten yet."

Afeek glared at the creature and thumbed his nose. The dragon chuckled silently.

What am I doing here? Thought Afeek, suddenly. A thief with my skills should be away, living a life of luxury, but no. I'm here, being laughed at by a dragon with a smoke problem, about to break into the one place that is likely to get me hung, drawn and quartered, acting on the advice of a crazy old wizard! The Gods take me, what a buffoon!

"Ah, I quite agree," said a voice from nearby. "But you may as well be a buffoon in here than out there."

Startled, and unaware that he had spoken aloud, Afeek turned to his right and saw the dragon standing on the balcony beside him, wagging its tail. The glass door to the Sultan's room was open, the snores of the ruler issuing from within.

"Open the door? I learned to do that ages ago. Just because I don't have hands doesn't make me an invalid you know!"

"Of course not," said Afeek. "I certainly didn't mean to imply anything, it just…took me by surprise."

The dragon nodded. "Sorry about that, but I couldn't resist. Now, come on in, I promise not to bite…at least not until I get hungry."

Chuckling, the dragon led the way into the room and shut the door. The young Katrin looked around the plushly decorated room, his eyes coming to rest on the slumbering form of the Sultan, who was lying on his side on a bed which, had it been in Afeek's house, would have filled the entire building.

The dragon put a claw to its mouth, and motioned towards the bed. "Have to be quiet old chap, that fellow is a heavy sleeper and it's unlikely that even an earthquake would wake him, but the guards outside might hear if we make a lot of noise."

Afeek followed the dragon into a small antechamber. In one corner of the room was a pile of fake coins and painted glass beads. The dragon shook his head in disgust. "The Sultan's idea of a hoard! Huh, no self-respecting dragon would be seen sleeping on that thing. Imagine if another black dragon happened to walk passed while I was catching forty winks? Huh, I'd be the laughing stock of all dragonkind. Of course, it doesn't make much different to me, since I'm not a dragon."

"Beg pardon?" said Afeek, blinking stupidly. He had been having trouble following anything the dragon said, but the last line threw him completely. "Did you say you are not a dragon?"

The dragon nodded. "That's right chum. Oh, don't let the tail or the fangs throw you, I'm as human as yo…uh…as the next man."

"I don't mean to be rude," said Afeek. "But, you have four legs, scales, and you blow smoke. I think that pretty much covers the dictionary definition."

The black dragon sighed and nodded glumly. "Yes, I know. But you see, the thing is, I didn't start out as a dragon. It's a long story, but I was once a man, by the name of Masoor Kaliph. I made the mistake of breaking in here one night after a long bout of heavy drinking. The Sultan wasn't pleased of course, and he cast a spell on me. The only problem was, the old buffer didn't know magic from fried eggs and his spell went wrong. He intended to turn me into a lump of smoke, but I became a smoking lump instead. Worst luck eh?"

"Anyway, it beats dying I guess, but not by much. The Sultan chappie set me to guarding his room at night. It's a boring job, but it does have its perks. Keeping me alive for one thing. If I were out roaming the world, I would have been slaughtered long ago. Every hero from here to Keldabar wants to slay a dragon you know. They make ashtrays from the scales, or so I hear."

Afeek gave up and looked back into the Sultan's chambers. There was a large, gilt edged dresser next to the bed, and resting atop it, like a gleaming rod of gold, was the Sceptre. Afeek smiled in glee, and could not stop himself from uttering an evil little chuckle.

The dragon coughed loudly. "Excuse me, I'm not boring you or anything am I? I don't get to talk to people much you know. They tend to get one look at me and run like the wind. Anyway, enough about me. Tell me why YOU are here. I take it you want to steal something?"

The dragon chuckled. "Might as well spill the beans old lad. If I wanted to turn you in, I could have done it at any time."

Afeek sighed. "Yes, I'm here to steal something. A very special something. I'm here to steal the Sceptre of the Golden Dawn."

"Ah the Sceptre eh. Aiming big, I like it. Course, I can't let you take it. The Sultan's promised to chop off my tail if anyone ever got in here and stole something."

Afeek's face dropped. "You can have one of these fake jewels if you want, I don't think he'd miss those," offered the dragon, helpfully.

Afeek was crestfallen. The dragon watched him and then sighed loudly. "I must be getting soft in my old age," he said, shaking his head. "I have a proposition. Listen closely."

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