Chapter Text
Robin was returning home from a hunt, carrying a small deer on his shoulders. It was one of the only things he was good at. He wasn’t the best shot in the world, but he could handle a bow well enough. He had his bow and quiver on his back as well.
As he walked back into the small town hidden by the trees, he was nearly hit by a boy running past him. Then again by several kids chasing after the first. Likely playing some game.
“Sorry Robin!” one of the children called out.
“No worries, just be careful!” Robin yelled out behind him.
Robin continued his way into town making his way to the butcher's house. When he arrived he found the butcher out back, he was wrapping up various meat he had cut up and was getting ready to start handing them out.
“You're getting good at that” the butcher commented as Robin laid the deer on a small table. He handed Robin a small knife which he used to start skinning the beast. “Since it’s your kill you get first picking on the meat, so what will it be?” he asked Robin as he continued his work.
“I was thinking maybe some of the shoulder, my dad loves chuck roast” Robin responded “But I was thinking about taking some meat to leave out for the guardians”
“Are you sure that's a good idea? They haven't been seen in years”
“There was a group of dragons at the shrine last week”
“Yes, three Leviathans and a Winged Chameleon. Not a group of Bog Beasts like the guardians were”
“Perhaps it will attract new guardians like the Bog Beasts were”
The Butcher let out a long sigh “How much were you thinking?” He asked.
“I was thinking a pound and a half for each shrine, so ten and a half pounds” Robin answered as he finished skinning the deer.
“That's not a lot of meat for a dragon, especially if they have grown”
“I want it to be enough to be noticed but not so much that it’s a waste if they don't. Like you said no one has seen them in years. I'm hopeful but not stupid”
The Butcher sighs “Alright fine, let's get this cut up then”
“Thank you”
After about thirty minutes they have the meat portioned out and wrapped up. As Robin begins to leave the butcher calls out to him.
“Bring back some more of the bone pieces to your mother will you, I need more knifes soon”
“Yes sir” Robin called back, rolling his eyes.
Robin began to walk through the town once again. He followed the main path out of town and into the woods. As he walked he could hear a woodpecker in the distance and even saw a pair of his name sake building a nest.
After a few minutes of walking he came to a clearing in the woods. In the clearing there were about a dozen partial dragon skeletons of various kinds. Robin walked around the full skeleton in the center as he made his way to the front. Some of the townspeople thought it was bad luck to walk inside the skeletons, others thought it was disrespectful to the spirit, Robin just thought it was creepy.
As he came around to the front Robin suddenly got the feeling he was being watched, that was nothing new. Every time he came out here, he got that feeling. As if the raised skull of the Fallen Guardian was staring down at him. But it felt a little different today, but he couldn’t figure out why.
Then there were the six totems under its wings for the Bog Beast Guardians. Each carved precisely to try and look like the one it represented the most. He could still remember when one of them came by every day to collect the offerings and check on the town.
In the “hands” of each totem and the Fallen Guardian was a large bowl with inscriptions on them thanking them for protecting the town. Robin began to pull out the meat and unwrap them, putting one in each bowl. He is not one for prayer so he simply bows after he is done.
As he began to walk away he looked at the other skeletons trying to decide which one he should take a few bone pieces back to be made into knives for the butcher. Robin's father had studied the bones every once in a while and a long time ago, before Robin was even born, had found that there was a trace amount of metals in dragon bone. Not much but if you knew what you were doing you could get a decent amount and would come out stronger then normal iron or steel. His mother would be able to forge with this dragon metal making various blades, armors, even made him arrow heads.
The butcher was a bit of a superstitious person, so Robin thought that he should pick bones from a specific kind of dragon for what they represent. Robin could tell by the shape of the head and horn what kind of dragon each one was roughly, like the Fallen Guardian was a leviathan. Robin decides to take a few teeth from the skull of a MIdnight Menace, the only one of them there.
The skull itself was on its side half open. Even on its side it was at least a foot taller than Robin. There were already a few teeth missing from the skull, likely already harvested for metal. Robin tried pulling at a few but couldn't get them out. He ended up grabbing a rock and smacking them with it. He gathered a few of the larger teeth remaining and put them in a small bag.
Robin began to walk out of the clearing back home following the dirt path through the trees. He was barely 10 feet into the woods when he heard what sound like a large *thud* behind him. He immediately gets behind a tree fearing the worst. After taking a moment to calm himself, he slowly turns to peek from behind the tree and freezes in fear at what he sees.
There in the clearing among the skeletons, stood a truly massive black dragon, and it was looking right at him.