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Jade and Amethyst (Chapter 1)

By

3669AD and Blaze Lucivar

The clash of metal on metal rang through the air as the young woman met a bandit's dagger with the sword she'd taken from his fallen comrade. She forced the smaller blade back until the man was forced to step back and tripped over the prostrate form of the bandit whose sword the young woman wielded, then she whirled to meet another bandit's blade. Her grace and quick movement showed she was obviously trained in swordplay, but the bandits were too many, and she was beginning to tire. It was late afternoon, nearing dusk, and Giada hadn't been expecting an ambush on her way home with her haul of coral and pearls after a day of diving. The bandits had surrounded her, and Giada had dropped the sack full of her day's haul in order to defend herself. Now she stepped back to steady herself after a particularly vicious swipe from one of the bandits, and her heel caught on the sack, sending her off-balance and into the grasp of the bandits, who'd quickly closed in. "No!" she screamed, struggling to break free, but they held firm against her attempts. The greedy looks on the bandits' leering faces made it crystal clear just what they were going to do to her. Not very far off, there was a large, amethyst coloured dragon swimming about the ocean, hunting for its meal. He spotted a shark and darted off after it, overtaking it in moments and catching the creature in its mammoth jaws. Alaric swallowed his food and ate a few large ocean creatures before flying up and out near his home. When he got near his cave entrance, he noticed a group of men circled around something. He changed his form to a nine foot, twelve-hundred pound humanoid dragon and landed near them, immediately hearing a woman's screams. He walked up to them and tapped one of the men on the shoulder. "What are you doing on my land?" "Yer land? Who sez this is yer la-ah!" The bandit turned to get rid of the interruption, and his words turned to a yelp of surprise. The man obviously hadn't expected to see what he did. The other bandits turned to look as well and seemed just as surprised as the first. Then their surprised expressions turned to leers once more as all but the five against whom Giada still struggled moved to encircle the dragon. "Why dontcha jus' go on yer way an' leave us ta our bizness, lizard-man?" the first sneered. "Or do ya wanna taste our steel?" The dragon listened to the man's words, completely unaffected by them. "Listen, my good man, if you do not get off of my land, I will be forced to continue my meal. I am still quite famished, you see." The dragon's deep voice rumbled into the dusk air. "I will give you five more seconds to comply." A couple of the bandits glanced around as if wondering whether to do as the dragon said or stay where they were. A couple made a run for it. The bandit who'd spoke, and was apparently the leader of the gang, didn't move. He waited the five seconds that he had mandated and began transforming again. His true form came into being and he roared at the men who continued to stand there, waiting to see what they would do. The bandits scattered like leaves in the wind. The five who held Giada let go so suddenly in their rush to escape that she stumbled and fell on her backside on the path. Alaric transformed into his human form, a six foot two, two hundred seventy pound man with jet black hair and amethyst coloured eyes. He walked over to the woman and leaned over, extending his hand to her. "Are you all right, m'lady?" Giada took his hand and stood, brushing herself off. "Yes, thank you. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if you hadn't come along, though," she said with a shudder. She looked up to meet his eyes and was struck by their color. The rest of him wasn't so bad, either. Of course, as the lust that had burned in the eyes of the bandits had shown, she wasn't too hard on the eyes herself. Despite her profession, Giada was pale as one of the cream-coloured pearls for which she dove. The top of her head came up to the man's shoulder, and her platinum hair flowed to her calves. She bent to check the contents of the sack by her feet, and, satisfied that nothing within it had been broken, picked up the sack and slung it over her shoulder. He looked the area over as she prepared to continue her journey. It looked like she had put down a few of the men before they overtook her. "You seem to be a fair warrior." Giada shrugged. "I've had some training. It pays well to know how to defend oneself in my line of work." "And what kind of work do you do, exactly?" He watched her, sizing her up. She set down her haul and opened the sack to show him the brightly coloured coral and gleaming pearls. "I'm a diver. I take my haul to the village down the road and sell it to the craftworkers and jewelry makers." He looked at her haul, then back up at her face. His opaque amethyst eyes seemed as though they could see everything. "Do you need assistance back to your village?" Giada shook her head. "I ought to be fine the rest of the way. I doubt those bandits will be back any time soon after the scare you gave them." Alaric nodded and began to go back to his cave, but stopped shortly and turned his head to look at her. "My name is Alaric." She smiled, hefting her sack once again onto her shoulder. "Giada." With that, the man transformed back into his humanoid dragon form and walked into his lair and went to sleep. Giada continued on down the dirt road to the village where she would sell her wares. A few days later, she returned to the place where she'd met the dragon. Rather than a sackful of corals and pearls, however, this time she only carried a small parcel, which she held very carefully. She left the road and walked up to the entrance of the cave. "Alaric?" she called softly, unsure whether the dragon was home or if she even had the right place.