“Ma, I’m home!” shouted Colin as he opened the door to his house.  Stepping inside, he went straight to his room.  Inside, he went over to his cot and lifted the loose floorboard at the end.  Pulling out a large jar, half full of copper coins, Colin added the handful of coins he had gotten that day to the rest.  Soon, Colin thought, I’ll have enough to get Ma’s origin day present.  I only wish Dad or Celise could have been here with us.

     About two years ago, Colin’s father and sister were killed by the dragon overlords.  His father was the captain of one of the few trading vessels in Lyratea.  The dragon overlords feared that their human slaves would flee the realm if they were allowed to board any ship and leave the port.  Therefore, the overlords only permitted a few licensed ships to leave and every crew member had to be accounted for as well as all cargo searched for stowaways.

     One day, his father was due to leave on a long voyage to the newly founded Allied Mercantile City-States.  His sister begged their father to take her along with him, but he was forced to turn her down and told her he would try to get permission for a later trip, though their father knew that it would be nearly impossible to convince the overlords to let him take his daughter away from the kingdom.  However, Colin’s sister would not be deterred.  Once their father had left the house, she snuck out and hid in the back of his wagon.  Out of sight, their father had driven down to the port city of Egum and when the two arrived, Celise slipped out of the wagon and into one of the barrels that was going to be loaded onto the ship.

     When the dragon who was overseeing the departure of the ship inspected the cargo, Celise was found in the bottom of a barrel.  Dragging the girl out with his jaws, the dragon bellowed for the captain of the ship to come down to the docks.  When Colin’s father saw his daughter in the jaws of the dragon, he rushed down the gangplank and asked what was going on while a few of his crew members remained on deck.  The dragon shouted, “It is the captain’s duty to know the contents of his cargo and this brat was found inside one of your barrels!  Therefore, you are found guilty of attempting to smuggle a slave out of the kingdom.  There can only be one penalty for your crime and that is death!”

     “Kill me if you must, but please spare my daughter, she did not know what she was doing,” pleaded Colin’s father.  “That is not my problem!” roared the dragon as he breathed out a large stream of flame upon Colin’s father, burning him alive.  His father’s screams of pain drew the remainder of the crew onto the deck where they watched the dragon chew up the charred remains of Celise and then began eating her father while he was still alive.  “Thus it will be to all traitors and those found guilty of conspiring against our laws!” roared the dragon.  Finishing off the captain, the dragon flew away to report this incident to the dragon council.

     When one of the crew members was able to make the trip, he sought out Colin and his mother and told them what had happened.  As it was, they had been frantically searching for Celise since she had vanished about a week before.  When they heard what had happened, Colin’s mother could not hold back her tears.  She did not stop crying for more than a week and it took her almost a month before she would let Colin out of her sight.