July 7, 2018
A small group of humans, dressed in armor made of a strange, fire-resistant red chitin, walked into the cavern of a huge red dragoness. She rumbled lightly in the back of her throat at them, before nudging a large red and black mottled egg over to them.

The dragoness knew that people were hunting for her, and if they found her egg, they would destroy it. She was the last of the fire dragons, and this egg was her son, who would be the last fire dragon after the hunters finally managed to get her, as she knew they would.

She knew that she wouldn't fit through the portal to the ancestral land of the fire dragons, the Nether, but the humans would and they could take her egg to safety there. Shooting a small fireball, she lit the purple portal, and she told the dragonkin, "I need you to take my egg to safety in the Nether. The lava mobs live there, and they will help you protect it. Take the small statue of a cactus made of black crystal with gold veins- they gave it to me, they will recognize it. Tell them that Falmea Vulcan, lady of the fire dragons, sent you and told you to ask them for sanctuary. Also, if they have any issues with that, compliment them on their cacti. They love cacti, I don't know why."

"I'll destroy the portal after you're through so they cannot follow you, and I'll distract them so that you will be safe. Also, my son's name is to be Flarien Vulcan," said the dragoness.

The group nodded, and the leader, a blonde woman, picked up the egg and placed it into a padded backpack that another one of the male dragonkin was wearing.  She then picked up the cactus statuette and tucked it into her backpack. Then they walked into the portal.

---

After they were all safely through the portal, the dragoness swiped her tail at it, shattering the volcanic glass that it was made up of into thousands of tiny pieces, and causing the portal to dissipate.

She then flapped her wings and flew out of her cavern, attracting the attention of the hunters. They shot at her with arrows and threw spears at her, but she continued to fly... until a spear hit her wing muscle, going in deep. It made it much harder for her to fly, and eventually it caused her to crash into the ground, where they brutally murdered her.

---

In the nether, the group hurried from shelter to shelter, avoiding the ghasts and being very careful to not bother the pigmen. They slowly made their way down to the lava, where there was a seemingly small castle made out of black stone and lava.

Once they got closer, they could see that the castle was much larger than it had appeared. It was surrounded by a wall made of polished obsidian, with inlaid designs in the shape of cacti and creeper faces, and was glowing, as the core of the wall was hollow, and had been filled with lava.

The castle was made out of obsidian bricks, held together by a lava mortar. It had some green-tinted quartz inlays in the shape of cacti, showing more of the lava mobs' love for cacti. It was also beautifully designed, with unusual architecture that fit into the Nether, but still stood out. The gate to enter the castle was also beautiful, with arches of black glass and an obsidian gate with orange-tinted quartz panels in the shape of a creeper face.

As the group neared the gate, a pair of sword-carrying lava mobs wearing black armor and helmets blocked the gate.

"Humans don't belong in the Nether. You can't handle fire, you'll just burn painfully. You should leave," said the taller of the two.

"He's right," added the other, a woman judging by her voice, "It's not safe for you humans here. But if you insist on being here, then state who you are and your purpose."

The blonde leader of the dragonkin answered the woman's question, "My name is Brianna, and my friends and I are dragonkin. We are tasked with protecting the last fire dragon egg, and we need to speak to your leader. You may take our weapons if you wish, but we must speak to the King."

"Alright. I can take you to see him," she answered.

"Landon! Get over here! I have visitors to take to the king, you need to take my place guarding the gate!"

"Fine..."

"Okay, let's go see the king! Oh, wait. Weapons please? If you don't give me all of them, I will know. So just give them to me please."

The group quickly collected all of their weapons, which were mostly short swords and shields, although Brianna had a sleek, well made bow of skyroot wood, which is very tough and fire-resistant. The others also had bows, but they were nowhere nearly as well made. One of the women even pulled razor-sharp hairpins from her hair and added them to the pile.

After all of the weapons were in the pile, Keeley asked, "Any more weapons?"

All of the responses to that were negative, and so she said, "Well, let's go see the king then!"

---

All too soon, the group was entering the throne room. The King was settled on his throne, and Keeley walked up to him and whispered in his ear.

"Well then. Introduce yourselves and then I would like to hear your story," The king said.

"I am Brianna, the leader of our group. This silly man here is my second-in-command, Rob, and the other three are Tasha, Mark, and Diane. Tasha is our expert in languages and cultures, she keeps us from making dumb mistakes and accidentally insulting people. Mark is our tracker and an expert woodsman, and the lovely Daine is our animal expert. I swear that she can talk to animals, even if she doesn't admit it. The golden eagle on her shoulder is Numinar, he's a clever beastie and well behaved."

"Now, would you like the long story or the short one, Your Highness?" Brianna asked.

"Hmmm... I think the short version would be better," said the king.

"Okay. Our story begins outside the cavern of the last fire dragon, Falmea Vulcan..."

"We entered her cavern, and she told us to take her egg to safety in the Nether. She gave us the egg and this cactus statuette, which she said you would recognize. She lit the portal, we entered it, and she destroyed it behind us to keep the hunters from following us. We walked through the Nether to the castle, and now we're here."

"Okay. I give you permission to stay here for as long as you wish. We can give your group a place to stay in the castle, or you could stay in the city if you have friends here."

"Thank you, your majesty. Your kindness is appreciated immensely, and we accept your offer of a room in the castle, as we don't know anyone here."

"Keeley, my dear, can you tour them around the castle while I have their rooms readied?" The king asked.

"Of course father. I was on duty but Landon took over for me while I brought our guests here, so I'm free," she responded.

"Wait. If the king is your father, does that mean you're a princess?!"

"Yes, it does... I don't want you to treat me any differently because of it though. Royals here aren't helpless like some- we're trained as warriors, for the Nether is a dangerous place and we must be prepared to defend ourselves at all times. In other words, I can probably kick your behind in a fight."

"Also, Tasha, I can tell that you are an assassin. If you hurt my father, you will have hell to pay. That goes for the rest of you as well..."

An awkward silence ensued for a few seconds, until Mark broke it to say that he was hungry and would like to go find a meal.

"Now, let's go look around the city," Keeley said cheerfully.

"Keeley, before we do that, we need to put the egg somewhere warm where it can continue to incubate. Preferably a fireplace, as fire dragons breathe fire on their eggs on a regular basis to keep them warm," Daine said.

"I know just the place! Follow me, it's right over here," Keeley answered.

They quickly headed over to a small hallway off of the throne room, and Keeley led them down to the third door, which was hidden in the wall, as it was made of the same black basalt as the walls, making it hard to spot if you didn't know it was there.

When she opened it a wave of heat flew out, and the group could see a huge bowl carved out of more of the black glass.

"I've been wondering, what is that glass?" Tasha asked.

"It's obsidian, just not the form you're used to. Artisans in the city work with regular obsidian, combining it with sand to produce obsidian glass. It remains incredibly durable, requiring an immense amount of force to shatter, but it's also transparent. You'll see some beautiful examples of it when we visit the city," Keeley said.

"This is one of our secret chambers, don't tell anyone about it, okay? It's where we store old magical artifacts, and don't worry, it's much safer than it seems. The door has a powerful notice-me-not charm on it, so only the royal family and those who know it's there can find it. Just set the egg in the bowl, it's one of the former lanterns for our walls. It's got spells on it that I can activate to create a fire that will never die until told to."

"Now, could we set our stuff down please? It would be a bother to take into the city with us. Also, I think that Mark really needs a snack, he's getting kinda grumpy," said Brianna.

"I am not!!!" Mark grumbled.

"Yes you are, so stop arguing!" Daine said.

---

They soon headed out to the city after eating and dropping off their packs.

It was just as beautiful as they had hoped, with lovely streets paved with soul-sandstone bricks, and small lights made of many different colors of blown glass.

They also visited the market, where Tasha got excited over the blades made of obsidian glass, saying that she had once wanted to train as a swordsmith before her family was killed by bandits.

Rob quickly got bored and headed back to the castle to find, as he said, "something, anything, that doesn't involve shopping."

Keeley and Brianna got very excited about the dresses that were at the market, while Daine simply stood to the side with Numinar, stroking his feathers and quietly speaking to him.

---

On his way back to the castle, Rob ran right into another lava mob, who cheerfully helped him up and introduced himself.

"Hi! My name's Preston! What's your name?"

"My name's Rob, it's nice to meet you Preston."

"Where are you headed Rob?"

"I'm headed back to the castle, the rest of my group is all girls except for one, and they're all SHOPPING."

"Oooh... that doesn't sound very fun. I'm just going to train at the practice courts, I need to keep my skills up. If you want you can come with me."

"As long as there's no shopping involved, I'm happy to come. I can't handle shopping, it's so boring."

"I'm just going to practice, and I would love a training partner, absolutely no shopping involved."

"Well then, let's go!!"

---

"Ooooh, that one is so pretty! I love the fabric! Is there anything special about it Keeley?" Brianna asked.

"Yes, actually. It's specially woven with fire resistant thread, it's nearly impossible to burn. In fact, the majority of clothing here uses that kind of thread. You should probably get a dress, you need one for any court functions, after all you are staying in the castle," answered Keeley.

"Hmmmm... what would you recommend Keeley? They're all lovely, it's really hard to choose," Brianna asked.

"That pale green dress with the flower embroidery is perfect for you, and a deep red and brown dress with golden embroidery would look great on Tasha, it would go nicely with her hair, and I think that pale blue and slate grey with silver embroidery is just the thing for Daine!" Keeley said happily.

"Daine, Tasha, come here! We need to get dresses for you two!" Brianna called.

"Coming!!!" Tasha yelled from across the street, and Daine just calmly walked over to them, a small black kitten following her and Numinar perched on her shoulder.

Keeley showed them the colors she had picked out, and they agreed to be fitted for a dress each.

---

Rob and Preston had quickly become friends, and they trained together on a daily basis, keeping their skills up and staying fit.

They didn't talk about their families or lives much, but Rob still wanted Preston to meet his friends. He arranged for them to meet up in the city together for dinner, knowing that the girls and Mark (poor dude) would be there. He was certain that Preston would get along with his old friends, and he also knew that Keeley was a friend of Preston's, and she had become a close friend of Brianna's, so she'd be there too. All he could do now was hope.

To be continued... Maybe... Probably never...

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Eh, I wrote this a long time ago and am publishing it now because it's a nice pair of oneshots. If someone wants to use the idea to make a book, feel free to do so- just tell me so I can read it!
I'd be willing to send anyone who wishes to continue it the chapters if they want.

•>❅=🔥=❅<•

My terminology for a few things:
Dragoness - A female dragon
Dragontongue - The dragon language
Dragonkin - Humans who are friends with dragons, many can speak dragontongue

Tell me what references you noticed! I did at least one movie and several books, although I don't expect anyone to get the book references, as they're kinda unusual books that not a lot of people I know of have read.

If you can't tell, Rob REALLY doesn't like shopping XD

Also, in this story Poofless is entirely a friend-ship, not a relationship. I just feel a bit awkward writing it now that he's married.

About the obsidian: obsidian is actually a type of volcanic glass. I own a small piece of it, it's translucent, which means that you can't see through it very well, but light can come through- kinda like frosted glass. I decided to make it so there are two variants of obsidian- the super-hard kind, and the glass-like kind, although I'm gonna keep it as being very hard. The portal and the wall are the glass-like kind, the castle's bricks are the super-hard kind.