Synizn, The Dragon-Man

When Fred shook the dizziness away he saw that he was no longer in the library of the demifoxes but in a cold, stone room that looked more like a wine cellar. In fact, one of the walls was lined with large, round, wooden wine casks. And the rest of the room was just as ordinary. A few benches, some rickety chairs, a wall cabinet, guttering lanterns strung from the ceiling. If this was the abode of the mysterious Synizn, well, it wasn't exactly what Fred was expecting.

As for the man himself, Fred wasn't sure what to expect. Up until nine days ago, Synizn had been less than a name to him. A handful of stories that he'd heard from the knights of the duchy Hillton had mentioned him, but only as another dark and mysterious character that lived in the uncivilized southlands of Ryngaerd. As for what Astra had been able to tell him, it too was not much to go on. The amazon rangers who patrolled the border between the lands of Ryngaerd and Aqualaria were aware that he existed and that he roamed between the mountains of the Goth and the southern reaches of MalBoncton. They had heard many stories about him but much of it seemed to be just that, stories. And as long as Synizn did not cross over into Aqualarian territory the rangers didn't care what he was since he wasn't their problem.

But at the moment Synizn was most definitely Fred's problem. And it was no longer possible for Fred to ignore all of the misgivings that he had about this strange mystery man. He didn't really know what Synizn was, but everything that he'd heard about the man and what little he knew about him first-hand all added up to something dark and dangerous. And Fred's duty was clear about what he had to do. Whether Synizn was an outlaw mage, a dreaded were-beast or especially, as the mountain man himself claimed, a dragon in disguise, by every code Fred had pledged his life to the knight knew that Synizn was an abomination that had to be destroyed.

Unfortunately, Fred was hardly in a position to kill Synizn for the man, or whatever he was, was the only hope Fred had of regaining his humanity. And after having done so much already just to get to him, he was damned if he wasn't going to go all the way through with it.

"Welcome, Lord Fred," a voice called out startling the young knight. Fred spun round and saw a figure rise from a chair hidden in the darkness of an unlit corner of the room. The figure stepped forward and Fred gazed for the first time upon the man known as Synizn. He was middling sized, not a short man but not so tall as Fred was (or rather as tall as Fred used to be). He had thick, black, curly hair and a beard that grew out from his face like a tangled matting of fur. His hands were large and thick, the nails dark and jagged. His shoulders were wide and sat imposingly upon his burly frame. But it was Synizn's eyes that drew Fred's attention more than anything else. They were black, as black as night. And they were staring right at him.

"I'll take the Crystallic now," Synizn said and held out his hand.

Fred hesitated. Although he had come all this way to hand the Crystallic over, and even though so much depended on it, every instinct in his body was screaming at him not to do it. It went against everything that Fred knew was right. Synizn was an abomination. The Crystallic was ultimate power. And was even Fred's humanity worth giving over such power to a thing like Synizn?

Synizn was not surprised by Fred's hesitation. In fact, he was expecting it. And so, in a gentle voice he said, "I have treated you fairly, Lord Fred, and with honesty. Why do you think I told you that I am in fact a dragon? Certainly it wasn't to get on your good side, Dragon-Slayer. But it was to show you that I can be trusted, that I am not hiding anything from you."

Fred stared at Synizn coldly. If there was one thing he knew it was that a dragon could never be trusted.

Without waiting for the knight to speak Synizn added, "You came all this way on the word of a dying dragon. You trusted her then,

1. will you stop now?"

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