The Shadow Gambit

Jared was still at least a few day's journey away - he planned to arrive just before the conjunction of the planets, and no sooner. Death was not scheduled to revisit the caves until that time came.

Under normal circumstances, the resident red dragon would not have cared one way or another about who won. But now he was quite literally fuming. He was angry because the debasing of his hoard had practical effects. While he was still strong, if Belboz got greedy, then he was concerned about how far he would go. Would he turn the entire hoard into scrap? But he was also angry because Belboz displayed a lack of respect in leeching his treasure. On principle alone, he wished to teach Belboz a lesson.

The problem was that he was not in a position to just lash out at Belboz right now. He had to deal with this knight-turned-red-dragon that the mage cleverly loosed on him. He quickly formed a plan. He would take advantage of the shadow dragon, who seemed like a willing sort. While he could not sneak down the caves and turn his fury on the duplicitous wizard, he could send Fred's shadow. At first, the shadow would lurk unseen in the darkness, watching and listening. The resident red dragon, whose name was Malthradies, would then use the information gathered to strike Belboz at a vulnerable time. Unfortunately, for the plan to work, he had to keep Fred alive and in reasonable health. Malthradies looked at Fred. Fred's shadow had somehow lured him into chasing his own tail. Malthradies knew he had to be careful. As inept as Fred proved to be, he was still dangerous.

Malthradies sent a silent command to the shadow dragon.

1. Keep Fred running in circles. Once he is exhausted, I will deal with him.
2. Kick Fred at the base of his tail, on the underside, as hard as you can.

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