The town was ablaze, and the chicken squawked with joy. "The gold, human! Pillage it all."

Claire's gaze danced across the slithering flames. The houses she once knew were now piles of ash and charred wood. The people she had grown up with were running and screaming at the top of their lungs, a parade of despair. Not too far from her, the gluttonous fire had engulfed the slow and unfortunate, turning them into featureless monsters.

Claire laughed, and she did so with turbulent delight.

"Human, the gold I said!" The hen's squawk cut through the roaring discord.

Claire shook her head, coming back to herself. She picked up the chicken and bolted toward Mr. Gunch's house. It was the largest of them all, and not far away. The flames were nibbling at the sides, and the door was wide open, which meant the Gunches had already left.

She made her way inside, and past the hallway, she entered Mr. Gunch's office. There, sitting and staring out the window, was Mr. Gunch. His eyes were covered in tears and his extremities trembled with unhinged fear.

Claire stopped dead in her tracks. "Mr Gunch? What are you doing here? The house is about to collapse."

"I can't leave. I'm too fat to stand up alone," he said. "My family left me here, on my command. I was going to slow them down. Death has come, at last." He turned to Claire, his stare beyond the veil of tears was ice-cold. "And if you have come for my riches, girl, know that they are not here anymore."

Claire nodded. "I thought as much." She dug out a butcher's knife from her pocket and without a word, sliced Mr. Gunch's hands with one swift swing. The obese man screamed as the blood poured out. "But these rings you've got are quite the bounty. As a payment, I'll give you the most honorable death of them all. Norbert, do your thing."

"You don't command me, peasant!" the chicken squawked but proceeded to vomit a cloud of fire onto Mr. Gunch. "You owe me, human! Let's leave. Too much smoke for you."

---

Far from the town, and with the rings extracted from the hands, Norbert spoke. "We need to be smarter, human. I bet there were treasures here and we only got five rings."

"Perhaps," Claire said, "you should have listened to me when I told you to trust me and be patient instead of incinerating everything on a whim. Dragons were wise not because of being dragons, but because of their age and you are young, very young. If we are going to restore your kin, and if you are going to make me queen of all things, you should listen to me until you grow older."

"Fair," Norbert said and shook little remnants of smoke from his wings. "I didn't think you had it in you. I was gonna use you until I found a good human to help me restore my clan. That of the Iztran dragons, sleepers of Iztrandross, once rulers of the world."

Claire paused for a moment. Her mind collected what she had done and processed it. She smiled then. "I didn't think I had it in me either. But it seems my morality is flexible given the right incentives. It's an interesting thing, though. How what I thought was unswerving turned supple when put to test."

"So much blabbering, where next?"

"Taritar, and this time, you follow my command."

Norbert huffed fire. "Fine. Only this time."

---

You can read more of my stories at r/AStoryToRuleThemAll