Once, in a crag at the far end of a valley, lived a mighty Dragon of shadow scale and bloody tooth. She slept peacefully for many years, only snapping up the odd Man now and again, before a knight came before her home with golden steed and shining armor. He tapped upon the fissure's blockade three times and asked, "Oh mighty dragon, my you let the humble Men of this valley free from you?"

  The Dragon, having been awakened and wary far before he ever stepped near her hearth, thought for a time before replying in a sibilant voice "I will as you demand, but in price I ask that your shadow never returns to this humble valley and that a bloodstone be given such that my hunger be quelled in the valley's stead."

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  Hearing this, the Knight pondered for a time before smoothly plucking a bright red gem from his shimmering pouch and tossed it to her grinning maw. The off he set as the wind over the hills, to face foes yet preying upon the Men of the shores. At once, as his shadow left the hills, the mighty Dragon rose from her home and razed the valley to cinder. Soon after piling the dead into a bed befitting her grand slumber.

  Hearing of what had happened, the Knight stormed back into the valley and furiously slew dragon while she slept. Thus, we know that the word of the powerful is not to be taken as truth.