THE MOMENT
She would be glad when it was finally over. Virginia Marcus was trained in medicine; but, no one wanted her for her medical opinions. Instead, she was volunteered to accompany any would-be dragon hunter and lead them to the lair of a powerful dragon; most people in the area called it a 'King Dragon'. She'd let it slip to a known gossip that she could sense magic and track magical creatures like dragons, and it didn't take long to get the attention of hunters.
Now, she was navigating a rocky valley at dusk, and leading a group of armored adventurers into a cave. As much as it wasn't an ideal situation for her, she was at least glad so many joined her. Virginia did what she could to stoke the fears of the villagers and encouraged more and more brave men to join the fight. She brought almost a dozen warriors, plus their supporters, to the mouth of a dark cave.
"In there, I sense he's asleep...," Virginia nodded at the opening and the adventurers began preparing for their assault. The huntsmen moved with purpose for several minutes, packing, unpacking, and adjusting their weapons and armor, each one had something to do and Virginia waited patiently. Finally, the work stopped all at once. Every person dropped what they were doing and turned toward the mouth of the cave as a lean, old wrinkled man with a black beard emerged from the black interior. Once she spotted him, Virginia moved closer.
"Thank you, Virginia," he said to her. "I appreciate the thoughtfulness, unfortunately, my new assignment means I'm forbidden from feasting on humans temporarily. I would have mentioned it sooner, but the timing was still uncertain, and I didn't know when your next delivery would be," he chuckled. "This batch was rather quick, you've developed quite an exceptional talent for deception," he added.
"Thank you, Master Coronado," Virginia nodded at him with a proud smile.
"Well, it's only a temporary ban on eating people...," he said as he scanned the silent group and considered his next step. He'd dominated them all mentally even before he stepped out of the cave. "It'd be a waste to kill any of them now, I might like to come back and eat them after the tournament." He stroked the point of his black goatee for a moment, then smirked.
"I'll kidnap you for a few months," he decided. "It will create the opportunity to reappear after we finish at the school, and you can inform them of my new lair then," he said.
"As you wish," Virginia nodded. She lay on the ground as Coronado retreated into the cave.
"Now," Virginia heard Coronado's voice in her mind and yelled out from the ground.
"HE'S COMING!" the adventurers were all caught unaware, unsure of what exactly they were doing in that particular moment, but they all turned to see Virginia on the ground as if she'd just fallen. The woman was trying to get to her feet but no one was helping her because the ground was trembling. In seconds a giant black dragon leaped out of the cave and roared.
"HELP!" Virginia yelled as the onyx beast grabbed her in its claw and took to the air. A couple of young and quick-witted knights tried to lance it out of the sky, but the dragon flew too high and too fast. "SAVE ME!!!!" Virginia yelled again even as Coronado chuckled and the people left behind shrunk to the size of ants.