Cordelia

My town was brimming with criminals when I moved there. The amount of wanted posters that littered the streets and walls were plentiful enough to be citizens themselves; most wanted were dragons, but even some members of the Beastclans decorated the streets with their faces. It was such a problem that the mayor of the town did anything and everything to catch these criminals:

Double the bounties, create more jails, promote more dragons to investigators, seers, and sheriffs, hire criminals to find criminals in exchange for freedom. It was a mess.

At first, I was not a part of this madness, but the way dragons ran down the roads to chase down supposed evil-doers sent a thrill through my heart. How badly I wanted to participate! Oh, but not righteously, no.

One night, in the empty streets, I collected the posters that blew in the winds, making sure I had one for almost every criminal wanted. Then, I returned to my keep, spreading out the posters side by side. I dipped my claws into my inkwell, writing runes on the back of each paper, saying over and over: “I am evil, I am evil.”

Once I completed my writing, I gathered all of my papers and ran out of my home, giggling all the way. I flew through the streets, stopping at the windows of every house I could find and slipping one of those wanted posters through the cracks. I waited until a faint glow came from the runes of my posters before I went to the next house. I took all night, and once the sun began to rise over the horizon, I returned home, and waited.

As the dragons of my home walked outside to do their daily criminal hunting, I joined them. And, when they went out to search, I went into one of the homes of my victims, looking for the dragon inside. The first home I went into, that once belonged to a young Tundra, now had the appearance of a clawed up Skydancer. I smirked to myself, seeing my enchantment work. Time to reap the bounty of my labor.

“Criminal! It’s a criminal!” I screamed like a boy crying wolf, running out into the streets. My cries caught the attention of the town’s deputy, who followed my cries to the enchanted dragon’s home. I showed them to the deputy, who grabbed the innocent Tundra and took them away. As I watched my victim get dragged off to jail, the mayor came to congratulate me, with words, and with gold. Tons and tons of gold. I was stunned as the reality dawned on me, and greed gripped my heart. Imagine how much I could make if I turned everyone in.

When night fell, I slipped into the streets again, entering the homes of all of the enchanted dragons and stealing them from their beds. I dragged them all to the sheriff’s house, rapping on the door with the full intent to wake them. When they greeted me and the sleeping dragons at my feet, I slipped in a lie to disguise how I found them all: I discovered them in a camp near the town, hiding from the law.

They all bought my lie, and I was rewarded handsomely. Treasure, gems, jewelry; I had it all. There were so many treasures that I couldn’t hold it in my claws.

Once the treasure was secured, I splurged; I left town, buying myself the most grand mansion I could while still having enough treasure for other miniscule pleasures. I was scott-free for around a month, before my magic wore off.

The town was in an uproar. The sheriff discovered all of the supposed criminals were in fact innocent dragons that were just trying to live their lives. The only way the town even found out about my little trick was from the first dragon I tested my magic on, who saw my face.

It was dawn when I heard the hoard of angry villagers approaching my mansion, pitchforks and torches in hand. I spotted them way before they could do any damage to me, and I fled through the window, disappearing from sight.

I never really bothered to return to my hometown to see what had happened to it, or what anyone even thought of me. There was one time, however, that curiosity got the best of me. I remember vividly, the first poster I could see out of all the others, was mine:

WANTED: Cordelia Raven, for the framing of hundreds of innocent dragons for financial gain. REWARD: 1,000,000,000,000 treasure and 1,000,000,000 gems.