The Dragon's Apprentice (3)

He grumbled something unintelligible as she disappeared into the shadows cast by the mound. A moment later his head reared back and he snorted loudly. Snot covered coins stuck to the side of the gleaming piles as they flew from his nose and he quickly kicked more coins over them least Lynn spot them. She was terrible when she was right.
“What are you doing?” He asked as her disappearance lengthened with the only sign of her the odd scraping and thump from the dark. “How can you possibly find anything in the dark?”
“It’s not that dark,” She called back and her voice echoed as if she were some distance away.
He frowned and craned his head around the side of his hoard. Over the years the mound of treasure had taken on a life of its own until it completely blocked his large bulk from the back of the cave. Usually, when he needed to get back there, he either shape shifted or just shoved hunks of the mountain aside to get where he desired. He’d gotten lazy about both since Lynn had gotten old enough to be sent in after the odd bit or piece. She had become much better at finding what went missing then he was anyway.
“What are you doing?” He asked again as her absence continued and lifted himself up onto his hind legs until he could look over the top of the gleaming pile. He rested his chin on the coins and tried to see her through the gloom. As a dragon he had amazing sight, even in the dark. Even so he could just see her shadow moving about in the recesses of the cave as she fought and argued with what appeared to be a small trunk.
“Hunting for your ring. What does it look like I’m doing?” She asked and finally managed to heave the small trunk onto her shoulder before she began to pick her way back around the mountain toward him, ungainly with the extra weight she now carried.
He lowered himself back down to the cave floor and went to look at her again around the side of his gold to watch her progress. After several slips that looked vaguely painful she finally dropped the trunk and simply began to pull it after her across the coins. He stepped back as she finally emerged, butt first, from the dark with the small trunk in tow.
The trunk itself was rather unremarkable. It was unvarnished and bound, not in gold or silver or even well polished brass, as most of his trunks were, but in roughly pounded, thick copper that had been applied to the wood when it was so hot that there were char marks around the bands. While small, the dark, roughly finished oak from which it had been constructed made it heavy even empty which meant that, while full, it had to be a nightmare for someone as slight as Lynn to carry.
“You should have told me you were after that trunk, Lynn, and I would have gotten it myself,” He said as she dropped it with a solid thud at his feet.
Lynn straightened, breathing hard, and shook her head.
“Wouldn’t have done any good. It had somehow gotten shoved into the way back in that little crack you never bothered to fill in,” She said breathlessly and wiped gleaming sweat from her brow. “Packrat.”
He puffed a smoke ring at her face. “I am in no way, nor have I ever been, in any way, shape and or form, rat like,” He said with dignity.
She grinned at him and crouched to undo the latches of the trunk that were constructed for human hands to operate and, therefore, way too delicate for draconic hands to master. He could have, again, shape shifted to get into it, but with Lynn there he saw no point in doing so. Of course, if he had had to retrieve it himself he would have already been in an appropriate form for getting into it. Hands were useful that way.
She threw back the lid to expose the trunk’s contents. Inside gleamed mounds of assorted rings. Small, large, jeweled, simple silver or gold bands, delicate things that looked as if they were so fragile that they would crumble to the touch. Some bore tarnish while still others looked freshly polished. A few others looked as if they were still hot from the forge that had created them.
“Ah,” He sighed and scooped out a small claw full to allow them to fall back into the pile. “Now I remember the day we did this. There should be one in here that looks as if it’s worth more then the others, though it’s not. It’s gaudy with a large green jewel surrounded by what could be diamonds.”
“And that’s the one that turns thieves into pigs?” She asked as she crouched to paw through the trunk.
He nodded his massive head, sending light playing across the sides of the cave as it caught off his scales. “I wanted something that would be sure to be stolen. It isn’t my most valuable ring by any means. Oh, don’t get me wrong. The stones are real and the gold it’s made from is as pure as it comes, but there’s more to value then gold and jewels.” He chuckled. “I guess that’s you’re lesson for today.” He paused. “Tell you what, Lynn, if you can pick out the ring that is indeed the most valuable from this trunk then you may have it. I’ll even give you a clue to make it more interesting if you like.”
Lynn frowned down at the trunk’s contents as she thought, one finger on her chin. At last she shook her head. “I shouldn’t need the clue.”
The dragon threw his head back and roared with laughter.
“Of all the apprentices I’ve had over the centuries you are certainly the most arrogant, my dear. Alright then. If you can correctly choose the most valuable ring from that trunk I’ll not only let you have it but any other ring you wish as well.”
She looked up at him from beneath black eyebrows with a speculative look. “Are you sure about that?” She asked.
“Absolutely.”
“Alright,” She grinned and sat, cross legged, before the open trunk.
“Oh, don’t forget that you wanted this,” She said and handed him the ring they‘d originally been searching for.
He grinned as he took it and carried it with him back to his place by the fire. There he placed it upon one of many little shelves carved into the stone, this one at about the eye level of a human. The ring glinted in the torchlight.
Lynn pulled the trunk closer and dumped the rings across the floor.