[i]Volyarg didn't mind watch duty. He rather liked being alone for a change, not surrounded by his fire giant brethren. Just him, his axe, and the silent mountainside. Someone had to watch for intruders after all, and he had a clear view in all directions. No one was going to sneak up on keen-eyed Volyarg.

No one visible, anyway. Suddenly, with only the faintest of tingles as warning, Volyarg could not move. A spell! He struggled against the paralysis, aware that it was possible to throw such an attack off with luck and a bit of time.

He was short on either. Behind him a sudden thunder of wings, and at the same instant claws scraped over his armor. The dragon – for nothing else could make so much noise or have such large talons – raked over him only once, inflicting not even a scratch past his armor but tearing away his great axe and the belt that held his dagger.

He glimpsed the edges of its wings. A gold dragon! He must throw off the paralysis before – wait, what was it doing? Fangs were sliding across his helm, and over his eyes. The dragon, much larger than he'd expected, engulfed almost his entire body with one long thrust of its snout. Fang-scrape gave way to a tight fleshy confinement as the dragon simply and economically swallowed him whole.

With a desperate effort Volyarg threw off the Hold spell, but it was already too late. The dragon lifted its muzzle, and with a single great contraction of its throat muscles he was sliding down into its stomach. Now he had the time and ability to kick and squirm. Now, its meal taken, the dragon did not care. He felt the thunder of its wings, the on-and-off lightness as it flapped away from his watchpost.

Below lay a great, painstakingly hand-hammered giant axe, not quite fine enough for the dragon to take back to its hoard, and a simple giant dagger. The giant's money pouch was clutched tight in one claw, save for two dropped coins. No doubt the other giants would puzzle over what happened to their lookout, for the dragon had carefully stepped only on rock, leaving no claw-marks on the dirt. It cast a second Invisibility spell as it flapped upward.

One minute ago there had been a giant on the outcrop. Now there was none, and the unseen dragon flapped away, belly tight around a meal and quite pleased with himself. The fire giant would be harder to digest than most prey, being resistant to his internal fires and clad in armor, but a dragon's stomach can process anything given time. The giant would just kick and squirm for a little longer than usual before nature took its course. Even the steel of its armor would be put to use, for there was a reason a dragon's scales are so tough. Why waste time finding and eating ore when refined metal was available, especially when it was wrapped around a nutritious meaty center?

And, of course, why fight a giant when he might cast a speculative Hold spell and have a free meal if it stuck? With a hearty belch the dragon glided off, giving not another thought to his still wriggling meal. Volyarg wasn't the first giant to end up in the Gold's stomach, and if the dragon had anything to say about he wouldn't be the last.[/i]

Sneaky dragon is sneaky. Of course if he makes a habit of victimizing the same giant clan he might eventually get ambushed, but dragons don't need to eat very often and giants are pretty common. 83