The midday sun shone bright and hot overhead. Soldiers of the kingdom stood in ranks, spears and shields ready, facing west.
To the west, at the crest of a gentle, sloping hill, sat the enemy on their horses: raiders from the badlands west of the kingdom. They wore wide-brimmed hats to protect them from the sun and leather boots to protect them from the snakes.
Their chieftain gave the signal. They rode towards the soldiers' line in three columns, with enough room between them for the lead horse archers to circle back after firing an arrow or three.
They were just outside effective bow range when a wall of blue-white flame rose up in front of them. The first three riders of each column were incinerated in an instant. The rest wheeled to retreat in disarray.
The wall of flame grew, stretching out in a wide arc around them twice as fast as their horses could ride. They soon found themselves surrounded by searing flames ten feet in height.
Uncomfortable moments passed.
Then the flames to the east parted, and through the gap came a dragon. It slithered slowly toward the chief, riders unable to stop their horses from bolting away from the beast. The wall of flame closed behind it.
The chief stared at the crimson serpent as it approached. All watched as the dragon began to shift in form, its wings becoming arms, its tail splitting into legs, and its size diminishing until it resembled a man. It took the form and bearing of a grizzled veteran in black armor.
"I am Nahash Aklabethel," said the dragon-man. "You’ve been stealing the kingdom’s cattle. Couple thousand, by now."
Nahash paused. "They sent me to put a stop to it." He stared at the chieftain.
The chieftain steeled himself and dismounted. He looked at the man-that-was-a-dragon. "I’m Cal. I lead this little band."
"You’ve had success," said Nahash. "Your horse archers have given our soldiers plenty of trouble. But did you really think you could get away with stealing from us? We have dragons, you know."
Cal hesitated, looking at his lieutenants for a moment, before responding. "We, uh," he said, looking up at Nahash with a wince, "we got one too."
"You don’t say," said Nahash, giving Cal a hard stare. "Where is he?"