Melis looked at the phone with confusion. “You… you're named Emma, and you're challenging me?"

[Yes, I am] came the voice from the device. The dragon smiled confidently.

“And what's stopping me from just crushing you in my hand?"

Jan tilted her head and squinted with confusion as the voice call went silent. Then she figured it out, stepped over and meekly put her snout to Melis' ear to whisper into it.

“Ohhh…" responded the dragon, “ohhhh! So she's not the… she's a human somewhere else and…"

Over at the pile of clothes Carlos rubbed at the bright green scales on his body self-consciously, then looked behind himself and curled his tail.

He heard the coffee shop door swish open and swivelled his head upon his newly elongated neck towards the noise.

“Ohfuhhhaaaaghhhh!" he squeaked, jumping away from the huge winged raptor thing that had just strutted in.

Melis cast a cautious eye over while all the kobolds watched the new monster's arrival, dumbstruck. The beast was maybe three times larger than a human, making him an absolute giant to the little kobolds. He wore nothing, apart from a large, cube-shaped backpack which he sloughed off and dumped next to the barista.

“Delivyrn," murmured Carlos, reading out loud the company logo on the backpack. “So you're a… sapient?"

The creature blinked at him, as if to say, yes I'm intelligent, I'm not eating you am I?

Then he swung his long, stout tail over. There was a tablet strapped to it, a few inches from the frighteningly large and sharp scorpion stinger at the tip. On the tablet screen was a delivery app, showing an order for several coffees, pastries and cake slices.

“I guess, err, okay?" managed Carlos. Well, they were still technically open, despite everything. And he was still working here, even though he was now a short skinny lizard. So…

Is this… normal?" Whispered Terri to Carlos. He shook his head quickly, then looked at the counter which was the same height as his head horns, and the coffee machine that now looked like it was made for giants.

“Uhhh, could you… help me?" asked the male to his fellow minion. Terri shrugged and nodded, and they both started to climb up onto the counter.

Esme leaned over to Melis, who bent down accommodatingly.

“You don't need to answer her challenge do you?" whispered the kobold to her dragon. “You said you changed. You don't want to kill humans?"

Melis shook her head sadly. “This I need to do," she whispered back.

Then she returned her attention to Emma, now visible, sat at her lab desk on Jan's phone screen.

“I will defeat you and take your territory," announced the dragon.

[if you need territory,] said Emma, [our government would love to see this problem go away. We can allocate you a mansion, a cave system, whatever you want-]

“I will _defeat you_ and claim your territory," snarled the monster. “I do not want your free land. I challenge, I fight and I take."

Esme looked at Melis with despair. Why was she like this? What happened to the frightened, affectionate dragon in the blue box?

“Now, are you really the best humanity can offer?" continued the creature. “Why don't you come here and face me?"

[Why don't I?] answered Emma. [Can you burn me, at the moment? Turn me into a lizard? Read my thoughts? A champion needs her shield, right?]

Emma gritted her teeth behind her smile. She actually wasn't facing the dragon because Styx the coatl had bitten her and paralysed her legs. It was the only way he could stop her from coming over. It was, Emma realised, the right thing to do. She _was_ only a human.

Meanwhile the wyvern watched as Terri and Carlos filled his bag. The male kobold packed the last items in and closed it, then the purple female helped the beast slot his wings through the straps and return it to his back.

The wyvern, his expression animalistic and unchanged, reached out a wing and gently rustled it over her heads.

Head pats, thought Terri. A thing you did to kobolds. If you dared.

“Uhhh, you're welcome," she said with a slightly confused smile, and the monster turned and paced out the door.

Melis laughed and nodded to the woman on the screen. “Indeed. I can't harm you _yet_. You have a good shield."

The dragon brought the phone right up to her beautiful, purple irised eyes.

“So, human, where is your sword?"

Emma sighed. She had an answer to that, and hated it.

[Please take a look outside,] she replied.

Melis handed the phone to Jan and she and Esme walked to the door. Jan followed behind, streaming events to her millions of rapt followers.

The dragon swept the door open and looked out. The delivery wyvern was still present, now on the other side of the road. A large cluster of other monstrous shapes was all around him, drinking the coffee and devouring the cakes with their wicked assortment of beaks, muzzles and maws. And now they were all glaring directly at Melis and her kobolds.

“Wow…" said Jan, pointing the phone at the bestial horde. “I've never seen so many different monsters in one place. So that's… a gargoyle, a snake with wings, a… griffin? What's the little one with the closed eyes and the stick?"

“You call him a basilisk," said Melis. “Probably more dangerous than the rest put together."

“Oh. Crikey. But more dangerous than, err…"

Melis shook her head and motioned towards the phone. Jan quickly put Emma back on the screen.

“I could kill them all in seconds," said Melis. She sounded confident, but her voice betrayed her hurt.

This had… gotten to her. These were monsters, they were supposed to be on her side against the humans. And here they were, playing the hero, facing off against impossible odds. Facing off against her.

“How did you get _them_ to fight for you?" the dragon asked her challenger.

[Regular feeding,] replied Emma. [Belly rubs. Caring. They're my babies. I didn't even want them come out and meet you. They insisted. But they're not dumb, they know how powerful you are. They're just showing their support. The real threat, the real weapon, is, well, all us little humans.]

“Mmm?" questioned Melis.

[Look, I am not a fighter, or a soldier,] said Emma. [I just organise things. But it doesn't matter, because not a single one of us could seriously fight you. But as soon as you hurt any of us, you're going to be fighting our government. Then you'll be fighting all humanity. It'll all escalate. You can squish us like bugs, but there's billions of us, and we will not forgive what you did, and we'll be like a swarm of bees on you and all your kind, except we have thermonuclear weapons, and we've been planning for decades about how we'll use them on you all. You don't know what we're capable of. _I_ don't know what we're capable of. I don't know who would win, our side or yours. Neither probably. I do know it will all be _terrible_.]

Melis stared at the human on the screen.

“Well," she said nonplussed, “at least you would all be a good fight…"

Esme looked up at the dragon in horror. In response Melis glanced at her.

Help, she mouthed.

Esme started to understand her new mistress, more or less. This was Melis, the terrifying dragon who transformed them into her monster servants, and who would cause destruction to the world if it meant a good fight. This was also Melis, who in private had begged them to be her kobolds, who needed hugs and comforting, and who was frightened that her mere presence could result in war and death, the things that her outward persona supposedly sought out.

They weren't in private now. So this was the Melis who needed a reputation of ruthlessness and bloodlust, another defence to keep others from seeing her as weak and vulnerable. Unguarded power to be exploited.

[Do you really want to be responsible for all these deaths?] implored Emma.

“Please don't hurt them, Melis!" begged Jan, grabbing meekly onto the dragon's tail. Esme couldn't tell if she had figured it out too.

“You are too sentimental towards your old species," Melis said dismissively, looking backwards towards the desperate kobold.

Esme tried something different. She smiled cynically.

“Mistress, it's not in your best interests to cause a global war," she said plainly, “I think you can secure more resources in peacetime."

She took a hold of Melis' hand and ran a finger over her sharp claws. “With a little… persuasion…"

Look upon me, thought Esme, as I turn against humanity, moohahaha…

“Long term gains for short term loss?" replied Melis, thoughtfully.

Her kobolds had pulled through. She had a plausible exit.

“Hmmm… that is reasonable. I see no need to fight, for now."

Melis' tail wagged, just a little in Terri's grasp.

Emma smiled.  Out of camera shot her trembling hands let go of the edge of her desk.

“But," continued Melis, “you still challenged me…"

[Indeed,] replied Emma, her voice brittle. [I… heard you're good at chess…]

===

They went to battle in the arena of a mobile phone chess game app. Melis linked her mind to all her minions and made her moves using their combined planning and skills. Nonetheless she still lost her pieces one after another, Emma toppling them with near flawless, merciless efficiency. Melis had ordered her to not hold back, so her challenger obliged. She was blatantly using a chess program to win on her end, but to the dragon, cheating was simply part of the game.

Soon Melis' king was in check. The dragon roared and crushed the phone like a candy wrapper. As she claimed a draw due to the destruction of both sides, Carlos received a call on his own device, installed the app, downloaded the current game from the cloud and the match just resumed as if nothing had happened.

Four moves later Melis was checkmated. She tried to do illegal plays, but the phone didn't let her, despite her attempts to threaten it with a slow death. The device was, well, a machine, implacable, playing only to game rules that had not been altered in hundreds of years and were not going to change for the sake of a sore loser dragon.

“We will fight again," growled Melis, looking at the losing screen and grinding her teeth.

[At chess?] asked Emma.

“…we'll see."

===

Melis and her minions departed the coffee shop, just like normal customers who had finished up their drinks. Well, except they took the barista with them. Carlos flipped the open sign over and locked the front door.

There were humans wandering around, doing their thing. Emma's monsters were long gone, with the exception of the gargoyle who had petrified in the sunlight and was going to be stuck there until the evening. The police had largely melted away. Everyone was watching them warily, but the situation felt… defused. A dragon on her own was an unpredictable and vast threat, a wandering weapon of mass destruction. A dragon with her retinue was more like… an ambassador from the monster lands. Official.

“These are my kobolds, human," said Melis proudly to a random woman going by with a pram, who hadn't paid attention enough to avoid them until it was too late. “They will see to my affairs."

“I… okay," said the woman, standing awkwardly.

Melis and the human looked at each other.

“Can I go?" asked the woman.

Melis looked down at Esme encouragingly.

“Uhhh, sure?" said the Kobold. “You can go. Err, human."

The woman backed away with her pram as quickly and politely as she could manage, and Melis and her little horde walked on.

Esme reflected on today's strange events. They had entered the coffee shop as humans going about their business, and now, well, they had become the monsters that had come to sort things out. Melis had a problem. Melis _was_ the problem, and she had made her own monsters to solve it.

They made their way to a side street and found Esme and Lucas' little old car. The dragon insisted on getting into the back with Carlos, Terri and Jan, and clearly enjoyed being squeezed up against her kobolds. As they negotiated over how they were all going to wear the seat belts, Esme got in the driving seat and pulled it all the way forwards so her foot claws could just about touch the pedals.

Lucas, still enjoying the novelty of being surrounded by giant women, slipped happily into a cup holder and poked his head out to carry on watching events unfold.

Esme pulled the car out of the parking space, causing Melis to giggle with surprise at the movement which to her was strange and new. And off they went. Not with anywhere in mind yet, just to… go. With purpose.

“You, err, took losing well," said Terri to her mistress. She noticed that as soon as they had ended the call with Emma the dragon broke into a curious smile. She was generally more warm and pleasant now, especially when talking to her new minions.

“Yes, I was beaten," said Melis, “but not by a human, by her tools."

“The phone?" said Jan.

The dragon nodded. “The phone. So small and weak, but it has a brilliant, impossible, logical mind in it, and it's connected to a far bigger hive mind."

She put her arms around the kobolds' shoulders and tangled her tail up with theirs, filling up the footwells.

“I'm going to learn how to use your tools," she continued, “your technology. If it can beat me, it can beat other dragons. Help make me safe from my own kind."

Terri nodded. The dragon was going to have to sign up for a _lot_ of tech training courses.

“So… where should we go?" asked Esme.

“Hmmm, I still need territory," said Melis. “Shall we go to your lair? Well, my lair now. I did win it, fairly."

Esme shrugged. “It's… only a little rental apartment in a high rise."

“Apart… high… I don't understand that," replied Melis. “May I read your mind?"

Esme was surprised that Melis was now asking instead of just going right in. She nodded and slowed the car a little while she felt the tingling sensation.

“Hmmm… I see," said her mistress. “Maybe… I could defeat your neighbours and take their lairs too? Knock the walls through?"

She didn't sound very positive. It hardly seemed… appropriate for a dragon.

“The Brin Underground is an abandoned subway system beneath the city of Brin," said Jan, reading a web page from Carlos' phone. “Built within a pre-existing cave system and opened in 1962, it suffered repeated subterranean monster incursions until its closure immediately after the 1975 Under-Incident, when 138 customers and staff members were transformed or disappeared."

“Ooooh!" said Melis. Tell me more!

Jan went through the rest of the details while the other kobolds chirped in with the tales they had heard.

“Tunnels," exclaimed the dragon excitedly, “a labyrinth… explorers with stories of unknown horrors in the lowest depths. Perfect!"

“Are the unknown horrors going to be a problem?" asked Carlos.

“No," said Melis with a toothy grin. “Not if they behave themselves. I can be much more… unrestrained with my powers underground."

“There's an entrance to one of the stations nearby," said Esme. “I'll be there in a few minutes."

Back when the dragon let people flee the coffee shop, she had stayed for the chance to have an unexpected adventure, albeit a dangerous one. And it had paid off. She was in it for the long haul, as long as Lucas was too.

 As Esme changed gears her husband reached up and stroked her scaly arm. An affectionate smile spread over the kobold's lizardy snout as she reached down and felt him climb aboard and scamper up onto her shoulder.

They and the rest of Melis' minions, for each of their own reasons, readily accompanied their mistress along this strange new trajectory in their lives, to establish her lair and become part of one of the city's biggest urban legends.

===The end===