Pain Tames a Dragon

It had been over a month since the Demon Lord first summoned Pain. In that time, he had learned many things about the world he found himself in. The Demon Lord had spent time drilling into him all she wanted him to accomplish in the world as the leader of her dark army. She also explained how she would not be able to use magic for a year due to his summoning and that he needed to train to learn the magic he was given.

Pain found himself having to train every day in various abilities. The mornings were devoted to learning swordplay with a shapeshifter. After that, it was straight to archery taught by a goblin. By evening, he had to learn about the world's history and politics with the Demon Lord herself. The end of his day was split into two magic lessons. The first with the witch and the second with a lich. Needless to say, he found it all exhausting.

The Demon Lord thought to visit him one particular morning to observe his training. Despite his unwillingness to learn combat skills, she had heard that he was remarkably good at understanding them. So, she stopped by in the courtyard where he had sword training.

His trainer was a Shapeshifter named Sam, a ferocious warrior who had fought in countless battles in the war that raged for over a century. This shapeshifter was one of the four top generals in the Demon Lords army that served under Pain. When the Demon Lord arrived, they were locked in a practice battle. Pain slashed down at Sam with a wooden sword, but Sam quickly blocked it and slashed at Pain's chest.

"No good, if this were a real battle, you would be dead," Sam said in the form of a Kingdom of Bright soldier that had his arms crossed and was frowning disappointingly.

"Sure, but I keep telling you I have no desire to fight in this war..."

"Hello, you two; how does the training go?" The Demon Lord said as she walked up to them.

"Ah, milady, it is good to see you are doing so well today," Sam said while dropping to one knee.

"Oh, hey Charlotte, wassup," Pain said with a casual wave.

"You fool, I have told you time and time again, you need to refer to her with utmost respect and honor."

"It's... okay, Sam... I'm used to our Dark Commander's unique personality now..." The Demon Lord said while not being used to it yet.

"Anyway, Charlotte, do I need to learn all this stuff? I've told you I have no intention of fighting in a battle."

"You wish to learn nothing?"

"Well, I don't mind magic practice, but I see no need for swords and archery."

"You fool, not only do you speak to our Demon Lord with disrespect, but you also wish to limit yourself as a soldier in her army!" Sam yelled after jumping up and pointing at Pain's face.

"Why do we even need to fight anyway? Hasn't this war been going on for 100 years?"

"123 years, three months, two weeks, five days, 4 hours, 7 minutes, and 30 seconds to be exact," the Demon Lord said.

"You know all that, yet you have no idea why we are fighting?"

"Such knowledge has been lost; we are positive the Kingdom of Bright started it though," the Demon Lord Charlotte said with confidence. Pain sighed.

"Anyway, can we skip out on the sword and archery training and maybe some of the history and politics lessons too?"

"I'm afraid I can't do that; as a commander in my army, you must be stronger than all your subordinates."

"Well, if I get good at magic, I can still be stronger than everyone."

The Demon Lord began to twirl her hair for a moment as she was lost in thought. She stopped suddenly as she realized what she was doing by clenching her fist and slowly lowering her hand.

"Ahem," she cleared her throat before speaking, "I will let you choose your training regimen on one condition. You must successfully tame and ride a dragon today."

"A dragon? Sure thing!" Pain said excitedly. Sam laughed.

"Boy, you made a mistake there. No one can ride a dragon in one day," the shapeshifter said before walking away. "Milady, let me know when he will be doing sword practice again."

The Demon Lord put her fingers to her mouth and whistled. In the distant forest, a flock of birds suddenly flew to the sky. The trees began to shake, and a large beast flew straight up into the sky and to the castle.

"You better back up," The Demon Lord said as she took a few steps back. Pain followed suit.

In a few moments, a dragon landed in the courtyard and let out a roar. It was a typical-looking dragon. It was covered with red and gold scales, had four legs, and two large wings. Its head was shaped like a serpent with two large horns adorning the top. It looked at the Demon Lord and Pain and snorted.

"It's... smaller than I thought it would be..." Pain said disappointingly. The dragon was about the size of a polar bear, larger than a human for sure, but Pain was expecting something that would match an elephant, or even a whale, in size.

The dragon let his head hang.

"Hey, don't say that; he's sensitive about his height!" The Demon Lord pleaded.

"Oh, I see, so he's just smaller. Other dragons are bigger?"

"Yes, usually they are about a head taller."

"Only a head? Then he's not that much smaller anyway! Shouldn't dragons be twice or even triple that size at least?"

"Just go try to tame him already, but be careful he is a bit stubborn. Dragon's are a proud species, after all. Honestly, I don't think someone like you is capable."

Pain walked up to the dragon and sat next to him. The Dark Commander reached out and put his hand on the dragon's shoulder, or what was equivalent.

"Hey, don't worry about it too much. Back home, I was always on the short side too; I mean, the other guys on my basketball team always made fun of me since I had to get on my toes to touch the rim."

The dragon snorted and stood up. He had no idea what Pain was saying but could tell that the Dark Commander was trying to cheer him up.

"There you go, buddy; you're a real smart dragon, aren't you?"

The dragon made a confident, smug look.

"Now you're looking like a winner," Pain said with a thumbs up "hey does he know any tricks?" he yelled back to the Demon Lord.

"Tricks?" was all she could manage to say.

"Yeah, how about this. Shake." Pain held out his hand. The dragon twisted his head to indicate confusion.

"You're supposed to be taming him. Assert your dominance, so he will let you ride him!" The Demon Lord shouted. Pain ignored her.

"See what you do is you put your foot to my hand, and we shake it," he told the dragon.

The dragon did what Pain said.

"What are you doing?" the Demon Lord yelled.

"That's it; you're a really good boy, aren't you?"

The dragon made a happy snort and stood up straight to show his pride.

"How about this next, I'll throw this... uh... sword, and you run, pick it up, and bring it back. It's called fetch.

"He is a mighty and proud dragon; he does not 'fetch'!" the Demon Lord yelled from the sidelines.

"Okay, go fetch!" Pain said as he threw the wooden sword across the courtyard with all his might. The dragon took off running after the blade. The ground rumbled as the giant creature ran across it. He scooped it up from the ground and ran it back over in an instant. "Well done!" shouted Pain. The dragon smugly set the sword down and struck a confident pose. The Demon Lord just stood off to the side with her hand over her face while shaking her head.

"Hey, does he have a name, Charlotte?"

"We do not name the dragons; they are too proud to be given one."

"I'm going to call you Fafnir. Is that okay?" Pain asked. The dragon now named Fafnir made a happy snort of approval.

The two would fly around the castle for the rest of that day while everyone just watched in awe. Later in the month, the Kingdom of Bright soldiers reported that the Dark Armies dragons had become a severe threat as if they were working with the Dark Army now.