Vast Treasure

Three adventurers find a dragon's treasure, but it's not what they expected

The three adventurers crept slowly through the cave, their only light a glow from the gem at the end of Cedonia’s staff. They knew they were near to their ultimate destination: the treasure hold of Kargor. But finding it — as difficult as it was — was the easy part. They still had to deal with the dragon.

“Everyone quiet,” said Winfred, their leader, as he walked with a sword in hand. “We’re near.”

“We were quiet,” said the wily elven thief, Neldor. “You asking us to be quiet was the first time someone spoke in the last three minutes.”

“Well... I’m just making sure the quiet continues,” Winfred added.

“No one was about to start singing or anything,” stated the sorceress, Cedonia.

“See? Now she’s talking, too,” Neldor told Winfred. “You started a whole thing.”

“Everyone, just be quiet!” Winfred declared a bit more loudly than he meant to.

They were quiet and continued through the caves. Soon, they saw a light ahead of them. They exited the caves into a vast cavern, much of it lit by torches. Here was the area large enough for a dragon. Here, they would find his treasure.

But the ground was bare.

No piles of gold like in the legend. No fountain of rubies. Not even a copper piece. All they saw in the cavern was a wooden table. And on it was some object that glowed.

Cautiously, they moved toward the table. The object on it was like nothing they had ever seen. A flat black part lay against the table, and on it were many different letters in little squares. Extended up from the part on the table was a rectangle that glowed. They could make out images in the glowing rectangle — things that looked like boxes but had numbers in them.

“WHO DARES DISTURB MY TREASURE?!” yelled out a booming voice. It was the massive dragon Kargor, his red scales gleaming in the torchlight. He somehow had hidden in the shadows of the colossal cavern. “Did you think you could sneak in here without me knowing? I heard you talking about being quiet in the caves.”

Neldor and Cedonia gave an angry glance to Winfred, but Winfred kept his focus on Kargor and pointed his sword at the dragon. “You sat on your stolen horde for too long!” declared Winfred in as loud a voice as he could, though it still seemed meek in the presence of Kargor. “Now, where are you hiding your treasure?”

Kargor furrowed his scaly brow. “What do you mean? It’s right there.”

The three adventures once again looked at the glowing thing on the table. “That thing?” Winfred asked.

“It appears to be some magical device displaying different numbers,” said Cedonia.

“It’s spreadsheets,” Kargor explained. “Showing all my investments.”

The three adventures looked confused. “Investments?” Neldor finally asked.

“Yes,” declared the dragon. “Stocks. Bonds. Mutual funds. Some real estate holdings. A vast treasure unlike you’ve ever seen.”

Again, the three adventures looked at the glowing object on the table and then back at the dragon. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Winfred. “But we had always heard of the piles of gold in the treasure hold of Kargor.” He pointed his sword at the dragon though it was but a mere pinprick to the giant beast. “Where is it?”

“I had piles of gold, yes,” Kargor said. “But it wasn’t really doing anything just sitting there — it was kind of silly, actually. So I liquidated it and invested it all.”

“You liquified the gold?” exclaimed Neldor. “So is there like a river of gold under here?”

The dragon shook his giant head. “That’s not what ‘liquidating’ means. I got the cash value, and then I invested that. And now, every second, my fortune grows.”

The adventurers looked at the thing on the table and back at Kargor. “It doesn’t seem to be doing anything,” Winfred declared.