The robed man tried to get the dragon's attention as it continued it's rant in front of the castle. He knows that the dragon had seen him as its flaming breath no longer threatened the gate to the castle or him as he stands outside of one of the few ways into it.

"Woah, woah, woah...I am sorry but I think you don't understand the situation here, my good dragon," the small man in brown robes, a leather belt, and matching boots said in response to the dragon's statement. On his hip hung a small metal orb of silver and several chains of beads that ran a riot of colors. He holds his hands up in front of him and acts very defensive in response to the roaring declaration the dragon had just made.

They stood facing each other on the dirt cart path that lead up to and into the castle proper, just a few cart lengths outside the castle's main gate. From the castle walls, many people are hiding and trying to watching the conversation between the two of them as it goes on. There were even a few brave souls with bows and arrows pointed at the dragon from cover.

"I can understand your concern for them but, really, you must understand our dilemma. We just can not understand this course of action you seem to be trying to impose on us." He began. He looked over his shoulder back at the castle while waving a hand in their direction.

"You see, there are several arguments to be had here as to why you should not do this." He smiled up at the dragon's toothy face with warm friendship practically oozing out of him. "First, what about the dragon's that the dwarves have captive? Aren't they a greater priority than some simply humans that live in your caves? Shouldn't you all be doing something about that?"

The dragon comment had got its attention.

The dragon, which had been rearing up it's full height ranting at the castle just minutes before was now turning its head to the man and dropped to all fours. Until the man had come out one of the small door of the gate, the dragon had been making a terrible noise outside the gate for quite a while. It had even been throwing torrents for flame against the walls of the castle in punctuation of it's threats. It kept yelling for it cave people held in the castle right up until the man had finally got it attention.

"Secondly, we simply can not afford the cost of fixing our castle. We are here in the borderlands, trying to survive. As you can see while the castle is fairly strong we have spent far more of our funds on trying to expand the field to support this generation's children."

He tilted his head to the dragon as if sharing a secret. "You see," his voice lowered as if he was trying to speak only to the dragon. "We had a lot of indoor time, if you know what I mean, this last winter. It has us a bit concerned as you can imagine." He had actually winked as he said indoor time.

He straightened, "We just can't spend our little money on such things as repairs right now."

Something touched the dragon's expression as if it was actually embarrassed by what the frankly speaking man was saying to it. An expression that everyone watching saw and caused a bit of a murmur to pass through them.

"Add to that, we are human after all, right?"

This time the dragon's tilted it head at the man, smoke boiling out of the corners of its mouth as it spoke, "Well, yes...you are human..." it said as if not sure what was going on now. As it spoke it's eyes looked across the wall and back to the man.

"Yes. We are," replied the man, pride filling his words. "We are human and you know what that means? You destroy our castle...maybe kill a few of us in the process. We get angry. We come after you in larger numbers."

"Now you have to kill some more of us. Which leads to more of us coming to kill you. Maybe we will, maybe we wont but it wont stop there, right?"

"Eventually, we will kill you," he continued. "But now your kind have to do something about that, as well they should, right?" The dragon bobbed his head in agreement. "Now we have more of us all being drawn in to this little thing over some cave people that decided to take a few goats. Goats that are not theirs in the first place to boot!"

Sadly, "Now we have a war...a bad one. Your kind and my kind hell bent on a fight that neither of us actually started, right?"

"A Race War...the worst kind of war....and none of us want that, right?"