Raszageth half-narrowed her draconic eyes, studying this two-legged creature that had suddenly "laid himself bare" before her with keen interest. The confusion in her gaze deepened.
"Bug, state your species." Her voice was like thunder crashing at close range, making Deren's eardrums buzz. "Why were you traveling with that whelp of Neltharion's?"
Deren endured the pain wracking his body and the terror that nearly tore him apart as his mind spun faster than it ever had before.
He took a deep breath, only to inhale a mouthful of grass ash and cough twice. He forced a smile onto his face, one uglier than crying and filled with ingratiating gratitude(?), then answered in the smoothest, most humble Draconic he could manage: "O most exalted and infinitely mighty ruler of lightning, I—I am a pitiful and helpless human who was unfortunately kidnapped here by that evil Black Dragon! Humans, you know? The most common and weakest sort of two-legged creature on Azeroth, with no merits whatsoever beyond our numbers!"
"I—I'm so grateful to you! Thank you for defeating the thug who abducted me and rescuing me from his claws! You are as just as thunder and as merciful as lightning!"
To make himself more convincing, he even endured the sharp pain in his ribs, bent over, and used his one still-functional hand to rummage through the pile of ashes that had once been his clothes.
He found a gold coin that had been sewn into the hem of his clothes and had fortunately not melted completely, then held it high. "Look! That evil dragon was after my money! I'm just an insignificant human merchant, surviving on a little cleverness and these shiny but mostly useless metal coins!"
Raszageth's gaze fell on that tiny gold coin. A flicker of instinctive interest in a