Cheese In Valdrakken

The fellow known mostly as Jon Chess was lonely and bored, and those were usually characteristics that were a recipe for disaster.

The city of Valdrakken was remarkably convenient if a trifle... large. Built for dragons and dracthyr, it was a rambling, extensive place built atop a mountain. Jon had sympathy for gnomes who visited Boralus; with the thin air caused by the elevation and the plethora of staircases to get almost anywhere, the Alliance allies of the dragons lived in perpetual exhaustion.

Jon's current assignment was very much a gift from the Admiral in whose service he toiled; his wife, the Dalaran-trained Magna (Jon still didn't really understand his wife's title, but he was devoted to her regardless) Alia Atherton Chess, had been part of the lore-masters and researchers sent by the Alliance to support their allies. Jon's only assignment had been to keep his wife safe.

As if he would do anything else.

Of course, Jon being Jon had sent his old master Elling Trias a full report on the eight - eight! - new cheeses the dragons had developed, using their abilities and the time-manipulating powers of the Bronze Dragonflight to precisely age cheese in moments.  Jon had discovered a bronze dragon merchant named Gorgonzormu, who welcomed Jon with metaphorically open arms, challenging the Agent of Cheese to chess games and long conversations around their favorite varieties of comestibles.

So far, Jon was being trounced by Gorgonzormu in chess, but each day he lost slower and slower as his game improved. Gorgonzormu admitted that he was cheating, using his chronal abilities to consider all the moves Jon might make, but Jon didn't mind; victory was not the goal, but the byproduct of spending the time leading his new dragon friend down conversational paths of history and philosophy.

Jon would finish their sessions with a shopping trip to The Ruby Feast, where he would purchase food for the extended Chess clan, all of whom had come to Valdrakken the moment Alia was able to form a teleportation portal.  Since Jon and Alia were going to be in Valdrakken for months, the whole family had come through, including Jon's adopted draconic brother Rorik and Jon's half-brother, Gryffonclaw. Gryffonclaw had appointed himself as the children's guardian in much the same way that Jon was the guardian of their mother.

Of the two of them, Jon was unsure which of them had the more challenging assignment.