The Dracophage Skill Tree

*Kling-a-Ling* said the bell above the front entrance to RedBobs Burgers and Such as the last customer strolled out of the bar digging into their pockets for their car keys. It had been a long day and Zeff was ready for it to end. After dealing with rude customers and an even ruder boss for the last 11 hours he was counting down the seconds until he would be able to clock out. He looked at the old analog clock hanging just over the entrance to the restaurant and suddenly felt a twinge of anxiety flow over him.

It was still only 10:44, a whole 16 minutes until he could clock out for the night. He had cleaned the stoves and counters a bit too early! If someone came in in the next couple of minutes he would have to dirty them and clean them again…

Zeff sighed as he grabbed a pen and an old receipt from the counter and began to doodle. A first semester college drop-out complaining about work. He thought. How typical.

But what else could he say? It wasn like he was doing anything particularly glamorous at RedBobs, so why be enthusiastic? The best part of his day was when he clocked out, and he wasn ashamed to admit it.

Zeff sighed again. Someday he would do something with his life. Something he was passionate about. Something that would change the world. But until then he—

*Kling-a-Ling* said the bell again.

Zeff grimaced as he looked up from his doodle. Crap… He thought.

He raised an eye-brow. He had expected to see a fidgety, glossy-eyed college student coming in with a case of the late-night munchies. What he saw instead was a relatively tall man, between 45 and 55, barefoot and dressed in tattered, dirty rags. The man gently shut the door behind him as though he was afraid it would break and slowly crossed the diner to the front counter. He limped as he walked but his gait was straight and long.

As he reached the counter Zeff could see his face a bit clearer. He had a prominent nose with thick, bushy eyebrows above deep, wise brown eyes. The ”salt ” in his short, salt and pepper hair seemed to glisten under the light of the diner and his chin had a dimple in it.

”Can I help you sir? ” Zeff said in a low voice, as to not alert his manager who was counting money in the back. He had an idea that this man likely had little to no money, which could be a problem.

”Uhh—yeah, well-uhh… ” Came the mans deep voice. ”Truth be told, sir, Im broke as a joke. ” He scratched his head, embarrassed and uneasy. ”I have walked this street going from one establishment to the next, trying to get a decent meal. And—ugh… ” His voice trailed off at the end as he lowered his head and scratched the back of his neck nervously.

Zeff reached for his apron. ”One Double Red Burger, comin right up. ” He called over his shoulder as he headed toward the stove and grabbed the ingredients.

The man raised both of his bushy brows in surprise. His eyes twinkling.

A few minutes later, Zeff had re-cleaned the stove, cooked the burger and packed it neatly in a bag. ”Here you are, sir. Just what the doctor ordered. And I added extra cheese because you used establishment in a sentence and didn sound completely lame. ”

The man was dumbstruck. He could only laugh and wipe a tear from his cheek. Then he whispered, ”Thank you, my dear boy. Thank you. ”

As Zeff was reaching to hand the burger to the poor man, a shrill nasally voice echoed through the diner. ”Mr. Corad. What do you think you
e doing…? ” Zeff felt his jaw tighten and he rolled his eyes in exasperation. It was his manager, Dwaine.

Zeff turned on his heels to see Dwaine with a disgusted look on his face surveying the man.

”Im simply feeding one of our valuable patrons. ” Zeff said with as much artificial glee he could muster without seeming impertinent.

”Did our valuable patron pay for that burger with green money? We don accept rags or IOUs as payment at RedBobs. ” Dwaine retorted with an unflattering snicker.

The man in rags flared his nostrils and clenched his jaw, obviously offended, but he remained silent.

”Per company policy: ” Zeff adjusted imaginary glasses on his nose, and said in the most matter-a-fact manner he possibly could, ”Section C, subsection VII of the employee hand book clearly states: Each RedBobs employee is entitled one free burger of their choosing once a day for shifts greater than 6 hours. ” Of course he had made up th