Before the Dragon, the Cyfandir was a sleepy, peaceful place. After a young dwarf, Angus Redbeard, comes face-to-face with it, he finds himself on a journey to warn neighboring nations and peoples of the danger. Along the way, Angus has to learn how to be the hero he pretends to be, finding opportunities to prove his worth in places from the mountaintop fortress of the Sliver to the seaside canal city called the Veyns. Will he have the strength of character to become the hero he’s supposed to be? With help from his new friends, the bombastic bard Johnny Brightshirt and the eminently capable Alene, Angus manages to upset the delicate balance of nations, beginning the period of upheaval we know now as the Cyfandric Cycle.