This was not a world of technology, which you think would be great news to the dragons. No surface to air missiles to worry about. No atomic bombs.
But instead of leaving the rest of the planet filled with mud covered peasants and some nobles living obscenely lavish lifestyles while the royal family murdered each other for the right to the throne, while some old men in bathrobes did some parlor tricks ... This world had taken magic and PROGRESSED IT!
Quasi-sapient elemental were contract bound to provide heat, cold, energy, for hot and cold running water, to turn windmills, to smelt metals. And magic had sped up selective breeding of horses, house cats and dogs by centuries. While not sapient by any stretch of the imagination, they were smarter, had much more strength and endurance, enabling them to keep up with modern magical advances.
And unlike most cases, which the dragons had been hoping for, there was no swarm of magic eating bugs that emerged randomly out of the Earth to destroy it all, and then go off and play pinochle or something, leaving the rest of the world to continue on without magic).
And while they'd held on with baited breath when the inevitable war broke out, it did not end mankind nor magic, instead, it left them with a bad taste for another war, and left them busy burying their dead. And the war also left humans with much more powerful offensive spells if the dragons attacked.
"We're screwed," said one young red dragon to another.
Her mate, another red dragon, said to her, "Not yet we're not... ya know how dragons in worlds without magic shape change into humans and start mega-corporations? Well! Here my idea!"
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And so for decades, the dragons disguised themselves as humans... and learned magic as well, and combined it with their own inherent elemental might...
The still young red dragons looked at each other epicly.
Ditching their itchy wizards robes, the two dragons shape shifted into their true forms.
The farm they flew to was remote, and only had a few humans living on it, perfect for a test run.
And their breath weapon swept over the farm, invisible, silently, undetectable, going into windows and under doors.
The humans shuddered, their clothes disintegrating, shrinking down to half their original size, their skin turning to scales of various colors. Their hands and feet becoming dainty claws, thin tails whipped out behind them. Their heads became reptilian with tiny horns.
The new Kobolds dropped what they were doing and eagerly ran outside, knowing their reason for being, their purpose, the motivation for drawing in every breath.
"Great, glorious, mighty, beautiful, and perfect dragon masters! Your slaves are eager to serve!" Cried out the kobold who had been the father of the family of humans, now a eager and obedient kobold slave and couldn't be happier with the arrangement. His mate and spawn cheering as well.
The dragon couple gave themselves a high-five.