The Dragon and the Sorceress |
|
By
Steven F. Boettcher
The
dragon was tired. He had spent the last two centuries away from his home, only to find a
human village in its place and a half a dozen knights in relatively shining armor ready to
slay him. The red dragon with enormous
bat-like wings, a long sleek neck and equally long tail and burning red eyes, shook his
head in disbelief. “Look at my land. My home,” he thought to himself,
“ruined!” Now the knights, with golden swords
and sliver spears in hand, were ready to kill him. The
dragon said to himself, “and I was hoping to rest a decade or two. This is
annoying.” “Hark! Demon dragon,” called
the knight with the pillage of feathers flowing from his helmet (signifying his rank above
the other knights) as he was sitting upon his white steed.
“This is no longer your land.
The King claims it under his kingdom! You,
worm, are hereby trespassing! Under the
King’s command, trespassing is punishable by death!” The dragon replied, “This is my
land and it has been mine since before time. I
do not recognize your king or his laws. And I
say that it is you humans who are the trespassers on my land. But I am a reasonable sort,” he said while he
lifted his head and thrust his chest out in pride.
“I do not wish to fight or kill anyone, but I can not tolerate
the littering of my land with your buildings and trash.
I will give you one cycle of the sun to relocate beyond my land and I will
never trouble you again.” The dragon lowered his neck and peered
at the knight-captain returning the knight’s stare with his burning gaze. “Tell
your king that if you do not leave my land then I will have to unleash my fury on your
king and all of his subjects!” With that, the dragon turned and flapped his massive
wings and flew off over the mountains to the west. When the king received the news
of the dragon's threat, he was furious. "Why, who is that monster and
what right has he to threaten me and my kingdom?" he said rhetorically. "Ahem," said
Mysterious, the king's advisor and resident sorceress, "If I may, your Majesty. You
see, the drake has a legitimate claim to the land. Upon news that a dragon was seen
in the hills a few weeks ago, I started looking for some information about dragons, being
that dragons have all but disappeared from the lands. I personally have never
seen a living dragon and was quite curious to learn of the local legends. "So, I did a little
research," she continued. "You see, the drake in question, from the
descriptions I have received, is none other than Serphentine. He was one of the
great drakes of lore. He allied himself with humans during the long forgotten Dragon
Wars against the Overlord. He was one of the few survivors. That was many millennia
ago. Since then, dragons have been quite rare, my lord." The king cut her off, "I
don't care what the Ancient Texts say! In fact, I want them destroyed!" "But your majesty,"
began the sorceress, but se was cut off immediately. "There is no buts!"
said the king. "These texts are blasphemous. I have always been
ruler of these lands, and I want the scribes to write down the true history of MY
KINGDOM!" "But, but your majesty, you
can't possibly do that," when she said that, she knew that she stepped way out of
line." "You tell me? The King!
what I can and can't do," he said sarcastically. "I am the KING.
King of all kings and I can do whatever I want. NOW!" With that the king's two squires
jumped up and said, "By your command, oh great one." and they searched
throughout the kingdom for any ancient scrolls that made reference to the land, its
history, and to the dragon. They had these texts burned in great bonfires
within the courtyard of the castle, so that the king could delight in his power. At the same time, the king had
his scribes create new and fantastical histories for the past millennium, which had the
king as lord of all. The king loved reading the new histories and he couldn't help
but to embellish the already exaggerated tales with new ideas, especially when it came to
tales of great strength and magic as well as his personal conquest. (Those stories he was
especially proud of.) All the while, Mysterious had
all but relinquished her post as king's advisor. Yes, she was always by his side,
but she never really advised him much anymore, except for what wine he should have with
his meals. During that time, she brooded over what will happen when the dragon finally
returns. She knew that the dragon was a being of magic, like herself, but of greater
strength. She didn't know what to do. *** As the dragon claimed, he returned and
wasn't a bit surprised to see that nothing had changed. The six knights waited for
his return, for they, unlike the king who had spent his year creating more outlandish
tales and never thinking once about the dragon, had not forgotten and have been preparing
for this confrontation ever since. The captain of the knights,
again on his gallant white steed and sword in hand, said "Hark! mighty demon of the
netherworld. You are again trespassing on the King's land. I trust you
haven't forgotten the penalty of this deed." "I have not, little man in
shining armor,” said Serphentine, with little enthusiasm. "Since you
didn't heed my warning, I guess I must destroy you, that puny village, and your play
king." The dragon
raised his head high and opened his wings while standing on his hind legs. He hoped that his enormous size would
be enough to scare the humans away, since he really didn't want to hurt the humans who
were once his allies. But if he must, he must, if only to reclaim his land. “I don't agree with the king, I
cannot allow you to destroy my people. So I must stand with my people. O mighty one,
as you may undoubted know about your last encounter here in these lands, I tried to advise
the king about your claims. I had read through the Ancient Texts, but the king
didn't want any of it so he had all the ancients texts in the land destroyed and new
ones written to glorify himself. Anyway, since only I had read those texts in centuries,
only I know the truths of what they held." At that, the dragon eyed the
sorceress closely. "What was she holding back, " he thought to
himself. Then he searched his memory and eyed the sorceress even more closely.
He was looking for a sign of what the woman had found. "Yes, Serphentine, I know your
secrets and the secrets of all the dragons. I know how to defeat you!" Serphentime jerked his head
back. "Secrets of the dragons?" he thought. "What
secret," he said to himself as he tried to recall any secret. "Could there
really be some secret way to kill dragons. Well, there are so few of us now, maybe
she does know something," he thought. "Very well, witch," he said
with venom in his words. "What is your deal?" "It's quite simple, since
only I know the secret. I will keep it to myself. In return, you will not
return to this land until this king is dead. Don't worry, he has yet to sire any
heirs and I will make sure he never will. And when he finally passes to the great
beyond, you will succeed to the thrown and you will rule this kingdom and coexist with us
humans as you once did many millennia ago." "And what of you,
sorceress?" the dragon asked. "I will be around to make
sure you keep your word for I have learned a great deal of the secrets of the dragons and
their longevity." Without a word, the dragon gave
Mysterious a nod and turned and flew away. Mysterious let out a sigh of relief
and thought, "I didn't think that bluff would work. The only thing I found in
the texts that was useful was how gullible dragons could be." The End |
