Dragon Story

[ElectricBadger]

I submitted this for a story contest on another site, and despite not winning (poor me!) I still like it. This is what happens when boredom meets iambic quadrameter!


Dragon Story


An age long past and far away
When gods were young and still at play
Amidst a fortress by a wood
Where all was sweet and true and good
A sage, a Prince, of Baranor
Resolved to learn his world’s lore;
With mail, sword, and arbalest
Alone he set upon his quest.
He traveled thus for day and night
And came at last to frozen blight
Of snow and ice that blew like sand
And scoured clear a dying land.
He kept upon the narrow track:
No storm could ever turn him back,
But when he saw a hell-spawned cur
With brimstone eyes and charcoal fur
He first began to fear his fate:
The land was filled with anger, hate!

With eager joy the hound pursued
A dragonling of azure brood –
A tiny thing just scarcely born
With purple wings and tiny horn.
The prince stopped still with deadly glare --
The demon dog -- it should not dare!
Great anger struck his very core!
The drake is dear to Baranor!
He drew his sword, a spell-wrought blade
And charged the beast, the chase delayed --
With bolt and claw and sword and fang
Their blood ran deep and steel rang.
Heroic blows cut darkest night
Til mist and cloud bared Luna’s light,
But with the glow of pale moon
They saw the struggle ended soon;
The Huntsman’d heard the battle’s sound
And rushed to aid his wayward hound.
The prince prepared his final stand
His blade would never leave his hand.
With all his might he sent a curse
To shape the forming universe;
“Let evil win this thrice-cursed day;
Good in the end shall have its way!
Three swords it takes to bring you low,
But mine shall strike the fatal blow!”
And then awareness fled his eyes –
The Huntsman claimed another prize.

But lo! Despite the royal death
Another creature still drew breath –
The tiny dragon, young and kind,
Still possessed a clever mind.
A dart, a dodge, and up a tree,
Wings spread wide and she was free!
Sprung diamond tears from argent eyes --
The dragon mourned the knight’s demise.
But lo! Her work was not yet done,
It had, in fact, but scarce begun:
The drake would seek to see fulfilled
The prophecy the prince had willed.

For painful days of sleepless flight
The dragon fled the deadly night
Past hills and mountains crowned with trees,
Past glassy lakes and roiling seas.
Twas thrice of three, the moons she fled
The Prince behind her: frozen, dead.
For thrice of three she hardly ate:
Just beat her wings to meditate.
Perhaps to set these things to rights
Took swords in hands of noble knights?
For those she knew of just one spot:
A table, round, in Camelot.
A year and day she sought the land
Whose king would surely understand.
But Arthur heard and shook his head,
“I harken every word you said,
But I must have this riddle solved
Before my lords will be involved.”
“I’m told you’re wise and clever too!
Please tell me, sir, what I must do?”
“Forsooth, I’m just a king, you see –
I’ve naught to do with prophecy.”

Although this made the King distressed
The drake herself was not depressed;
Determination never ceased --
She quickly sought an elder priest:
No doubt the force of God, divine,
Unravels fast a simple line?
But all this effort came to naught --
The clergyman looked rushed, distraught,
Eluded by the Truth he sought.
The riddle made him overwrought!
“I don’t have time to dwell on such –
But one more idle might know much.
Go seek the Fisher, by the shore --
That’s all he does, there: think and snore.”

The Dragon sighed with deep dismay,
Went down to shore, upon the quay;
The man was etched with tragic lines
That, weathered, spoke how life declines,
For mournful wind and joyless sand
Leave cruel cuts in Nature’s hand.
The Dragon once more told her quest –
They spoke three days, for both digressed,
And waves erode the time away.
But then, upon that final day,
The Fisher said, “Don’t ask of me;
All answers come ashore from sea.
A fisher’s ken is only broad
Because he lives so close to God,
To Hydra, Kraken, Titan’s keep --
There lies great knowledge in the deep.
Go seek among the endless brine
To find a creature part divine --
Perhaps a nix or water sprite,
Or ocean Fairy, glowing bright.”

With fond adieu the dragon flew
Into the air and to the blue
Both high above and diving low
She sought an answer to and fro
But lo, leviathan stays deep
And Kraken spends eons in sleep
And up amidst the frothy swells
Was not a thing to hear her yells –
Except a solitary fish,
A herring scarce a finger’s size
Its scales orange, as were its eyes.
“Come here! Calm down! And cease to shout
And tell me, what’s this noise about?”
The dragon, just to be polite
Then told the fingerling her plight
Implored, “Oh please, my new-found friend,
Convince a Hydra to ascend?
I’ll gift of gold – a heaping mound! –
If an answer can be found.”
The little fish but swam in place –
Such calmness set her back apace.
He spoke an answer with respect
But not the answer she’d expect:
“I pity you, though you can fly
And I can hardly see that high.
Your poetry is nowhere, though,
So near as deep as I can go.
To bring these princely words to be,
O Dragon, takes but you and he.”
Oh, what the little know of such
She’d underestimated much!
It took no time for him to show
Just how to bring the Huntsman low.

Then back to wing and back to flight
And back to raging storms of white;
And back to foes of fearsome might
And back to face the endless night!
The hellish hounds all took to chase
She led them on in deadly race
And in the front her mortal foe:
The Huntsman there, with eyes aglow!
Dark clothes of shadow-woven weave
Had scalps of men upon their sleeve.
The dragon, though, was not distraught –
For soon the Huntsman would be caught!
With pounding hooves and scraping claws
The cursed pursuers never paused
Until they reached a hallowed spot
The very one the dragon sought –
Where last the Prince had drawn a breath
Where then the Prince had met his death.
As quick as light she turned around;
As quick as dark she held her ground –
The Huntsman cried with bloody joy
So certain now he would destroy
But as he raised his dagger high
The azure dragon, quick and spry
Attacked the fiend with head held low –
Her horns, twin swords, each struck a blow
The demon fell, the quest fulfilled,
It’s hellish hate forever stilled;
The Huntsman’s eyes began to fade –
He’d dropped upon a rusty blade.

[Talia]

WOW! Very wonderfully done...sorry you didn't win.