Halloween tales!!

The Dragon’s Eye

There once were two brothers whom the county kept a vigilant eye upon, so notorious was their brand of trickery.

One night around a roaring fire, their uncle spilled a tale of dragons. Not just any dragon, but a dragon who burdened the night. She of great green scales, three toes, and wings that smelled of leather and embers. Her tail, long as a ship’s mast, spike-horned and spaded at the end. Her main parts were twice as long as her tail and her lizardly form walks on limbs common to dragons. And as she sways, her scales clink together as a thousand firecrackers.

Many a time a maiden or a man hid behind a stonewall and listened as that sound passed by. Lucky they were, but from then on, they bore the dragon’s scare. If ever they slept, they saw dreams of screams as the flesh boiled from their bones in the dragon’s breath.  Mwa ha, ha, ha, haaaaaa!

Her head bore horns of some jagged bone, long as a man’s arm, many times splattered with the entrails of children two small to escape. And many a boy she impaled as she swung her head about in the dark.

And she stank of burnt hair and old blood sitting in the sun. The consequences of her victim’s demise.

But, this made her comparable to other dragons. What made this dragon extraordinary were her eyes. Alive they are! Look close and you will see the wizard whose dark magic created the beast from fire, fungus, and an ancient spell cast under the stars. A spell lost to the ages. Until he alone solved the riddle of Limerick. The riddle that magically bound the old book of spells.

Powerful as the wizard was, he was similarly arrogant. He believed he controlled the brute, whereas in truth, the ancient magic he brewed was even darker than he knew. You see, the wizard intended his dragon for evil.

In the kingdom where the wizard lived, nothing was more loved than the children who played in the village. Above all else, children were the most precious thing in all the world. The wizard thought he could take that magic that a child possesses, so highly valued, and he could make it into gold.

For this, he would make a dragon to do his dirty work. A monster who ate little children.  

But deep, buried inside that hex, an even more potent spell resided. And it encased the wizard inside the dragon’s eye. Forever bound to the beast, a witness to the horrible fire that is a dragon’s work.

Therefore, since that day a dragon roams the night. Silent until she strikes! So be vigilant, for the only warning you have, are the yellow glow of her eyes. The wizard, aflame and aghast at what he sees. Appearing and disappearing each time, she blinks. Like fireflies, they say. Brilliant against the darkness.

So watch carefully, for if ever you see fireflies, two abreast, run, run for your lives!

Spike Pedersen, Wizard’s apprentice