The Dragon's Pride By ebowling@compusmart.ab.ca The dragon licked it's wounds as it layed there in the pit of the castle. The warrior won. Disgraceful, quite disgraceful. He sighed, then heaved himself up. He was the child of the dragon queen. She had lent the dragonians sphere of light to a warrior once, but he failed to return it and she passed away... He had taken it upon himself to retrieve it. Obviously, there was a cult following around the sphere, and the people thought they were doomed if they lost it. He had to take it by force. How DARE they place their beliefs above my line. The spirit of my mother lies in that globe. That whole silly Erdrick tale would never be if it weren't for her. He despised the way they treated him. They fared him as an outsider. The forgotten upper world had more of his type than humans, yet here there were none. He wanted to bring his people down to this world. He wanted to start a colony. Yet it seemed that the only way that could happen was to destroy them. Then this warrior comes and get lucky. Well! The warrior would survive. Let him survive with his false victory. He will leave eventually.. Then the pride would commense... A year passes... As the great dragonslayer and his bride sailed away, far away, the people returned to their peaceful, careless lives. The dragonlord scoffed. He figured they'd buy a clue after the FIRST archfiend came! He shook his head. "No time for this.." He turned toward his throne upon the ground, and closed the stairwell, then sat within the great chair. "Rubiss, my dear, I summon you at last." The fair voice sung across the halls. "Your intentions are still not pure, my dear. Why do you summon me?" The Dragonlord laughed. "Have they sung you're praises in these last years? The worlds are not longer connected, and we are trapped down here. Will you not come, to be praised once more?" A moment of silence followed, and the stars seemed to join right on the floor, to take the shape of a young woman. "The ages haven't changed you a bit, my dear. Why, the last time I saw you was-" "Before you decided to make war." she interupted. "And you plan to again. You will never give up, but you will go the fate of Zoma, he who imprisoned me." "My mother defeated Zoma. Hath ye forgotten? The light that kindles the sphere?" "Ah. But still, why do you summon me?" "An heir. There be nary a strong dragon here. I alone have mastered the strength to be human. Thy genes would make a healthy child." Rubiss stood aback. "A child!?!" Then she laughed. "A child to conquer mine own children? Ye art truely lost in rage..." "You forget, my dear, that your own children forgot ye long ago. Will ye not give them something to remember ye by?" She shook her head. The dragonlord lowered his own. "Very well, then. Begone, please." he said as he turned away, avoiding the sight of her parting into the stars. "You always were a peace lover.." * * * And so the dragonlord rested, he pondered the events taken through by fate, and waited... He waited for the people of Aelfgard to return to peace. For while the warrior and Gwaelin built the lands beyond, the people of Aelfgard simply stayed, cut off by them. THAT would be their doom... And so he built his army... -Two years forth... Dragons, Wyverns, Wyrms and Titans. The dragonlord taught them all. He had made it his own duty to not fail this time. He would take every precation that came to mind... With fire and storm the isle of dragons roared in fury. The people of Becconary and Tantegel grimaced in fear. What twas taking forth on the small isle? It was only days later a traveller, barely alive, crawled through the castle gates. "What hast happened?" cried Lorik. "Rimuldar..." groaned the man "Dragons, hundreds of them... the town torn away...." The traveller was put to rest soon after... Lorik feared the dragonlord had returned. Not knowing whence the warrior left, he set contacts to the other towns in aelfgard. Soon Kol was lost. Lorik could not take the horror of his kingdom disapearing. He leaped from the castle walls soon after, and left the counsel as king. Soldier's rushed forth to hold the dragonlord's forces back, but there was narry a thing they could do to stymie the dragon's forces. Twas soon after that Garinham was ruined. With the logic that Tantegel was in the way of the dragonlord's army, the new king raised the bridged and prepared for seige. But it was not so, as the forces moved right past the great castle.... Cantlin The great walls of Cantlin, the town forged in times before Zoma, rised before the Golem. Bred to protect the city at all costs, he but failed once. Never again. The people inside were prepared for the forces. Soldiers walked the walls, mothers held their children, and the gate was closed. The storm was heard beyond the gates. The Golem fought hard, but succumed to the flaring breath of the dragons. The Dragonlord himself was seen, mounted upon a behemoth. The walls were blasted with flame. Could the castle hold? The town elder himself recalled a lesson he heard from the soldier's briefing room. "This town is heavily fortefied, but it could not withstand an attack from the archfiend." Could that count still now? Would the dragonlord prevail? A stone fist caused the walls to crumble, and his question was answered... Ragnar opened his eyes. Around him soldiers inspected the thousand year old ruins. "General, are you alright. You dozed off there for a moment.." "It's nothing." frowned Ragnar. "I need you to send for some historians however." "Yes sir." mumbled the grunt as he ran off. The Burland army had traveled through many unknown lands during this expedition. Midenhall, Cannock, Tantegel.. all of which the people spoke of one called Erdrick, a great Lord of Dragons, and a world beyond the sky. But none seemed to recall what Ragnar had just experienced... "Perhaps, just a dream." he muttered to himself, as he picked up his Sword and led the band back to the ship. -- And as the people prayed for light, the recieved but only darkness....