Dragon Slayer

              Doors of steel and wood from lands half the world away began to swing shut, crafted by hands that had turned to dust centuries ago in the crypts that lay far below the hall they allowed access to. They cast shadows as tall as the watchtowers of some mighty fortress as they silently stole the light from the massive room, extinguishing the howling winds that ripped at the overgrowth that had assaulted what had once been fields and orchards for miles around the structure.

              With a bone rattling clunk, they found their way home with a precision not of this world and there was silence for a moment. A single moment before dust began to settle on the perfect set stones that made up the floor and heavy drops of what was rain ran off the heavy cloak and tarnished armor of the man who had let himself into the dark hall. A torch or cursed eyes of a beast would allow one to see the marble walls and square stones that cast a thousand colors across the floor, it would seem an insult to place one’s dirty boots on such beauty.

              The hall that the mighty doors had been guarding stretched on further than a man could see while the sun hung high above and the ceiling black aside from the glint of crystal chandeliers that numbered in the hundreds yet hung unlit. Thin slabs of lumber that had been grown and replaced ten fold by now covered every seem with such craftmanship that one could pour the sea in through the ceiling and not a drop would escape until the fortress had its fill and rejected the salty water over the battlements and gave it back to the earth.

              The knight’s armor creaked in the stillness that enveloped him, his sword wringing loudly a moment later as he pulled on it hard to tear it away from the sheath that had become packed his ash and filth on his journey to be here. Gray slurry whipped away from the blade to find a place to lay in a long line across the floor in a wet slap that sounded like a whip crack in the empty hall.

“Where are your manors little knight? Did they abandon you when you removed the house from your chest?” A voice of iron on iron screeched out, followed by a crystal shattering cackle.

The knight growled as chunks of chandelier crashed upon his pauldrons and helmet, tumbling off him as rain would.

              The cackling continued as he strode forward through the dark rain of razors, crushing them under heavy boots of iron held on with thin strips of leather worn out far past their life.

              A hundred paces in the air began to grow heavy, as if a miasma of rot had been held at bay as a man keeps the slaughter of animals away from his front door. The man’s free gauntlet reached to his belt, unclasping a silver chain from around the thick leather and making its way out in front of him in a swift motion before he uttered several words and heavens light was birthed into the pendant that hung like a star in the sky.

              The lord himself cast his eyes upon the knight and allowed him vision in the blackness of the evil place he had entered, revealing what lay upon the floor around him. Piles of bones and corpses, the dust of the long dead, the blood of the last knight brave enough to find his way inside the walls of this accursed hall, no magic lingered here, just decay.

“I would like to have that” the voice squeaked quietly, producing only a low hum from what was left of the crystals above.

              In the distance beyond the gifted light deep thuds sounded upon the perfect stone and howls of rage wrung down the hall, echoing off the walls and swirling in the air as if some great beast had fallen atop the knight. The hide of deer that found itself between his hand and sword creaked as he gripped hard and pulled the pendant close, latching it onto his chest where the flag of his house had once been stitched on.

              His off hand crunched down upon the long handle of the ancient sword a moment before the first beast hit him. A head taller than a man the monster found its eyes even with the man it had swung a heavy iron club at as it’s hide the color of spring grass parted, allowing its organs to fall to the ground. A knee made of steel caught its wide jaw with a crunch that rivaled its scream before it hit the ground.

              The second beast died in much the same manor, as well as the third and the fourth, pools of bloody glass and bone forming in the center of the hall. When the last of the half naked berserkers sprinted from the edge of the light with its wild red eyes and wolf teeth the knight brought the sword up above his head.

              The heavy blade bit with a thud atop the head of the monster, sticking hard as it reeled back and the knight lost his grip, slipping and stumbling for a moment too long. A heavy club connected with his shoulder, forcing a hot sharp pain down into his bones. He sneered as his hand found the end of the club, the two finding themselves in an embrace that may have been appropriate when a king ruled here, when we celebrated and danced in these halls.

              The beasts’ other hand pulled at the weapon stuck on its head as the knight’s sword hand came up to meet its cheek. Crunch after crunch sounded as the two toppled down into the bloody filth they had been fighting in, the knight turning bone and flesh to a liquidly syrup as the monster coughed and screeched.

              He huffed and staggered for a moment before retrieving his sword, covered in blood that was too dark and thick to keep something of this earth alive. He continued striding, the light guiding him to the end of the hallway that only grew more grotesque the further he journeyed.

“Welcome to my castle brave knight” the voice rumbled out in a tone that sounded of the press of armored bodies, “I do hope I have an opportunity to meet you”.