The Dragon Slayer

"There weren't always Dragons in the Valley," remarked Thorn. This used to be unchartered territory for the Dragons; they used to keep the peace; they never ventured in the Valley. Then the unthinkable happened and the treaty of the Dragon Crusade was breached and the territorial lands were inhabited by the dragons by the Dragoon Leader Matrices. Dragoons were trained soldier dragons prepared to die for the cause to keep the race alive from extinction from the human death slayers the dragon hunter elite called The Imperial Dragon Slayers. These humans were trained since birth to keep the peace within the castle walls. One day they would rid the world of the Dragoons and live a life of peace. This fight had been going on for thousands of years. Matrices was the first generation of fire breathing dragons with the ability to fly great distances. It was a human with great mystical powers that was a descendant of Merlin, who was not known that gave the first dragons the ability to train as soldiers destined to claim their territorial rights and cease extinction from the dragon slayers. This descendant of Merlin was castigated and thrown out of the city walls and subjugated to live a life in the forbidden woods. His name was Caspian after the sea. He was a disciple of Merlin and learned the ways of the forest and hated the humans especially the dragon slayers for it was his birthright to be on the side of royalty not banned from the castle walls. Caspian learned black magic and sought out dragons like Matrices and wanted redemption.

The black fog had mirrored the water making it obsidian from observation. It was a stealthy dark black so in fact that seeing through the murky water was impossible. This onslaught of archaic darkness made Thorn think twice about trying to find the nest of the Dragoons; with this incredible obstacle light had evaded ever coming into their nest and made their nest the ideal hiding place for the Dragoons. Thorn had taken his trusty Ogre Wilfred. Thorn was the most expert Imperial Dragon Slayer and had lived his life killing dragons. Ogre had a sense of smell of that of a hound and could smell a trail like no other animal of its kind. It wasn't an olfactory smell that the dragons gave off or even their dung that Wilfred the ogre could sense. It was the smell of acid in the fermentation process of the food that the dragons ate that Ogre could smell. The dragons ate a special diet and used nature's carboxyl process to ferment the food to create an emerald green flame in the fire of their breath. It created night optics for the dragons and this was the work of Caspian who had taught them the very secret to the emerald spark of light used for the Dragoons to fight at night. Thorn was livid with Wilfred at the moment because the nest was no where in sight and Wilfred had lost the trail. With Thorn's longbow and mystical sword of Damocles he had eradicated some brush and determined that his location was mired in supine misdirection and they had created a blunder buss. Wilfred tried to calm down Thorn and said we will go back and call upon the Oracles and summon Kara; an elite tracker of dragons who knew their flight pattern from eagle eye recognition from her father the falconer. They had developed the first patterns from the stars under intense illumination from the hibiscus leaves from tannin the Oracles used to prophecy their predictions. Kara was an illuminary and a visionary who was hell bent on stopping the Dragoons from crumbling Westchester Castle again. Westchester was fortified with marble and stone. It was the edifice and structure of the Gods by the brow of slaves, peasants and royal craftsman determined to make a castle worthy of the attention of the King Marcus; who was devoted to the Gods and wanted to appease them by killing the dragons who the Royal Cadre had seen as demons defunct on causing harm to the royal order of annunciation to the republic of man destined to live in everlasting sovereign dictum. It was Caspian who was the hermetic onslaught of disarray and rebellious conviction that created an impasse to this sovereign dictum. Now Kara was ready with her scope and falcon, she also had her cross bow to hunt for red deer at night to eat. Kara was also a hart of ten and would only shoot stags with mounts with ten tines or more. Kara was also deadly with a sword and she carried a dagger. Kara was beautiful to the point of the on look of gleamy eyed stares from her adversaries. She liked to kindle the fire with her beauty and make men weep in solace from their egregious advances. It was Thorn she had her eye on, but he never knew it. Thorn saw her as sort of like a sister for they had grown up in the same fighting regime of that of a Spartan like way of life. They had neither time for the birds or the bees for they were destined for slaying the Dragoons and would finally fight and kill Matrices. Matrices had collapsed Westchester Castle when they were younger. They saw the fire breathing dragon with yellow embers lit in his eyes soaring through the sky with iron clad armor and chain mail around his tail screeching sounds of dragon fodder. Matrices was powerfully built for flight with a whale like structure a demon in the sky. It was a magnificent demon at that, one with dangerous stealth and cunning convictions of death to that of the mortal being. It was Thorn's legacy and sacrifice that led him to fight the evil demon it was his maiden voyage to be exact. This voyage had led him to the murky obsidian water that crept into his boots, and now he had to head back with Wilfred and call upon Kara to find their nest.

Kara was ready at the helm with a chagrin that spoke volumes to the steadfast readiness of battle that she was prepared to fight, but she was the eyes of this manifest voyage, and her expertise in falconry was to be put to the test. Wilfred was less enthused and was manic; so Thorn stood up and slapped the Ogre with everything he had and got Wilfred back on track to track that is. A royal hound of overbearing Ogre. It was to be a fortnight for their trip now and their only job was to alert the Royal Cadre to where the nest was and where Caspian was hiding; for he was one of them who lived among them and learned their ways and was helping them with his mystical black magic; and he observed them training tooth to nail in their fight for the territorial lands that once inhabited the Rhine region of Europe. Once Caspian was dead so would the Dragoons for he held their secrets.

White Tiger was called upon to map the destination to the nest. He was named White Tiger because he trained the white tigers and it was their hunting skill the Imperial elite liked that they gave White Tiger royal map maker and identifier of the woods and surrounding lands of Westchester. There would be four now in this little excursion to the nest of the Dragoons, and to hopefully find Matrices and Caspian.

Wilfred found the scent of the divine pear encased on the vine of the pear tree which the dragons ate, but this was only one of the things that made up of the special diet the dragons made the way Caspian had taught them to breathe the emerald green dragon fire. Wilfred found the red vine and one that had been fermenting on the vine as they called it. With its acrid smell the ogre found his way, and the scent. Now unleash the Falcon, and with that Kara had let the falcon fly fly away. Thorn pointed the sword of Damocles and uttered the words "Let's move with speed and sincerity," and so they did.

With a focus bred in fortitude and bravado they moved steadfast and on their journey. They had come upon a bog in the forest and came upon a mythological creature never seen before in the forest. They didn't know if Caspian had known of their journey, and was ready with a forlorn spy to track them on their journey. They were hesitant at first and White Tiger had said "Kill the beast," but it wasn't a beast it was an owl like faced deer with green speckled eyes determined to follow the group of four destined to their voyage. It was skittish at first but made an owl hoot and ran away but followed every step; it was Thorn who slayed the annoying owl like deer, but when they did it breathed an emerald green fire and disappeared. They knew Caspian was up to no good and now they were spotted, but they were dead set on finding the nest and killing Caspian so they journeyed forth and on with speed and sincerity. Ogre was beside himself and lost the scent. Falcon had returned and Kara had looked into the Falcon's eyes and determined where to go. White Tiger made some identifying markings and traced their path to the destination.

It had been 3 days now and time to rest; so Kara shot and found dinner. Wilfred found some water, Thorn made a fire, and White Tiger made provisions. They sat and ate a feast around the fire and with hibiscus leaves Kara took out some tea made with white orchid, and summoned and with trance like state talked with an Oracle for about ten minutes in native tongue and saw in the trance like state she was in a vision of the nest; she could make out an engraving of an idol that the dragoons had worshipped so they knew they were on track.

So with speed and sincerity they ventured on taking the myriad of traps and delusions the forbidden forest had made. It was through the forbidden forest that the dragons lived where it was no one knew for no one had the speed of flight to make the journey, but time had developed inventions and stories had come to pass of dragon loor of mystical creatures being seen diving down in the sky. It was painted on the walls and visions of dreams and illusions that the Oracles had seen that made this possible.

8 days and 2/3rds towards the nest. They were torn ragged and had climbed cliffs with steep impasses. Ogre had lost the scent and couldn't make it anymore he was an Ogre for Gosh sakes and couldn't be gobbled in the forest any longer. The journey had done something to Wilfred and he was rife with delusions due to lack of hunger which Ogre's can't stand; they need to eat and slim was the meager food that inhabited the forest. They had made it this far though and only 6 days to go. Falcon had done his job and with Kara's scope she could see a glimmer of hope. White Tiger had done his work and made a map worthy of a pound sterling which was rare. Ogre being the ogre he was as loyal as he was to Thorn said he wanted to leave the group and die alone in the forest. He had made it this far and that was as far as any Ogre could go, but Wilfred was family and Thorn couldn't let him die there so they searched for the life saving water that they needed to bring Ogre back to good standing because they still needed Ogre for his hunting skills and to find their way back through the forest even with their map. Thorn took out the sword of Damocles and Kara summoned a vision of a tree with the life saving water that the tree of life could rejuvenate the body with enough energy to keep the soul going for days. They found the tree and drank the life saving water from the tree of life, and we're back on their journey.

Caspian had a scout at the tree of life in the form of a moth that gave way to their location, and the group of Four had made a mistake 8 druids came out of the bush behind the tree of life and performed magic. Thorn and Kara took out of their swords, White Tiger was surrounded by quicksand and was falling into the ground. Ogre was sinking with him, and the druids were turning the ground into mud and quicksand. Kara jumped killed 3 druids with her sword, and Thorn killed 3 more. The other two druids made smoke and fled the scene. Wilfred and White Tiger collapsed through the mud and were trapped underground but Wilfred and White Tiger had shovels and started digging, and Kara and Thorn found them and pulled them to safety. Everyone was okay; startled and confused they lost the map. Falcon returned among the ruckus and they went back to where they were the 8th day, and set out once again.

Painstakingly they were at a loss of words because they lost the map. They were without the guidance of the Oracles and had to make a leap of faith at this moment. The terrain looked the same and the idol couldn't be found. Ogre couldn't track a scent and they came upon a steep mountain that only Falcon could reach, but that was the hope and the conclusion that they weren't scaling this mountain they had to find another way to the nest, or to find the nest at all. It was pitch black at this moment and the obsidian stare of midnight had cast its shadow to a black hole that engulfed any breath of sight known to man. They were blind and fire with the prevailing winds was non-existent; they were stupefied without knowledge of their surroundings of where they were. They were too close to go back, but is was an oasis of black shards coming from the cliffs and the snow covered peaks of the mountain was anticipating its icy veneer into an avalanche of worries and freezing gale like winds too strong to go on. This was the reason no one found the Dragoons nest. They summoned all their courage and made the climb. Falcon didn't return and ice captured their every step. They couldn't move, and they couldn't see anymore. They had to turn back. Thorn gave the order that they would regroup at the summit of the hill so they fled down the mountain. They would wait as long as they could and camp out to see a Dragoon and then they would leave and try again. They had stayed a month camping out in the obsidian dark blinding forest and hidden from view was the nest; to get there impossible, they would need a miracle, and the hunting team of a thousand warriors the elite team of Imperial Dragon Slayers, but Matrices had been training since Caspian had spotted them and they're training ground was in the Valley.

3 years had passed and now they knew the Dragoons were training in the valley. That's when Thorn had repeated what he said, "There weren't always Dragons in the Valley."