The Dragon

I settle in my stool, all the patrons getting their mead and beer. I look around at all the expectant faces and start to speak,

In the highest mountains at the edge of the world lives a fearsome creature. A great bronze dragon, now I’m sure you know about all the stories of dragons and about how they like their gold and treasure. Sure this dragon liked his treasure hoard, but there was one thing he enjoyed more than treasure, and that was the satisfaction of killing. Sadly, this dragon happened to steal a family heirloom. Thus, a pair of thieves were sent to track it and steal it back.

Sirius and Abigail had been together for a while, they had been through everything together. Both of them had gotten in their fair share of near-death experiences; but as long as they were together, nothing had killed them. Not an entire camp of bandits, not an assassin, not even all of the people who had tried to kill them instead of paying up. And there were a lot of those, too many for them to count. They were beginning to think of each other as the invincible pair of thieves. Which is why they took the job, they overheard a local looking for someone to find a family heirloom in a dragon’s den. Later that night they went up to him to ask about the job. He told them about the cave, and what the heirloom looked like; they took the job and headed off.

While nothing particularly remarkable happened during the hike there, Sirius had decided something big. “Hey Abs,” He nervously said.

“Yeah, thiefie?” She asked, looking at him with those enchanting eyes, and with that captivating smile.

“Well,” He stuttered, “I… well, never mind, I’ll tell you after the job.”

“Alright, Sirius.” She worriedly said, thinking that something was wrong.

The two made it to the entrance of the dragon's den, the giant cave dwarfed the two thieves. They entered the dragon's lair and were overwhelmed, blinded even, by all of the treasure. They didn’t see any signs of the dragon being here. They locked eyes, and Abigail jumped up and down in anticipation, laughing as she ran the other way. Sirius went to the largest treasure pile, and something caught his eye, a golden ring, with a beautiful ruby glimmering on the top. He pocketed this, thinking that it would be perfect for what he had planned. He wandered around a bit more, looking for the heirloom when he suddenly noticed what looked like a red scale through the gold. He continued walking through the cave when he realized something, dragons never let their scales fall off. It was still here. “Abigail!?” He shouted to the walls of the cave. All he heard were the echoes of his own voice. Then he heard it, the piercing cry of sheer terror, but only for a second, as it was interrupted by the roar a dragon makes after a kill. Sirius ran towards the source of the terrifying sounds; that’s when he saw it, Abigail's lifeless body lying there, her chest torn open by the dragon’s claws.

The cave went silent as Sirius stared at the body of Abigail. He heard the rhythmic thumping of his heart as his eyes started to well up. Sirius wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, his heart starting to beat faster. His eyes darted up to the great black dragon that looked like a giant shadow against the huge piles of gold and emeralds. Its scales shuddering in excitement from the kill, and its giant tongue licking his lips. He couldn’t think as he grabbed his sword so tightly his hand started to bleed. The dragon looked at Sirius and started to smile, finally getting a fight, something he hadn’t had in years.

Sirius, blinded by incredible rage, sword in hand, ran at the dragon screaming. Somewhere in his mind, he knew what the outcome of this fight would be, but he didn’t care. The dragon slashed at his face; he fell over and dropped his sword, but he immediately picked it back up, his entire face covered in his own blood. The dragon kept attacking, and he kept getting back up. He made it to the dragon and tried to slash at it with his sword, but that measly iron toothpick broke on the dragon’s scales. Sirius saw each individual piece of his sword fly and spark; he heard it drop and bounce on the ground with a clang. Sirius, suddenly seeing the reality of the situation, fell to his knees and started to cry. He looked up and saw smoke pouring from its mouth. As it opened its mouth, he saw the flickering flames slowly slithering out of its mouth. He saw each individual tip of the flame of the dragon as it came towards his tearful face. He felt the immense heat of the flames as it started to get closer. When the flames finally hit him, he felt every agonizing moment. He felt his clothes burning off, his skin starting to char, he even felt all of his insides burn to a crisp; yet somehow, he was happy, some think it is because he would get to see his Abigail once again, but nobody really knows. His charred body fell to the floor as the dragon hid under the gold once again, disappointed that he wasn’t much of a fight. The ruby ring fell from his pocket and started to roll towards Abigail’s now charred corpse, as it slowed down and stopped right next to her finger.

I look around the tavern, waiting to see people's responses to my story. But the only reaction I get is silence. Suddenly someone speaks up, “Great story and all, but wasn’t the ending a little,” He paused as if looking for the right word. The tavern wench finished the sentence for him. “Gloomy.” She said, not the only one with a sad look in her eye. “Maybe you could come up with a happier ending, in fact-.”

“Fine,” I interrupted, heading back to my room, “Go back to your drinking.”

I was lying on my bed looking up at the ceiling, wondering if those two had found my heirloom yet.