the will of Mester Stoor Worm

"It's awfy dreich , Dook yer haun in the watter an see if it's cauld.

Dinnae be so glaikit loon- Awa! The Stoor Worm Is 'ere “

Children's song, Scotland circa 1100

----

The great beast opened his mouth and yawned - it created a wave that lifted the mighty ship and swept it straight into the mouth of the beast. Within a few seconds, it was over. No one survived. The spirits felt appeased for now.

----

A curse in the flesh - death to all who appeared in his way. They named him one of the nine greatest curses, the master worm of the water. After centuries of existence - he no longer remembered his own name.

He has rarely left the water since his creation. Condemned to the form of this harrowing beast by the spirits. Part of him has remained trapped in the crimson pits of Dubnos, engulfed alive by the fires of retribution. Part of him was breathing the air of Bitu, submerged in the cooling waters of the Northern sea. The water helped soothe the eternal fire. Yet, as he learned a long time ago, as with all salvation, there was a price to pay for it.

In the water, with no will of his own - he was a slave to his masters, simply a gateway for their malevolent mischief and chaos.

As the centuries have passed, he remembered less and less - what is it that he was before this?

Yet, a longing for freedom was still alive within him. As if by a pull from the great skies above, he rose from the sea and propelled himself forward. The snake-like creature crawled on the surface of the water toward the land.

——

"What a strange child you are, my son," Assipattle's mother said tenderly.

She took him to the forest today to get him away from the farm. Assipattle was merely a toddler, yet his mother was already worried about his fate. He did not seem to fit in at home like his older six brothers. He spent more time playing with the earthworms than kids his own age.

The shaking of the earth distracted her from her thoughts and the picking of the wild berries. She noted the sight of the falling trees and the outline of the beast in the distance. Rushing in the direction Assipattle was playing, she missed her footing and fell. As she hit her head on the treacherous path, she prayed to the gods to spare her child.

——

"I am tired," he thought to himself. "Why should I continue?"

The activity was exhausting and futile; as the fire spread across his body, he knew that he would have to return to the water soon. One could not escape his own fate, even if that fate had little beginning or end.

As he moved further into the forest kingdom's depths, the spirits' voices quieted. For the first time in a century, he was at peace.

Peace created space for contemplation. He remembered that he passed by a human farm before he entered the forest.

"The bloody fools screaming and praying to the Albios to save them. Didn't they know that the spirits were no longer there?"

"Poor sacks of flesh and bone," he continued in his mind. "It is the spirits you should fear, not their creation."

-----

The child came out of nowhere with his arms outstretched to the great beast.

"What a strange creature you are, "The beast thought to himself " So small, yet you are moving towards me with curiousity rather than fear".

"A worthy opponent you could make one day, child." With the last glance the beast turned and headed back to the sea.

____

They would meet only once again, eighteen years later precisely to the day. That day at sea, Assipattle will drive his dagger into the beast. This will make his heart blacken

As one dragon beast will fall , another will begin to form. After all dragons are not born - they are forged by the actions of men.