THE LAST DRAGON
It is the middle of the night. Gerund escorts the young man through the darkness and takes him as far as the entrance of the cave. “It was good knowing you lad.” he tells him and then turns and starts to walk back to the village. “I like these people.” the lad says to himself, “They’re sincere.”
He walks in through the huge mouth of the cave and . . . staying close to a wall inside . . . makes his way along the path that leads down into the depths of this cavern. He passes under the giant archway and he knows that, at this point, there is no turning back. The inside of the cave is illuminated by the dull light given off by small pools of fire water. High above him is a dome-shaped ceiling of jagged stone and off to his left are long piles of boulders that create rudely formed precincts. The air is musty and cold and the whole aspect of the cave is haunted and eerie. He edges his way down the path until he reaches the fire lake. He puts his hands against the wall and cranes his neck around the corner. Here the cave opens up into a vast chamber, and he sees patches of fire burning on the surface of the lake. And there it is . . . beyond the far bank of the lake . . . the dragon . . . sleeping.
The young man’s presence is detected and, aroused from its sleep, the dragon’s eyes open . . . with anger. It slinks into the lake and makes its way . . . under water . . . toward the intruder. The dragon emerges from the fire lake and approaches the spot where the intruder had been standing . . . but sees nothing.
It lumbers up the path . . . glaring to its right then to its left. A noise off to one side of the cave . . . the sound of a rock hitting against the wall . . . draws the dragon’s attention and it turns and heads in that direction. The young man then comes running out from his hiding place and, using his sword, he slashes a long cut under the dragon’s left fore-arm . . . severing its wing on that side. The dragon lets out a loud horrible roar and then quickly pulls its head around to that side . . . and sees nothing.
The giant beast turns its long heavy body around . . . anger boiling over inside it . . . and makes its way to where the intruder is now thought to be hiding. Then, from the other side . . . the area from which the dragon had just turned . . . the young man again comes running out and again slashes a long cut through the dragon’s wing . . . this time on its right side. The dragon bellows in pain, pulls its head around quickly . . . but again it sees nothing.
Further up the path, the young man is crouched down behind one of the stone walls that partition off the cave. “Well,” he thinks to himself, “if nothing else, at least I’ve grounded it. It hardly strikes the same fear in you,
‘Here comes the dragon . . . crawling toward us.’”
At this moment, he steps out into the middle of the pathway . . . and shows himself to the monster. The dragon, at last seeing its assailant, locks a murderous gaze on this puny figure standing before it and then . . . with a furious roar . . . it breathes a thick stream of fire out at the intruder. The young man is ready for it. He props up his shield and sets himself down behind it. The flames ram up against the surface of the shield and then veer off to either side of it until the dragon . . . out of breath . . . ceases the attack.
The young man does not wait for a second serving of fire breath and he runs up the path toward the cave’s exit . . . passing under the huge archway . . . with the dragon now in pursuit. The huge beast reaches this spot and comes to a stop. Its keen senses tell it that the intruder is somewhere close by . . . and it slows down the search. With its enormous head leading the way, the dragon then passes under the archway.
The young man is, at this moment, perched on a ledge above the archway . . . his two hands clenched around the shaft of a spear. He silently looks down and watches as the long snout of the dragon slowly passes beneath him. A moment later he leaps from the ledge, plunges down through the air, lands squarely on top of the dragon’s head . . . and drives the spear deep into its skull. The dragon lets out an earsplitting cry of pain and jerks it head backward . . . sending the young man into flight.
“A nice soft rock please.” he hopes to himself, but such is not to be, and he caroms off a stone wall and falls to the ground. He struggles to his feet.
His vision is blurred. He reaches out to the wall and frantically runs his hands over the stones. “Where’s the niche?” he screams to himself, “Where’s the niche?” The dragon’s screeching and shrieking are deafening as he gropes along the surface of the wall, finds what he is looking for, drops down into it, pulls the shield in front of himself, and . . . passes out.
It is two hours later and the first rays of morning sunlight filter their way in through the darkness of the cave. The young man awakens to the throbbing pain in his right shoulder and on the right side of his head. He slowly lowers the shield and peers out. He hears no sound and detects no movement. He steps out and examines the dragon tracks on the dirt floor of the cave, and they lead him toward the cave’s exit. “Not outside.” he says out loud, “Please, not outside.” The tracks then make a turn and head back down the pathway. “No, of course not.” he realizes, “To the comfort of the fire lake!” And he cautiously makes his way back down into the depths of the cave. At the bank of the fire lake he finds the dragon . . . its lifeless body stretched out in a peaceful-like repose . . . having not quite succeeded in reaching the water.
“I’ll take my spear thank you.” And he climbs up onto the beast’s head and wrests out the spear. Back on the ground, he pulls his sword out of its scabbard and once again addresses the dragon, “I must impose on you one last time.” He then cuts out the monster’s heart and places it in a burlap sack he had brought for the purpose. The young man then walks out of the cave.