Thorkell meets Pulao Long
One bright morning , Thorkell looked around, confused . How could the castle be so empty? Where were the servants, the animal handlers, the chefs? Why where the castle here, so far from the nearest village? He looked back at Freya and eyes caught him again. He immediately felt better, but doubts still filled his head.
"I enjoy the pleasures but I'm still not sure what I'm doing here. I eat, sleep and listen to you. It fills my days with joy but I know that I get lazy and weak from my stay here. "
"You lead me to the second reason why you're here. Laziness and weakness are not the risks I expose you to. There are dangers in the woods around my castle and I need a warrior to help hold them away. That's why I came to you today. The dragon Pulao Long you must drive away is back. It is waiting outside the palace and hungers for me.
Thorkell immediately breathed faster and his muscles tightened. His queen was threatened and finally he saw the point of his stay here. He was her champion; he would protect her and defeat the monster.
"Where are my weapons and my armor?" He followed her to an armory where he found them, ready to be worn. They had been cleaned and oiled since he arrived and they felt better than they did when they were new. He put on them and let her look at him when he was ready. She smiled at him and the warmth of the smile spread across his body and mind.
"I will defeat the Dragon for you. "
His horse was waiting in the courtyard. Its skin shone and it neighed joyfully when it saw him. He rode to the castle gates and they opened by themselves and let him pass. Just outside the castle, he stopped and examined the surroundings.
A roar that made the ground shake tore his gaze from the castle. A creature had appeared from nowhere on the other side of the meadow. It was bigger than the horse , and he could feel its eyes boring into him. The beast was almost entirely white, and its scales glistened in sunbeams. It roared again , and its blood-red mouth contrasted with its white body.
Its only color was in its dark blue eyes that seemed to radiate evil against Thorkell. It was a dragon. No one had seen dragons since the last war but the paintings that was left from the time could have had this as a model. They had been great allies , and terrible enemies , and few people had fought against them and survived. He wanted to turn his horse and flee, ignoring the cries for help and the urge for unknown destinations.
The call in his mind changed, became words. "Kill the dragon, kill it and make me free. " The voice was calm and in control, the Freya wished him well and would not send him out the something he could not do. Thorkell knew no fear now, no doubt, he understood what the voice wanted and he would do it.
Without any urging the horse ran towards the dragon. Now he saw that it was even bigger than he thought , it was more than twice as large as the horse. Its neither backed down or attacked, but when he got closer it spread out two wings that reflected the sun and almost blinded him. It roared again and a cone by red-heated fire hurled against him. The horse did not stop but ran into the flame, straight towards the dragon. Almost instinctively he lifted his sword and swung it against the dark shape that he felt more than saw as he rode past it.
When he had ridden past the horse stopped quickly and turned around so that he looked straight at the dragon. It sun was behind it and its rays made the dragon's outline sparkle like silver. Thorkell could see a wound in the middle in its chest. A slime flowed out of the wound and stained the ground . Somehow he had hit, and also have came through the fire without being harmed himself. The question was if he would have the same luck the next time.
The dragon lowered its wings and opened its mouth. Thorkell prepared for the ground to shake from a new roar, but instead it spoke to him.
"You have defeated me, Thorkell . " The words did not sound quite right but he could understand the dragon as easily as he could understand another person. "Do not get too overconfident, " it continued, "We will meet again. "
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Pulao long was waiting near the forest. Dragon is stood still for a moment then turned it on its head and looked at him. It is gave up a roar, and rushed towards him. Thorkell drew his sword and rode at full speed towards it. He should use a bow to weaken it away or lure it into the woods where its size would hinder it. To attack a dragon as if were an opponent in a knights' tournament was just madness.
Thorkell cast off his doubts when he and the dragon threw themselves against each other. His hand swung the sword almost without thinking. Sword met flesh and the sword was almost torn from his hand. He continued at full speed when he passed and turned around when he came out of the reach of the dragon's flames. His legs were wet. His thigh was injured; a claw from the dragon was stuck in it. He felt the pain now, a throbbing pain with the leg at its center.
He was no longer confused or hesitant. He was driven by the battle lust and by the pain spreading through his body. The dragon was silent now, it waited for him. A cloud of white smoke gathered around it. He gave a battle cry again and the horse rushed straight towards the monster. Battle lust was mixed with pride, he was here to protect the Freya from the dangers outside and he would do so.
This time, he hit its wing, a pure hit that almost separated the wing from the dragon's body. The dragon had hard to move now; it could no longer make counterattacks. The period of quick attacks was over. He rode slowly around it while he remained just outside it's reach. It swung to follow him and would not leave him with his eyes, but it had to struggle to do so, its injured wing often came in its way.
It stumbled once but this was enough. He had been waiting for this and did a quick strike against it. He hit the head with the sword tip. It cut into the skin just above the eyes and got a green liquid to flow out over them. He backed quickly away and noticed that the dragon had hit him, his left arm was heavy and hung uncontrollably at his side. But the dragon was blinded now, the liquid flowed heavily and covered its eyes.
"You win , Thorkell. " This time, he was not surprised by its voice.
The Freya waited at the gate and waved at him. He was dizzy now, the pain from his leg was back and darkness invaded from the edges of his vision. He rode to his love but lost consciousness before he was halfway.
He was awakened by a hand gently stroking his cheek. He opened his eyes and smiled at Freya who leaned over him. He was happy to see her, but even happier that he served her in battle.
"Today, I fought for you. I hope I did well. "
"Yes you did my sweet Thorkell . You fought like a great warrior from ancient times. Now you must rest and heal you so you can fight back when the dragon will return. "
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The Pulao long Dragon took a crystalline white form , that shade of white that is so hard and cold that it is almost blue. ice dragon was covered with hoarfrost, so when it moved its skin broke and crackled as the crust on the snow crackles beneath a man's boots, and flakes of rime fell off. Its eyes were clear and deep and icy. Its wings were vast and bat-like, colored all a faint translucent blue. Thorkell could see the clouds through them, and often times the moon and stars, when the dragon wheeled in frozen circles through the skies. Its teeth were icicles, a triple row of them, jagged spears of unequal length, white against its deep blue maw.
When the ice dragon beat its wings, the cold winds blew and the snow swirled and scurried and the world seemed to shrink and shiver. Sometimes when a door flew open in the cold of winter, driven by a sudden gust of wind, the viking women would run to bolt it and say, "An ice dragon flies nearby. "
And when the ice dragon opened its great mouth, and exhaled, it was not fire that came streaming out, the burning sulfurous stink of lesser dragons. The ice dragon breathed cold.
Ice formed when it breathed. Warmth fled. Fires guttered and went out, shriven by the chill. Trees froze through to their slow secret souls, and their limbs turned brittle and cracked from their own weight. Animals turned blue and whimpered and died, their eyes bulging and their skin covered over with frost.
The ice dragon breathed death into the world; death and quiet and cold.
The lightening flashed and Thorkell saw the head of a dragon in the cloud. Thorkell took a deep, long breath heard him monstrously loud. The lightening flashed again, heard him roar and The wind grew still and the air felt sharp, ’it was only a matter of time then ice dragon let loose with all his might his fury on all iceland.
As Thorkell looked into the Dragon eyes, he felt a sudden, soul-shattering chill. He saw something else, something not human, staring back at him. He has never had another experience like it since and recognizing something dark and powerful, something that truly, deeply frightening about them. eyes are full of rage but a cold dead look-He saw pure evil in the eyes of dragon, Thorkell looked into his eyes, saw it, and it chilled his blood. Then, apparently, the evil entered Thorkell's body for a time, and he was paralyzed and had a mild seizure with tremors.
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