Black Death

"There weren't always dragons in the valley, in the past they only dwelled in the deep snow clad forests of Russia. I was there when they were discovered." Hardwin said this then took another puff from his thick cigar.

"Me and Johnny were back packing across the frozen tundra of Northern Russia, I think in the Putorana area. Anyway, we had been walking through knee deep snow for three days when we stumbled across a river. It was coming into spring so the banks had less snow."

Hardwin paused, took a long swig from his whiskey flask and took another puff from his cigar. He stared deep into the flickering flames as they danced across his eyes. "What in tha hell happin next Hardwin," Asked Bubba?

"What happened next changed the world forever. We entered into some woods and by this point it was quite easy to walk. A few minutes in we entered a meadow. I didn't notice at first." Hardwin paused, Skyler could visually see him shudder. Hardwin's eyes had not looked away from the fire since he began the story. "There it was, big as a whale and black as sin. The dragon was drinking from the river when we entered the clearing. Me and Johnny had no idea what to do. Our minds could not even process what we were looking at, well, I don't know what Johnny was thinking."

Again Hardwin paused and took a long puff from his cigar. A tear welled up in his one eye but he forced it back. He would not let that tear fall. "The dragon didn't look up, it just lifted its head and asked us how we found him. Johnny was braver then I was. All he could say was accident. I couldn't say anything."

"Did you piss your britches?" Shouted Bubba.

"Shut up you ignorant buffoon!" Hissed back Skyler. "They could be near by."

"Both of you shut your holes. I'm telling my story." Hardwin took another swig of whiskey and a puff from his cigar then continued. "Once Johnny answered the dragon slowly lifted up his head, as if it didn't care that we were there. I had a .905 rifle with me because we were out there looking for some mammoths."

"Is a .905 rifle big?" asked Skyler.

"By the looks of your arms, you couldn't carry it." Hardwin said with a laugh. "I pulled the barrel up with every muscle in me shaking. I fired." Hardwin paused again. "It moved like lightning, it did what we now call a 'thrashing from the rear.' Its tail hit us both across the chest and sent us flying." Hardwin paused for a while this time. Even Bubba knew not to speak.

"I landed in the snow. God saved me, or maybe Lucifer. Johnny wasn't so lucky." Hardwin couldn't stop the tear this time. "Johnny had a branch through his chest. He was still alive. He started shooting at the beast." Another pause. "I ran." Hardwin said with tears consistently dripping from his eye."

"Anyone would have done what you did Hardwin. You cannot be so hard on yourself." Skyler said.

"Shut yur pie hole ya city slicker. Just cause you scared of Hardwin don't mean what he did was brave." responded Bubba. "Listen Hardwin, you big and bad alright, but what you did there was sorry, just sorry. There aint no two ways around it."

"You are right Bubba." Hardwin said as he began to regain control of his emotions. "As I was running I looked back. The dragon was coming. It knocked me over again, like a game of cat and mouse. It pulled my eye out and told me to go tell everyone that they were coming. Then it laughed and said no one would believe me."

At that moment a naked man sprinted through the camp smelling strongly of Marijuana and yelling "run". Then they heard it.