Perilous Heroics

"There wasn't always dragons in the valley..." started the storyteller Crim.

He was an aged old man with long white hair and a long scraggly beard to match. His clothing was a simple patched and stained dark blue and grey robe with stars, moons, and suns all over it.

He was surrounded by children of all ages hanging on his every word. Some wore the clothing of wealth. Others wore tattered rags. And still some of the children donned their parents old work clothing cut to fit them. Gaelic music wafted through the window of the classroom. Scents of warm bread and apple pies was in the air from bustling town outside. Wagon wheels, horses hooves, and an occasional horses whinny interrupted the music periodically.

Crim waved his hand in front of him as he weaved his tale. Slowly the air began to shimmer and pictures of dragons appeared before their eyes. He continued his tale.

'But of late there have been tell tale signs of their return.'

He looked out upon the motley crowd of wide eyed children. Seeing that he had their every attention he continued on. Again he waved his hand and the pictured changed to show dragons with a fierce cry swooping in to steal cattle in the pitch darkness of night. Their fiery breath lit up the darkness of night singeing the chosen for a nights meal.

As if by magic the aroma of of burned beef replaced to smells wafting in through the windows. Wispy smoke hovered above the burned flesh as one by one the cries of the cattle muffled and then fell silent. The moon shone brightly like a giant candle in the night's sky.

'Our cattle disappear in the night. Scorched marks upon the stony ground, burned grass and hay, disintegrated barns turned to ash all told the tale of a most fearsome beast that nobody wanted to remember.'

Again the picture shimmered and changed with another wave of the hand. Townsmen wearing hastily fastened armour bled into the fields crying aloud of fright, terror, and bravado. Carrying bows, pitchforks, and spears they fought off the foul fiends protecting the little cattle left they owned.

'Our warriors fought through the night to no avail. Our weapons was useless against the fiends. Try though they might to succeed they began to fall asunder the onslaught. And then, as if the tide had turned to recede back into the ocean, they...'

The sounds of delight and laughter and the bustling of the town suddenly turned to fear. The quickening of the horses hooves, the screams of the maidens, the cries of the men came cascading into the now still day. The soft beat of wings could be heard. The closer they came the louder the beat was.

A cute little girl of 9 years of age donning an ankle length dress and a bonnet atop her head asked, "Is that your magic Crim?" As if on cue Crim snapped his finger and the image along with the scenery and sounds vanished into thin air.

"Nay little lass it 'twas not my magic" He jumped up from his perch and ran from the room as if he forgot just how old he was stopping only long enough to yell back to the children, "Stay inside where it is safe! I'll be right back!" Then he vanished inti the commotion outside.

Outside the town roared wrought with fright. The sun darkened beneath the vastness of the flying reptiles. People ran in all directions seeking cover. The beasts were as dark as the needles of a pine tree. Their underbelly were a pale yellow turning white towards the throat. Their face likened unto a kimono dragon with spikes protruding from their heads. Some small aligning the top of it's mouth. The teeth were sharp as razor blades. Their eyes and blood red with tinges of orange flecks and black elongated pupils. It's scowl was menacing and cruel. It sneered at the crowd of tiny morsels of running pork tasting flesh.

Slowly the creatures circled the sky. Without warning they swooped in on their prey. Fire belched from their mouths burning the buildings. The people poured out from the tinder boxes. As if that was what the dragons waited for they gripped the people in their taloned claws three and four at a time. They cried aloud in pain, but one clenched foot silenced them all.

Crim looked upon his people falling by the dozens. The warriors tried to protect the town as best as they could. With a loud roaring voice amplified with magic Crim boomed out to the dragons, "Begone ye foul beasts! Begone!"

Holding his fingers like talons of his own, with palms facing eachother, he pulled them apart and weaved them in mid air. A ball of wizard's fire began to form from a small burning ember to a cart sized blaze of roiling fire. It burned as blue as the sky once was and just as hot as the sun itself. Possibly even more so since blue flames are the highest temperature a flame can reach. With all the rage he could muster he yelled out and pushed outward. The roiling mass flew away at an astounding speed.

One of the dragons looked to it's right and saw the heaping mess of a fire headed its way. Too late. The speeding ball of wizard's fire burst into pieces as it bored a whole through the chest of the beast. Burning edges of what once was it's rib cage spouted crimson blood as the beast, with a deafening gurgle lolled it's head to the side and crash to the ground shaking it asunder.

The remaining three beasts looked in astonishment at their fallen friend and then roared at the threat in the form of a frail old man. Crim raised his hands to the sky and with sheer will formed clouds turning the sky into a darkened mass. He looked down from the sky at the approaching beasts. Quickly he pointed and lightning tore through the sky arcing towards the earth.

The first bolt of lightning missed its mark as Crim jumped to dodge the huge swinging spiked tail. He looked up in time to see the tail swing in his direction once more. Again he pointed anticipating the path of the tail. The lightning struck true and the tail's tip severed from the length spewing more crimson blood onto the battle scene. It yowled in pain as the next dragon spewed fire from his gnarled lips.

Crim held up his hands and magically blocked the fire as it roared over him. But his efforts were not enough. For the other forgotten dragon craned it's long neck around and belched new flames from another direction. Crim winced and then yowled in writhing pain as his magic vanished. The other dragon's fire joined in on the melee along with the dragon whose tail was cut.

In one final blaze of glory Crim raised both of his clenched fists to the morbid sky and pounded them down to the ground in one final thrust. The ground quaked violently bringing singeing lightning bolts so vast it blinded the onlooking crowd shielded their eyes. All three dragons were struck at once. In a heap they all crumbled before the burning wizard. He breathed heavily and raggedly as he burned. With a final quavering breath and a great sigh he looked towards the crowd finally embracing death. Slowly he crumpled into ash. Crim was no more.