THE RECLUSE

~ PROLOGUE ⁓

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. Just humanity and it’s pitiful attempts to dissuade nature from being what it is…nature.

Now, you may believe in dragons, dear reader, but the truth is, one is never seen until your last breath… for a dragon is only sighted by a dead man.

Be it taking the life of a humble fishmonger or scarring the land with sigils; dragon’s must feed their desire for warmth and light and will seek satisfaction no matter the ruin. For within these beasts, lies an all-consuming greed that burns eternally in their bellies and they seek to possess it all. In short, dragons absorb whole, the hearth and home of the lands, the heat and warmth of life, and they swaddle it like gold. An innuendo of all that glistens under the scythes that shadow their bloodied setae.

In a small town, with rivers stretching for miles, it’s self-appointed king had settled, adorning all his riches and spoils of gorgeous Fjörgyn. With torches lit, halls packed, and the townsfolk downing ale…the hearth of Valhalla marched.

It was not until the gentle bubbling of the creeks grew boiling, and the trees grew abundant with screeches; that the air turned alight. The canopies buckled under the airs weight before the jaws of Loki came in for the night.

Oak and clay morphed into charred half-walls while ash circled the amber sky from falling balconies. The plight of children echoed through alleys lined with hung and cured pelts.

As Fafnir’s mighty presence laid ruin to the settlement of King’s landing, the Valkyries took to the gates. Lined with crossbows and weighted by steel, the strongest of Munster poked for bloodshed at their newly acquainted neighbor. Furrowed eyebrows marked with Kohl scanned for vulnerabilities, whilst the roar of turmoil howled over the hills, ricocheting off ancient Oak.

Yet the beast took one breath and ‘once-established’ Munster was scalded in place, it’s warriors and shieldmaidens reduced to ash. Yet Fafnir had taken a great axing from it’s people. And that is where this tale begins, keen reader…

For you see, there’s a pretty penny for the head of a threshold-guarding dragon, and even more so when it’s the tribulation of a hedonistic king.

~ CHAPTER I ⁓

‘Truly spectacular Bullsh*t’

Dripping darkness howled and pattered gently, echoing off the bluestone and the mildew that it adorned. The scent of sun-wilted foxglove and honeyed citrus dispersed into ghosts that rose from the blackened water’s surface, as she watched the steam, waltz hand-in-hand with the wind. Her glassy hand, emerged from the bowels of the tub, clasping the tin rim with a gentle clatter.

Suddenly, as though creeping, her ashen skin actualised to a body with a carefully sculpted visage. Eye’s piercing.

Her pupils widened and orientated, fell to rest upon the sconces which humbly poisoned the cellar walls amber. Such that, the gold glossed over the viridian that lined her eyes

Never did she mind the loneliness the sconces gentle lull foretold. As if omnipresence and foreboding united elegantly in a single breath.

She traced a cloth over the gashes that scarred her legs, washing off dried blood and mud. Her face pinched up with each dab. Was it all for the greater good, or a mindless bloodbath against the forever clashing whoresons and nitwits of this hellish continent? She smirked, as if life jolted her stone-laden cadaver, only this time thawed by her own cynicism. Men are such reckless yet predictable beings, despite their blind ‘duty’.

Home, alight. Visions squirmed through the cracks of her conscious, replaying fire and sword. The whistles that ran over the forest walls echoed through her head. The sound of steel colliding with bone, bone with earth. Somehow, she had come to have lost, rather amusingly, this was a first.

The dastardly deeds of the men whom seeked vengeance for ‘the greater good’ all seemed to boil down to unmissable and truly spectacular bullshit.

She slunk her body downwards, the water slowly enveloping her body until her head disappeared into peace. Silence. Her heart began a crescendo that trifled her with a dull pounding behind her ears. She slipped into self, lights swirling behind her eyelids, morphing into an unrecognisable scape, one that made no logic, one that was not familiar, one that was uncertain…what is it?

†

With ladders that had become threadbare, scaffolding towered into darkness. Men clambered tirelessly up and down, aiming to penetrate mother nature’s womb with only the anticipation of a warm meal to keep them from plummeting.

Echoing tinks and clatters curled around igneous stone to form a beckoning harrow that poisoned the air as men scratched at limestone for any glimmer of an ore. With the howling dripping of water and wind causing even the keenest to grow paranoid, the scent of formaldehyde, dust and body odour cursed the air with a plume only known to bring tears to the eyes of those who entered.

The distant sounds of armoured fauna growled distantly, foreboding the end to the life of any who’s lantern dwindled. As the creatures picked at the remains of those whom had fell to the stalagmites that lined the caves bowels, miners anxiously threw pickaxes to stone in hopes of catching dawn.

For two miners, tucked in an adit they’d spent the noon hollowing, their lanterns lulled, flickering their shadows against the walls.

“Sh*t Jack, you real splift this, huh?”

“Cap’n said they’d be fine till dawn. What’d’ya expect of me, I ain’t some witch.”

“yeah, well, ya sure as hell’d marry one” he pauses to put his hand on his hips “oooh I’m Helga, and I scare kits with a blink” he whined mockingly.

“’least my Helga ain’t some sorry whore”

“What’d ‘ya say ‘bout my wife! Say it, I’s dares’ya!”

Rubble clattered at the entrance as the crunch of boot grew nearer. A voice, bass enough to rattle jars bellowed around the tunnel.

“’aight, boys, just to let ya’s know, bacci supply ain’t getting’ ‘ere for ‘nother week.”

The two looked at each other with furrowed brows.

“ah sir, and why’d that be?”

“Cart got held up south of munst’ now shut your traps ‘n get back to work.”

They both nodded and the man turned to leave, trotting his way out. They heaved their pickaxes to the stone, chipping away at it’s crust until they heard no sign of their boss and the tunnel fell to silence.

“ya knows what eh Jack, thinks we should check out that cart? Could be a coins-lot wortha bacci we could loot.”

“what’d Cap’n think if we shoved off?”

“f*ck him, we’d be richer than a king’s shitter. What’s more, we’d go un’ner the cover o’ dark.”

“mmm, fuck it, but we’re going at dark.”

“that’a’boy, Jack. Always knews ya was a fighter.”

The men chipped away, their steel clashing with every throw. Seeking to finish promptly.

A large clang howled through the adit as Jack’s pick held tight in the rock.

“Hey, what the f*ck!” He exclaimed in confusion, his voice raising.

Morris clambered over swiftly to inspect what’d caused his friend such spite.

“Sh*t Jack, what’d’ya thinks it’d be?”

Jack looked over in disappointment before scorning him.

“what’d’ya thinks it’d be?” he whined before returning to his usual voice. “F*cked if I’d know dumba**!”

“Well…pull it out then!” Morris snapped.

Jack gave one huge tug and it didn’t budge.

“Could’ya spare a hand?!” he shouted. Morris went behind him, clasping both hands on the base of the axe-head. “On me count.” He paused and they both took in a huge breath. “One….two… thr..”

With a hard yank, the men fell back and hit their asses to the stone. The pickaxe thrown to the side as a loud rumble bellowed around them. They turned to look at each other.

“RUN!” They both screamed. The tunnel was about to cave.

The men sprinted as fast as they could to the entrance as the stone crackled and chipped behind them. Their hearts throbbing in their chests until finally they reached the entrance, breaking free from the adit.

It collapsed with a horrific shudder that burst wind out the entrance, the men held their caps and shut their eyes, curling low to stop from descending the scaffold. Eventually the wind passed, and the men looked to see that the tunnel hadn’t caved after all.

“What the f*ck Jack!”

“What?! How’s I supposed to know, huh!” He snapped back, still panting from the dash.

Morris went back into the cave, signalling his arm back at Jack once he plodded a few metres in.

“What if she falls?” Jack whelped.

“She’ll be right, mate” The voice echoed back.

Jack followed him back in, each step he took growing in confidence, until the tunnel opened to reveal an ancient ruin. In front of him stood a huge stone wall, lined with runes in a language he couldn’t recognise. Morris leaned forward to eyeball the anomaly in front of him. A huge opal, circled by diamonds began roaring and lava began to bleed from it’s centre. The lanterns changed from gold to teal.

“What’d’ya thinks it is?” Morris exclaimed, his tone growing shaky. Despite the runes fortitude he reached his hand out.

“No, don…” Jack whispered until he was choked in disbelief.

Morris disappeared. Into thin air.

In hopes to find where his friend had gone, Jack reached out too and just like before he vanished. Gone.

The ruin blinked, leaving the Adit in darkness and peace. The Ruin, proud in place, left merely but an enigmatic sense that haunted the cave. It’s light began to fade in short lulling bursts until returning the cave to it’s final state. As if never awoken.

†

A headache roared, the cellar disappearing as her vision caved inwards. The sconces turned teal. The image absorbed and etched itself vividly into her mind. It was an opal lined with diamonds, lava bleeding from its heart. She took a deep breath to embrace the vision.

The only word’s engraved in the stone, ‘Hend-o i lúg’. She knew it was ancient Elvish.

‘Eye of Dragons’.

It was an evocation of dragons. But why? Where was this stone? And why was this stone in the forefront of her visions? It was the intrusion of such, that caused her to realise her task.

Her next bounty was to be a dragon, the only creature she had yet to kill. But, why, they hadn’t ever been spotted.