A long time ago in Archordain

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THE DRAGON


"A long time ago in Archordain," said the storyteller in a far off voice. "There was a town called Bosuchus. It was usually peaceful and calm in Bosuchus, but not today for an important event was happening today. King Tricason was coming here today and everyone was getting ready for his arrival.


Everyone helped; some made banners, some helped prepare the banquet. Everyone was busy and soon it was done. The banquet was cooked and on a large table. All the streamers and banners were up. A few people just went back to their homes and the others stayed there tidying up little odds and ends such as straightening the spoons and forks, for this was the King of Archordain and they wanted everything to be perfect.

In no time at all they heard the royal trumpets sounding and a voice saying, "His majesty King Tricason has come." Then the royal procession began. First came King Tricason himself. He had a black mustache and black hair about to the middle of his ears. Then came the nobles then the servants.

Everyone watching the procession knelt to King Tricason as he walked to the banquet table. When he was there he took his seat at the head of the table; the nobles sat at the side of the table close to him; they then began to eat with their beloved king close to them.


Soon Tricason look up at the people of Bosuchus and said, "Tomorrow I would like to see all the towns people gathered together at the town square. I have an important message to give all of them.




CHAPTER THREE

The next day as King Tricason had requested all the townspeople had gathered in the town square. There was a pulpit at the head of the crowd which he had stepped on to. The king cleared his throat and started to speak in a solemn voice.

"My people, a great evil has come over our peaceful country. An evil so great that it grieves my heart just to think of it." Then he paused for a moment and then started once more. "A dragon has come into Archordain and I have come here to recruit my loyal subjects. Together we may be able to slay this foul beast."

"The recruits will receive 60 trats a month. This dragon has already destroyed 15 towns and villages much like yours." And here Tricason ended his speech. And the next day a sort of stall was erected for the people that wanted to join this army. There was a great turnout they got almost half the men of Bosuchus and even some of the women who were satisfied with the job of cooks and nurses..





CHAPTER FOUR

The small army went out at once. Everyone said goodbye to their families sadly and left. They were led by General Ladcam for the king and his nobles had gone off to recruit people from other towns.

When they set up camp for the night Ladcam filled them in on all the information he had on the dragon. "He has his lair on Mount Ruculus. The plan is to go into his lair when he is asleep and grab some of his scales that have dropped off onto the ground and then get out of there. Then they would use those scales as shields against the dragon fire." For it was well known in Archordain from the stories and legends, that the only thing that could protect someone from a dragon's fire is that same dragon's scales. There were a few more instructions about how they were going to get there and other such things and then they all went to sleep.

But before General Ladcam retired to his tent he was stopped by a young man in his thirties. "General Ladcam may I see you privately?" he requested.

"Surely, you may." the General replied, and he showed the young man to his tent. Inside the tent they each sat down by a small table and the young man started talking. "I do not wish to keep you up longer than is needed, so I will be brief. Just before I left Bosuchus to join this army my grandfather gave me this" as he was talking he pulled out of his pocket two small glass containers much like food coloring bottles with an oozy looking fluid in them. "My grandfather said that these would help us in our quest against the dragon." The young man said that his grandfather would say no more, and then left the surprised general holding the two small containers in his hands.
In the morning after everyone had eaten breakfast and everything had been put up, the army started on their way. It was pretty easy going to begin the day when it was afternoon they stopped to rest the horses and have lunch.



CHAPTER FIVE


Day after day the small army walked on. Every now and then, someone would join them. After about a week of walking they could see the tip of Mount Ruculus. That night they all reviewed their plans with Ladcam, and then went to sleep. When they woke up that morning they hurried to put everything up and start going for they were trying to get to the main camp where many other small armies were encamped together.

The townspeople almost walked halfway through the main camp without noticing that they were in it. The tents were very cleverly hidden by camouflage. General Ladcam noticed it a good deal before they were there, but he wanted the townspeople to find it on their own. The camp was about at the middle of Mount Ruculus. All the people of Bosuchus pitched their tents in the same area and then just loafed around for a while.

All the Generals were called to a meeting in the middle of camp in which Tricason himself would instruct them on what exactly to do. While the generals were gone, the townspeople mingled with each other

Everyone was either talking or resting in their tents when there was a great noise such as would happen if we put gas on a fire. Then everyone saw it, (all the people who had been in their tents came out because of the noise) a great huge burst of flame almost half an acre wide. There was a small group of trees standing, and moments later there was nothing but the black smoking ground.

The people of Bosuchus, all the generals, and the people of the other towns all knew that dragons breathe fire yet they had never seen it happen before. They did not know how terrible it actually was. Many of the people that had only minutes ago been so cheerful and almost eager to meet this dragon now felt just the opposite.



CHAPTER SIX


In the days that followed everyone tried to forget that horrible blast of fire that came from the cave. More and more armies came to the camp and soon Tricason announced that it was time to gather the scales from the dragon’s lair. Ladcam volunteered his army to gather the scales first

The Bosuchus army was divided into ten groups of ten each. The first group to go in was the one with the young man who gave the glass containers to Ladcam

What happened to them can be best described in their own words so here is how one member of the team called Motley told the story. "So there we were about to go right into a dragon's lair and pick up a bunch of scales. I wrote out my will, hoping that it wouldn't need to be used in a long time. I got ready for the expedition, said goodbye to everyone else, and we were off. On the way up to the dragon’s lair we talked about the stories that would be told about us."

"When we got there we decided that the best thing to do would be for all ten of us to run in and pick up as many as we could, making as little noise as we could so we would not wake up the dragon. It took us all a minute to muster up the courage to go, but soon we were about to get moving. We counted to three and ran in. I found a good pile of scales and started picking them up. When my hands were full I ran out. The others came out soon and had a great many of scales as well.

"We made two more runs and ended with quite a large pile of scales which we put in the cart and pulled down the mountain into camp. Later when we had a contest to see which team gathered the most my team came in fourth."

And that's basically the story for all the teams. There was one group of townspeople from a town named Nabatnam whose general foolishly told them all to go in at the same time. They made too much noise and woke the dragon up he fried almost all of them, except the ones that dived into a pile of dragon scales. When they were all counted it turned out that Bosuchus gathered the most.

Tricason ordered all the scales made into shields, yet no one seemed to know how, when someone accidentally dropped one into a fire and saw it melt into a thick hard substance. This gave the blacksmiths an idea. The blacksmiths approached the king and asked him to order some bellows from the nearby town of Triclat and he did so. When the bellows came the blacksmiths set to work hammering the substance into huge shields.

Before anyone seemed to know what was happening, everything was completed. The shields were all made, the spears, bows and arrows that had been ordered had come, and the king had recruited all the towns that he had been able too. IT WAS TIME FOR THE ATTACK!!!




CHAPTER SEVEN

The generals all agreed to go up in full force and go as close as they dared with the best bowmen in the front. And then open fire. Tricason selected the ten bravest men to go find out where the most vulnerable part of the dragon was. They came back and said it was the eyes and the mouth After they had all rested, they went up to the dragon’s lair, as planned, in full force with the best bowmen in front. They all got as close to the dragon as they dared to, and the bowmen fired. The dragon awoke in a furious frenzy. It started breathing fire everywhere and swishing its tail. That's when Ladcam remembered the glass bottles that the young man had given to him. He pulled the first one out while holding his shield up against a furious blast of dragon’s breath. The general held the bottle and threw it with all his might and muscle. The tiny container spun around in the air and hit the dragon when its mouth was open, yet just before any fire came out.


The dragon seemed to stop and hold stock still for a moment, and then it seemed like it was choking on the fluid. The beast had its mouth open yet no fire was coming out. The beast became even more furious it started hitting people with its tail. It even tried to eat one of the men, but the man threw his spear almost right by the dragons eye.


Then Ladcam threw the other bottle at the dragon . It hit with a loud crash and the dragon fell in a heap with a roar. Everyone ran up to it and started jabbing it with their spears until they were sure it was dead Then they rose a great shout of victory and started pulling the spears and arrows out with great joy.




CHAPTER EIGHT
epilouge


That night there was a great feast and a celebration. In the morning most of the people started packing their belongings and their payment and headed for home. The young man’s grandfather was questioned and would not say anything. He just acted like he had never given his grandson anything like the two bottles. They remain a mystery even today.

The dragon killed almost 120 of the 2000 people that had attacked it. Most people guessed it would have killed more people had it not been killed itself. The townspeople went back to their separate villages and towns. They were all allowed to keep their shields as mementos of their battle

"And that is the end of the story,” said the storyteller and the silence that had prevailed through the whole story was broken and everybody gradually left except the two boys, Motaff and Nudat. They went up and started talking with the storyteller.

"That sure was a neat story!" said Motaff in an exited voice.

"Yeah, where did you learn it from?" asked Nudat.

"I learned it from my grandfather when I was very young." said the storyteller.

"Where did he learn it from?" asked both the boys together

"I never asked him," said the old man


One day the two boys were looking through an old genealogy book when they noticed a branch of the storyteller’s ancestors. They looked at it a while. Then Nudat quickly pointed at one certain point and almost shouted "look Motaff look!". There in a certain spot was the name CAFNAT LADCAM, general in the army of King Tricason. So the boys found out the truth.

THE END