The Soldier and the Dragon
by Julius Fish
Julius is a writer located in Cleveland, Ohio. He loves three things in this world more than anything else, his wife, his dog, and writing in that order. Although, his wife would argue the dog comes first.
The fragment of stone wall grew warm as the dragon’s fire bathed the other side. It would soon become too hot. I needed to move, but I couldn’t. My mind and heart raced, but my body froze. Fear. The fear was too much for me to overcome. Dorgoroth, the legendary king of the dragons, bellowed a ferocious roar that shook the ground, and shook me to my core. The screech ignited old memories and sent me back in time.
I remembered it as if it were yesterday. My mother cooked the rabbits my father caught. Scents of fresh thyme and rosemary from our little garden filled the house. She told me to be back by sundown as I walked out the door. I promised her I would, and I never broke my promises.
My friends played soldier at the stream in the forest outside of our small village. The leaves of the trees partially blocked the afternoon sunlight, and it dappled the green grass on the floor of the forest. I remembered everything being green then.
We stood upon the slick gray rocks that poked their heads above the surface of the babbling brook and fought each other with wooden sticks believed to be as powerful as steel. My friends and I didn’t understand what it truly meant to be a soldier. Not yet. Laughs and smiles were shared as the flimsy wood hit a child knight on the elbow, and one of us would say, “I got you. You lost your arm.” He tucked it behind his back and fought on. War was a mere game.
We were right. War was a game. It was a game the nobles played. For the soldiers who fought in them, it was anything but.
The sun fell below the trees, and the sky turned red. I walked back toward my village intent on keeping my promise. Dorgoroth’s screech filled the air, and I saw hundreds of them. Black wings of death blotted out the setting sun. The king of the dragons let out another cry. I wanted to run home to my parents, but my legs wouldn’t move. I wanted to run back to the stream, but my legs wouldn’t move. I wanted to stop the dragons, but I was a child.
My friend, Charles, grabbed my arm. He led me and the other two boys to the small pond that formed at the end of the stream. We jumped into it and stayed underwater until the dragons had gone. The only time we dared go to the surface was for quick breaths of air which were almost too hot to breathe. We could only see orange flames outside our safe world.
Mother and Father died not knowing if I was alive or dead. I did many things in my life that riddled me with guilt, but this was the worst one of all.
We were in that pond for I don’t know how long, but the flames eventually died down. I reached the surface and looked around. The once roaring fires smoldered. Chittering animals filled the lush green forest before. Now, it was silent and black.
The stone wall against my back was almost too hot to touch. Dorogoroth’s flames licked over my head. My sword and shield lay on the ground next to me. No part of my body moved except my trembling hands. Dorgoroth roared again, and I instinctively covered my ears. Blood pulsing through my veins was so intense it felt like a stampede ran through every vessel. I started to rock back and forth.
Dragon. Dragon. Dragon. Not just a dragon. Dorgoroth. Dorgorotah, the king of dragons. Dorgoroth destroyed mother and father. Dorgoroth destroyed the village. Dorgoroth destroyed mother and father. Dorgoroth destroyed the forrest. Dorgoroth destroyed mother and father. Dorgororth destroyed happiness. I couldn’t do anything. I could never do anything. I failed. I failed. I failed. I never failed before, but this time I failed. It was over. It was all over. We were dead. Everything was dead. Dorgoroth killed everything. Death. Death. Death. Death was always near, but now, it was here.
Their eyes gleamed through the cracks of their hiding spot. The eyes of the two children I swore to protect. Sweet Regalia and quiet Benji. Good kids. They trusted me. They needed me. I promised them I never failed a mission. I couldn’t start now.
I took deep breaths focusing on nothing but the air moving in and out of my lungs. Dorgoroth’s roars grew quiet as I felt my heart slow. One hand grabbed the hilt of my sword, and the other grabbed the leather strap of my shield. The eyes of the children met mine once more before I stepped from behind the stone to face the cruel beast.
The king of dragons screeched. Stenches of blood and bile washed over me as my hair and leather jerkin fluttered in the wind. I looked at the hideous monster and yelled back.
Dorgoroth stood ten times my height. Black scales covered his body. His fangs were as long as my legs, and his eyes were gold with a long black crevasse like a cat. All my attention was on the soft spot of his throat.
I waited for him to make his move. Dorgoroth reared his head back and let go a torrent of fire. The flames flew past the bottoms of my boots, and I rolled on the ground. Quickly I found my feet and ran head long toward the king of dragons.
Dorgoroth snapped at me as I approached, but I deflected his bite with my shield. I slashed at his throat, but the dragon turned, and sparks flew from the top of his neck as the steel scraped across his scales. He turned to ram the side of his head into me, but I ducked underneath his jowls, and grabbed one of his protruding spines.
Using the dragon’s momentum, I swung my feet around and straddled the back of his neck. I raised my blade and stabbed the monster’s eye. Dorgoroth wailed so loud a still intact castle wall quivered and collapsed. He thrashed his head back and forth. I held on for as long as I could, but the king of dragons threw me from his neck.
My body hit a still standing stone wall with a loud thud. I listened to the noise of leather scraping against stone as I slid to the ground.
Dorgoroth panicked. Steel protruded from his eye as green blood ran like a river over the black scales of his face. His head thrashed and he let out shrieks and fire.
I stepped toward the beast. He calmed down as I approached. His still good eye looked at me with visceral hatred. He stooped and lowered his neck to the ground. Dorgororth pushed his face close to mine. Black scales glimmered in the sunlight.
The monster coiled its long neck and snapped at me. In one motion, I sidestepped the attack, pulled my sword, and drove it into the other eye. The now blind dragon stumbled back in a panic. He writhed and wailed like a child. I thought he would have fled, but the monster didn’t want to give me the satisfaction and regained his composure. He sniffed the ground like a dog trying to pick up my scent.
My feet were slow and quiet as I approached. Both of his eyes cried deep-green tears. His nostrils flared in and out. Dorgororth shot his head and snapped. Fangs and scales rushed past as he missed his mark, and I thrusted my sword into the monster’s throat and ripped it to the ground.
Dorgoroth’s head shot backwards, and green blood erupted from the hole in his neck. He tried to fly away but collapsed into the castle walls. Avalanches of stone fell to the courtyard and with them came the king of dragons. I watched his flank rise and fall. The rising and falling grew slower and slower and slower until eventually, it stopped.
Thus, the reign of Dorgoroth, the king of the dragons, ended.
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