30 Days of Fiction: 4

In all his years Albert had never seen something that was at once so exquisitely beautiful and so completely terrifying. He was only nineteen but he was convinced this was a one of a kind experience. He was right. It wasn't every day that a lowly blacksmith's son stumbled upon the lair of a sleeping dragon.

He had been playfully chasing after a beautiful young damsel up a hill and as they rounded the top the girl stopped abruptly and turned to Albert with a look of disgust. He ran to her smiling and held her tight not noticing her look and lack of enthusiasm for the game they were playing.

"What is that awful smell," she asked him.

"What smell," he responded and sniffed the air a few times. He looked around and then they both fixed their gaze on a nearby cave at the base of the jagged mountainside lining the shoreline to the east. They walked together toward the cave and as they drew closer the smell increased in potency and filth until soon they were at the mouth with only darkness ahead. 

"Go tell the others what you've found," Albert said to the nervous young maiden. "I'm going in."

She nodded and started to run toward the village. Albert found a branch and wrapped swathes of the long dry grass around the end until he had a tight bundle and a then lit it by striking the back of his knife against a stone of flint. He walked slowly into the cave unsure of what he might find. He traveled through a maze of winding tunnels until he came to a ledge the revealed a large opening where a single beam of light shown through a crack in the ceiling. One hundred feet down, at the other end of the beam, the light illuminated a glistening shimmer coming from a dark spot near a large reservoir. Was it gold or silver? Albert was going to find out. 

He made his way down a winding narrow ledge that lead down to another cliff about fifty feet down. When he made it to the plateau he noticed that he was not the only one who had been there. Laying in the circular outcropping were the remnants of a campfire and near the edge Albert saw a long bow. He made his was to the edge and picked up the bow and examined it. He wondered what it was doing all the way down there and then he looked down where he noticed something large moving. The light shimmering in repeating patterns of gold, silver, blue, green, and red. His eyes widened as they adjusted to the dim light and the beast distinguished itself from the environment.

It huffed as fire spurted out of it's nose and then thudded back down onto the ground like sleepy wolf resting up after a long day of hunting. Albert dropped the torch on the ground, put the bow around his back and grabbed the few arrows lying on the ground. There was a thick vine on the side of the plateau and he used it to climb down to the ground where the dragon rested. He landed next to a edge of a small pond with the dragon's curled tail just a few yards away. His eyes fixed on the dragon he stepped to his left and stumbled on something that crackled loudly as he stomped on it finding his balance. He looked down to find the long decomposing remains of a skeleton, a small ax lying just beside it. Albert now had an ax. 

Making sure not to make any more noise he slinked toward the rear of the sleeping beast. Soon he was close enough to climb on it's back but suddenly it reared it's massive head, raised it's back and rose to it's feet. Albert jumped back just missing it's left leg as it rose and slamming himself into the wall of the cave. The dragon took a few steps and laid back down with it's face half one in the pond. It started lapping up water like a lazy animal that couldn't be bothered to move more than just just it's mouth and tongue.

It was now or never, Albert thought and then ran to it's left side and started to climb the protruding glimmering scales of the dragon's short leg. The dragon stopped tonguing the water, jerked it's head around and looked directly at Albert who was making his way up it's back. The dragon wasted no time and bellowed a furious wind that forced Albert to his knees as it spoke.

"Where did you come from," the dragon spoke with a deep echoing voice. "Get off my back!"

"No", Albert responded as loud as he could muster. "I'm going to kill you and feed my village for a year!" He yelled triumphantly. "I'll make armor from your skin and weapons from your bones!"

"Oh," the dragon was unconvinced. "And how do plan on doing that," the dragon said and, as it let out deep drums of laughter, it stretched out it's enormous wings filling the space with wind and tremors. Albert stood up and began running toward the dragon's head. The dragon began to take a deep inward breath, it's chest inflating with air and its body beginning to rise up off the ground. Albert was almost to the part where the wings meet the back when the dragon belched out it's flame over it's back. Albert slid under a small crevice in the cleavage of it's right wing and the flames singed the end of his dirty hair.

The dragon turned it's head toward the sky and they both rose higher toward the rocky sky. Albert climbed up the back of it's neck and when he reached the top of it's head he slammed the ax onto the top of it's scale armored head bouncing off so quickly Albert always released it but he held on. He climbed a few more feet and now he could see the dragon's eye sockets. He pulled the ax from his belt and slammed the blade down striking the top of the eye and causing the dragon to wince and struggle, it's head leaping back and forth. Albert couldn't hold on much longer when he saw his torch lying just a few feet away. He leaped onto the rocky plateau and rolled breaking the bow on his back.

The dragon struggled to fly and bellowed once again,"You dirty human! You've blinded me!" It twirled to the ground and landed with a thud with it's face in the black water below. Albert looked over the edge to see the dragon lifting it's head out of the water and he heard the sound of it breathing in deeply. Before he could think Albert hurled himself off the cliff edge straight toward the ground and the dragon. As he neared the dragon's head he raised his ax with two hands ready to drive it into whatever part of the dragon he landed on. Just before he could do that the dragon began to blow it's orange fire up into the air engulfing Albert but it came too late and Albert plunged down onto the dragon's head burying the spiked handle into it's eye two feet deep. Albert's face skimmed off the blade as he fumbled into the water which put out any flames attached to his clothes. The dragon's head fell just a few feet away with it's tongue out resting peacefully at the water's edge.

On the shore Albert felt his face which stung as blood poured from the slash going down his cheek. He looked over to see the glimmering body of the dragon lying there not much like it was just minutes ago when it was sleeping. Albert wondered how many people it had killed and what everyone back at the village would say. He would be a hero.

He climbed onto the top of the dead monster and laid on his back in the middle of the dragon where the wings meet the body and looked up at the beam of light and the crack in the ceiling. He thought of his love, Mary, and how they would have to get married right away. A few moments later he saw a light coming from the ledge high up the rock face. Then another light and another light and soon there were twenty people making their way down the cliff side toward him. He stood up, raised his arm to the sky and bellowed, "I am Albert and I have slayed the dragon!"

He heard cheers and singing as the others came closer and soon they were all looking down at him from the plateau where he had leaped onto the head of a dragon. He stared up at them and knew that nothing would ever be the same.