The Dragon's Den

Just a short story made for a small competition.

The Dragon’s Den

 

 

 

Crisp, clean air. Birds chirping. This would be a nice clearing, if it weren’t for one thing.

The Note.

Four innocent words. The end of a war. One way, or another.

I will be waiting.

As Mark looked around, he felt anxious. Was he really about to do this? What if the assassin picks him off with a bow and arrow from a tree? Steeling himself, he pushed onwards through the clearing, until he reached the cave the rest of the note referenced.

It wasn’t long before he knew something was wrong. The trail the note had said would lead him to where he was didn’t stop at the cave. It kept going. When Mark started walking out of the cave to follow the trail, he noticed that it stopped right outside the cave. Maybe the assassin had mentioned the cave as a landmark to help find the end of the path. When he finally left the cave, he looked at the trails end, and it was a bush. A lousy bush. He kicked it, and sat on the ground, defeated.

But from where he sat now, he saw a tree near the end of the trail. In fact, it was the only tree near the end. Mark walked over, and looked at it. Then looked from different angles. Everything about it was just so normal. Just in case, Mark kicked it to check if it were hollow. After he kicked it, however, the ground started shaking, as it the earth itself were enraged by something.

“You dare challenge me?”

 He looked around in bewilderment, before the tree was ripped out of the ground with the horrible sound of snapping wood, and a huge black dragon climbed out of the resulting hole. “You have insulted the House of Kings! Die!” Before Mark could react, he was tossed from the ground, then spiked back to the earth. As he struggled to his feet, he glimpsed a blur of claws before getting slashed across his face. He tried to sidestep the next attack, but was too injured and was struck in the chest, and flung backwards into a boulder.

Mark weakly rose his head, and caught the dragon’s gaze. The area quickly became scorching, and the dragon’s eyes gleamed maliciously. Mark knew what was coming, and rolled behind the boulder just as the area beside him was engulfed in flames. The dragon bellowed in rage. “You cannot hide from me!” And with that, he picked up the boulder and smashed it to pieces.

Mark felt the air heat up once again, but this time there was no place to go. “You have insulted our House,” the dragon said.

“Die!” 

Author's Note

Just a warning: this was hastily put together for a deadline, and the ending was cut very short because of a word limit.