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Fiery breath,

Snapping teeth, volcanic spittle;

Soft underbelly

Ringed by living spikes,

Poison tipped.

Patient and relentless

As the desert sand,

Dealing hot death

In bitter morsels-

The dragon Yune.

 

No scales, no whipping tail,

Only a shining face,

Beacon in battle.

Tall among men,

The warrior Drualt.

 

Yune’s hoard-

Knight’s bones

Gnawed white;

Maiden’s bones,

Charred black;

Ruby brooch;

Tiara of diamonds;

My lady’s golden slipper-

Yune’s hoard,

Tall as a tower

 

Drualt’s army-

Defiance, Drualt’s steed.

Gore-gouger, Drualt’s dagger

Blood-biter, Drualt’s sword;

Drualt’s own sturdy legs,

Mainstay and Helpmeet;

Drualt’s own mighty arms,

Defender and Thruster.

Drult’s army,

Sinew and steel.

(Drualt’s challenge, Yune’s taunting reply

Hero and monster battled in the empty desert

Outside Yune’s cave.)

Yune exhaled a cloud

Of vapors hot and thick,

Bitter as bile.

The cloud engulfed

Drualt’s army.

Within the cloud,

Defiance stumbled,

Choking.

Hooves beat the smoke.

Drualt, the laughter,

Heard Yune’s laugh.

He raised blood-biter, and,

Glowing white, the sword carved

A tunnel, a sun shaft

To pure air

And, unseen,

To Yune.

(Battle continues for hours. Drualt becomes unhorsed, and Blood-biter is knocked out of his hand. Yune melts the sword. Knowing that only cunning would save him, Drualt buries himself in Yune’s hoard.)

Within the moldering,

Noxious hoard,

Drualt’s living hand

Found the sword

Of long-dead hero

Arkule, Yune’s claws

Raked her festering pile

And almost plucked out Drualt’s

Keen right eye.

A claw found instead

Drualt’s scorched shoulder.

The dragon shrieked her triumph:

‘You’re mine now. Mine!

Mine to burn, mine to crisp,

Mine to kill.’

She lifted Drult.

And on that upward journey

To his doom,

Drualt thrust Gore-gouger

Into Yune’s soft flesh

And plunged Arkule’s long

And ancient sword

Into Yune’s stony heart

-Drualt’s battle with Yune in Drualt