#2 The Story of Me - Ernesto
As
I have told you before, my companion and I have been vying over the glory, and
of course the heavy purse of gold, to be awarded for the head of a dragon which
had been harassing a village.
After
losing a duel to my competitor and captor, we traveled together to the mountain
the dragon was rumored to have made its nest. Attempting to stay upwind, we
traversed the mountain paths to a location determined to be over the cavern in
which the dreaded dragon resided.
I
hurried to peer over the edge of the precipice only to be overwhelmed by a
dizzy sensation. I was overcome with throwing
up and nearly fainting when my good horse, Caballo, and my companion, Baron Von
Bassett, pulled me from my immediate doom. I lay there gasping. “What, what kind of
spell could a dragon weave that would be so potent this far away. This must be a powerful dragon, indeed.”
Balancing
on his heels, hunkered down tending the fire, the Baron merely grunted his
usual expression, “Indeed.” He didn’t
speak much. Seeming content to
communicate through his visual means; glances, ogles, grimaces, or stares. Laughter didn’t seem to have left any trace
of a mark on that face. We had traveled
for two days to reach this destination, we had not exchanged any words. Silence only.
“Once
again my life is indebted to you. I
would surely have been pulled to my demise had you not thought so quickly. The dragon’s luring spell called to my
senses, I wanted desperately to jump.”
My face was obviously bunched up in a show of emotional pain. I did not want to owe anyone, much less this
ogre of a man. Sighing, I rolled onto my side, away from the fire.
Shortly,
with the smell of food on the air, I straightened up. The Baron had made a fine meal over a small
cook fire. We ate in our typical
silence. As the evening turned to night,
stoking the fire, the Baron began to talk. “You think you are indebted to me. Wrong. Actually you saved MY life. I, too, cannot peer over the edge of the
mountainside. More than once have I had
the urge to jump to my death. The mountains of my homeland are steep and
unyielding. I had to leave, lest I be
lured into plunging over the edge. It is
not the dragon’s magic. It is a malady
both the clergy and the doctor’s call vertigo.
We need to leave this place.
Neither of us will survive tomorrow if we remain here long.”
Shocked
by the length of his speech, I didn’t not question his decision for the two of
us to leave. It was a dangerous trek up
and would be even more dangerous for the trip down the side of the mountain
especially as night was falling.
After
agonizingly slow progress, we came upon a small sheltered level area, large
enough for the horse, and decided to stop and rest for the night. At sunrise, I was surprised at the progress
we had made. I was not surprised that
every muscle on my body ached. I ached
from the top of my head to the tip of my toes.
Until I relaxed, I didn’t realize how tensed up I had been. As tense as the descent was, it was dark
therefore neither of us could actually look down over the side of the
mountain. Both more treacherous and
safer, simultaneously. Thankful, albeit a
bit shaky, to reach the main pathway, we paused to rest and determine our next move.
Leaving
the horses lightly hobbled, we crab crawled our way over rocks and around scrub
to the front of the cavernous lair. Ignorant
of the exact location of the lair, we simply followed our noses and how badly
our eyes watered.
The
reek emitted from the cave entrance was not unlike the smell of boiling skunk,
alive. My eyes watered. Both of us were adding to the aromatic flavor
of the air, by sweating profusely. It
wasn’t the warmth of the day making us sweat, rather the odor was so thick, we
could taste it.
The
rocks and crags near the cave entrance seemed to have a white phosphorus
coating. The coating, I could only
assume was the creatures way of claiming the area as its own as most animals
do, scent markings. Vowing not to touch
it when we entered the cave, I pulled the inside of my elbow to cover my mouth.
A move that really didn’t help much.
Unsheathing
our swords, we moved closer to the entrance.
Roars and growls rumbled from the interior. We looked at one another, sweat beading on
our brows already, grimaces on our faces, we made ready to enter the cavern
entrance.
Huddled
closely together, inching forward, we made our way further and further into the
dragons lair. Darkness made the footing
treacherous. The stench made our breath
come in short shallow gasps. Ever so
carefully, we stumble over what we thought were outcrops of loose stones. Stumbling, the Baron dropped our one torch we
had engineered. The flame, flaring
momentarily with the draft of falling, flickered and burned out. Now we were without
the benefit of any light. We now had to feel
our way forward as the blind in a new location, arms outstretched and small
baby steps with our feet. Littered here and there, it feels as though we were walking
over brittle brush piles. Down, ever
downward, we shuffle our feet careful lest we fall into who knows what.
Up
ahead there seemed a glow in the pitch black.
A glow, that seemed to be coming closer towards us. A glow that illuminated some of the path that
lay ahead. A glow that both drew us
closer to it, yet made me want to turn and run! As it dawned on my feeble mind
what the light really was, I nearly yelped with fear.
Simultaneously,
we noticed an outcrop of a boulder and in unison worked our way towards the
relative safe harbor. Hoping to go
unnoticed, we waited there; two grown men trying to fit into a space not large
enough to hold a medium sized child. We
waited for the thing to pass.
With
words unspoken, we both knew why we had not confronted the thing, allowing it
to pass us by. We wanted an opportunity
to size the thing up. Allow it’s full length
to pass us by, look for the things weakness.
A chink in its armor. At first
glance, we saw none. What we did see was
the largest reptile either of us had ever witnessed. It’s back brushed the top of the cavern. It was crawling nearly as tenuously as we had
walked.
Even
in the half light, we could see the iridescent blues, purples and gold coloration flicker on the tough scales.
The accordion like reptilian walk, did show us that as the dragon strode
forward, the scales would have to buckle up over one another. Exposing a ray of hope for us, a weakness for
it. It waddled past us without glance in
our direction.
Letting
out my held breath, I could not help but clasp the Baron by the shoulder. I nearly wept. I was almost ready to turn tail and leave
this awful place. Try to come up with a
plan that entailed being outside of this hell-hole. The Baron, on the other
hand, began to move further into the cave.
The dragon was leaving and we were not following, but going deeper into its
lair.
Quietly
we crept. Slowly descending into the
bowels of the mountain. The Baron would
take a few steps, then stop and listen.
I cast furtive looks over my shoulder as well. After several of these stops the Baron murmured,
“Indeed.” It was a relief to hear a
voice, then suddenly I could hear many voices.
It sounded like singing. Singing?
Prayer
hymns were being sung by small young voices.
Praise the old gods and the new, there were still children ALIVE. Unsaid, but understood, we did not expect to
be a rescue team. We were there to slay
the dragon and collect our reward.
Haltingly,
we entered the obvious nest of the beast. Not simply a worm hole, but a rounded
nesting. It was hot down here, blisteringly hot. Around the perimeter were
the children, the sheep and surprisingly many other animals; deer, elk,
rabbits, ducks, geese and others. Some
hanging limply as though shackled to the stone wall, others in strewn in heaps as
rag dolls tossed aside by some giant. The
stone carried scars of scorch marks nearly everywhere we looked. My tongue
flickered over my lips in vain effort to keep them moist in the heat. Near the center of the huge room were two oval
eggs.
The
eggs drew my attention. I could not help
myself, I was mesmerized by the rhythmic glows emitted from within illuminating
the room. The eggs throbbed with
life. Golden, both of them, I was
reminded of the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk. I had always thought it a goose that laid
golden eggs. Never had the thought of a
dragon entered my mind, or the tale.
The
Baron and I quickly ran to the nearest child.
The town had lost only three, there were seven alive and many not. The beast had been plundering other villages
as well. There would be more than one
purse of gold to line our pockets.
Quickly, silently, we unfettered the children. They had been adhered to the wall with some
sort of glue-like substance, we could only guess which end of the beast
rendered that substance.
Motioning
silence, the Baron began to usher the children out of the nesting cavern. Even as we hurried, we could hear grunts coming
towards us. We would need luck and
timing to make our escape with seven children, two were beyond being able to
walk. We hid ourselves as best we could,
in crags along the wall. The beast
waddled in, holding a prize in its jaws.
My horse, Caballo.
My
heart sank. My blood boiled. The Baron was quick to stay me with a glance
and warning. First the children must be
reunited with their villages. First we
must make our own escape. Then we might
come back to rescue my brave Caballo.
We
nine stayed wedged into the side of the mountain while the dragon beast made a
place for Caballo. We stayed while she
inspected her nest. We stayed while she
burned the ground around her eggs ensuring their warmth and incubation. We stayed until she finally lay down, curling
herself round the eggs, and fell asleep.
Then,
ever so silently, we crept upwards. The
trek into the cavern had seemed long, carrying children who were more dead than
alive. It was slow moving and leaving
the glow of the eggs to shine our path for us, it was pitch black again. Our lungs heaving with effort, we shuffled
and stumbled our way. Daylight streamed
into the mouth of the cave. Daylight, my
heart surged. Daylight, relative
safety. We had been within the dragons lair
for a full day and night.
We
staggered our way back to the fresh water pool we had camped by and hobbled the
horses. Careful to monitor the amount of
water each child drank, we built a small fire and began our search for the
Baron’s horse. Hours later, with the
Baron’s horse found, food eaten and water skins filled, we determined we needed
to start for the village before the beast decided to do more hunting. None of the children were up to the long trek
back to the village. Shedding the saddle, several of the children took turns
riding out of the foothills atop the Baron’s horse while he and I walked,
carrying the little ones who could not even hold their heads up.
We
entered the village in the middle of the night.
The night watchman sounded the alarm.
We were heroes. The children were
taken to the healing woman. Prayers to
the old gods and the new were sent up.
The children were out of our hands.
The
Baron and I were still sitting at the table, finishing our meal, when the
Elders came to speak with us. It was
much sooner than I had anticipated. I thought
they would at least wait until morning.
One
of the men stepped forward. With the air
of self-importance that only old men in public office carry, the fattest most
bald man sat down at our table. He
looked at the two of our platters and nodded approvingly. The serving girl brought a mug for him, which
he picked up and downed nearly half in one gulp. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand,
the old man wheezed out his purpose. “When
are you going back?”
leigh
