The captain stares at the knight for a moment and then turns to face his men. The knight wonders why the captain has not ordered him to finish the dragon.
"All wait here and do nothing," commands the captain. "And that means you too, Sir Knight."
He then takes a torch and walks out of the cave.
What is happening? thinks the knight. There is a long silence. The soldiers can be heard whispering among themselves. The dragon's breathing grows weaker. The knight thinks a sad thought, I may not have to slay my friend after all, for he seems to have little time left to live. A distant sound of marching is heard and becomes louder and soon more soldiers enter the cave with the captain at the lead and the farmer and his now blindfolded horse pulling his cart in the middle of them.
It is now that the knight thinks the captain has waited for the cart to be in the cave before he orders him to cut off the dragons head to make it easier to load the head into the cart, but this does not happen, instead, the soldiers quickly step aside to let the farmer emerge. The farmer jumps off his cart, looks around, and then stares at the dragon for several moments. All are focused on him. Soldiers step aside as he then moves to the water's edge. He stares again for several moments and turns to look carefully at every binding securing the dragons. He slowly takes a deep breath, throws up his arms, lets out a loud laugh, and shouts, "At last!". With this he throws off his hat and pulls off his fake beard. It is the king!
The knight now understands why the captain acted as he did. He was making sure the dragon was bound securely before letting the king enter. Also, the king was disguised as a farmer as he knew that the dragon would not attack a farmer.
"I smell a putrid stench; that of rotted feces. It is an acrid odor that I know of only one who possesses it. The king must be present. So, we meet again," states the dragon.
"This day, I have waited for too long!" states the king. "I will soon rid myself of my worst enemy and regain my youth to live another full life. Too bad that you killed my sorcerer as I was planning to have you as my pet once I had your memory erased. You were just too quick, and he was too old, but now your time has come to an end and mine has come to a new beginning and you are mine to do as I wish." He reaches toward the captain who has a sword waiting. He takes it and wades through the water and climbs onto the dragon's chest. He holds the sword just above the dragon's heart and says,
"Goodbye, dragon, and good riddance!" and stabs it into the dragon but not far enough to strike his heart. The dragon shrieks in pain.
"Oh, did I not stab you deep enough? Let me try again." He pulls out the sword and stabs a little deeper but not enough to kill the dragon. The dragon again cries in pain.
"You putrid piece of slime!" yells the dragon, "May your bones rot in hell!"
"It is your bones that will rot in hell," replies the king.
"So you now get rid of me as you did Reginald's father?' says the dragon.
"He received what all who disobey me receive!" replies the king.
The captain hears this and now knows the truth. He now hopes that the rotted vines holding down the dragon's tail will not hold .
"Go to hell William," shouts the king.
The king now lifts his sword high and thrusts it deep into the dragon's heart. Blood spurts out in all directions from the wound. The dragon's whole body jerks but none of the binding breaks, not even the ones that hold his tail.
The king pulls out his sword and proclaims, "Finally, I have won!"
The dragon seems to take his last breath as his chest sinks. The king holds his sword up high with blood dripping from it and lets out a loud laugh of triumph. There is no movement from the dragon at this moment. The king thinks he has won and lowers his sword, and says ,
"At last I have succeeded!" and smiles.
The Knight realizes that he did not test the strength of the rotted vines, Oh no, What have I done, what a fool I am!, he thinks.
But suddenly, the dragon's body shudders and does a quick reflex contraction. The tail breaks loose from its bindings and swings forward and strikes the unsuspecting king from behind with its barbed ends piercing through the king's torso pinning him to the side of the cave. As suddenly as it struck, it retracts. The king's body slithers down the wall of the cave to the floor. Everyone is stunned and silent at what has just happened.
All are silent. The captain is the first to move. He carefully walks to the king's crumbled remains. He removes his sword from its scabbard and with its tip he lifts the kings arm but only sees bones. There is no flesh, only old dried bones. He wonders, How old was the king before all of this? He then turns and stares at the dragon's corpse laying motionlessness in the water. The knight now speaks,
"It was I and the dragon who planned this scheme to kill the king by using rotted vines to tie down the tail. I am proud of what I have done but I regret that the dragon was killed. I will now bear whatever punishment you give me, but I will never say I am sorry for doing what I have done for I feel it was the right thing to do. The king was an evil man."
The knight walks up to the captain and kneels before him and withdraws his swords and offers it to the captain as a token of surrender.
"Keep your sword Sir Knight," says the captain. "For you do not understand. We, here, are all soldiers. We are bound by our oath and once we have given that oath we obey it no matter what. I am sure that every man here would like to be rid of the King as he now is. For we have seen him do much evil which we have not agreed with, but we gave our pledge of loyalty and we must............"
Suddenly, there is a bright flash and a loud explosion where the dragon's body lay. Its force pushes all back against the wall of the cave. Many torches are blown out. No one knows what has happened. As the torches are slowly relit it is seen that where the corpse of the dragon once was is now only a cloud of smoke. Again, all are silent not knowing what will happen next or what to do. A gentle breeze now enters the cave slowly blowing some of the smoke away as all watch and wait and wonder what will come next. The breeze continues but some smoke still lingers where the dragon once laid. A groan is heard. An animal sound? Something is alive, moving, in the smoke.
YOU ARE READING
Don't Kill My Love
FantasyA man is deeply in love with a beautiful woman, but a jealous king won't allow their marriage because he wants her for himself. The king plots a devilish scheme to turn the man into a dragon and use him as his pet.
