ONC 2024 ~ On Hold
Once upon a time there was a little golden dragon. He was the last of his kind and knew nothing of the ways of dragons. One day his hoard of gold was stolen by some men from the castle down the hill. This is the story of how the l...
From Golden Scale's vantage point on the top of the turret, he watched the Red Dragon search the castle, setting it afire with her breath.
The man in the strange robe was crying like a coward. "Please please please," he said over and over again.
"Please what?" the dragon asked, but the robed man was suddenly silent. Golden Scale watched the archers and knights, who were forming a resistance. The archers had climbed to the top of the walls surrounding the village. From there, they could easily shoot Golden Scale with their arrows. At the same time, the knights and robed men were coming out onto the tower balconies and climbing up onto the roof of the castle.
All of this distracted the dragon long enough to allow his hostage a chance to attempt an escape. The man raised his hands and suddenly, a ball of water floated up from the moat surrounding the castle. The man in the robes waved his hands wildly, and the globe of water turned into icy shards that rained down on Golden Scale, stunning him. The man made a run for it, but he was so desperate to get away that he tripped over his own feet and went sliding off the roof of the tower and began to fall.
Golden Scale recovered from the ice attack just in time to see the man go over the side of the tower. At that moment, the dragon forgot that he was too hurt to fly, and he surged into action. He dove after the man and caught him in midair. The two found themselves falling together, but Golden Scale filled his lungs with hot air and used his good wing to steer away from the ground and the wall, and they skidded to a stop on the cobblestone boulevard.
"You saved me!" the man exclaimed with surprise. He was obviously confused. Why would the dragon save a human?
Golden Scale didn't have time to answer. The villagers were approaching with torches and pitchforks. The dragon leapt into the air and bounded up the wall, running into a string of archers ready to shoot. Instead of attacking the archers, the dragon leapt again, clearing the wall and gliding over the moat outside the castle wall. With his belly full of hot air, the dragon floated across the water like a balloon. He reached the shore and dove for the cover of the trees on the mountain side, very close to the charcoal dragon art that Golden Scale had sketched while he was waiting outside the castle, such a long time ago. Golden Scale set the man down safely.
"You are a good dragon, aren't you?" the man said with gratitude in his voice.
"That trinket is familiar to me," Golden Scale said.
The man touched the golden necklace. "The treasure found in the mountains. It belonged to you, didn't it?"
Golden Scale nodded laconically.
"You weren't trying to hurt us," the man said. "You were trying to get your treasure back."
"I'm going to get it back!" Golden Scale said, his nose smoking with noxious fumes.
"I'm sorry my dear friend, but you won't," the man said.
"You're no friend of mine!" the dragon said, and flames flickered in his teeth.
The man put his hands up. "But I speak the truth. The treasure was recently traded, in exchange for the services of the Elemental Wizards. You see, the castle has been under attack for some time, and the people need someone to protect them, so the king of the East Castle hired me and my men."
"What is a wizard?" Golden Scale asked, suddenly curious.
"I am a wizard." The man held up his hands and another ball of water rose out of the nearby moat. "My name is Derrick, the last of the Mesmerizers, and the leader of the Elemental Wizards from the West Castle. At your service." And Derrick bowed before the dragon, showing no fear.
"How could you possibly serve me?" Golden Scale asked.
Derrick could see that the dragon needed to be healed, so he held up his hands and called the power of aero to heal the dragon's wing and scales. Golden Scale blinked in surprise as his wounds were healed. "Did you do that?" Golden Scale held up his healed wing.
Derrick nodded. "My magic is a panacea that can heal any ailment."
Golden Scale looked away, and his eyes landed on the charcoal drawings along the bank, which he himself had drawn. Among the castle, mountains, trees, and water, Golden Scale had also drawn all the animals he had seen while he was waiting outside the castle. The deer that came to drink the water, the rabbits that ate the grass near the trees, and the birds that flew from the forest to the castle and back. One little bird caught his eye, because it looked like a canary that Golden Scale used to travel with.
"What is it that you truly desire?" Derrick asked. The dragon looked down at the wizard's simple golden trinket and realized that it gave him little pleasure when it didn't look like a dragon for him to play with. Up in the charcoal mountains, there was a charcoal cave filled with charcoal treasure, arranged to look like a charcoal dragon. But Golden Scale realized that his treasure wasn't any more of a dragon than the stone statutes he had seen on the uneven man's island. They didn't really count as friends if they couldn't talk to him, or travel with him, or play with him, like Yellow Feather and Shina had.
And that is how a wizard helped a dragon see that friends are far more valuable than all the treasure in the world.
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