Dragon Child

The Story of George

Rhzvanzin and the other younglings all cheered when they saw one of the eldest dragons building a large bonfire. They all knew that when an elder built a bonfire that the elder would be telling stories that night. The younglings all started whispering to each other about which story they hoped the elder they told.

“Maybe it will be Grevenson and the dijinn!” Zahanort said hopefully.

“No way, it better be The Age of Dragons!” Drazealite snorted.

“I’d like to hear The Dragon and the Sea Serpents myself.” Rhzvanzin said.

“Why not Draco and the Knight Lord?” a tiny youngling asked.

They other younglings all nodded in agreement, as the tiny youngling mentioned that particular story. The story had been told to them when the leader of a massive tribe of strange dragons arrived to speak with their tribe’s clan-lords. The strange clan’s leader had been able to change his size to as small as the younglings to five times longer than Albervork. Before he left the strange clan’s leader had told them all the story, the story was a supposedly true story about a creature that was only half dragon and had gone to challenge the leader of a super sized clan of monsters.

The elder lit the bonfire catching the attention of all the younglings as they all ran over to form a simi-circle around the elder. The younglings all shoved and pushed each other vying for the best spot to hear the story. Rhzvanzin, Drazealite, and Zahanort all managed to get the best spots as always, since they worked together to get their spots instead of squabbling with each other. Rhzvanzin told Drazealite and Zahanort to hold his spot for a second as he turned around and crouched down.

Rhzvanzin leapt over all the other younglings and grabbed the tiny youngling that had mentioned the story of Draco and the Knight Lord in his foreclaw before leaping back to where Zahanort and Drazealite where holding off other eager younglings vying for Rhzvanzin’s spot. They all left off when they saw him land again and sighed moving back to their spots. Rhzvanzin placed the tiny youngling on his head where it crooned happily and they all waited eagerly for the story.

The elder waited to make sure everyone had finished shoving for position before he cleared his voice and said, “Tonight I thought I’d tell you the story of The Horrible Killer, Saint George.”

The younglings all looked up at the elder excitedly; they had never heard this story before and where always eager for a good story.

The elder smiled at the youngling’s excitement before continuing, “Saint George was a monster known as a human. Humans are about as the biggest among you younglings, with soft flesh, and no real natural defenses.”

“Sounds more like prey animals than monsters to me,” Drazealite said bringing chuckles from the other younglings and a small nudge from Zahanort who wanted to hear the story.

The elder smiled and looked at Drazealite and said, “They might sound that way youngling but I said they have no natural defenses. The walk on only two legs leaving two to create their own defenses and weapons. Not to mention that they number in the millions if not billions.”

Drazealite and several other younglings gulped pressing themselves low to the ground.

The elder continued, “Saint George was a rare type of human we call a Shellized Human. This means that he was a human that was coated with a shining armor and carried more weapons on him than any dragon ever had. He traveled with several of two other kinds of humans Leatherhides and Longrangers. The Longrangers carried a device shaped like a claw that threw pointed sticks great distances, while these rarely caused any real harm to the dragon they could shred a dragon’s wings and ground it. Then the Leatherhides would draw straight shining claws and attack the grounded dragon.

The dragon would then be surrounded and, while in no real danger from the Leatherhides, would not be able to effectively escape any attacks thrown at it. While the Leatherhides distracted the dragon, Saint George would move in holding a weapon twice as long as he was and drive it into the dragon’s heart or brain. After killing a dragon in this way the humans would them begin a barbaric ritual of stripping off the dragon's flesh, draining its blood, and stealing its claws and teeth before looking for another dragon to kill.

Using this method Saint George and his army of Leatherhides and Longrangers devastated the Razor Claw Clan reducing its numbers to but a handful. The Razor Claw clan called upon our then newly formed Boulder Fall clan to aid them. Our clan agreed and instead of facing Saint George and his army head on as the Razor Claw’s had done, they laid in wait for them on a ridge overlooking the valley leading toward the Razor Claw’s clan hold.

As Saint George and his army passed beneath them, they knocked hundreds of boulders down onto the army killing all of the humans but Saint George himself who climbed out of the rubble and challenged the entire clan. While he fought hard and managed to kill another dragon and wound two more he could not stand against two entire dragon clans. Saint George died among the broken bodies of his fellow humans and cursed the dragon clan who had killed him. The Razor Claw tribe decided that despite Saint George had been a great monster, he had also been their greatest foe and deserved the honor of a dragon’s funeral.

Now the Razor Claw clan had been the one who where cursed and having been so devastated by him their future was in doubt. And having given Saint George a dragon’s funeral the human’s never found his body. Now this enraged the humans greatly because they wished to give Saint George what they called a hero’s funeral. To avenge Saint George other Shellized humans attacked the Razor Claw clan reducing their numbers even further.

Fortunately, Saint George had taken the secrets of his success to his grave so the only dragons that died where those trapped in their lairs unable to escape the long weapons. Still many Shellized Humans and dragons died before what remained of the Razor Claw fled to the Boulder Fall clan seeking refuge which they where granted.

Eventually the Shellized Humans gave up looking for the remaining Razor Claw clan and returned to their lairs. Now the two clans have mixed which is why we have two clan-lords. Very few of the dragons from that time still survive but a few have to pass on the knowledge of how dangerous these three types of humans are when they work together. In fact I am the last member of the original Razor Claw clan and one of the few dragons that saw Saint George and lived. But that’s not saying I got away unscathed.”

The elder raised his foreclaw revealing a long scar across his chest that shown silver in the firelight.

“That is the end of my tale,” the elder said as he collapsed and fell into a deep sleep.
The younglings scattered talking to each other of their favorite parts of the story before returning to their homes to sleep themselves.

That night almost every youngling had a nightmare that they where being hunted by Saint George and his army and being unable to escape. Rhzvanzin’s nightmare however was different, in his nightmare he was trapped just behind Saint George’s eyes and forced to watch as he killed everyone he loved and cared for laughing all the while.