The Whistle

                  Mary took a step foward away from the group, away from the sharp, carbon-black blades of the lizard beast's swords while still trying to avoid the seemingly endless, dark pit in front of her. Without a second thought, she turned and faced the green-scaled, humanoid creatures and secretly fumbled for something in her pocket while reviewing the events that led to her current situation. The beasts started towards her, grunting horrible, bass sounds that she thought must have been their language. She ignored them and waited for the right time to do what she knew she had too.   
     
                She and all of the people in the village had been captured during a suprise raid in the night. The few tribesman that hadn't been captured had fought back and were immediately killed, swiftly and mercilessly at the end of a beast's spear. Hopeless, the survivors had been chained and brought here, to this grand complex of caves that the creatures lived in. At first, hope lingered. The beasts hadn't come back to the caves where they were chained. Some of the men had even come close to escaping their chains with some ingenious methods when the third morning after their capture arrived.
       
              Suddenly, the people were once again under the watchful eyes of the scaly beasts and a few at a time were carted off through different tunnels to unknown places. Fear spread among the remaining tribesman, and for good reason. Together they were strong, but seperated, they were just fleshy humans at the mercy of their brutal, murderous captors.
       
            Eventually only a handful remained, including Mary. Once dusk fell, which could be measured through small cracks in the cave's ceiling, they too were taken through one of the tunnels to the massive cavern with the giant gaping hole. Even the hole looked sinister as the frightened people were herded to its edge. Grimy, jagged rocks loomed from its walls, looking like hungry, wet teeth. Adding to this appearance was an occasional spurt of steam from the pit, appearing and feeling as the hot, damp breath of a vicous monster.
       
            Once they were all together in the right place, the real terror started. One of the men near the front of the group was pushed foward by the evil beasts and forced to kneel at the edge of the pit. With a sickening swish, one of the creatures severed his head, which plummeted into the hole. The creature grunted appreciatively and threw the headless corpse away from the edge. The people started to panic and bagan surging back against the others, determined not to be the next one in the front. A couple of the younger males even made a break for one of the many side tunnels, but were quickly skewered by two spear wielding guards. This quickly brought the semblance of order back to the ragtag group of humans and they stood shaking with fear, some openly crying out and collapsing, tears streaming down their faces. Some tried to plead with their horrible captors, but they were only pushed back into the tightly huddled group.
       
            One by one, they were brought foward. At this point, Mary had turned her head, not wanting to see the sickening sights or smell the awful metallic smell of blood. This way it wasn't as bad, but she could still hear the frantic begging and the ghastly screams. Apparently, decapitation was not the only form of execution. Suddenly she felt something wooden being shoved into her hands and the urgent, whispered words of the village elder who stood in front of her.
     
          "Take this whistle and blow it when your turn arrives." The elder's voice was calm and steady, even in the awful presence of death. "It is the only thing that may save the remainder of our people. I go now to face my death, but you are young and strong, capable of bringing hope back to our tribe. Only you have the blood-line to do what is necessary"
     
          He tried to say more, but had been man-handled away from her towards the edge of the pit. He shook off the green, slender monsters and hobbled foward on his own, the epitomy of dignity and honor. Without a word, he lept into the pit of his own device, suprising the creature that had been getting ready to run him through.
With a chuckle he looked over the edge, and said something in his harsh grunting to the other beasts, who all laughed as well. Still chuckling, he had motioned Mary foward, bringing her into her current predicament.
     
          Still closing in and pointing to the hole, expecting her to jump in, the beasts grunted and poked with their spears. Slowly sneaking the whistle to her lips, Mary blew as hard as she could, her mind totally concentrated. An incredibly shrill blast of sound escaped the flute, echoing throughout the cave only to fade into obscurity.
For a moment, everything was silent again and the creatures were stunned, but they quickly started to advance again, this time looking a bit angry.
     
          She lowered her head, dejected. The elder had promised this would work... but he was gone now too. All hope gone, she looked back up at the chief beast, who slowly walked towards her, a smile decorating his face and human skins decorating his body. He stopped when he stood but a foot away and stared into her hopeless, yet still defiant eyes. He started to laugh at her, his rancid breath washing over her with every chuckle. Then, without any hesitation, he shoved her into the waiting, hungry pit.
     
          As she fell, she just thought back over her life, remembering all of the happy memories. She knew that no pit, no matter how monstrous, could go on forever and that eventually her time on this mortal world would come to a very sudden stop. Tears started to flow down her face as she contemplated it. She shut her eyes, hoping it wouldn't hurt, but having never experienced death before, she had no idea...
     
          Suddenly, she felt quite weightless. Had she hit the bottom already? She hadn't even noticed it. She opened her eyes slowly, expecting to see the bright lights of the eternal forest where the rest of tribe would be, but discovered instead, that she was still in the pit. She was floating, slightly raising with every up-draft.
She looked down, and nearly screamed. She was most definitely not floating on her own. Nestled beneath her was a tremendous white dragon, looking right back up at her with large, coal-black eyes. It nodded empathetically at her and they suddenly exploded out of the pit in a tremedous gust of air.
     
          The beasts, who were currently holding down a struggling captive at the edge of the pit, looked up. Comprehension was slow in coming to them and for a moment they all stupidly stared at the dragon, their motion suspended. Then it arrowed foward, a deadly white missile, jaws opened wide. With a gross squelching sound it bit the nearest beast in half, who was dead before it even knew anything had happened. This finally spurred the other guards into action, who took off running for the side corridors. The dragon, who was in the middle of mauling one of the slower guards, suddenly raised itself into the air and methodically shot what appeared to be sharp bolts of ice at the fleeing beasts. Once touched, the creature would either fall over, impaled, or on a lesser strike, be instantly turned to ice.
     
          Soon, only the three guards who had stayed near the prisoners remained alive. With a sweep of her sharp eyes, Mary saw that the ugly, foul-breathed beast who had pushed her into the pit was one of them. She smiled, very glad. She wanted the satisfaction of killing him herself.
     
        With a quick dismount off the dragon, she picked up the sword of the beast who had been ripped asunder and strode foward. Streaking over her, two more ice blasts instantly killed the creatures standing to the left and right of her target. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at the dragon. The dragon smiled back, watching and understanding.
     
          The remaining beast, finding himself outnumbered against not only humans but a dragon, immediately snatched up a twelve year old boy who had accidentally strayed too close on the way to his waiting mother. With a malevolent smile, the beast raised his sword to the struggling boy's throat. The boy's eyes went wide and he immediately ceased his struggling when the sword etched a tiny nick on his skin. The beast's taunting eyes dared Mary to try anything as he started to back towards one of the tunnels, the boy tightly gripped in a shielding position.
     
          Mary's mind raced. She couldn't allow the boy to be hurt. But how she lusted to kill the beast! Anger flashed through her veins. She hated the beasts! Especially this one, the leader of their henious crimes! But in this situation, she was helpless. She wouldn't risk the boy.
     
          Suddenly, the boy lashed out when the beast had relaxed, sure of his impending escape. The feisty twelve year old's foot stomped down on the beast's foot, hard. With a strangled gasp, the boy was pushed to the ground. When the beast's pain had receded, he stared down at the boy, evident hate in his eyes as he raised his sword.
       
          "No!!!" Mary screamed and without thinking flung her sword as hard as she could, right at the glowering beast. With a thud, it was buried up to the hilt in the beast's slender, scaly chest. With an unbelieving look, he turned to stare at Mary with blank, confused eyes. He stood there for what seemed an eternity before finally falling to the ground in a bleeding heap, the sword tip still sticking through his back.
     
          Mary stood panting and then slowly looked around the room. All of the people were staring at her except for the young boy and his mother, who were embracing off to the side. The dragon strode up to her side and sat back on it's haunches, licking the blood off it's great maw. All of the tribe people slowly came towards Mary until they were standing in a semi-circle around her and the dragon. Still silent, one of them came foward, the oldest of the remaining men. Without a sound, he bent to his knees in a bow reserved only for the tribe leader and spread his hands. Slowly but surely, every one of the remaining tribesman bowed too.
     
        Mary was overwhelmed. She knew what this meant. She was now the new tribe leader. There could be no argument. Once the oldest of the tribe selected his choice, there could be no change.
     
        Slowly the tribe rose, the younger, more enthusiastic first, and then the older, more stiff came to their feet. Everyone chittered softly, awaiting Mary's move. With a quick nod she started towards the cavern's entrance. The entire tribe fell into place behind her, leaving her in the proper place at the head of the group.
     
          She looked back over them, scanning the tribe. There was only about half of the original tribe left, but they were all strong and Mary knew they would make it. She would do her best to the lead the tribe and be brave in the face of any danger. The elder had left the tribe in her hands...
     
          They all strode out into the bright sunlight of the afternoon. The dragon struggled through the narrow entrance too, and came to rest at Mary's side at the front of the group. Mary looked up in suprise. She had thought the dragon would leave once they escaped the cavern. He looked down at her, meeting her gaze and Mary understood that he was here to stay. He would look out for her if she looked out for him. She smiled at him and then looked out over the tribe's extensive forest and plains. She would watch over it too, she vowed. No more would the beasts be allowed their free roam. She would crush them all if necesarry.
     
          As she and the tribe walked down onto the beautiful, green plains of their land, Mary felt hope blossoming in her heart. The tribe would grow strong again and their lives would be good. She and the powerful dragon beside her would make sure of it.