Late for Breakfast

         
         
         "Do you understand what you need to acquire?" Asked the black-robed wizard impatiently.
         "Yes, I remember." Answered the slack-jawed assistant. "I need to acquire, don't tell me, dragon scales to make eggs."
         "No. For the hundredth time, no. You need to bring me three White dragon eggs. Unbroken this time. Now repeat what I said."          
         "You want me to get White dragon eggs."
         "How many?" asked the impatient wizard.
         "Um, three?"
         "In what condition? Think before you speak."
         After what seemed like an eternity to the wizard, "You want them not broken?" Asked the assistant.
         "Very good, Thogorin. There may be a brain buried deep within you."
         "Is that a good thing? A brain buried in me?"
         "For most people, it is a good thing. I'm not sure you could handle one. Now, I gave you a simple map to follow to the nest. Do you still have it? Let me see it."
         "The dragon map, yes, I still have it. It's in my bag."
         "Well, let me see it."
         Thogorin dumped his gunny sack onto the floor in front of the wizard. Pieces of twine, wood, spoiled apples, a shoe, some dried flowers, and wet, smelly clothes emerged.
         "I don't see the map. Where is the map?"
         "It's in the shoe. That's where I keep my special things." With that said, Thogorin picked up the shoe and shook out the contents. A mummified toe tumbled out along with a wadded piece of paper."
         "See, here it is. I kept the map with my toe, which I lost last cold season. I found it in the shoe."
         "At least you have the map. Now, bring me back the three eggs from the White dragon."
         When Thogorin left the castle, a shimmering moon was above the trees. He looked at the map and headed through the woods without following the road.
         After walking through the forest, he happened upon a clearing with a castle. He decided the dragon must be in there because this is where he ended up. Walking closer to the castle, he noticed signs posted along the way: "Keep Out," "Enter at your own risk," Danger," and "Go Back."
         Thogorin felt he had seen these signs before but couldn't remember where. After walking to the entrance, he noticed a skeleton hanging in a cage.          He noticed flowers in the hands of the skeleton.
         "This looks familiar." After staring at the cage, skeleton, and flowers for over ten minutes, he remembered where he saw it last. "This is our place. I put those flowers in because they brightened up the cage."
         At sunrise, Thogorin looked up toward the windows within the castle. He saw his Master looking toward the forest and then disappearing within.
         "What is the Master doing here? Why did he send me if he could come here and get the dragon scales himself?
         As he was thinking about his Master wasting his time, the sun began to rise. At this moment, he realized he was sitting in front of his Master's castle.
         Laughing at this, Thogorin reached into his gunny sack and brought out the shoe holding the map, "Let's see why the map made me come back here." After looking at the map for several minutes, he exclaims, "There it is. I needed to follow the path. Better get going before I miss breakfast."
         This time, following the trail, he reached a stone cliff rising hundreds of feet.
         "Well, I can't go any further, so this must be it. The Master said there would be a cave where the dragon scales were. Maybe I am on the other side of the castle. Looking around for another trail, he spots stairs leading up.
         "Those must be the back way into the castle. I better get going so I don't miss breakfast." He begins to climb the stairs.
         "This is sure the longest shortcut I ever saw." After spotting a cave entrance, he decided to go in, thinking he was entering the castle."
         After walking in near darkness, he followed a silvery light and stumbled into a vast cave. He stopped short of stepping into the open chamber when he saw a terrifying sight.
         On the floor, he saw no less than fifty dragons sleeping in groups of three to five dragons. He also noticed that the dragon's colors varied from red, green, blue, black, and white.
         Seeing the dragons, he remembered what his Master wanted: three dragon eggs.
         Walking to the nearest nest, he carefully picked up three of the dragon's eggs and placed them in his sack. After following his Master's instructions, Thogorin left the cavern as he came onto the cliff's edge.
         The climb down and walk back to the castle took all day and well into the night. When he arrived at the castle, he saw his Master on the balcony waiting for him.
         Not wasting time, he climbed the steps and walked into his Master's study.
         "Where have you been, oaf? You were due back hours ago. Did you get the eggs?"
         "Yes, I did. They are in my gunny sack."
         "Well, don't dawdle. Bring the eggs to me."
         Lifting the eggs out one at a time, Thogorin handed them over to his Master.          
         Without hesitation, the wizard placed the eggs on three pedestals. He retrieved his spell book, checked his spell ingredients, checked the embers burning in the pit, and began his incantation.
         Fires flickered, wind blew through the windows, and a soft rumbling occurred throughout the castle.
         "I can feel the transformation occurring. I am being reborn into a god!"
         With a loud explosion, all the fires died, and there was only silence.
         After Thogorin relit the fire, he noticed the Master was gone.
         "Master? Master, where are you?"
         Where the Master had stood was now a dazed chicken.
         "Well, I must have done good. The Master gave me a chicken for breakfast."


Words: 992
Prompts:
Dragon eggs
Silvery light
Embers burning
Shimmering moon