Here There Be Dragons

[Guest thepoet]

Two men made their way towards the hungered monster's lair:

The scaly fire-breathing beast was slumbered, unaware.

It recently did feed upon three people through the night.

'Twas these two men entrusted to ensure the creature died.

Strips of faded leather ripped were wrapped around their limbs,

Battered iron decked their chest and battles scarred their skin.

The men were getting old, although their shared resolve was strong -

They'd gladly brave the cave the danger came emboldened from.

The ashes still were smouldering outside the darkish pit.

Here and there, the embers in the air did spark and spit.

The old remains of soldiers slain were strewn about the rocks;

Toothmarks were the proof that they were chewed until their movements stopped.

One man checked his weapon as the other muttered prayer.

No sense of trepidation as they both had come prepared.

Torches drawn, they cautiously approached the yawning maw

To diligently spill the blood the villagers were calling for.

 

The entryway into the empty cave was flecked with gold.

Each direction carved a different path into the cold.

Each and every piece of speech reflected back unto them,

Two men silent in this vile tomb of blackened ruin.

Hardened lumps of charcoal bumped and scarred the darkened passage.

From deep within the cavern came a growl both loud and savage.

Onward pressed the men with stress upon their weary minds;

They felt that they were being watched by pairs of staring eyes.

They flailed through the gloom as though a trail may be close

Until finally, ahead them, a frail pale light arose.

Both the men were chosen for their cunning and their courage:

They worried through the umbra, t'ward the faded sunlight hurried.

The lumination led into a huge and spacious room.

Resigned to maybe face their doom, the two surveyed the gloom.

As vacant as a raided grave, the sanctum started pealing.

The babel came from high: the fabled beast descended from the ceiling.

 

The impact of the creature crashing down was simply thunderous.

A jagged tail thrashing 'round as rocks were crushed from under it;

A snapping mouth and lashing tongue and leather wings expanding;

Reddish eyes with crescent irises that winked in tandem.

Smoke did billow out between its gnarled and yellowed teeth.

Sonorous, the monster bellowed ominously deep.

One man who was braver than the other raised his sword,

Aimed it for the awful horror's heart and charged it forward.

Flames erupted forth before he reached the seething demon.

He ducked and leapt to leftward; two rocks, he rolled between them.

With the beast distracted, the second man saw chance:

He gripped his sturdy bow and tried to still his nervous hands.

From the quiver quickly, he drew and let it go -

An arrow straight and true into the devil's leathered throat.

The other saw the creature caught surprised. In the reprise,

He sought to drive his sword into the wheezing demon's eye.

 

Two men left the cave exhausted, sore, adorned with cinders,

And walked a northern course toward their village in the distance.

Into the dusk they wandered but they didn't see above them:

The mother of the monster, with more victims in her clutches.

She made her way unnoticed through another higher passage

And lowered to her baby slain, his body lying passive.

Her reddish eyes enraged and hellish flames upon her breath,

She took into the heavens with intent to render death...

[Guest thethreethatwereone]

sooooo good!!!