The Wrath of the Sun Scorcher

[ “Tales Of  The Mountain child”  Story 3]

  The townspeople fled in frantic fear to the smouldering ruins they called home. The roar of spraying flames and the crashing beat of scaly wings shook the sky. In the town square a woman leapt upon her child to shield her from the flames and talons bearing down upon the town.

  The creature was a rare sight in the world, the most intelligent and dangerous creatures known to mankind aside from demons themselves. Each townsman looked up at the circling dragon, trying to gain precious seconds of life wherever they could. The immense creature cast a dark shadow over the town, leaving a light source of burning buildings below.

  Dragons generally lived peacefully in the volcanic hills of the south, brooding in their own isolated malevolence. Today though, one attacked randomly without reason.

  Behind a rocky outcrop just outside the city, a hulking shadow hid from the Dragon’s wrath. Kordan could not raise arms to this creature, no man had ever slain a dragon.

  The smell of burning wood and sulphur stung his nose and the screams of dying villagers sung to the song of raging flame.

“Cowards!” Called the dragon “Will no one fight Vjera the sun scorcher?”

  Kordan looked up at the belly of green scales reflecting orange flame. The sky moved, slithering and stirring, blocking out more light the lower it got. It landed with an immense crash and breathed a curtain of flame over the roofs of the houses.

  The floor moved, it seemed to shiver and cower under Kordan’s boots and the rock he leant against groaned. He looked up to see a large yellow eyeball staring at him.

“What’s this?” Vjera mocked “A troll?”

  Kordan froze as the Dragon eyed him with an amused curiosity. He felt the ground move as it rose up to attack. He held his arms up and fell to his knees in defence, anticipating a fatal strike. When it did not come he looked through his arms and saw a naked man standing atop the rock.

“You look so big and strong…” Vjera mocked, laughing to himself and making mock flexing motions.

  This was an invitation to Kordan who drew his weapons and scrambled onto the rock with the dragon’s human form. The dragon was unarmed and naked; it would be an easy kill for Kordan as long as he kept his cool and didn’t let Vjera return to his true form.

  He readied his club for a swing but it was almost as if the man dragon predicted the move. The dragon punched away the club with a sound like a sonic boom and sent it flying off into the distance. Kordan had no time to react before a kick sent him sailing through the air and over the town wall.

  He landed with an agonising crunch that left him breathless and unable to recuperate. His blurry pain filled vision cleared to see a hawk gliding down upon him, then transforming into a wolf and falling to the floor where it began to run at him.

  Kordan staggered to his feet and found himself being charged by an immense bull. He slid along the floor and bounced over the burnt corpse of a former villager. His sword remained in his hand; nothing would ever take his grip away from the handle of a blade.

  Scared villagers emerged from their hiding to gaze in awe at the human still alive after so many dragon attacks. Vjera now stood as a man again, his long white hair flowing out into the smoky air, his grey eyes staring coldly at the bloodies mercenary heaving before him.

  Kordan vomited onto the ashy floor and regained his composure, pain wracked his body but this served only to enrage him further. He ran at Vjera and swung his sword with air cutting force towards the dragon man’s face. The man clamped down his teeth on the blade and stood calmly as his jaws matched Kordan’s strength.

  The Mercenary grabbed the dragon’s hair and pulled it into the blade, but Vjera’s head did not move in the slightest.  Before he knew it, the man was a lion pinning him to the floor, throwing the sword back outwards.

“Enough games dragon” Kordan growled through ha mouthful of blood.

  The lion nodded and leapt high into the air, becoming the dragon as it did so, once again it occupied the sky and its voice boomed down over the wreckage of the city.

“Pathetic!” it boomed.

  Kordan and the other villagers watched as a torrent of flame rained down upon them,