This piece was written in response to Fantasy Writers' weekly challenge.
The challenge: "A dragon fight with unicorns coming to the rescue."
"Verithica's wail shook our whole
village!"
"The whole village? Oh, Grandpa,
did not."
"Sit down, Aric. This is
Grandpa's story. Sit down now. Be quiet."
Little Aric sucked in more air than a
six-year-old's lungs should hold, grunted his frustration, and sat.
His lips protruded in an exaggerated frown that left his charcoal
eyes peering at Grandpa from beneath thin, rigid brows.
"Mommas grabbed their babies.
Everybody ran trying to find someplace to hide. Dragons are fearsome
creatures, you know."
"Uncle Yaris said their wings
cover the whole sky! Is that true, Grandpa?"
"Sometimes, Nevin. If they're
close enough to you. But you don't ever want to be that close to a
dragon. They get mighty hungry and think little boys make good
snacks!"
"Dragons don't eat boys, Grandpa,"
Aric countered.
Nevin's eyes lit. "Uncle Yaris
says they do! Especially when you don't do your chores."
"That's cause you never do your
chores, Nevin. Tell him, Grandpa."
"Most dragons are rather fond of
boys that don't let Grandpa finish talking." He paused long
enough for Aric to fold his arms and animate a sigh. "Verithica
was angry. And hurt!"
Little Nevin scooted forward in his
chair. "Who hurt her, Grandpa?"
"Rendowin! The great red dragon
himself. Nasty beast! All fireballs and temper that one is. And he
was in a mighty foul mood."
"I thought Rendowin and Verithica
were married?"
"Dragons don't marry each other, Nevin. Not like we do anyway. But they were mates. And he was mad.
Flying over our houses and shrieking louder than summer's thunder.
And Verithica shrieked right back at him too. She had her talons
ready in case he got too close. White dragons can't blow fire, you
know."
"They can't? I thought all
dragons breathed fire."
"Not the white ones, Nevin. All
white dragons are females. They can chase you down and claw you up,
but they can't burn you like the red ones can. And they can fly
higher and faster and longer than any other dragon. So if Rendowin
was gonna cook her, he had to catch her first."
"He was gonna eat her?"
"We didn't want to stick around to
find out. But there was nowhere for us to go. Every time Rendowin
spat fire at Verithica some of it fell down here too! Things started
catching fire everywhere. The barns and sheds, even our own roofs!
Everything was burning! Verithica kept swooping down at him, trying
to knock him out of the sky, but Rendowin's a red dragon, and red
dragons are as strong as they come. And he wasn't going to let some
white dragon get the better of him--even if it was Verithica."
"What'd you do?" Little
Nevin nearly fell off the edge of his seat.
"There was nothing we could do!
We were all gonna burn up and couldn't do anything about it!"
"Grandpa, you were not."
"Aric, Grandpa's not going to tell
you again now."
"Yeah, Aric, be quiet."
"Only one thing can stop you from
getting burned by dragon fire."
"A unicorn's horn! Right,
Grandpa?"
"That's right, Nevin."
"Where'd you find one of those?"
"We didn't. One came to us."
"How?"
"On a unicorn, silly. It heard
the awful raucous the dragons were making and knew we were in danger.
It knew that if we could gather around it, its horn would keep the
fire from burning us. And it came and stood right out there,"
he said, pointing at the village's well. "And everybody in the
village gathered around it, squeezing as close as we could. We could
hardly breathe; everyone was pressing in so tight. Most of us
couldn't even hear it neigh with all the commotion betwixt the
dragons a screeching and all the folk a yelling and crying. We
didn't know until it was too late."
"Know what, Grandpa?"
"The unicorn couldn't breathe
either."
Nevin's voice was little more than a
whisper. "It died?"
Grandpa lowered his eyes and nodded.
"It died, Nevin, rescuing us from the dragons."
Aric stretched his legs and rested his
heels on the floor, his arms still folded and his mouth contorting
into a sneer. "Grandpa, everybody knows unicorns don't exist."
Grandpa stood and reached for the
mantle. He pulled a length of rolled cloth from atop it. Grandpa
met their eyes as he slowly unwrapped it. Nevin gasped and Aric's
eyes grew wide at the sight of the slender horn of a unicorn.
"You're right, Aric," Grandpa
said. "Unicorns don't exist. Not anymore."
