The man was white-skinned, but years of hard living under the burning sun had darkened him. His hair was brown and messy, but not too long, his eyes dark brown and looked resigned as though he knew what would happen next. He was a little bit skinny, like he did not see food too often.
Erraeon spoke to the human.
“You understand that if we let you go, you will talk and people will hunt us down like foxes?”
“I won’t talk, I won’t!”
Erraeon sighed once more.
“I do not wish to kill you. Therefore I challenge you to a Trichallenge-the ancient test between dragons. It consists of telling the best story, solving a riddle, and making an object. Do you accept?”
“What happens if I don’t?”
Behind Erraeon, Aquas sharpened her claws. She looked at him and drew her claw across her throat with wicked delight. The man gulped.
“I accept, I accept!”
“Then let us begin. Aquas shall be our judge.
My story is about my father, and is completely true. It is called Dragon’s Trick.”
Dragon’s Trick.
By a vast sea, glowing with sea salt and coloured sparkling blue, was a small, dark cave. Inside was glittering with gold and jewels; it had years’ worth of treasure hoards, even the Sacred Dragon Treasures. The cave had rocky crags along the sides right to the back. There was a rumbling sound and the cave was shaking. For, asleep on the treasure bed, was a dragon.
This dragon raised his head and yawned. He was old, for humans, young for dragons. His body was bigger than you could imagine. He was green-coloured. His human servant, Hungar, woke up too. Hungar was eleven years old, and was quite tall.
“Master Gaarwine, wake up please!” Said he, for Gaarwine, meaning Friend with a Spear, was the dragon’s name. There was a noise at the door. Gaarwine woke up and growled,
“What’s that noise?” They went to investigate.
Outside was a knight. His armour shone in the early morning light.
“I am the knight Theosen, son of Theowren, come to relieve you of your treasure! If you do not surrender all of your treasure, you shall be slain! In the night I crept into your cave; there is much there, you can spare some. Surrender or die!” These were his words.
Now, Gaarwine was the Keeper of Sacred Dragon Treasure, a position which changes every twelve years and is given to a dragon chosen by the Society of Dragons. This meant he had all of the Dragon Treasures, which he had to look after. Dragon Keepers have to keep certain rules such as looking after baby dragon chicks in trouble and no playing riddle games, only using special sacred riddles. There was another rule, “No killing of dragons, unicorns or humans”. This gave Gaarwine a big problem. He couldn’t give away the Sacred Dragon Treasures and he couldn’t kill the wretched knight Theosen.
“You will have to give me some time, you have just woken me up and I cannot get all my treasure for you so quickly.” Gaarwine growled. Theosen was surprised that the dragon didn’t try to devour him, so he quickly agreed.
“You can have eleven hours, when the sun sets today I will be waiting here for you.”
Hungar quickly shut the door and they began to make a plan. Hungar liked exploring. He knew every inch of their cave, and he had been digging at the back of the cave to make it bigger. He had just broken through to a new cave-it was already a cave with gold dust scattered everywhere, gold ingots in heaps of twelve, jewels stuck out from walls, crystals were in circles and triangles on the floor. It was much more glamorous than Gaarwine’s cave.
“Master! I have solved our problem! Look at this!” He yelled. The dragon slowly squeezed in and gasped.
“It’s huge! We can take some of this to the tiresome knight and he’ll go!” Roared Gaarwine. They gathered exactly twelve pinches of gold dust, nine ingots, fifteen jewels and nineteen crystals. They carried it, bit by bit, outside to Theosen at sunset. He took the treasure, put it in a saddle bag, and rode off. He didn’t argue as he had trouble carrying it all anyway, and he didn’t like the look of the dragon when he was close to him. Gaarwine slid away. Hungar turned round and saw that he was gone. When he got to the cave he saw Gaarwine pulling all the new treasure into their cave. Then they feasted. They feasted on lamb and chicken and turkey for twelve months, in fact. Then they lay down to sleep once more…
*****
“What do you think of that?” Snorted Erraeon.
The man trembled and shook. He seemed terrified.
“By my reasoning the man Theosen is not your favourite person ever, no?” He whispered, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.
“No, I wish I could teach him a lesson, one he’d never forget. Why do you ask?”
Just before the man fainted he croaked, “I am Theoglen, son of the famous dragon-tricker and hunter Theosen, who tricked the great Gaarwine.
