TR&W Issue 20

Pie Corbett models how to write a terrifying tale of dragons H e ducked as something massive swooped above the ruined city. It was the last thing that Skater had expected to see. “Was that what I think it was?” he muttered, staring up. A snub-snouted storm dragon swirled overhead. Its leathery wings cast dark shadows over the city as it dipped and dived. Two fiery eyes picked out its victims as it snorted and breathed a blistering firestorm, scorching the ground below. Copper scales caught the dying sunlight, glittering as the storm dragon flexed its talons together ready to seize and squeeze. Deadly spikes jutted out from its curved spine, into a staircase of poisonous thorns. Skater shuddered. Perhaps it had been foolish of him but half an hour before, Skater had taken his chance, stepped through the glass mirror and passed into this new world. Valjean-Krakanova had made the simple error of leaving him alone in the crystal chamber and Skater would have been mad to loiter… but it looked as if he had stepped out of the frying pan into a furnace. The dragon sat at the edge of the city tearing the limbs from an unfortunate victim. Mesmerised, Skater watched. “In here,” hissed a voice, and a hand beckoned from the doorway of an abandoned building. Inside, it was dark and he could just make out who had spoken. She was dressed like a warrior, armed with a bow, a quiver of arrows and grim determination. The dragon had come to the city two moons ago and in that time had pillaged the area and destroyed many buildings. Most of the citizens of Fortunata had fled into the forest. Safia explained that only a few of them had remained to fight the dragon. Its lair was a few miles away; a vast cavern on the edge of the mountain that overlooked the city and forest. Luckily, Skater had always been a reader. In Valjean- Krakanova’s library there had been an ancient book titled A Guide to Dragons of this and other Worlds . During his incarceration, he had spent many hours reading about different types of dragon, their husbandry and, most particularly, a section on ‘Dragon Hunting’. “We can defeat him whilst he sleeps in his cave, which he will do, once he has eaten.” When they peered out from the shadows of the doorway, the dragon was no longer to be seen by the forest’s edge. It was flying back towards the mountain. Skater beckoned and the pair of them began to pick their way through the ruined city. It was a steep ascent, but they were in no real danger as they could hear and feel through their feet the mighty rumble of the dragon’s snores. Entering a dragon’s lair is not without its risks. Safi and Skater picked their way carefully into the cavern. They kept to the shadows, guided forwards by the sound of the sleeping beast. The cave was littered with bleached bones and stank of rotting flesh. Turning a corner, the light from the entrance diminished and only the red glow emanating from the dragon’s stomach made it possible to see. Up ahead, a huge pile of gemstones, plates of silver, golden orbs and chains glittered. Snoozing on top was the dragon. Its charred nostrils flared, letting out whisps of smoke and Skater and THE MIRROR 42 | www.teachwire.net