The Unknown Beast of Slackridge

    

             I was a novice knight of Algantener, when one day a squire came to me dressed in fine clothes. In his hand he carried a letter engraved in gold, he told me it was an urgent request from the king himself. It read:

Sir Ardorso,

It pains me to tell you this but our peaceful kingdom of Algantener is in tremendous peril. We are being ravaged by a beast of darkness and disgust; it arrives riding on the fires of hell, leaving only a trail of ash, lined with the dead, in its wake. Our only warning of its attack is the putrid aroma of sulfur that fills the air. I’ve sent forth all the knights of my kingdom, but none have prevailed. For every knight who attempts to vanquish the monster; only a scorched, empty suit of armor is left behind. You young brave knight are our last and only remaining hope. I beg you for your assistance , if you choose to accept this quest I wish thee luck on your journey. All I can do to help you is tell you that the beast’s weakness is…

            The second page of his letter was missing. I was going to ask the squire about the missing page but when I looked up from the parchment he was gone. With only the letter in hand and the knowledge that my homeland was in danger I rushed to get my armor. As I pulled each piece out, I admired how the copper gleamed in the light as my brown hair and blue eyes (though distorted) reflected off the shiny metal. This would be the first time I had been graced with the honor of wearing my armor in the duty of my king. I slipped into my suit realizing what this meant. I was now to take on the burden, not of a novice, but of a true knight to the king. And I felt the weight of that burden as I slipped the matching armor onto my white stallion, Shoroyal.

            By the time I had finished preparing my things, the sun had already begun to rise up over the horizon. As soon as the morning light struck the fresh dew on the grass, I cried; “Onward, Shroyral, towards Slackridge and the beast that will soon be no more!” The horse reared back and gave a joyous whinny for I felt he must have sensed my excitement. Once his hooves hit the ground, we were off like a bolt of lightning.

            There is a legend about the great volcano Slackridge. At its base, a castle lies there in crumbling ruins. It is said, that a long time ago a large black dragon used to guard its ominous gates. The dragon was known as Scarlentor the fallen, he obeyed only one. The man who had freed him from the heart of Slackridge, where he was imprisoned millennia ago by the gods themselves. This man was a notorious criminal and a traitor named Garenta, also known as the Black Knight. He had the face of a demon with ash black skin and flaming red hair. The dragon, grateful to him for its freedom, dedicated itself to a life of service to Garenta. To prove its gratitude, the creature used it’s magic to build him a fortress of bedrock with futuristic weapons powered by steam vents which came from volcano’s very core. With his newfound power Garenta began a campaign to conquer all the lands for his own. While on this conquest he found a book of black, which bestowed upon him the power to call forth armies of the damned which need no rest and couldn’t die. But one day a lord brought together the remaining kingdoms to stop the evil Garenta. Using the power of ancient magic he brought down a pillar of white light which broke through the thick clouds of ash and darkness spewing from Slackridge, as it struck the fortess it caused a brilliant display of light and destruction. Searching the remains there was no sign of Garenta, Scarlentor, or the black book. The people believed the holy light had purified the land by abolishing them all. The one who made all this possible was our kingdoms founder, the holy White Knight Algantener.

The black beast I seek must be this dragon, Scarlentor., He must have survived somehow and been hiding ever since in the bowels of the world. But why would he arise now to reveal himself after so long. That is a mystery and hopefully I shall live long enough to learn what secrets are hidden within the crumbling Dragons hearth.

            We stopped at the river Torrent to quench our thirst from a day of riding, but something startled me. On the side of the river I was on the grass was lush and green and the sun was shinning but on the other side there was nothing but dead earth and devilishly black skies. In the far distance I could see flashes of orange and red from Slackridge. Shroyal began to back away from the river and head in the opposite direction, but I righted him around and we began to cross the normally knee high river. This might sound strange but the closer we got to the other side the thicker the water got. Once on the other side we set off again towards the angry peak.

            As we got closer ash began to fall from the sky like snow, but it was nasty stuff all thick and black. It stuck in your throat making it hard to breath. Its deep rich color began to stain my armor, and poor Shroyal’s white fur. Once the ash got up to Shroyal’s legs a smell entered my nostrils, the putrid scent of sulfur. I whipped the ash out of the eye line on my helmet and began looking around. In front of me at a distance, I could just make out the huge crumbling gates through the thick ash. Bending down I rubbed her neck and whispered, “Just a bit further girl, hang in there for a bit longer.”

            Up ahead was a stone structure which wasn’t much but it would give us protection from the ash. After a quick swig from my flask (which felt like a breath of fresh air on my dry cracking throat) I dismounted and left Shroyal there with the remains of our water. I continued to trudge my way through the endless sea of ash. I soon passed through the gates but once inside I had realized something, no ash was falling within the remains of the fortress. I made my way toward a pair of huge iron doors leading inside. With all my strength I was able to force the mighty doors open. I had just begun to catch my breath when a voice from deep inside the room came to me, “Well, good show in making it here.” I quickly looked up to meet the beast in the eye but I saw nothing, But then I wondered; do dragons speak?  I began lowering my head and my eyes landed on a throne just across the room from me. There he sat a demon in human form, his black skin and burning red hair were unmistakable. It was Garenta. Sneering he said, “You, are their last resort? I’m disappointed. I thought the king would come himself. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to deal with you first. Scarlentor, kill this whelp.”

            I spun around to watch the dragon enter the chamber lumbering from side to side, pressing its huge muscular body through the large doorway. He had to be over a hundred feet tall, every inch of him covered in heavy armored scales and under those were thick rippling muscles. It hunched down and looked me straight in the eye then it looked towards Garenta and then back to me. That was when I realized, since I was covered in black ash, and was wearing a helmet to hide my not so red hair, I looked like Garenta. I yelled, in a voice much deeper than my own, “Go down to the core of the volcano and wait.”

            It worked! The beast went back down the tunnel. As I watched him leave I suddenly felt a sharp pain go through my chest. I looked down and saw the tip of a sword piercing the front of my armor. A small line of blood was running down the front of my chest but for a second I couldn’t get my mind around it. What was happening?

            I felt hot breath on the back of my throat, his lips so close that I could even feel his shoulder touching mine, “You may have tricked my pet, but now you shall die whilst I retrieve Scarlentor and destroy the kingdom. What a sad end for such a pathetic excuse for a knight.”

            “If this is so,” I gasped, “We’ll go together. Since I am already dead…” I grabbed my sword and with all my strength, thrust it backwards through my chest catching the black knight as he leaned against me and pinning him there. “…then so are you!” As I pierced my own heart to break his, he screamed.

            The black sword in my chest turned to dust. My sight went blurry and the last thing I remembered was a flash of white light.

            When I awoke, I was in a bed surrounded by smiling faces.  Wizards, doctors and even the king himself were all gathered there gazing down upon me and talking with each other. I wasn’t sure how I had arrived there or for that matter, how they had even found me, but I was alive and that’s what matters. But as I closed my eyes I heard,
 “Yes, you might live, but so do I.”