To Conquer a Village
I find it strange how one dragon can be considered a menace, and the other a hero. Humans are rather finicky about what they consider good or bad, as I have learned. You see, I had awoken from a long, long sleep, I think I slept a good ten years or so.
Well, the first thing I remember in this experience would be the chilling cold of the mountains I call home had crept down into the belly of my cave. But through the cold I could tell that spring was upon me, both from smell and my gut feeling that it was that time of year. Spring though it was, I still was very slow in uncoiling myself from the ball of scales I had become, my mattress of gold, rubies, sapphires and knightly attire being surprisingly comfortable.
When, after a long time of stretching, I finally made it to the mouth of my home I noticed almost immediately that something was different. I saw that just below the horizon there were columns of smoke rising next to one another. The presence of man had a last crawled to the rim of my territory, and I cannot lie, I felt the impulse to go terrorize the village, for that what it was. But, I took a moment to breathe and think. This was obviously a starting village, and therefor would have no princesses to capture for ransom.
"But," I said to myself, scratching my chin. "I could start a trend of virgin sacrifices with such a small village." I'm a stickler for tradition when it benefits me. But I decide that I'll do some investigating first, find out if they are even worth manipulating. Taking to the sky I find the air and thermals embracing me like a longtime friend I'd not seen in a long time, and together we halved the distance to the human village, the wind like heaven as it glided across my purple feathered wings.
As mentioned before, I did have a hunger about me, but when doesn't a dragon have a hunger? I had been scanning the ground below for something to start culling that vicious hunger I could feel growing in my belly. And lo if not long after passing the last mountain before the village I caught sight of a steer. So I began a slow circle above it, watching its corn and hay fed body saunter along, completely oblivious to my presence above.
My looping turned into a small dive then into a full predatory fall as I fell on the bovine. Grabbing the thing's head with my jaws, I began to lift up as to let the cow slide down to my gullet, thrusting my head skywards to quicken the process, mimicking a serpent. As it inched further down my gullet I heard it begin to bay and cry and grow more and more frantic, but at the same time quieter as it slipped further along. Occasionally it would thrash about in the hope that doing so would free itself, but it only made a tickling sensation that barely bothered me at all.
I could taste little grass among the sweaty and salty taste of the cow's hide, which was good, I don't care for the green stuff. I could feel every little movement my prey made as its belly wobbled in my jaws. I could hear the slipping and slurping of the steer as my saliva aided its decent, as well as the large globs it that fell to the ground. I've already mentioned the tastes before, but I cannot stress how good they were especially after being asleep for so long.
I had to stretch my mouth very wide at the creature's stomach, which I felt was much larger than normal. It was so large in fact that I had to pause for a minute to catch my breath. I pressed down on the fat mound and watched it's the belly flatten out. Thus I resumed pressing forward in short thrusts and to my great surprise, and my prey's horror, its belly slipped right along to the point that the earth's natural pull on all things yanked it the rest of the way down.
Oh how my stomach did bulge after that, making me seem rather fat as opposed to simply healthy. It also squirmed about, though through my feathers and scales you couldn't tell it, but I could certainly feel it; in truth it made me rather queasy. So I plopped down on my rump heavily beneath a large shady tree to wait out the squirmy episode my meal was having. This is one thing that I do not always find wholly enjoyable. Yes I love eating live prey that wriggles and writhes in my stomach, but I do not like it when that thrashing continues long after we've swallowed it. A minute of squirming and then acceptance that all hope is lost shortly after is what I like to have my prey do.
I tried squeezing my belly to see if I could make the cow understand that all was lost. And for a moment it seemed to work. So I sat back as my belly continued to produce gurgling noises, and all wants seemed to fade away. Well, that is I didn't wish to bother the village anymore. But aside from that I was content. That was until a shadow passed above, and my stomach was again in a tizzy. I had recognized the shape of the shadow the second it flew over me, but I could not believe it. Looking above I saw another dragon soaring towards the human village.
At first I sat in disbelief of what I was witnessing, but then I scowled and grew very angry at the idea that another drake had come into my territory. The audacity! I got to my feet and threw myself aloft, nearly crashing into the treetops when my meal gave one final buck that threw me off course. But the strength of my wings quickly fixed this and I was after this intruder. I watched as he descended into the valley that held the humans with such little care for his safety. Did he not understand what a good knight and a lance could do to one of us? This made me rather curious.
Instead of pursuing, I flew around the valley, taking a roost far above on a hill dotted thickly with trees. The drake then landed on what appeared to be a plateau with little care for the noise he made when he did; thus telling me he was very young. It occurred to me that I was asleep for a long time, which would probably allow for this dragon to think he could waltz in on my land. But this was only if my marks had worn off, which they hadn't, for I could still smell them on the air.
Soon I saw a chain of humans marching up the path to where the Blue sat, picking his teeth with his claws. They were pulling a cart with cut beef and a human girl chained to a pole in the center of the cart. I noticed too that the village far below looked to be charred and in a state of disrepair. Which I thought to be a typical sign of rural human villages, but the burnt bits...
"Oh." I thought out loud. The little drake had been doing what I'd been pondering. Indeed I had been sleeping for a long, long time for another dragon to come stake his claim. I looked back at the blue dragon, who'd gotten into a reclined position, the ideal way for a dragon to go about dining yes, but I would not have this fool making his mark on my territory.
I launched to the air and made as quick a flight as I've ever made across a short distance. I roared out my challenge as I dove towards the whelp; that's not an insult, he was quite smaller than I. And a great deal duller too. Even as I made it clear he was my target he just stared up at me with wide eyes and gaping jaws, as if he could not believe what was happening; the humans on the other hand took off screaming. It was only when it was too late that he was able to come out of his fear induced paralysis.
He tried to scramble away but I crashed into his puny hide, sending us tumbling down, locked together by our talons, and crushing small trees beneath us. When we finally made it to the bottom of our tumble I managed to pin the drake beneath me and engulf his head in my maw. He tried to pull away but I coiled my tongue around him, squeezing like a vice. He thrashed and squired and beat his wings against me as he tried to scramble away but my jaws were too strong for him, and I think he was beginning to understand that.
But that didn't prevent him from putting on a good show. As I'd done with the cow, I threw my head aloft but I let gravity do its work all on its own this time. This fool had been bold enough to come into my realm and make off with gods' knows how much fodder and created terror in the village before I could have my chance at them, so his decent into my gullet would not be aided by thrusts of my head nor powerful swallows. He would descend at a slow, terrifying pace into his doom.
Down he went, making my neck bulge out and jiggle from his writhing. I don't know if I can call it devilish or not, but I was compelled to taste my prey. Having released my tongue from around his head, I ran it up and down him, across his back, his legs and tail, tasting through his scales the fear that made him shiver and plead to me for release. But he should know that escape was impossible now that his tail was the only thing sticking outside my lips, it began to squirm and smack me in the face.
Annoying though it was, it didn't deter me from savoring that last little bit of flavor. With a slurp his tail was gone from sight and his full weight fell into my middle. I closed my eyes and relished the little bit of taste he'd left before sliding down. I then belched, loud and juicy even for dragon standards. The sensation was almost, euphoric. It is something that's hard to explain to someone who has never experienced this before, and I believe it has to be experienced to fully comprehend why devouring another creature whole can bring even a raging dragon down to a content and docile giant. I suppose it comes from the sense of power one feels when they completely dominate another creature in such a fashion, in addition to the smells and tastes that the prey holds. But those are my reasons for why I grow to the point of purring after such a large meal.
But now I was faced with one of the few drawbacks to dining so voraciously, possible immobility. I looked down at my protruding gut, heavy and bloated with my prey, and gave it a squeeze, feeling the Blue still kicking. I sat there contemplating how best to proceed home when the chatter of man came to my ears.
I saw the villagers far above me standing where I and the drake had begun our tumble; I also noted how many trees had been pulverized or cracked and the ground seemed to be gored as roots and such were seen jutting out from the disturbed soil. Bad as it looked; I realized that the humans were actually cheering, like I'd done them some great service. Though, I suppose ridding them of their blighter was enough for them to be happy about.
I stood up and began to walk away; well, I say walk when it was more of a waddle really as my stomach dragged on the ground. After my legs began to grow tired I threw myself in the air on the hope that my wings could carry me the rest of the way home. Thankfully they showed they were more than capable of doing that, allowing me to soar high above the ground and arrive at home not too long before dark, tired but still content. Way I figure it, this double dining had given me enough of a meal to last a month or so.
And what a coincidence that turned out to be, for after a month had come and gone, and I'd worked most of my meal off, I saw a caravan of people traveling up towards my cave. At first I was angry and preparing myself for attack when I noticed one of the carts holding a golden figure that mirrored my image; save for the large belly. I supposed they wanted a depiction of me of when I'd done them a favor.
They parked the cart a short ways from my hollow, tied two cows to the post and began to dance in a circle about it. They waved torches and jumped about wildly, chanting in some tongue I've never heard. Then, after about ten minutes of this, they stopped and bowed to me. It was only then that I realized that this was a thank you gift to me with some religious show to boot.
I felt a smile form on my face as I watched them descend the mountain side, looking back up at me with smiles of their own. I sat there for some time contemplating what'd just transpired before me, and soon enough I realized that perhaps I'd just found a way to conquer a village without setting a single roof on fire.