Crime Dragon - Prologue *and why it was written*

On the Fly for Anna Louise - in a roundabout way because she said it couldn't work... I almost agreed with her until I realized that I am a writer.

I can make just about ANYTHING work. That's what I do. I mesh things together... I pull the imaginary out of thin air and create the images for the readers to take my imagination and make it, for a brief period of time... their own. They have the empty canvass, and I fill it full of paints - the readers sharpen the focus, or add to the color hues - but I give them the paint.

LMAO! On the fly means just typing - no editing - no looking back to see if it's working until you hit that publish post button.

No pre-making it up... Just letting the words and thoughts flow from your fingertips.



Prologue:

The human stood beside his mistress. He ran his roughened hands across her scales as she strained to birth the egg that would carry on her species.

"Toliver, please." She snorted out of her steaming nostrils, her reptilian tounge lisped the words as she pushed harder.

"They come, Lithay." He stood in sorrow before her, his head hung and defeated.

"How... Much... Time?" The great dragon paused, her eyes sealed shut against the strain.

"They've already killed your peasants in the village and are burning their way up the mountainside."

"Idiots." She hissed as a contraction took over. "I will have to do this faster then. We cannot let them have this egg."

"Yes Lithay."

He went to look outside the cavernous dwelling. Smoke covered the sky, the villages lay in ruins, burning. He could see the line of D'Angels Crusaders at the bottom of the mountain. He estimated they could be here in less than two hours if they pushed themselves.

He turned back to look at Lithay in all of her glory. The ruler of their lands for many centuries. She had been kind, loving and giving. She had protected her people and they in turn had provided her with sheep and respect. She had been a better ruler than most kings and had been generous without fault.

Now D'Angel wanted the lands. He had waited until she was weak in the last moments of gestation - then he had injured her. An arrow had felled her from the sky a few days ago, she had flown, injured back to her caves to give birth to her heir egg.

Lithay was the last of her kind. Dragons of Splendor had been exterminated as the greedy kings had chosen to wage war to steal lands. As the last of the dragon species, they had been the most beautiful - blue and irredescent green scales with lovely golden eyes. Toliver had faithfully tended her for the last century, but even her magic could not sustain him much longer, he was growing older as humans did.

Toliver stroked his beard and thought about what he would say to Lithay, who knew she was in mortal danger - no matter how immortal her species were supposed to be. Her magic was waning with her injury and the imminent birthing of the last egg.

"Toliver, shut up. I know it is bad. Pull out the herbs of the cabinet. Get them ready for my Death Wish." She ordered him as she gave one last push and the gleaming egg landed in the soft bed of hay. She immediately curled around it, bathing it with her soft tounge. Whispering to it all of her dreams and wishes.

Toliver turned to the cabinets and pulled down spices and a few containers. He poured something viscous and yellow into a stone bowl. Stirring with a silver rod, he poured the spices and tossed in a piece of Mathinike bark. The tree that held the magic of the lands in it. With the Dragons, the Mathinike bark were the only pieces of magic When the trees were gone and the dragons gone, there would be no more magic. Toliver's heart became heavy.

He looked at his mistress who was busy mothering the egg. She was the last of the Dragons. He held another sliver of Mathinike bark and put it into the mixture. He reached into the cabinet and pulled the last piece of Mathinike bark and put all of it into the bowl. If she was going to die, and she was ready for it, he wanted all of the magic left in the world to go into her wish.

He would do as she asked. No matter the cost to herself, Lithay had always ruled evenly and had always held firm. She had protected until she could no longer protect even herself.

"Toliver, do not look so sad. This was written about in the Oracle's words. I have known what was to pass and this is only another moment in time. Do not be afraid."

He looked up from his stirring to see her watching him, her golden eyes glowing in the dampening light.

"I'm not sad Lithay. Not for the people who have died below. I am sad for the loss of Dragons for the world."

"Ah. Toliver, I will not die in vain. This I promise." Her tail curled protectively around the egg that looked like blue veined marble. "Is the mixture ready?"

"It is Mistress. I have given all the Mathinike to it."

"All?" She almost roared.

"Yes, all."

"Toliver you understand I will not have enough Mathinike to transport you then?" She cast a worried look in his direction. "If you leave it out next to me, I will be able to use it and you can escape now."

"I will stay with you Mistress." He bowed his head in respect. He loved her and would die with her, if that was their fate. He looked at the trickle of blood that drained from where the arrow had pierced her. They had been unable to staunch the flow and it would only be a matter of time before her life force gave out.
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Have child interrupting - nit picking time -- whoooohooooo....

Will finish in a moment.
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She nodded her head and looked at the old man. "Why have you never married Toliver?"

"Because you are the only thing worth loving Mistress." He said with his head still bowed.

"I thought as much. Well, what's done is done." She sighed. "How much longer?"

Toliver walked back to the opening. The small army was more than half way up the hill.

"Not much longer, Lithay."

"Come here." She ordered him.

He walked towards her and she enveloped him in her wings. She whispered in his ear and tears streamed down his face. He nodded and gathered the bowl and placed it in front of her.

"Toliver, my love for you is true. I will make this happen. You will help me care for my child and it will be as the Oracle divines." She looked at him, as he stroked her graceful neck. Her warm breath caressed his face.

Toliver could not speak past the lump in his throat. The divinity of his love had set her sacrifice and he would see it through. He would stand beside her and strengthen her as history played out. He would be there.

Lithay took the tip of her tail and dipped it into the mixture in the bowl. She touched the tip to Toliver's forehead and then to his heart. She dipped her tail again into the mixture and touched it to the egg, spreading the concoction around in a circular pattern. Her breathing becoming more and more ragged.

"Write it down Toliver, now." She demanded.

He raced to the table and put quill to paper, dipping it in ink every now and then. When he finished he glanced at Lithay, she was starting to wilt, the irridescence in her scales starting to dull. He hurriedly brushed sand across the paper to dry the ink.

"He will come soon - you will have about three minutes to tell him to take that scroll and then come to me." She whispered.

Toliver nodded and waited, the scroll sealed in a golden tube that also contained fifty gems of brilliant color and then placed inside a leather pack.

He could hear someone running towards the cavern. He stood his ground, believing in what the dragon had told him. A young boy, no more than fifteen came panting into the cavern, his clothes torn and his body blodied.

"Your Majesty!" He yelled, slumping to his knees on the floor.

"She is almost gone, young boy." Toliver said quietly.

"All is lost, " the young man looked at Toliver. "All is lost then. There is no hope."

"There is hope, if you but take this and run. Keep this with you and your family and pass it down through the centuries."

The lad looked at the old man as if he had gone crazy, but held out his hand.

"Is this what my Majesty commands?" He asked solemnly.

"It is as I command," Came the gasping reply from the dragon.

The boy bowed his head and took the tube, "Then it shall be." He knelt in front of the great dragon and lowered his head to her front claws, kissing them. The young boy stood up and ran from the cavern, carrying the leather pack.

The dragon's eyes smiled.

"It is time Toliver, come to me."

"Will he make it Lithay? Will all be well?" He asked as he strode towards his mistress.

"He will more than make it and his family and all the families that pass down, will do well and they will take care of my child when the time comes. It is as the Oracle said."

"I love you Lithay, and I believe you." He wrapped his tired arms around her neck and she nuzzled him and pulled the egg closer to them with her tail.

"And I you, Toliver." She rubbed her scaled cheek against him.

They both started chanting. The words mixing into a song. When she would falter, his voice carried louder, when she continued, he listened.

They waited until the sounds of the angry mob army was outside of the cavern and both of them continued chanting.

The egg shimmered and then dissappeared.

"It is done Toliver," She sighed, a smile lightened her eyes for a moment. "I thank you for giving my child a chance and for loving me."

"I live but to be there for you, Mistress."

He held her close until her last breath came and he held on to her even after the army came into the cavern.

"Where be the dragon of might and fear?" Mocked the Captain as he beheld the lifeless body of the dragon held on to by the old man.

"She has gone." Toliver answered simply.

"Aye, that she has." He sighted on the old man with his arrow. He pulled back on the string and let the arrow fly.

It flew straight into the heart of the man who loved Lithay, piercing him from behind. He died without a words, without the death throes the Captain had expected, even looked forward to.

He died with his arms still around his precious dragon's neck - he died with a smile on his face.

"And now, you too, are dead." The Captain mumbled, angry that there had been no more fanfare than what could have been had shooting at mice.

The army looted the cavern, finding treasure and precious items. But the one thing they did not find, was the egg.


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Chapter 1