Zaxthron
Prologue
Once in the kingdom of Cormaline, in the city of Dwarvendack, the guards were afraid. The guards were afraid because Zaxthron the great and his army of skeletons were coming. On the wall one dwarf guard said to the dwarf beside him “so do you think that the dragon will come tonight?” as he stared of into the gloom.
“Yes” replied the other dwarf “I know something is out there at the edge of our sight waiting for the right time”
As if in response to what the one dwarf had said, a great black dragon, darker then the darkest of nights, and larger than any natural beast flapped up. It was obviously no natural beast, as evident with its intelligent and evil eyes, and the darkness seeping out of every crack in its scaly hide.
The two dwarves felt a strong urge to either kneel or flee. However the two brave and stubborn dwarves did neither of those things.
Instead one dwarf roared and leapt at the dragon to buy time for the other dwarf to run to the alarm bell. Zaxthron shook his head to rid himself of the pesky dwarf, but it clung to him stubbornly, so Zaxthron decided to get the dwarf going to the bell first.
Zaxthron breathed in so hard that the dwarf going to the bell almost fell over. Then a ray of black fire shot from Zaxthron’s mouth, and into the dwarf. Nothing was left of the dwarf, and that section of wall was liquid.
Zaxthron snapped his head back, and the other dwarf flew up and into Zaxthron's mouth. Zaxthron flew up to the highest tower and roared, the signal for his skeletons to attack.
Chapter 1
In the town of Quenthelin, 15 miles to the north, there lived a boy named Kenny. Kenny was fairly poor, and so was his family.
One day, 3 days after the disaster at Dwarvendack, Kenny was going to the market. On the way there, Kenny saw a man putting up a sign. Kenny walked over to the man and asked “what does that sign say?”
The man replied “it says that whoever kills Zaxthron gets the dragons treasure and can become king.”
As soon as the man said that, Kenny was thinking about how to kill Zaxthron. He decided to bring a walking stick, a sword, food, and water. As he walked through the market, he saw a potion shop. He decided to ad potions to the list.
He snuck over and grabbed 3 potions, and put them in his pack. He started to walk of, but then he put a piece of paper on a hard to find part of the table. The paper looked like this:
Kenny hoped that the person could understand his picture.
Next Kenny got some food in a similar fashion. To get a sword was more difficult.
He climbed into a guardhouse, deciding to get the first sword he saw. As he was climbing through the rafters, he saw a sword.it was not the sword that hearos in stories use, but it was still okay. There was very little rust, and it was not too heavy, and it had a simple blade, handle, and cross guard.
He swung it around a bit, but then he ran and hid when he heard footsteps. The guard walked right underneath him without even noticing him. Kenny got out of the guardhouse and went off to finish packing.
As he packed, he saw what type of potions he had packed. He had 2 healing potions, and an acid vial.
That evening, Kenny set out. He walked till it was too dark to continue, then he slept for a while. The next morning he hopped up, ate some food, and continued on. In three days he made it to Dwarvendack.
Chapter 2
Dwarvendack was once a fair city of shining walls, and high towers. but now the walls had massive cracks, most of the high towers had crumbled, there were plumes of smoke drifting up, and skeletal horses and oxen were towing carts of treasure through the great gates. Kenny decided to go through a crack.
He climbed over the rubble as quietly as he could. Soon he got close to the end when a pair of skeletons walked to the crack!
Kenny searched desperately for a distraction as he hid behind a large rock. He threw a small stone, and the skeletons ran to where the stone landed. Kenny breathed a sigh of relief, and continued on.
As Kenny continued on, he realized how dangerous it was. The skeletons were not restricted to medium humanoids, as there were giant skeletons, as well as animals, such as bears and rats. It was very scary.
He guessed that the cave that the skeletons were guarding most, and bringing treasure to was the place the dragon was in.
He crept over, being sure to avoid the rat skeletons. He found a good sized crack to climb into, but there was a skeleton in the way.
He moved behind the skeleton, held his walking stick like a spear, and POK! He slammed the skeletons back. The black lights in the skeletons eyes winked out, and it scattered across the ground. All of the other skeletons looked at the fallen skeleton, but none of them noticed Kenny, as he was already in the crack, on his way to Zaxthron.
Chapter 3
The crack was of varying sizes. At some points the crack was wide enough to walk in, and at other points he had to crawl or squeeze through.
After nearly an hour, as Kenny was starting to worry that the crack was going in the wrong direction, he found the end.
There was a sort of barricade made of rubble and bits of wood. There were cracks in the barrier, so Kenny decided to watch for a bit, after he found a log to use as a ram.
When he peeked in, he saw mounds of treasure, and only a few skeletons. Some were putting more treasure in, while two others were towing a cart full of corpses (Kenny did not know why).
As Kenny looked around, he saw the dragon. It was hundreds of feet long, and had huge scales. Zaxthron walked over to the cart, and spat in it. After a few seconds some black smoke drifted up. Zaxthron opened his mouth, and the smoke drifted in. It seemed like the dragons darkness was darker, and five new skeletons climbed out. Soon the other skeletons left as well.
Kenny picked up his log up, took a few steps back, and charged, yelling “YAAAAAAAAH” the whole way.
Zaxthron opened his eyes and woke up in the time it took Kenny to smash down the barrier, drop his ram, draw his sword, and slash Zaxthron in the nose. Kenny had swung so hard, that his sword had broken into a hundred shining pieces.
Kenny looked at his broken sword in amazement as Zaxthron hit Kenny with his nose. Kenny flew a dozen feet, before crashing into a mound of coins.
Kenny shook his head and threw his acid bottle at Zaxthron. It went up, and landed in the dragon’s nose. Zaxthron then went completely insane. He shook and thrashed, and jumped around, so Kenny had a hard time getting to a new weapon.
The next sword that Kenny grabbed was huge. It was five feet long, had 2 gems, and the blade was a silvery colour. Kenny swung again, and like last time he did not hurt Zaxthron, but it did not break. Zaxthron was calming down by then, so Kenny was flying again. This time Kenny did not fly as far, and Zaxthron followed.
Zaxthron said “foolish human, you cannot swing hard enough to hurt me. Now I shall crush you.” and the massive chest went up.
However Kenny was not thinking about how he was about to be a dirty spot on the floor. He was thinking about what Zaxthron had said. So when the massive chest shot down, instead of trying to dodge, he pointed his new sword up. Instead of Zaxthron crushing Kenny, Zaxthron had a huge sword embedded to the cross guard in his chest! Zaxthron thrashed a bit, and then a pulse of energy shot out of the corpse.
Epilogue
Three Quenthilen knights were in a difficult spot with a group of skeletons. The reason they were having a hard time was because every time they would defeat a skeleton, it would reform in a few minutes. Suddenly a wave of energy came, destroying the skeletons. One knight said they should go see Dwarvendack. When they got there, they saw a young boy laying on a rock, a huge sword beside him. When the horses came over, the boy woke up and said “Dwarvendack is free!” and lifted the sword high above his head.
Kenny soon became king, and he rebuilt Dwarvendack. He shared out some of the treasure to the people (especially the potion seller) and the kingdom of Cormaline prospered.
By Thyungar