Monday, June 15, 2015

The Cursed Coin, Age of the Fire Dragon excerpt






My new enemy had outsmarted me at every turn. First, he’d appeared out of nowhere and killed Troy in such a manner that I was the only suspect. This led my family to hate me and send me into exile. I came to my cave to think things through, but he was waiting for me. His trap succeeded because I hadn’t even seen it coming. I’d played the fool.

The thing that puzzled me most was how he knew about my cave’s second entrance. Sure, most caves have more than one entrance, but he went to it so quickly that he must’ve already known it was there. As far as I knew, only Sir Giovalde and I even knew about the cave, much less about the second entrance.

Surely it wasn’t Giovalde? Was it possible that he could’ve been killed and resurrected into a fire dragon? I couldn’t allow myself to believe that. Giovalde was a man of principles and had always been loyal to me, despite my faults and mistakes. He’d never turn on me in such a manner.

Neither could it be Gabby, the only other dragon I knew to exist. Fire dragons are created in the bowels of Hades, and Gabby had surely never been there. Plus, Gabby loved Troy. He’d never have killed his mentor just to punish me.

It was puzzling how he’d avoided being roasted by the beast that had ruined my life, but his deep wounds did prove to me that he was a victim. Unfortunately, with me being trapped inside my former sanctuary, he’d likely be victimized again, along with Lori and Sir Jefferson. My only hope was that Sir Giovalde would return and protect them.
The only problem with that was that Giovalde was only an Onyx dragon. Not to belittle Onyx dragons, they’re absolutely an elite creature, unmatched and unthreatened by any beast upon the face of the Earth, except fire dragons. Fire dragons were like Onyx dragons to the tenth power. My new enemy would most likely find Giovalde to be easy prey.

Distraught, I started to panic. It wasn’t because I was claustrophobic or anything of that nature, it was just that I knew I couldn’t survive in this cave very long with no food. There were a few bats nested on the roof of the cave, but that wouldn’t sustain me very long.

Since no one knew I was even here, besides my enemy, it looked like I’d remain trapped here for a very long time. The only chance I had at long term survival was to stay in dragon-form and hibernate. It could be a year, a thousand years, or, it could be eternity. I liked none of those possibilities.

I calmed myself by employing meditative techniques I’d learned over the years When I finally reached an emotional state that would allow me to think clearly again, I walked over to the far wall of the cave and picked up the coin the fiery beast had thrown in for me before sealing me in. I sat down and began to examine it.

“What was the purpose of this?” I asked myself. “Was it cursed? Was it something that was supposed to pacify me during my imprisonment?”

The coin was gold. It was also ancient. Marked with the year 1368, I figured it was from about the time of the mythical King Arthur. This was also about the time when dragons across the world largely disappeared from mythical stories.

The coin had English lettering, but it was so worn down that I couldn’t read it. It had a man’s bust on it, but I couldn’t tell exactly who it was. It was mysterious to say the least and I was completely stumped by its significance. Perhaps it was symbolic, or perhaps my enemy only meant to keep me guessing.

I clutched the coin tight in my hand. I could feel a strange electro-magnetism radiating from it, pulling me in such a way that I instinctively wanted to protect it. The weird feeling freaked me out and I tossed the damned thing down a tunnel but as soon as it left my hand I felt a dreadful craving overtake me that weighed me down with sorrow.

I ran down the tunnel as quickly as I could to find my coin. It was extremely dark and I couldn’t find it, so I turned to dragon-form so I could use my supernatural night vision. The tunnel was barely big enough to contain me so I crawled until I grabbed my coin.

Obsession for possessing it completely absorbed my soul. Protecting that coin was all I could think about. I was angry at myself for the way I felt about this enchanted coin and I knew I’d been outsmarted again. I tried to think of ways to escape my imprisonment but as long as I held this mind-consuming piece of gold, I couldn’t focus my thoughts on anything but it.

I angrily tossed the coin down the tunnel again. I started shaking horribly, like an addict in the throes of detox. I began to feel dizzy and nauseas. So, I crawled back down the tunnel again to retrieve my fix.

I was caught in a vicious cycle of possessing the coin and purging myself of it. I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted that coin more than anything I’d ever wanted in my life. Finally, I found it again and immediately the withdrawal symptoms stopped and I began to feel happy again.

I laughed at myself for becoming like Gollum in the J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous tale of Hobbits. He was so obsessed over the one ring that he turned into a monster. Then I realized it wasn’t so funny and I stopped laughing and started crying.

I flung the coin down the tunnel again. Again I was forced to go retrieve it by my very soul’s unquenchable thirst for it. I was shocked by how easily I’d been drawn into the coin’s curse. Its evil power over me was inescapable.

The cycle played out over and over again. It could’ve been hours, days or weeks. My mind was so clouded that I’d lost all sense of time and purpose. The weight of its power was crushing me. Retrieving it, clutching it, protecting it, loving it, hating it, throwing it away and then retrieving the malevolent coin would kill me, of that I was sure. If I didn’t hibernate I’d starve to death. My enemy was much shrewder than I’d given him credit for.

Fed up with my doomed attraction to this bewitched coin, I consumed the damned thing. When it hit my stomach, a fiery sensation began burning within me, which I thought to be extremely odd, because I was made of fire. I transformed into human-form, hoping this would help ease the pain, but it only made it worse, so I went back to dragon-form.

The coin seemed like it was burning a hole in my stomach. The pain was so excruciating that I purged it. It hit the floor in a blanket of foul smelling, green foamy puke. I dug through the retched vomit and retrieved my coin and squeezed it tightly.


For a brief moment I was happy. Then I became angry again and tossed it back down the tunnel. Tears rolled from my dragon eyes and steamed away on my burning flesh. My mental state continued to fall into a dark abyss of despair. I was a hopeless slave to this godforsaken coin and there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it. 











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