The three Dragonslayers

Author: Mahdaan

From 'Songs and stories of Khaz Modan', translated from Dwarvish.

There were once three dwarves, living in a village in the mountains of Khaz Modan, overlooking the great Loch. Their names were Brom, Hewe and Ruhn. They were at a local brewery, drinking away the remaining hours of the day, when a message came that a fearsome drake had made its lair in the hills close by.

They vowed to kill the drake before it could permanently settle, for that would have meant the end of the village. The three, each skilled in some form of combat, immediately volunteered to set out to slay the beast. They did not care to call in the mountaineers, because they had had each other’s company for many adventures already.

Brom was a warrior, and he relied on his shield and a great axe, passed down to him for generations. Hewe was a hunter, skilled with a gun, and the fastest shot in the village. He never missed. Ruhn was a user of magic, and his tongue was as quick as Hewe’s triggerfinger. Together, they left before dawn, and headed into the mountains.

It took these experienced heroes just two days to track down the lair of the drake, and they hurried to trap it inside. As they rushed towards the cave, they did not see the shadow behind them. The great black lizard landed and caught the three off guard, and the laugh of the evil drake echoes throughout the area.

He was gleeful, because to a black dragon, a reputation counts. The more that try to kill you, the more powerful you are seen as. He was glad to be a threat, all by himself. He was cheerful even, because he had these three adventurers trapped at the mouth of his lair before they could even strike him once. So cheerful, he decided to play with his prey.

“Answer me what you are doing here, answer truly and I may yet decide to let you go. Earn my mercy, or I shall eat you whole,” thus the drake spoke. He did not care for eating dwarves, but his threat worked all the same. Hewe, the hunter, answered first. He said, hoping to make it out alive, the three of them: “We came but to admire your scales and the strength of your wings. We come in peace, and we mean no harm,” he lied.

“With weapons?” the large drake bellowed, and roared with laughter as he crushed the poor dwarf under his claw. That was the end of Hewe. In panic about the loss of his friend, Brom stepped forward from the entrance of the cave. “He lied, oh drake, great lizard of the skies,” Brom tried, trying to flatter as well before admitting the truth. “We came to slay ye, and to take yer riches. We admit defeat, and wish to go home, as ye promised.”

Again a roar, a thundering sound, and fire killed that poor honest dwarf. Only Ruhn now stood, calm as a rock, for he knew more of dragons than his two poor friends. Lies nor truth could save him now, he knew, but he spoke out as his mates had. “I come to challenge ye to a battle of wits,” the dwarf said, his eyes meeting the big red coals on the massive scaled head. “The loser will leave this land, and find a new home, or forever be known as the fool o’ these hills.”

The drake then agreed, and asked Ruhn a riddle, followed prompt with reply by the stout little dwarf. He asked him his own and the two so did battle, for a day and a night, until both were exhausted.It ended with Ruhn asking the tired drake one more, and time passed and passed without a reply. He was sure that, for all the care this black drake had about his reputation, he would honour his deal once lost. And now he won, as the drake couldn’t answer.

At last then, he sighed (the drake) and straightened his back. “It’s true, I’m beaten, but a loser I am not. How do you plan to tell the world if I do not go?” he asked. And then, as in turn, Ruhn did not have an answer, he was bitten in two by the vicious black drake. Let this be a lesson, to all of the hills, the drake knows no honour, no fear and no shame.