Short story for the dragon lovers... :)

[Iron Ed]

This came out of my keyboard just the other day. Since it's short, real short, thought some of y'all might like to see it.

*****
He’d been waiting for some time, and was grumbling to himself impatiently when the wizard finally arrived. It wasn’t much of a wizard, else it wouldn’t have come to him, but that was okay with Lodern. Mediocre wizards with ambition were his bread and butter. Human wizards were the best of course, for his purposes. They tended to be the most mediocre and the most ambitious. “I wonder what this one will ask for,” Lodern wondered as he waited.
“Finally!” thought Lodern to himself. He watched as the wizened little man rounded the last turn in the trail, only to find himself at the base of a cliff. There the wizard rested. Looking up, he estimated the entrance to Lodern’s home was at least a couple of hundred feet above where he sat, halfway up a smooth, sheer cliff, with no handholds for climbing and no more trail to walk closer.
There was smoke drifting from the cave. “Well, it wasn’t a wasted trip anyway,” sighed the wizard, “The beast is home at least.”
Getting to his feet he took staff in hand, concentrated briefly, then shaped an arcane sign in the air, using his left hand, to expend some of his carefully hoarded magic.
The wizard floated up the cliff face to land on the ledge just outside the lair. He took a deep breath, let it out, and walked cautiously into the dragon’s home. There was a glow towards the rear of the cave and he moved towards it. “Hello?” he called, “Is anyone there?”
“Ah! A visitor!” exclaimed Lodern from behind and to one side of the wizard. He’d positioned his hundred foot length next to a rather large boulder just inside the entrance and was using it for a pillow from which he looked down at his guest. The wizard, for his part, had a heart attack, and died on the spot.
“Awww crap,” said the dragon in disgust.
*****

[NoGunz Kay]

But there needs to be more to it, its toooooo short, LOL

ngk

[Linn Keller]

Now by golly I like that one!!

[Iron Ed]

Here's the rest of that short, short dragon story. This is what I had planned on all along. I just did not know the first wizard had a bad heart. Honest! There I was, minding my own business, just typing along when... Unplanned things like this just seem to happen when I'm trying to write something. Sometimes I'm not even sure I'm the one doing the writing!

*****
Lodern woke fitfully. It seemed like he’d barely gotten to sleep. ‘The seasons haven’t even changed yet,’ he thought to himself as he stretched and yawned, displaying his foot-long teeth. Sticking his nose out the entrance to his home he sniffed the wind and listened. ‘What? So soon? It’s usually years between visits,’ he mused, ‘Ah well, it’s nice not having to wait for a change. I wonder what this one will ask for.’
The wizard rounded the last turn in the trail and looked up. There was the lair, far up in the side of a sheer cliff. ‘Nice of someone to carve stairs into the cliff!’ thought the wizard in surprise, ‘Now who…?’ With a sigh he started climbing again.
At long last the wizard mounted the last steps and approached the dragon’s cave. He cast a warding spell around himself and entered. The glow at the back of the lair drew his attention and he moved in that direction, careful not to stumble against the piles of gold coins, jewels or the occasional skull or wishbone that edged the path.
The wizard slipped past the last obstruction and stopped. “A salamander?” he said aloud. The fiery lizard was melting and carefully shaping gold coins into small figurines. There were shelves of golden dragons, fairies, wyverns, griffins and many other types, many of them not described in human books.
“That’s Molche,” responded a voice from the shadows, “He’s an artist I hired to make a few holiday gifts for me. Do you like them?”
“They’re b-beautiful,” agreed the wizard, “I d-don’t recognize all of them, but the ones I do appear to be excellent likenesses. Is that Hitze on the pedestal over there?” The wizard scanned the room, frantically looking for the source of the voice. Finally he realized he was looking in the wrong plane and looked up, far up.
“Ah yes, Mother!” smiled the dragon, pleased. “She’ll like that I think.”
“What mother wouldn’t,” agreed the wizard nervously. “Wait… If Hitze’s your mother, then you’re…”
“Correct; I’m Lodern.” The dragon looming above moved out of the shadows, the salamander’s flame glowing warmly off his scales and outlining him in flickering reds and yellows.
Lodern allowed a moment for admiring the statuette that captured his mother’s image so well. “So, what brings you to my lair, wizard?” he asked.
“Do colleagues in magic have to have a reason for every little visit?” hedged the wizard with a friendly smile.
The dragon just cocked his head and sat, ears perked, staring down at the wizard.
“All right, fine!” the wizard gave in, “I’ve come for the secret of ultimate magic.”
“The secret of ultimate magic. You?”
“Yes, yes, of course me. You do know it, don’t you?” the wizard was getting exasperated.
“Of course I know it,” replied Lodern taken aback, “All dragons know it.”
“Well then, will you give it to me?”
“What do I get in return?” asked the dragon smiling now.
“What do you want?” asked the wizard right back. This was more the kind of conversation he’d expected from the start. “Gold? Jewels? Maidens fair? With that kind of power I can give you whatever you want!” he declared carelessly.
“Look around you, human,” Lodern gave a disgusted snort, “I have no trouble acquiring all the gold and jewels I want, and ‘maidens fair’ tend to be skinny, stringy little things with no meat on their bones. I could starve to death!” “Besides,” he continued after a moment, “You came to me seeking the secret of ultimate magic, which means I already have it. Why then, oh maven of mediocre magic, would I need you to supply me with anything???”
“But… Then… Well, dammit, how can I get you to tell me the secret?” asked the wizard raising his voice in frustration.
“Say ‘please’,” suggested the dragon helpfully.
“What?”
“Say ‘please’.”
“Just, ‘please’? That’s it?”
“Can’t hurt to try it,” responded Lodern reasonably and looked unconcernedly off across the cave.
“But… You… Awww… Well then, ‘please’,” the wizard implored tentatively.
“’Please’ what?” asked Lodern.
The wizard sighed. This was not going well at all. “Please give me the secret of ultimate magic,” he said politely, “Sir.”
“No.”
“N… WHAT!?!”
“I said, ‘No’,” Lodern repeated patiently.
“But, you said…”
“I said it wouldn’t hurt to try it,” said Lodern, “I didn’t promise it would work.”
The wizard was getting really steamed now. Throttling back an angry retort he summoned up his mighty powers and made an arcane gesture, with his left hand, and floated up until he was on a level to look the dragon straight in the eye.
“Dragon!” the little wizard thundered, “I am one of the three most powerful mages in the known world! You will tell me the secret to ultimate magic, or so help me I will unleash the full power of my magic to compel you!”
The dragon leaned forward, opened his jaws just slightly, and blew gently on the floating wizard. “FOOF!”
A faintly scintillating puff of air, accompanied by a gentle hint of lavender fragrance surrounded the wizard.
The wizard promptly flailed his arms as he dropped from where he’d been floating to land on his skinny butt atop a pile of gold and jewels. He slid and tumbled to the bottom amid a jingling and flashing cascade of Lodern’s treasure, then struggled to his feet again as the rich landslide trickled to a stop.
“One of the three most powerful –human- mages in the known –human- world,” corrected the dragon in amusement.
“Damn you, dragon!” the human screamed, drawing his hand back in the beginnings of a magic gesture. He froze, then slowly put his hand back down as the dragon cocked his head again and looked at him, showing just a hint of sharp teeth with his smile.
“Wouldn’t do you any good anyway,” Lodern said with a yawn.
“What? Why the heck not?” asked the wizard.
“Because you’re human,” the dragon explained, “You have to be an inherently magical creature to even comprehend the ultimate magic, much less use it. Humans have no inherent magic whatsoever.”
“That’s… That’s just…”
“Sad? Yes, I know,” Lodern agreed composing himself for sleep again. “Maybe you should give up and ask for something else,” he suggested helpfully.
“Well…”
The dragon yawned sleepily.
“All right! Okay, how about long life and impenetrable armor?” he asked quickly, “Uuh, please!”
“Sure,” replied Lodern, “Foof!”
The wizard opened his eyes and looked down to find himself completely encased in a skin tight, form-fitting suit of dragon scale armor. “Thank you!” he whispered, careful not to wake the sleeping dragon, and saw one ear twitch in response.
Walking to the entrance of the lair, the wizard stood and admired himself in the light of the setting sun. His new armor was bright gold in color, with silver highlights that shown gloriously in the late afternoon sunlight. Pleased and invigorated with the outcome of his visit with the dragon, the wizard whistled a happy tune and set off to conquer the world. ‘Combine the power of my own magic with this new armor,’ thought the little wizard to himself, ‘And I might actually do it too!’

“Lodern? Looo-derrrrnn!”
Lodern shook himself awake. “Mother?” he called sleepily, “What is it?”
“Lodern? Oh, there you are,” said Hitze, “Where have you been? It’s almost time to go!”
“I’ve been right here, Mother, playing with the humans,” answered Lodern as he stretched himself to his full hundred foot length. “Where are we going?”
“You know perfectly well we’re going to watch your father deliver his dissertation to the council this week. Now brush those gold and silver things off your scales and let’s go. What have you been doing to get so dirty anyway?”
“Just playing,” answered Lodern, “Humans love all that gold and silver stuff. It gets them all excited.”
“You and your pets,” said his mother shaking her head and smiling. “Have you just been playing with them or actually training them this time?”
“Oh, training, Mother! One of them actually asked for the secret to ultimate magic this time too.”
“Silly humans,” Hitze shook her head, “Always with the big ideas. What did you talk this one into instead, Dear?”
“I gave this one his own choice,” answered Lodern proudly, “He asked for long life and impenetrable armor.”
“That’s nice dear, and did you give it to him?”
“Yes, Mother. He didn’t say anything about being able to take it off though,” snickered the young dragon, “For anything.”
“Silly humans,” muttered Hitze again.
*****