:: http://www.geocities.com/dragynmistress ::
:: By Jennifer Vromant			   ::
:: jen_vromant@yahoo.com		   ::
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Spoof - Chapter 05

A hooded man limped to the general, his scarlet robes dancing around his ankles.  "Where are the dragons?", the general asked him.  "Aren't you a seeker?  Seekers are supposed to sense dragons."  

The hooded man looked at him with his strange, unfocused eyes and replied, "There is one nearby, but it is strong.  It is only a dracling, but I sense something dangerous about this one.  It has an immensly strong will."  

The general snorted and climbed onto his black horse.  "We'll catch it and bring it to the princess as a gift!" he called out as he started towards the mountains.

The hooded man stood where he was and shook his head.  He sensed a young red dragon with imperial copper blood.  This would be a dangerous quest, perhaps the most difficult yet.  He held out both of his hands with his palms open to the skies, and whispered a prayer asking anyone who would listen for help.  His only hope was that the dragon would be too young to have heard any spells, because once a dragon has heard a spell, he becomes immune to it.

A knight brought him a white horse and helped him climb onto it.  His rings glittered in the morning light as he grasped the reigns of the mare.  He looked at the mountains and the trail the general had taken.  Then he looked behind him at the city hidden between the mountains with the palace glittering like a pearl in an oyster.  He shook his head again and started following the general, his many knights and magic users following.

They worked their way higher and higher into the mountains, pausing often to let the knights and magic users on foot have a short rest.  The hooded man could feel that they were getting closer to the dracling, and he began to have second thoughts.  The closer they got, the stronger the dracling's aura became.  'Maybe I should tell the general', he thought.  He shook his head.  'Bah.  I already warned him before we left.  If anything happens to him, it's because he didn't listent the first time.  I won't repeat myself.'  He was irritated with the general for throwing his warning into the wind, and thereby hurting his pride.  The general obviously thought he was just a crazy old man.

The hooded man silently followed the general and sensed them getting ever closer to the dangerous little dracling.  He shivered unwillingly.