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

Spoof - Chapter 07

The hooded man felt his horse grow restless as they climbed higher into the mountain.  He, too, felt weary and unnerved.  He could sense that they were getting very close to the dracling, and suddenly he didn't really want to face it off.  He was tired of the endless dragon slaying.  He didn't understand why humans and dragons couldn't just live in peace.

Suddenly, the general's horse reared, throwin him from it.  It pranced of a few moments, the whites of its eyes showing, then it reared again and ran back towards the valley.  The knights drew their weapons, ready to attack whatever had startled the horse.  Everyone looked up to the top of the pass, and saw a dracling.

It wasn't what the hooded man had expected.  It was small and yellow.  It's black, gleaming eyes stared down at him.  Suddenly the man realized there was more than one.  The red dracling they were searching for was hiding nearby, and this one was probably to young to even fly.  The general didn't care.  He lunged at the yellow dracling, his sword aimed straight at its heart.

The dracling reared, and suddenly there was a larger, dark green dracling behind it that threw flames into the general's face.  'He's lucky it's just a dracling and it's flames aren't that hot yet,' the hooded man thought.  'If it were several years older, its flames would have just scorched the skin from his face.'  The man looked at the pass again as the general stumbled to hide behind a boulder in front of him.  There were three draclings now, the dark green one obviously eldest by its size.  A dark blue one had joined them.

The magic users advanced forward and started chanting.  The dark green dracling reared up to sit on its haunches, and threw flames at anything that came close enough.  The magic users continued chanting, and the dark green dracling slowly stopped throwing fire.  It stood there, dazed, and slowly closed its eyes and fell asleep.  Then sparks started radiating from their fingers onto the yellow dracling, and it screamed out in pain and fright.

Then the hooded man saw what he had feared.