Krarg
Fantasy Flash Fiction
O Fates declare
I, Krarg, mighty dragon shall spare
Lives in return for a mortal sold
A bride dressed in silver and gold
As Krarg stared into the haze rising from a lake of fire, the enchanting voice faded and eerie flute music drifted across his kingdom of obsidian and lava. Succumbing to the lulling melody, the dragon slipped into a fleeting dream of cooked warriors scattered between splintered catapults and ballistae… an impregnable castle razed… black smoke spiralling from outlying villages… famine, disease, the wail of refugees… and a maiden sacrificed to sate his hunger for mortal misery.
O mortals despair
I, Krarg, shall conquer maiden fair
A princess with eyes burning cold
In those dark orbs let fear unfold
Deeper into dreams the dragon fell as the singer raised her Flute of Dreaming once more. The maiden, chained to a post amid the carnage, screamed as he drew nearer, reptilian eye agleam.
O rapture rise
I, Krarg, will claim sacrifice’s cries
And sire dragon-man bold
A beast to mould dark future unfold…
Krarg’s instincts stirred. Scanning his kingdom of obsidian and lava, he saw a pinprick of light—a tear in reality—appear beside the lake of fire. Like a pupil dilating, the glowing rupture widened. Magic? Plane-shift magic? The dragon stared into the swelling luminescence as it exploded.
“Right, yo lot, get on tha baffoon’s flank,” a gruff voice growled. “And Aetheron, use yoer bloody magic this time, yo silly moo.”
Blinded by the plane-shift’s glare, Krarg lifted his horned head and scorched the ground before him with fiery breath. The music stopped, and the enchanting song died. Screams cut through the sudden silence.
“Tha baffoon cooked me bloody bard,” the leader roared. “By tha stone, Aetheron, do somethin’, or else yo’ll be feelin’ me boot up yoer arse.”
In response, a powerful voice rose and echoed through the ruby gloom of the dragon’s valley. “Dath nachrath, nemh chol brathas—doth sarb haithec nar lan…”
Sniffing the air, Krarg caught the invigorating scent of charred flesh and… dwarf? Vision clearing, the dragon eyed a barrel-chested dwarf in banded armour. Standing firm between an elf with a bow fashioned from ice and a woman of silver hair and amethyst eyes, he readied his double-bladed axe. As the archer aimed and the sorceress continued to chant, “Dath nachrath, nemh chol brathas—doth sarb haithec nar lan,” the dwarven fighter barked, “Soron, be ready with yoer bow!”
Krarg sensed three others closing in along his flanks. After deftly snatching up one—a hulking minotaur wielding a war maul—he brought the trifling mass before the dwarf and squeezed…
“…doth sarb haithec nar lan!” The sorceress thrust her arms aloft. Eldritch light poured from her eyes and struck the dragon’s chest. Like autumn leaves, red scales fell and floated to the obsidian floor.
“Now, Soron!” the dwarf bellowed. “Freeze tha baffoon’s heart!”
Arrows of ice streaked towards the exposed flesh beneath Krarg’s splintered chest. He reared to protect himself. Drawing back his leathery wings, he summoned a gale with a single beat. Fighter, sorceress and archer—blown off their feet—slid across smooth obsidian towards the lake of fire.
Infuriated by the adventurers’ near‑lethal attack, Krarg’s attention snapped to two figures sprinting along his flank: a leonine man in black silks wielding twin radiant falchions and a fur‑clad woman brandishing a lightning‑tipped spear. The dragon swept his barbed tail towards them, sending the man flying as the acrobat pole-vaulted atop his back with her magical spear, crying, “Ay yay ya!”
Krarg arched his serpentine neck and spewed fire at the acrobat sprinting along his spine. But again she pole-vaulted—then somersaulted—clear of the inferno’s reach. With a ring of frosted ice glinting on her finger and her spear angled downwards, she plunged into the dragon’s breath. The spear, arcing lightning, pierced scale and flesh and, with thunder’s crack, shattered bone.
Krarg threw back his head and, like an erupting volcano, unleashed fire. Hurled from the dragon’s back, the acrobat landed nimbly. Dancing the Storm Spear around her in a display of dexterity and dominance, she turned and aimed at the beast’s unarmoured chest. Enraged, the dragon surged forwards and lashed out with fire-filled maw as the spear sailed towards its mark. Krarg, his chest now a spiral of cloud and lightning, roared a death cry bound in flame. The acrobat tumbled aside as the beast collapsed upon her…