KING ARTHUR'S ADVENTURES
the dragons glory
an unfinished story written by
Latham E. Piper
Chapter One
This story is about a boy that worked for a shepherd, but had a
very weird job. See this boy didn't look after sheep like you
might expect him to, but did the exploring for the shepherd because
the shepherd had been paralyzed after being bitten by a snake
and couldn't walk. He went to the woods for him. He also went
to town to get food for him and water from the spring and other
essential items to live. After many years of nursing the poor
shepherd he finally died of old age. The boy buried him in the
field where he liked to graze his sheep. It was very sad for the
boy for he loved this man very much. The shepherd was like a father
to the boy even though he was adopted by him.
The boy's mother abandoned him when he was young and his father
died by a deadly disease that you get from rusted nails. Before
his father died he gave the boy an omen that would protect him
against evil people and creatures.
The boy continued to live in the house on bread, water and fish
with only a small fire to cook on. The boy thought to himself
"boy this is really hard living, lonely too." One day the boy
was out catching fish in the spring where he got his water from,
and he saw a cave. The boy had heard about caves in the mountains
but those were very far away. Some said that those caves had sleeping
dragons in them and if anybody went in there they would never
come out. Of course the boy did not believe that and just ignored
it whenever he heard the town people talking about it. But he
couldn't help thinking about the tales every now and then.
After he had gotten enough fish for supper he started home but
when he turned to leave he thought he saw some eyes peer at him
from out of the cave. Well, this frightened him very much and
he thought about running from where he stood yet there was something
friendly about the eyes for they were curious eyes, not mean.
The boy decided to try to get this creature out of its home. So,
he got one of his fish from his pail and tossed it over to the
entrance of the cave. Almost immediately, the creature jumped
out of the cave, knocked the boy down and started wagging its
long curvy tail.
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Chapter Two
It took the boy a little while to recover from the shock of being
knocked over like a rag doll. When he opened his eyes to look
around he couldn't see anything but pitch dark. He sat up and
felt dizzy. He realized that he was in a cave. A moist cave that
he had never been in before. He stood up in front of a wall that
he could not see. He walked clumsily straight into the wall he
could not see. He tried to find a way out of the dark and damp
cave, but found no obvious way. So he walked farther into the
mysterious cave of surprises. After exploring the cave, using
the little light from a crack in the roof of the cave, he walked
about twenty feet into the cave when he thought that he heard
a soft humming. Almost a musical sound. He started to follow the
noise but noticed that he wasn't in the cave alone. There was
about a half dozen beady eyes looking hard at him. It felt like
the eyes were looking through him. The boy wanted to run but he
couldn't. His legs were frozen with fear.
Finally he got his legs to move. He ran out of the cave with terror!
He stopped to take a breath when he heard foot steps behind him
he turned around to find a tiny little dragon behind him. He knew
he had to take it home. So that is what he did. He picked up the
dragon in his arms and left for home. The days after that where
pretty unusual. The dragon could eat more than the boy could catch
and the dragon just grew bigger and bigger. The only time that
the dragon wasn't with the boy was when the boy was in town or
the dragon was with his pack going to Ireland to feast on some
cattle and a couple of men. It took about a month to get back
from this event.
One time when the dragon was gone with his pack the boy noticed
that his dragon didn't have a name so he started to think of names.
The boy thought about what seemed like millions of names and one
came up that he particularly liked, Norqis. When the dragon came
back, the boy told the dragon what he had thought of for a name,
and the dragon agreed.
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Chapter Three
One day the boy went to town to get some milk and cheese and
when he got back he couldn't find Norqis anywhere. He kept on
calling Norqis, Norqis, but couldn't find him. The boy decided
to go to the cave to see if the dragon had gone back to look for
his mom but didn't find him. The boy decided to wait to see if
he had gone of on a journey to look for her. The boy thought that
maybe the wizard of the mountain could help him find his dragon.
From what he heard in town front the boy knew that the wizard
didn't like visitors and might not give him the help that he needed.
The boy got ready to go on his journey
The wizard lived high in the mountains where the dragons of Varia
lived. Varia is a place of hate and anger so the people and creatures
of Varia are very mean and eat or kill anyone that they think
is posing a serious threat to them. But the boy remembered an
omen that his father gave him before he had died. His father had
said that "any time that you think you're in trouble this omen
will protect you" So he set of on his trip to the mountains. The
wizard lives in a black castle in an opening on the top of the
mountain were it is always dark. When the boy was almost half
way up the mountain he started feeling tired and exhausted and
took a nap. When he woke up, he saw a big wolf looking at him.
The boy took his omen that he wore held it in the direction of
the wolf. The wolf fled in a stamped of angry rage and fear.
The boy was glad about the fact that the omen worked. After a
while walking, the boy felt hungry and sat down to eat. When he
was eating he looked up to see how much farther he had to go and
he saw the biggest wall he had ever seen. Instantly he knew that
this was the wall of the great wizard's castle and the boy felt
very scared to go in because he thought that the wizard was going
to turn him into a frog or something evil like that but he knew
that this wizard had to help him or else he wouldn't find Norqis.
He went around to the front gate, but when he got to what looked
like the front he didn't see any kind of entrance at all, so he
kept on looking for an entrance. After a while of looking, he
got tired and started to lean on one of the walls, but when he
went to lean on the walls of the castle he fell through.
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Chapter Four
When he got up he felt quite dizzy but there was something strange
about the room, it was very dark and misty like a very thick fog.
He wandered deeper into the fog and darkness until he saw some
light but only a very thin streak of it, but he still went on.
As he went nearer to the light he could hear the clinking of glasses
but there was something very strange. Laughter and very very deep
voices and as the people talked on he heard the name, the dragons
name "Norqis." He decided to go through the door and as he did
there was a large hush over everyone. As he emerged from the door
he said that he was a friend of Norqus and everybody did not believe
him. They told him to prove it and as they were about to take
him away because they did not believe what he saw the wizard and
Norqis. The boy cried "Norqis" and the guards stopped taking him
away as the wizard told them to put him down immediately or he
would banish them to the under world. Well the guards put him
down just as the master wizard had ordered them to. The boy rubbed
his arms from the strong and tight grasp of the two men and ran
over to Norqis and hugged him, but his arms could not fit around
him.
The boy had missed Norqis very very much and came to tears when
Norqis said that a Drak dragon had challenged him and all the
wizard's men to a brawl to the death and the one that won was
ruler of the other and all the other's land. The boy said "why
don't we just back out" but the dragon explained to him that it
was something that the only way that you could back out is to
surrender all the land and give my life to the Drak. The boy realized
that there was no way to get out of this but to fight the Drak,
he started thinking of ways that he could get at the Drak's castle.
The boy had been laboring over plans for the attack and the only
problem was that the castle was in southern Europe and they were
in Wales. The Wizard's men started working on a boat to cross
the body of water that separated them from the dragon's world.
A few weeks had gone by and the wizard's men had not yet finished
the boat. They were running low on material. They then started
to think of another way to get across the water if they did not
finish the boat. They ended up finishing the boat in enough time
to be able to make it to the land in which the Drak had said to
meet.When they were crossing the sea they spotted another ship.
As their ship was approaching the one that had just come into
view they were able to see a flag that had the symbol of the Drak!
The Wizard had called every one to their battle places and to
prepare to fight but as they got closer they noticed that the
men on board the ship were not armed and did not look at all like
the Drak's men and yet they were on a boat of the Drak. As the
two ships came in to yelling distance, the men on the ship started
waving their arms in the air and seemed very happy to see the
other ship. As the men got on board the solders took them to see
the wizard. When they got to the wizard he recognized them immediately
and told the soldiers to prepare food and drinks for them. When
the refugees were going to the place that the men ate, the boy
noticed a girl who was a totally beautiful girl and it was love
at first site, well at least for the boy. The men turned out to
be a brigade crew that was over thrown and captured by the Drak.
The Drak ate over half of their crew and they were the only survivors.
The wizard asked if they could help fight the Drak and the men
more than agreed to help. They even said they would lead the attack
if the wizard let them but the wizard thought they should be in
the middle of the brigade.
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Chapter Five
The boy was about 15 at this time and he was trying to be good
friends with the girl but the girl was to busy trying to catch
a sea serpent. In the next few days the boy was at least able
to get the girl's name, Laya. When the boy was asked his name
by the girl he said that he said that he didn't have one so he
and the girl started thinking of one, and they came up with Arthur.
When Arthur told the name to the men, and the wizard {not to mention
Norqis}, they all agreed that it was a good name. The next day,
Arthur awoke to find all the men in gear and with swords drawn.
When Arthur looked over the side of the boat he saw a vast army
with a thousand men at least. As he looked at the army he heard
someone call out "it's King Arthur" and all the men went down
on their knees and started to bow at Arthur. Arthur called to
the wizard who was standing on the plank of the ship and Arthur
said "who's King..." and that is when he realized what name Laya
had given him. Later that day he went to Laya's room and asked
how the soldiers had found out his name and why the soldiers had
bowed to him and... Laya then interrupted him and only said "Arthur
you know so little and yet you mean so much" and she left it at
that. Arthur stayed in his room thinking about what had just happened
to him in the past day and felt at a loss with his true origin
and decided to consult with the wizard.
Arthur was almost at the wizard's door but then he realized he
had never really talked to Norqis about where he had come from
and why he had followed him home so many years ago, and why he
never talked to him like he did that day that Arthur scaled the
mountain, when he was known just by the petty name of the boy.
When Arthur got to the dragon's room the men were gathered around
Norqis, as Norqis told great tales that he was forbidden to tell
until he was on his finally journey. Arthur then left wondering
what that finally journey was about. Then at that moment it hit
him, like a rock from the heavens, they weren't really here to
fight this great Drak of dragonland, they weren't really going
to fight the great battle he had been preparing for, no not at
all. None of the men were really trained to slay a dragon. If
they were, they would have not taken any chances with him at the
castle, if they were real dragon slayers they would know that
a evil dragon, the only one that men slayed at that time, can
take any shape they want to. If they were real dragon slayers,
they would have just sliced him to his knees were he stood as
soon as they saw him. Arthur knew then that this was all a fraud
and that there was no dragon land. Arthur ran back to his room
to sleep for the night. He would deal with this tomorrow.
Chapter Six
The next day Arthur went to the wizard's room and Norquis was
there.
Unfortunately, Latham died before he could finish this story...
One more loss to tally.
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