The Fear and the Glory

"We been hidin' here for near fifteen minutes." The boy's whisper was harsh, over-loud in the hot, still air, and to Dagruk's sensitive ears it rebounded off the stones. "Think it's gone?"

Gesturing frantically, Dagruk did not take his eyes from the sky. "No, not yet." He whispered back. "Be still, master, I pray you."

Stevie did nothing of the sort. "Think it's with that one naked guy that was chasing us earlier?" He asked, momentarily raising his cap to wipe his forehead.

"They are in league, yes." Dagruk nodded.

"Like is it his horse or sumthin? That's what they do in Dragonriders of Pern, y'know. They..."

And then they heard it.

It was a downward sound, if such a thing were possible, the great overwhelming pressure of hot air pushing downwards. The hair on Dagruk's neck flattended, the reeds splayed out across the rippling water, pebbles rattled loose. He felt more than heard Steve flatten himself against the wall, and glancing to the side he saw Fliixen and Davy vanish behind the pillar again.

A breath, and then again the beat of air, rushing down with a great "WHOOM." like the sound of an airborne drum.

It was the sound of wings.

An earth-shattering roar split the landscape as a great shadow passed overhead, its form indistinguishable through the fog. It faded as the shadow wheeled about.

"It's comin' back." Steve breathed. "It's..."

The roar came bearing down on the swamp, the wind of its coming shook the reeds, heat swept outwards in a wave from the roar and washed over Dagruk. Fog came boiling up from the heart of swamp, out around the rock Dagruk crouched behind.

Then there was a final great push of air, and the roar was passing overhead, far away, out toward the mountains where its home was laid.

"What the hell..." Steve breathed.

"He is Rundisfalon, Lord of the Fenland Wastes." replied Dagruk, sagging against the stone wall in relief. He cast a glance back at the marveling human. "And he suffers no rider."

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This is a weird story concept that's been running around in my head for a while, and I finally managed to get a drawing off about it. I have a nice world set out, and even the inklings of a story, but for some reason I find it really hard to get work done on.

It's essentially your average "children drop into fantasy world" setup, except it's told from the point of the fantasy creatures, in this case Dagruk, a creature roughly based on "Gurgi" from Chronicles of Prydain. The "Children of the Glowing Wrist" are needed to find the griffins, the only cratures who can free the world of Dirspora from the tyranny of the dragons.

The dragons are very important to this story, and they're huge, intelligent, and magical. In fact they're actually one of the only fully realized parts of this story, and I wanted to draw out the scene where the children (and the reader, first meet one of the dragons. The dragon doesn't look QUITE as huge as I wanted him to, but I think you get a rough idea.

Anyway. Comments appreciated. The next Dwarfs picture is coming, it just needs to age a little before I go back to it.