Long ago, when the land was young,
And the deeds of knights and kings were sung;
Strange things happened that weren't explained,
Except to say, "Magic's at work again."
Dragons and elves and dwarves lived nearby,
Men hurled fiery balls of magic, and learned to fly.
Then all of a sudden, something happened one day,
All of the magic faded away.
Faeries and minotaurs, goblins and demons,
gorgons and hell hounds, devils and mermen.
Monsters of all size and description disappeared;
And though everyone looked, no one knew where.
Men could no longer summon lightning or rain,
Their magical healers could no longer alleviate pain.
So they had to live with it, or without it I should say;
And that's how it's been, up to this day.
There was some small magic though, that somehow it stayed.
The thing that tells us hope's on the way;
It's what hopes and dreams are made of they say.
They say that it's heavenly, and comes down from above.
It's that simple feeling...
...Called love.
It started as an egg the size of a boulder,
leathery and red, day by day it grew older.
In a few years, that scarlet egg broke,
And out came a fiery red bloke.
To say that he shined would be wrong, 'cause he gleamed!
The light was reflected from ev'ry angle it seemed.
Little stubby horns, sharp little claws and teeth,
and a long little tail that curled underneath.
He was definitely decked out in proper dragon attire;
He could even burp little belches of fire!
For five or six years, that little dragon grew;
In all that time, there wasn't much to do.
He slept a lot, and ate when his mom brought him food;
And he learned to stay away when she was in a bad mood.
He spent his time exploring his cavernous home,
Which he and his mother lived in alone.
Treasures uncountable, seemed as toys everywhere!
Gold and jewels strewn here and there.
He learned to light fires with his breath hot,
And one day he learned to control them with a thought.
Another decade passed of boredom in that cave,
And then his mother took him outside one day.
The light attacked his eyes at once,
But he became adjusted as all surface dwellers must.
His respect for his mother grew,
As she taught him things radically new.
He became wary of the weapons of man,
But to hunt them for treasure, "Whenever you can."
He learned how to hunt and kill with speed;
Unfortunately, he also learned dragon greed.
Thirty or Forty more years passed,
And then one day, his mother threw him out of the nest.
He went out to look for a cave of his own,
With the hurt that he could never return home.
Half a century slowly went by,
Till the adult dragon was smart and sly.
He preyed on everyone, not just deer and elk.
His favorite prey were humans and their ilk.
Counting his treasure was his favorite pastime;
Gained through a dragon's life of crime.
Killing and plundering, and the razing of fields;
Were all that he held as his ideals.
In five hundred years, which wasn't old for a dragon;
He had gained powers and treasure, he even had a few children.
He could now heat metal, and create great fires.
He had magical powers to fill almost all his desires.
He'd mated three times, but never seen his offspring.
If he did. he'd probably kill them.
His life was now so full of destruction and killing,
That he never thought something might be missing.
In one thousand more years he was fearsome to behold.
Over one hundred feet long, and the color of dark blood.
Encrusted in his hide were all manner of treasure in profusion;
Which while looking nice, also made him nearly impervious from aggression.
His powers had grown many times more,
But now he spent much time asleep on the cave floor.
One day a party of adventurous humans,
Appeared in the cave of the dragon.
They caught him while sleeping, and made their attack.
He rose with a start and began to fight back.
He used all the defenses at his command.
Alas, it was not enough; and he departed this land.
As his spirit drifted up in its ethereal glow,
The realized he did not hate those below.
Even though they'd killed him, and his earthly life was done.
His life everlasting, had only just begun.