A Wizard's Mistake
By: Teger of Dark Ages


The day dawned beautifully, a yellow sun rising into the sky. Clouds
marshaled around the orb as soldiers marshal around a general. Tristam
looked at his feet and adjusted his spectacles. He was well into his
journey to the distant port of Abel and to him this day was like any other.
He looked around from his perch on the bow of Anrcium, his small boat, to
watch the fish gently swim in the sea around him. Above him a bird cried,
and dipped his wings at him in a salute. Tristam was the most powerful
wizard in the world at the time, but he was a gentle man, who had never
lifted his hand in violence against any living thing.
He climbed down from the small viewing platform, nodded to a passing
crewman and went back to his quarters to continue his work. At the moment
he was working on translating the language of the Dubhaim, but was having
little success. He had deciphered that certain signals between larger, more
intelligent creatures had some sort of language behind them, but that was
as far as he had gotten. After a few minutes of staring at diagrams of
Dubhaim activities he decided to try to take a crack at the Igneous Cube.
Must people have heard of the Igneous Cube in one form or another, but
Tristam was one of the few people to actually view the ancient relic up
close. He drew it out of its satchel with special care, making sure he
didn't damage it at all. After setting it on his desk he lit another torch
and looked at the cube itself. He looked at it like a man looks at a fine
diamond, or an especially beautiful woman. He looked it at with an eye
trained by years of historical examination, but most of all, he looked at
with a loving eye. For he loved any object that gave him a glimpse of the
past, of fallen empires and lost loves. This day his examination of the
cube started like no other, he stared at the object for an hour straight.
He drank in the swirls and whirls of its surface, looked at the patterns
set all over the lock, and eyed the graceful lines that bordered each face.
After looking for some time he decided he'd try to open the thing. Usually,
when he tried to open it, he would simply try to pick the lock, but this
time he decided to try something new. Grasping the cube in his hands he
gave it a hard jerk, trying to twist one of the faces off. To his surprise
he heard a crack and the cube unfolded like a blossoming flower. He was so
shocked, he nearly dropped the now opened Igneous Cube, but he regained his
sense in time and gently set it down on his desk. After collecting himself
for a few seconds, he looked down at the treasure he had just discovered.
The flaps had folded out, and the cube lay flat on the ground, its golden
edges glimmering in the lamplight. On what was the base of the cube rested
an egg, a beautiful egg which shimmered like a pearl. It's milky white
surface seemed to reflect Tristam's thoughts, because, he though if he
looked closely enough, he could see shimmering lights dancing. Tristam sat
back and decided to think. He knew he had just made the greatest scientific
find of the deoch, but he wondered how he would present this discovery to
the rest of the scientific community. One wizard worried him the most, the
resident wizard of Mileth Dar. Tristam knew that Dar hated him for some
reason that he didn't know of, and he suspected that Dar would do whatever
he could do to undermine Tristam's credibility, trying to prove that his
discovery was a fraud. After thinking on this topic for a few lengths, he
decided that the only reasonable thing to do would be to hatch the egg.
Tristam was a knowledgeable man, and he knew how birds protected their
eggs, and helped them to hatch. He set out to recreate such an environment
for his find. The first thing he did was place some straw from his bedding
and place it into an empty box. He made sure that the entire box was
covered, and with much care he lowered the egg in the box. The smiled
widely at how beautiful the egg looked in the setting sun that reflected
through his porthole, and how respected he would be after this creature
hatched. After making sure the egg was safely secured he decided to take a
short nap before procuring the other necessary elements to ensure the egg's
successful hatching. He lay down on his bunk with one hand resting on the
side of the egg's box and drifted into a peaceful sleep.
When Tristam awoke a few hours latter, he opened his eyes to a site to
behold. Sitting on his chest was a creature like no other. It was covered
in scales like a snake, but the scales where colored dark gray. It had to
small shriveled wings perched in the middle of its back, and its small
mouth was full of sharp teeth. It gave a small squawk and its intelligent
eyes peered back at Tristam. Tristam let out a small squeal, and pushed the
creature off his bed. He then climbed to his feet and backed to the edge of
his room. After giving a sharp glance at the monster he began to chant a
spell under his breath just in case. At the moment, the door to the cabin
was thrown open, and the captain of the boat, Arnold Trsnasde, stood there.
The young creature let out a shriek and launched himself at the stocky
aisling. Arnold, was much taken aback by this sudden attack and was knocked
to the ground where he was held down by his attacker. Tristam had finished
chanting his spell and finished it with the words 'ard srad'. A huge bolt
of fire rose from his hands and smashed into the creature. Tristam expected
the creature be dissolved into ash, but when the smoke cleared the creature
stood there unharmed. It gave a shake of it's beak, turned to face the
disabled Arnold, and bit him in the neck. The bite was deep, and Arnold's
blood started to pour onto his shirt.
Tristam's spell casting had made a good amount of noise, and the only
other passenger on the vessel, a priest, rushed into the room. The young
acolyte of Glioca took one look at the monster and muttered the only
hostile spell he knew. 'Deo Saighead' he finished, and a glare of light
assaulted Tristam's eyes. The creature gave a loud shriek, and flew through
the gap in the door, and into the darkness of the night. The priest turned
immediately to attend to the fallen sailor, and quickly realized it was to
late to save the aisling. His eyes filling with tears, the priest cast as
spell to ease the man's pain as he eased into the next life. As the last
remnants of life where fading from the man he muttered a word, then died.
"What did he say?" Tristam asked, his voice filled with grief.
"Draco, he called that monster Draco," the priest replied. Tristam gave a
slight nod and faded into unconsciousness.

Many nights later no sign of the creature had been seen by any of the
people Tristam had contacted and he sat in his cabin in a depressed state.
As he was thinking about the incident he remembered what the captain had
muttered before he had died, the word Draco, and decided to look it up in
the dictionary he kept with him at all times. There was only a short entry
for the word and it read as follows.

Draco:
Taker of life.

No sign of the creature was seen for many deochs until some very
insightful aislings ventured into the abandoned Kasumian mines and saw the
monster. It had grown very large, and even more dangerous. Today it is
known as the scariest monster in all the land, the Draco.