“Your creed was for naught, the gods are dead.”
The boy stared up into the black maw, row upon row of sharp white teeth, in the center a forked tongue withed.
“They will save me.”
“They are dead, boy! Pledge allegiance to me or die.”
Sweat ran down the boy’s brow as he concentrated on his silent plea: Please, help me!
“Dead, dead, dead,” the dragon chanted as it began circling him.
He continued praying, despite the rising temperature. He could imagine flames dancing around him but, as he opened his eyes, he saw ashes where the dragon had been.
Poof went the magic dragon!
ReplyDeleteSo nice to see the good, diligent, praying boy survive!
I'd love to have more backstory to this. Very interesting!
Ha ha, the gods weren't so dead, after all! Not sure how I feel about the praying part, but I'll keep my political views out of this one. It worked for the world it written for. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteWhat happened when his eyes closed? I must know! Do I get to know tomorrow? Do not make me come over there!
ReplyDeleteYeay for him! I'm glad he got saved. I love that your characters are genuinely virtuous - they are really heart-warming. Also, I love the use of the word MAW - underused and always has a brilliantly evil sound about it.
ReplyDeleteOoh, interesting. What happened to the dragon?
ReplyDeleteThe dragon got smited by the goddess of fire and dragons (not the evil ones).
ReplyDeleteI'm working on an extended version, I'll post it when it's ready :)
Sorry you keep having to extend your flash fictions, I guess it's the price of having such an incredible world. I agree with Charity that one of my favorite things about your Virtues is that they are embodied by characters I have no trouble calling Virtuous. Even a lot of mine were just characters showing Virtue instead of being Virtuous in a more absolute sense.
ReplyDeleteI especially love the praying here, because I believe faith is crucial to Virtue. If you don't believe in something good, then it's just too much easier to be sinful and evil.