Erin and the Mere Dragons
By Eric Bishop
Our history books are full of ancient stories studied by academic types that roam among our musky halls of knowledge and learning. These aged institutions are where many of these Canonic tales are enshrined and very well researched. But I came across a history when I was a young teenager that isn’t found in any respectable institution, anywhere. I was vacationing with my family on an ancient island near Crete when I stumbled across the cave that would change everything, as far as I was concerned.
“Be sure to unpack before you go exploring Campbell,” my mother warned me before she headed off to her own room to settle in.
She was still a striking woman even at the age of thirty-seven. I find men staring at her all the time when she isn’t looking and it makes me very uncomfortable. They should just keep their dirty, old eyes off of her. The only men here at the villa we rented were the old men from the village below. I think this solitude was the main reason my mom picked this place. It was nice and quiet compared to the crowded rat maze of New York City.
“And try to be back by lunchtime, please.”
“Okay mom”, I answered back, opening up my suitcase. I grabbed an armful of clothes and stuffed them into my top dresser drawer. It sat under a window that looked out over the beautiful, sparkling Mediterranean Ocean.
A warm, salty breeze swam in through the partially opened window blowing through my long, chestnut hair. It felt good: I tilted back my head and slowly took in a deep breath. This is going to be a great vacation, I thought, as the fresh air invigorated my body. I grabbed the junior archeologist kit that I had bought online last year, put it in my backpack, and set out to find some ancient treasure.
“Where are you going?” my younger brother Alex asked as he dragged his overstuffed suitcase into the villa. He brought with him as many toys and other assorted crap that he could stuff into his tired, old suitcase. I swear that runt is half boy and half pack rat.
“Exploring, and no you can’t tag along.” He was constantly trying to follow me but he usually got bored and whined about coming home before I was ready. I just wanted to look around for awhile but he always expected something exciting to happen and when it didn’t, he always quit on me.
”I’m telling mom,” he threatened.
“I don’t care,” I replied. I could tell he was bluffing. Even if he did tell on me I wouldn’t get into trouble. Mom usually just asked me to include my brother more in what I did in the future when this happened. God, she rarely punishes now us since dad left two years ago. Heck, she rarely does anything with us, anymore come to think about it.
But I had been anticipating this adventure for months and nothing, not even my brother’s lame threat, was going to slow me down now. I initially started out for the summit that our villa sat upon. I then headed inland towards the decrepit ruins of an ancient city that I had spotted using Google Earth before we left home.
When I told her where we were spending vacation, I asked Mrs. Bradshaw, my geology teacher, if there might be any treasure or other neat stuff there. She got a funny look on her face and said yes, I would probably find something, but it might not be what I expected. I didn’t know what she meant then, but, boy did she turn out to be right.
The sun slowly crept from the horizon and I was soon filled with a soothing, glowing warmth. It engulfed my body and started to make me feel very drowsy. I was just a balloon drifting in the warm, morning breeze. It gently guided me down the trail that I was following. A trail that was well worn from many centuries of foot traffic. Apparently a lot of people passed this way over the eons.
Maybe it was created by ancient armies bringing back gold from conquered cities. I soon started daydreaming about treasures and glory long since passed. And I drifted on…
I found myself floating out over an open meadow of tall grass that whipped back and forth in the gentle, summer breeze. The going was slower now: the tall grass creating rippling waves I had to wade through, but I felt I was generally headed in the right direction. As I swam over this sea of grass, clouds of treasure accompanied me. I made my way across and started climbing up the next crest.
By the time I reached the summit, I was tired and overcome by a strong compulsion to just lie down and nap in the warm sunshine. I looked around and quickly found a mammoth, rain-weathered rock sitting at the top of the rise and I set my backpack down near it to use as a pillow. I soon drifted off...
“Harrumph,” rumbled out like thunder over the hillside. It woke me from an adventure where I was fighting the undead protectors of an ancient mummified city, slaying them with my sword from the top of a huge treasure pile. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. Was that just part of my dream?
“Hello?” I said groggily, lost in fog, cautiously rising to my feet to see if there was anyone around me.
“Is someone there?” I asked, slowly grabbing my backpack.
A soft rustling of the tall grass was the only reply I received. Then, very clearly, from somewhere nearby, I heard something very big moving.
“Is someone there?” I repeated, suddenly getting scared as a bone chilling breeze suddenly washed over me. As I stood there shaking with my backpack held tightly against my chest, I started to feel a powerful urge to just run back to our villa and forget all about this whole damned business.
“Yeeeesssssss”, trembled out from someplace near. It sounded just like an earthquake, or someone using a massive subwoofer to distort their voice. It didn’t make any sense to me to hear such an odd thing coming from this distant, desolate place. I got a strange feeling that I wasn’t awake yet and that I had just imagined this strangeness. Then came the grumble that let me know I was indeed awake.
“What is your name, oh young one?” the deep, timber asked.
“Campbell,” I answered back slowly. I was still a little scared, but my mind was numb with sleep. “What is your name, and where are you?”
“Oh, I have had many names in the course of my long lifetime, young one: Mazurka, Donegal, Karsh the Destroyer, the Hidden One, and many, many more. I have been both feared and worshipped, sometimes at the same time, but now at this late stage of my life I only seek peaceful, eternal rest. You may call me, young master, by the name my mother gave me so very long ago, you may call me Wormblood. ”
“Wormblood?” I asked.
“Yes, Wormblood. It sounds so strange for me to hear it spoken in your primitive tongue; its musical quality is totally lost. Your ugly kind has such a way of speaking, my young master. The ancient music of life unfortunately has long since passed into history”, he slowly answered back.
I carefully listened to the unseen voice. What exactly is this thing, I thought, it couldn’t be a man, unless it was a local villager trying to pull my leg. This feeling that I was being tricked suddenly grew in my gut as I slowly approached the rock where the voice seemed to be emanating.
“Who are you really? Are you from the village?” A flush of embarrassment ran across my face as my heart raced at the thought of falling for such a stupid prank. “Who are you and why are you picking on me?”
A slow rumble grew all around me as I quickly learned that this was no prankster. “Picking on you? Who do you think I am? Do you think I am a mere man to be trifled with? At one time I was considered a God!” it suddenly roared. The force of this retort knocked me back a few steps and started my ears ringing.
The quick thought that I should turn and get the heck out of here returned, but I was drawn ever closer to the rock by an overwhelming curiosity. What was this thing? And could it really somehow lead me to something ancient hidden somewhere nearby?
“I’m so sorry,” I answered back quietly, as I slowly crept upon the rock, peering around it to try and see the source of the massive voice. “I didn’t mean to offend you, sir, I just thought someone was trying to make a fool of me.”
There was only silence for a few minutes and just when I started to think he had left, I received a booming reply. “Listen to me, my young master… Campbell; I could never do that…I am by my very nature incapable of telling lie or deceit. That seems to be the particular expertise of your particular type of ape.”
“What do you mean my particular kind of ape? Are you telling me that you aren’t human?” I asked incredulously, the spark of curiosity suddenly turning into a bonfire in my heart.
At first I was answered only with a powerful tremor that made my feet tingle. Whatever Wormblood was, he was huge and he was laughing loud and hard. “No, no, I am not human. I am merely the last of my race and not even a full blooded one at that.”
“I am what was called in your tongue… a Dragon. Actually, I am just a remnant of that ancient race; I am a Mere Dragon.”
I fell back on my butt, as the strings that held up my legs were cut. A Dragon, I’m talking to a real, live Dragon! Oh my God! Thousands of questions suddenly raced through my head. I was still trying to gather my thoughts when the voice of Wormblood rumbled out again suddenly from behind the rock.
“A long time ago we ruled the world but as we started to die off, desperation forced us to mix our blood with that of the other multitudes roaming across the Earth. I am but one of the few more successful outcomes of this distressing union. Still, I stand before you just a poor excuse of a Mere Dragon”
“Please forgive my ill manner ever-young one, but I have had a small army of strange visitors come visit me over the many eon and some guests were more welcome than others. That damned old, blind, Greek poet was my least favorite of them all. He wouldn’t stop asking questions about our grand old city of Atlantis and retelling my stories. I thought I might never get rid of that nuisance, but eventually he just let me be. He must have died. And I say good riddance to that old fool!”
“But he was an old one, not a young one like you, oh master. I like the younger ones better“… he said with a far off quality to his voice. “They tend to listen more than they speak”, he went on. And it’s been many, many years since I have had such company, my son. So, please stay with me a little while… my Campbell and I may share with you a few of the secrets that I have kept close to my heart.”
“Ok,” I replied, setting my backpack behind me and sitting down, thinking that I was the luckiest person in the world to have found this Wormblood. Maybe he will lead me to treasure after all, I thought excitedly.
“I can stay for a few hours, but I have to leave when it starts getting dark,” I said. Mom will kill me for missing lunch but this was going to be worth whatever she could dish out.
“What happened, Sir Wormblood, why did your race die off? “ I asked plunging right in.
“Harrumph, there may be just enough time, my ever-young friend…,” came slowly out of Wormblood as he thought over my question. “You remind me a lot of another young man I met many centuries ago. He was just as direct and ill-mannered as you, my young friend Campbell. His name in your language was Erin and I still bear the scar he gave me so long ago. Let me tell you about us and about him, and then you may be able to understand how your kind helped destroy my ancient, noble race.”
I felt the ground shaking once again as he settled down to tell me this ancient tale:
My great grandfather was Azegoth, the oldest of the Ancient Ones. He was the one who made the fatal decision that our ruling families would remain behind as all of the other surviving families frantically left. They swarmed out of orbit and headed for our nearest interstellar colonies when the bus-sized asteroid unexpectedly hammered the planet. Only one brave soul had the nerve to question his judgment.
“Are you sure about this?” My young grandmother Marrakesh asked him at the time. “Are you positive we should stay?”
“Yes, we have to ensure there is a place for our kind to come back home to, “he arrogantly replied.”
“As you wish, my father,” She obediently replied in stolid resignation, “you will be obeyed.” She could see that there was no hope for us; still she obeyed her great and powerful father.
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During the course of our lengthy history, we had built thousands of magnificent cities that encircled the planet. They were things of noble, sublime beauty: emerald laced ruby parapets and minarets rose up from every thriving metropolis, island nests swam upon the border of space. Well manicured gardens bloomed through the heart of every gathering center. A utopia of technology, science, and nature had been embraced and cherished by my mature, docile race.
All of those wonderful, amazing cities were destroyed by The Great Disaster and what little remained of our culture was quickly shattered into tiny, glasslike fragments of its former glory. They were rapidly burnt to the ground in those first days, as the firestorm created by the massive impact quickly spread its hellish way across the planet
We never heard again from those surviving families that left us behind for the far reaches of space. They never returned, though I am sure many of my kind secretly hoped that they would have to turn back in failure and come to our rescue.
But they never did return and unfortunately we had no way to measure their chance of success. Hell, we weren’t even sure which of our colonies they were headed for… for our vital records were destroyed, vanishing with our cities.
Wherever they did eventually end up, I am certain they fared a much better fate than we did. We, the remaining few, were forced to accept the fact that all of our much beloved, advanced technology had now passed...
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Then there came upon my kind a number of setbacks that forced us to spend the next hundred thousand years or so trying to just maintain a thread bare hold onto life:
The first thing to compound upon our misery was that all of the large, roaming dinosaur herds that we had depended on for food suddenly died off. We desperately held on by feeding on the multitude of smaller creatures that now hid among the darker spaces of the earth. At first it was just small rodents, fish, and lizards that dwelt in the ever darkness.
Then much, much later, when the radiation danger had diminished, we slowly emerged from our lightless prisons and fed on the larger herds of creatures, the Elephant, Hippopotamus, Water Buffalo, and Grizzly Bear that thrived out across the open, fertile ground.
But, back then, at the beginning, we were forced to spend most of our time underground. We were hidden away from the deadly radiation that constantly rained down upon the Earth and would continue to do so for a very long time.
Then sterility slowly spread like a plague among my people, we had neither the technology to prevent it nor any means to study it. Many of our oldest, finest lineages died out during this most hopeless time. But a few lucky ones, like my own, successfully crossbred with the large mammals that thrived in this new climate: Mammoths, Rhinos, Water Buffaloes and Oxen. This crossbreeding seemed to work, as our families started to slowly grow in numbers again. We weren’t as big, powerful, or smart anymore, but at least now, we had a chance to survive.
Finally, just as some of us thought that the entire crisis had passed, a new one slowly took its place: Humankind. We had been the dominate life form on this planet going all the way back to the beginning of our ancient, recorded history, so this was a brand new experience for us. We were a peaceful race back then: we only killed to feed ourselves. But we learned that in order to survive we were going to have to change our old, passive ways.
Some of my kind absolutely refused to defend themselves and despite being much more physically powerful than man, they were quickly slaughtered by the swarms of humans that considered my kind a threat to their entire way of life. Most of us now hid ourselves much deeper in the caverns that had become our new homes. We hid in them in fear: eternal gut-gnawing fear.
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My granduncle, Lateran became the first Dragon to fight back; he was an old, full blooded Grand Dragon and he was the size of a small mountain. When he emerged from the cavern that sheltered our family, the humans came swarming in from many hundreds of miles away. They had gotten used to us being easy prey by that time and thought this was going to be just the same old easy, hunting trip. They were in for a very, very nasty surprise.
“Kill them all!!” He bellowed from the entrance of his cave. “Kill them all for your brothers and sisters! Kill them all for your mothers and fathers! Kill them all, for your sons and daughters! Kill them all dead! KILL THEM ALL DEAD!”
He was enraged by the human onslaught and he took his anger out on those who came to kill him and his family. The smell of burning human flesh soon filled the air all across the land. And their screaming became its most popular song.
My uncle showed no mercy, traveling many leagues, destroying any human settlement he came across. His name was soon known and feared by all the human beings living at that time. He was the nightmare that human children dreamt of at night. He was the warning that human parents gave their children when they misbehaved: “Be good or Hell Spawn will come snatch you up in your sleep.” was their admonishment. That was the name that they quietly used for him among themselves.
Brick walls and castles were quickly erected in all of the human communities just in order to try and keep us at bay. But many of my kind were drawn to Hell Spawn’s lifestyle of violence, destruction, and obedience. For a long time, we were the true Daemon Gods of Fire. We were both faithfully worshipped and greatly feared at the same time. For many, many centuries, we were well fed by our followers, and we usually spent most of our days just relaxing near the mouths of our caves, lazily waiting there for the next daily sacrifice to come.
Our family ranks slowly began to swell again, but they never reached the numbers they were before The Great Disaster. Our younger offspring were, more often than not, eaten by their older, ever-hungry siblings to keep the competition for worshippers down.
Despite this, life soon settled into a sedate, steady routine. We all knew our assigned roles and spent the next few centuries in glorious, symbiotic harmony. Every few months or so, we flew out over the countryside just to instill fear in the hearts of all the human nonbelievers roaming far below.
Being raised in this violent culture of fear, hatred, and servitude I thought nothing of killing the small, ape creatures that continually threatened my kind. In many ways I enjoyed the excitement of the slaughter. In fact, I reveled in it.
I was young and arrogant back then and I thought nothing could possibly harm me or my exalted family. Those lazy days would just go on forever. I was soon proven wrong. It was at that time that I first encountered that damnable creature from Hell, Erin of Cavendish.
He was striking figure even for a tiny human. His armor was made of the highest grade steel and it was covered with razor sharp spikes. He must have traveled to and from the Orient for the technology to create such armor hadn’t reached these lands yet. And he moved with a power and grace that was unusual for someone wearing such heavy armor. He effortlessly leapt from his massive steed and shouted into the cave I was resting in.
“Come out foul winged Fire-Daemon! Come out to meet your fate!” he cried, unsheathing his well honed broadsword.
‘‘Run away little maggot, before I crush your puny, soft skull in.” I answered back lazily.
He stood his ground, paying no heed to my deadly warning and proceeded to advance toward my lair. He took each step like he was walking on thin ice. I could sense that every fiber of his being was focused on trying to determine just where I lay inside the cave. I watch with fascination, his slow methodical advance. No human being dared attack my kind in such a bold, solitary manner. Most humans had learned their lesson and accepted the fact that they could only hide in their castles when we were on the warpath. This one must be insane, I thought.
The ground shook violently as I rose up off of my ample belly and stood to confront this pesky, little nuisance. The small, prickly knight immediately regained his balance after the tremor and skirted like a cockroach behind an outcropping of rock that rang around the outside of my cave. I could hear his armor clanging about as he made the preparations for his attack. I felt sorry for the pitiful fool; he was obviously a superior example of his inferior species.
He sprang out with a swiftness that surprised me. How well I remember how that small, armored biped flashed across the cave floor, bouncing from shadow to shadow. He traveled so swiftly I was only able to catch his movements out of the corner of my eyes.
His blade had pierced my heart before I even knew what had happened. I stared in shock as the dark red blood slowly flowed down my barrel of a belly. The shock quickly passed and a dull throbbing soon started erupting from the wound; it quickly became a sharp stinging pain. All of the strength drained out of my legs and I dropped to the ground with a resounding thud.
For the first time in a very long time I felt real fear. It was the intense kind of fear that wraps around your heart when Death itself is somewhere nearby. I soon started to shake uncontrollably at the thought of this Eternal Darkness washing over me. “Stop you little pest….Please stop….” I weakly pleaded in desperation. “I don’t want to die!”
“Why should I spare you, oh Daemon from Hell?” the loud cry erupted out from the encroaching Darkness.
“If I am a Daemon then so are you little human.” I argued. “How many of my kind have you slaughtered, you tiny cockroach?” The old, unforgiving anger started rising up in my heart once again.
“I am Erin of Cavendish, you most foul beast!” He shouted. “How dare you compare yourself to me? I am not a mindless, soulless killer.”
“Neither am I, you damned human, but if we didn’t create fear in your hearts, your fellow monkeys would soon be here to try and kill me! To come here and kill my entire family!” I screamed back.
I was answered with a deafening silence that slowly filled the large cavern. The only sound for a long time was the harsh rasping gasp of my labored breathing; then the scrapping steel slowly rubbing against scrapping steel quietly emerged as I realized that the danger had finally been resheathed.
“I too have a family,” Erin answered back quietly, “and I also know what it is like to fight for their survival.”
He paused to consider his next move and then slowly walked out into the light. “I won’t be the one to put an end to their safety today but you and your family are forthwith banned from leaving this underground prison. If you break this ban, you and your kind will get no more mercy from us”
He took one sickening glance behind him as he left my cave for the last time, probably thinking that I was going to die right there and then, but unfortunately I lived on. And so did my family, at least for a while. But the humans soon returned and blocked the entrance of our cave with a large, heavy boulder, we were now sealed in.
And with Erin’s help, the other families were also slowly isolated and starved to death: the daily sacrifices had been banned forever. Our sacred meal ticket had been destroyed and most of our most devoted followers were now hunted down like wild animals.
Our food supplies quickly became depleted and we had no choice but to do the inevitable. We ate the oldest ones first, and then worked our way down from there. The end was very chaotic but I turned out to be the strongest of my kind in the end. It wasn’t long before I found myself all alone in this cruel, empty world. For a long time, I tried to convince myself that I was the last threadbare string of enlightenment that ran back millions upon millions of years. But I have finally come to the realization that our culture and civility have long passed on and that I am just a pitiful specimen of that former glory.
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My eyesight left me over a thousand years ago. And the heavy skeleton that was my powerful body now crawls blindly through the deep, eternally dark passages that form my damp, pitch-black prison. I am constantly, aimlessly, hopelessly searching for food. Small fish from the underground stream, along with rats, spiders and assorted small lizards that I run across constitute my diet nowadays. It is just barely enough to keep me alive.
Most days I just lie here in the dark and listen to the cold world out there. I am always tired, hungry, or depressed. But at these dark times I can occasionally captivate a passing stranger with an old story or two. This company is the only thing that has kept me from going totally insane after all these long, lonely years.
I have lived a very, very long life now, young master Campbell, but I fear…I fear… that I am… finally… dying… My nearly immortal coil has almost completely unwound itself now. I can feel the darkness slowly creeping into my old, calcified bones like molasses. I will soon rejoin my long, departed family. I can smell Death itself lurking somewhere very, very nearby now, sneaking up on me, embracing me, smothering me… Do you feel that, oh eternally young one… Do you feel that Erin?
Harrumph… my, it’s getting so cold now...so very, very cold now…
“Wait… Sir Wormblood… please… wait... I have so many questions to ask you…I have so much to tell you…” I pleaded, but I was answered only with eternal stillness. The silence grew minute by minute: hour by hour. Late afternoon slowly transformed into eternally dark evening tide. And as I sat there, I felt the ancient dragon magic of this place slowly fading back into the past. It was well past midnight before I headed off for home.
This strange, brief encounter changed my life forever. I must now shoulder the burden of its horrific, eternal responsibility. I was found guilty in the courtroom of my own soul: tried, sentenced, and convicted all in the blink of an eye. And it is a verdict that I can never share with anyone, especially my poor, innocent mother. The knowledge of it would crush her under its unimaginably heavy weight.
It is a Cross that I, alone, am going to have to bear and for the rest of my life. My only hope for redemption depends on whether or not those long, lost space faring families ever find their way home again. But even if that does happen someday, I probably won’t live long enough to see it.
And that’s a real shame, because I sure would like to tell them just how truly sorry I am.
The local constable picked me up in his ancient Peugeot as soon as I neared the outskirts of the village.
“Mrs. Cavendish, is this your son Campbell?” Constable Constantine asked my worried mother when we finally returned to our villa.
The End