by Dane Bagley
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Tira hung clothes in the early afternoon. She, like everyone of Agedon, kept herself busy and occupied. It helped to keep her mind off of Terrence and what he was going through. Her house had been swept and re-swept a dozen times.
In the clear blue sky, a dark spot became visible. She studied it, wonderingly, subconsciously perplexed. It grew in size. Her expression changed.
“Dromreign!” she yelled.
Everyone’s eyes turned in the direction she pointed. In short order, the screams and the yells brought everyone to awareness of their impending doom.
A few of the people fled to escape the confines of the city. Most ran into their wooden homes, providing nothing more than a psychological protection. Tira also ran into her home. But, she quickly returned brandishing a shield and some spears. Others followed her lead and brought out what weapons they could find, those not carried off by their army.
The twenty or so brave young women clustered together with their shields and weapons drawn, not unlike the last group of men from Agedon, so recently incinerated.
The dragon’s eyes were drawn to the shimmering weapons and the small group gathered together and flew directly towards them. They hurled their weapons unskillfully and far too quickly. None even scratched a scale. The women hid behind their shields and the dragon blew flame, not powerfully like he’d done to the men and to Terrence, but rather weakly. His strength was not at stake, but he desired to gently roast and then consume the women, which it did.
This further emboldened Dromreign for the great task at hand. Never before had it tried such a great conquest, and in the middle of the day, no less. Agedon was a dozen times larger than the largest village the dragon had consumed in a night. Dromreign started out slowly, methodically, pacing itself, as it set every building to blaze. Hours would transpire, and periodically, a small group would leave a building to flee. These brought additional nourishment to its dark soul. It killed and consumed when possible. At length, the black dragon flew higher to witness its destruction. It circled the city and torched anything left unburned. Whether anyone survived the destruction of Agedon that day, no one survived long. No survivor of Agedon was ever heard of in the land, thereafter.
Chapter 25