Vivec and the Dragon

On the 15th day of the harvest when the moons shone over Red Mountain, our Lord Vivec traveled north along the coast in search of the perfect shade of green. His travels took him to a village beneath the foothills. Its people flocked to him, distraught, for a dragon of the north had delved into their kwama nest and eaten all their eggs. Here there was no muck to harvest, and the villagers would not last the coming ash storms without their eggs.

Lord Vivec, most venerable and fearless, ventured to the nest where the dragon laired. His name was Vudumaar, which means “the devouring terror in the falling dark.” His hide was as strong as stone and his eyes burned with the fury of a thousand ages. He saw Vivec and grinned, in the way that dragons do, for he was blind to our Lord’s own godhood and thought to make a meal of him in his hunger-that-was-not-hunger.

Vivec approached and said, “You will not know the taste of my flesh, little worm, but you will know the taste of my spear.” And he held his spear aloft so that it shined in the dark with the light of the moons. “Humble yourself, and give up your stolen boon.”

The dragon sneered, in the way that dragons do, and said, “You do not determine Truth, little mortal, for Truth is strength, and my maw has conquered kingdoms.” And the dragon Spoke with a Voice that had shattered mountains and sundered Nordic kings (who were strong in those days).

But Lord Vivec, most cunning and enlightened, did cover his ears and refuse to hear the dragon’s Words, and lo did the beast’s thu’um sputter from being.

The dragon erupted with fury in the way that dragons do, and brought the nest down around them. Vivec escaped unharmed, he could not be touched by mere stone. The dragon, however, had eaten too much and could not fly, and had its bones shattered beneath the earth.

Vivec approached the dragon, subdued by its own wrath, and thrust his spear into its throat, and so forced the dragon to spit up the eggs and its very soul, which he snatched from the air and spun into a cloak a satisfactory green.

This he gave to the villagers and said, “He who wears this cloak shall see Truth as plain as the moons, for humility is the greatest vantage. The dragon who looks to the sky is ever blind to the spear poised beneath him.”

And so it was here at this place that our Lord Vivec, most wise and understanding, demonstrated both humility and triumph.