Since I first heard about the dragon I’d anticipated this day. It has surpassed all expectations. The dragon is real. A true giant standing proud on a table mountain, lording over the jungle.
Nothing prepares you for the night when you first see the dragon’s fire, a scarlet flame shooting across the sky.

2nd

The expedition left later than planned due to my oversleeping - local hooch last night, which I’ve inevitably christened “Dragon’s Fire” - Beware!!
Still, progress was better than I could have hoped. The village men seem keen to deliver me quickly to the base of the mountain - they have families to return to (and some of my money).
Made camp in a spot where the dragon could watch over us.

Kept away from the hooch.

3rd

The jungle thinned out as the terrain became rocky and we made fine time. I agreed that the men could go home - away from their cursed mountain.
I camped alone comforted by the noises of the jungle and the dragon’s glow.

4th

Climbing. Climbing. Climbing.
It was a day of nothing else. Hard work but good progress. This trip seems blessed, this dragon benevolent. No sign of a curse.
I could not see the great dragon, nor its flame from my tent - but I dreamt of it.

5th
Climbing. Climbing. Walking.
I made it up unscathed. Tomorrow I will touch the dragon. Touch the fire. Take it.

6th
Today I touched the dragon’s fire!
I put my arm down the mouth of the dragon and touched it. As I suspected it is an unrivalled ruby. There is some sort of light behind. A trick of geology or biology? Whatever, at night it is the ruby’s light that makes the fire from this ancient dragon.

My arm is now trapped by some devious stone mason’s device. I know I’ll not leave here until my body has withered, the dragon snapped and my bones blow to dust from this mountain.

Please let it be known that I [signature illegible] was the first recorded person to reach the dragon and touch its fire.



_____________________________
From the Flash Friday 2013 Flashiversary