The Fire Dragon

	I guess you've all read about Beowulf and how he was killed by a dragon. Well,
he had it coming to him.

	Perhaps I should introduce myself. I am Drac, sp. Draconis Draconis. In layman's
terms, I am a fire drake. The dragoness killed by that murderer Beowulf was a friend of
mine. The following is what really happened:

	While Brightflame was out hunting for deer one day, a slave, who had run away from
a nearby town snuck into her den. The gold cup he stole was inconsequential. The tales
neglect to say that he also killed and ate 'Flame's dragonet because he had heard some
barbaric farce that any one who ate dragon meat would be cured of all ills. The dragonet
was only a week old, and therefore defenseless.

	When 'Flame returned to her den and discovered the body of her young, she searched
for the perpetrator. His scent trail led right back to the town, where the slave had
returned to offer the cup to his master.

	Now 'Flame had an agreement with the town's lord. She would protect them from danger
if they left her alone. When she tried to get the townspeople to turn the slave over to her,
they refused. So of course she went on the rampage and set the whole place afire.

	Then that glory-hogging, overweening, foolish, too-old-to-even-be-near-a-battlefield
brutish bully Beowulf decided to slay himself a dragon. Never mind that were had been his
land's guardians for millennia. If he had just yielded up the slave, all the bloodshed would
have been prevented.

	So he fought 'Flame, and even though she tried not injure him, when he struck the
fatal blow, she convulsively swiped at him. Through his own stupidity, that idiot Beowulf
was standing in the way, so her talons ripped his throat out. And who gets immortalized?
That pain-in-the-arse Beowulf!

	After that, I left the area. In time, the other dragons either left, or, like 'Flame
were killed by glory-driven, ignorant fools. Brightflame's death marked the end of the
golden age of dragons. As for me, I later returned to pay my respects to 'Flame and knock
down a tower built in memory of Beowulf on the sandy cove where 'Flame died. The stars
twinkled above, and as I looked for Draco, the dragon constellation, I knew she was smiling
down upon me.