Good Evening, hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I am back today with another Daily Writing exercise. Please leave your feedback and your own responses to the prompt. If you like what you are reading here, I would encourage you to check out not only my other Writing Prompts, but also my books as well!
Prompt: The Dragon’s Librarian: A dragon hoards not gold but books in a library deep within its mountain. When a thief comes seeking a particular tome, they find an unlikely guardian and an even more unlikely friendship.
Genre: Fantasy
Source: 65 Enchanting Fantasy Prompts to Spark Your Creativity
Time Spent: 90 minutes
Word Count: 1923
Prompt: The Dragon’s Librarian: A dragon hoards not gold but books in a library deep within its mountain. When a thief comes seeking a particular tome, they find an unlikely guardian and an even more unlikely friendship.
The crescent moons lit up the sky as Cassia Mera made her final assent to the top of the The Dragon’s Horde, the largest and most remote mountain of the kingdom of Mavorn. It had been a long climb that had taken nearly two days, especially since she only climbed at night, which slowed her down significantly.
Cassia was a scholar and musician, interested in studying some of the lost musical arts of her people. She had found multiple references to a tome called the The Secret Songs, which was said to be a compendium of the greatest of these ancient works from the First Dynasty of the Mavornae. It had taken her nearly a year to discover that the only known copy of Prince Gravin’s work had been in the city, which once sat at the feet of The Dragon’s Horde. The city has been Blenraeon and the Mountain at the time was called Vorkar. That had been before the dragon came.
Out of the west had come a great dragon. Tales of the time spoke of the dragon having grown jealous of the power of the Mavornae and come to humble them. It has always struck Cassia as rather odd, given that the dragon had gone no further than the mountain it had made its home, but there was no questions that the Dragon Crusades to oust the creature had led to the destruction of Blenraeon and the destroy of their armies had led to the fall of the First Dynasty and their century of subjugation against the Dwarves of Falkor.
Cassia had resolved that recovering this lost work was worth the risk and, given that nothing had been heard from the dragon in decades, at least, she felt that she could sneak into the mountain and back out. Her research had revealed to her a scouting path that would lead her into the ancient refuge which the Dragon had seized. She reached a small fissure in the rocks and, making out the map she had found as best she could in the moonlight, she lit a torch and slipped in.
She traveled a little way into the mountain before coming to a place where she felt she could safely hide her travel pack, so it would not encumber her. She made sure to eat some food and take a long drink, before taking a coil of rope and some other tools out of the pack. Once done, she tucked the pack in the shadow between two rocks. She was not sure who she was hiding it from, but old habits died hard after her youth spent on the streets.
A well fitted tunic and pants, both a dark gray, were all she cared. One of her friends had offered to lend her some armor, but if she was discovered she was not sure how armor of any kind would help against a dragon and might even serve to give her away. The rope was coiled about her waist and a belt with various tools as well. Cassia shoulder length read hair was tied up tightly to her head and a cloth of the same dark gray covered it. She was fairly short but had a clear muscularity to her. She sometimes wondered if there was some dwarf blood in his lineage, it would not have been uncommon in the capital, but given that she had little contact or knowledge with either side of her family, there was no way of being sure.
Cassia moved quickly down the tunnels, having to backtrack occasionally, but soon found herself in the heart of the mountain. Seeing what looked like firelight ahead of her, she doused her torch and moved forward cautiously. Coming down another stair, she was not prepared for what she saw.
The center of the mountain had been carved, with great care by what the occasionally corner indicated to be dragon claws, into a gigantic cavern. Everywhere throughout the cavern were stacks of books, in piles so neat they could only be deliberately and around the perimeter were even great shelves, many times her heigh, also filled with books.. Great fires blazed in multiple braziers and hearths around the room. A rhythmic breathing could be heard and, adjusting to the fires, she was finally able to see, curled at the empty center of the cavern, was a massive dragon, seemingly asleep. It was hard to see in the firelight, but to Cassia the dragon looked green. Wings were folded up at its back, the tops of both fore and hind limbs could be seen, and an incredibly long neck, matched only by a massive tail, ended up a massive head.
Cassia realized, in that moment, that she had not reckoned on how she was going to find the book she sought. She had found out where it was and there were reports of the dragon taking books into the cavern it had claimed, but it had never occurred to her what a large space she would have to search, and just how many books there would be. Checking again to see that the dragon appeared to be asleep, she went and start carefully inspecting the titles that she could see and trying to determine if there was any sense to the organization. She was able to determine pretty quickly that the section she had entered the chamber from appeared to be historical treatises, so she turned and started to walk across the cavern.
Cassia froze in place as she found herself staring right into the jade green eyes of the dragon, who seemed to be regarding her impassively. After a moment, the dragon breathed in and Cassia was fully prepared for that to be her end.
Instead, she heard, “so, what brings you to my home, little human?”
Cassia gulped heavily and struggled to form words for a moment before responding, “I seek a book, oh fearsome dragon!”
The dragon seemed to arch an eyebrow: “A book? Here? Have you no books or libraries where you are from. Have the people of. . .Mavorn, by the smell of you, really fallen so far?”
Cassia realized she had not blinked in several moments, so did so as she responded, “we do, a terror of the skies, but the volume I seek has been lost since you came to take up residence in this mountain. It took nearly a years work for me to discover that if any copy still existed, it would be here.”
The dragon made a sound that Cassia almost thought sounded like a chuckle, “human-child, forgive me you have not told me your name, you may stop with the grandiose title. I am neither particularly fearsome, nor terrible. I know not what your histories record, but I came here when your people raided and destroyed my own home. I came here for much of what was mine was taken to the city that once was outside the mountain, and I found the refuge your people had created perfect for my needs, with a few careful alterations. After that, I only defended myself.”
Cassia nodded vigorously, “I had always wondered at that, oh dre. . .sorry. My name is Cassia, and what is yours?”
The dragon raised its head and seemed to tip it forward in a kind of nod, “I greet you Cass, seeker of Knowledge. My full name would take several hours to say and you would not be able to pronounce half of it. I have been called by the mortal races, ‘Frajiara’. Now, tell me, what book do you seek and what was your plan when you found it?”
“I greet you, Frajiara. I seek a book called The Secret Songs by Prince Gravin of the First Dynasty. I have always had a love for music and seek to gain more knowledge and return some of the songs that were lost with the First Dynasty’s fall to my people. As for when I found it, I was going to take it an sneak back out again.”
The dragon seemed to chuckle again, “I sensed your presence before you even began climbing the mountain and how did you propose finding the book in my great collection?”
“I had hope your slumbered,” admitted Cassia. “and it had not occurred to me when I set out that there would be so great a horde, and all of them books, that I would not be able to quickly find what I am looking for.”
“What will you do with the book when you are done?”
Cassia also had not thought about this, but said, “once I have the book copied, with the utmost care, and had made what use of it I need for my studies, and own education, I can most certainly return it to you.”
The Dragon seemed to smile, “I appreciate your honesty and willingness to return a book from me. Books are my great passion. My size and power prevent me from many traditional interactions with the moral species, so they how I learn of things.”
With that, the dragon swung itself around, with surprising dexterity, inspected a stack of books from the other side of the cavern. After purusing the titles for a moment, the dragon seemed to find its goal and, carefully, with two claws, picked up a book, swung back around and carefuly handed it to me.
The book was a little larger than average both in weight and size, and a quick flip through said that this was exactly what she was looking for. The tome was in surprisingly good shape with only the artwork on the cover, said to including various kinds of festivals and plays, faded into obscurity.”
“Thank you, I shall return with this as soon as I came able.”
Frajiara seemed to regard Cassia with a kind of awkwardness. “Would you consider staying long when you return with it? I have had no company for many a year, much less one that has a passion for music and learning and books as I do.”
Cassia smiled at this and bowed again, hoping it came across as pleasant, and said. “I would be delighted, I have always dreamed of finding, or creating a library like this, and I would love to see what knowledge I can gain from here.”
Cassia smiled as she wound her way out of the mountain. It had been a long time since she had found a friend that enjoyed books and reading as much as she did, appreciated them, and the enjoyment she had clear through of trying to restore knowledge and bestow wisdom.
It was four months later that Cassia again approached The Dragon’s Horde. She had The Secret Songs, which were creating a revelation and already inspiring countless musicians. Cassia also brought a large supply of food with her, several of her musical instruments, and taking the risk, she went through the main entrance to the cavern.
“Did the book help you?” asked the dragon as it gently took The Secret Songs from me and put it back where it had been.
“Immensley, it was a wonderful reminder of some of those old songs and we have already started to learn them again. I brought my lute and several other instruments to give you a demonstration. And plenty of food for me to send somethines.
“That is perfect, Cassia, and I love music!”
Cassia smiled, she felt certain now that she had found a friend, and perhaps even a place to live and belong.
I hope that you enjoyed! I would love to read your response to this prompt as well and also what you think of what I wrote! Also, please check out my books and socials! Following my page would also be greatly appreciated!
I hope you all have a wonderful day, get the chance to do or experience something creative, and I’ll catch you on the next one.
– Jon
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