The Dragon of Duskhollow Wood

By Mabel Seyler

Everyone knows there’s a dragon in Duskhollow Wood.

Now, you might think that having a dragon living nearby would cause fear and chaos in Hollow’s Edge, the village on the border of the wood. And it did, in the beginning. 

When the dragon first settled here about twelve years ago, we were terrified. It came by night, the only warning of its approach the sound of its wings beating the air. The few who peered outside, unable to sleep or curious about the noise, saw a huge winged shape blotting out the stars as it glided overhead. Then the night was lit up as a long jet of yellow flames speared down and set one of the fields of grain alight. It swooped lower, and by the light of the burning field we could see that its scales were red, the deep rich red of blood. It caught up a cow and a sheep in its great talons and flew away into the trees of Duskhollow Wood. 

Every few weeks it came, stealing more livestock and sometimes people, and leaving flame and ruin in its wake. We stayed in our houses, praying the dragon would leave. If we had to go out we did so in large groups, hoping for safety in numbers. We weren’t the only ones. Merchant caravans started taking the longer and dragon-free coastal road instead of the Eastern Way, which ran along the edge of Duskhollow Wood. Any that had to go by the wood (and were wealthy enough to afford the cost) hired an armed guard of mercenaries or soldiers, even though they would be useless if the dragon attacked. 

Many knights came to slay the dragon. At first we were hopeful, seeing the noble warriors with their gleaming armor astride their fine horses. We thought surely these knights, known all across the land for their bravery and valor, would be able to slay the foul beast that had taken up residence in our wood. But once they went in, none of them ever came out.

Livestock were still eaten, crops were still burned, the occasional human was carried off to the dragon’s den. But life went on. The fields had to be tilled, cattle and sheep had to be taken out to pasture, the crops had to be harvested. Gradually, we got used to the dragon. We still hid indoors when it ventured out of the wood, but the problems and trials of everyday life slowly pushed the dragon to the backs of our minds, and life went on. 

Some three years after the dragon came, the village headsman, Marris Woodcalder, realized something: the dragon had fallen into a pattern. It would emerge from the wood, fly in circles over the area, set fire to some fields, snatch up a cow or a few sheep, and return to its den to sleep. Then, almost exactly nine weeks later, it would wake and do it again. 

Marris calculated when the dragon would next awaken from its slumber, and took a cow into the wood a day before it was due to rise. He tied the cow to a tree right outside the dragon’s lair, and then returned to Hollow’s Edge and waited. We all held our breath for a week, waiting for the dragon to come roaring out of the wood, but it never did. Marris and a group of other men ventured carefully back into the wood, and when they returned they reported that the cow was gone and the dragon asleep once more.

We could hardly believe it. All we had to do to keep the dragon away was sacrifice a cow or sheep once every two months, and it wouldn’t even leave the wood! The noise from our celebrations would have woken a hibernating bear, but the dragon never stirred.

Since then, we have had a few close calls, like when the dragon woke a day earlier than expected and emerged from its cave just as the men were tying a cow to the tree, or once when the sheep slipped its tether and wandered away and the dragon had to leave the wood to find prey. But we can sometimes go years without seeing it at all.

Occasionally a knight will show up to try his sword against the dragon, and we shake our heads and sigh and send a sheep into the wood with him because there isn’t much meat on a human and the dragon will probably still be hungry afterward. We keep his horse, as even a trained war horse will spook at a dragon’s roar, and the farmers now have very well-bred plowhorses.

Hollow’s Edge has prospered in the years since Headsman Marris figured out how to control our dragon. Merchants and travelers feel safe to travel along the Eastern Way again, and our inns are never empty. One young woman has taken to carving intricate dragon figurines and sells them to anyone who passes through. The little sculptures, known as “Dragons of Dusk”, have become quite famous. People come from as far away as Rosedale and Kepros to buy them, and some venture down the path into Duskhollow Wood to see if they can catch a glimpse of the dragon in its lair. (These people are known as tourists. We call them fools.) It has become a tradition, too, for couples married in Hollow’s Edge to be gifted a Dragon of Dusk on their wedding day, and most houses in the village have one perched on a shelf or mantelpiece.

Now, children of Hollow’s Edge grow up knowing that there is a dragon in Duskhollow Wood, and they are proud to live in a village so near to a dragon. Even those of us who remember the initial terror and dread of its arrival have long since accepted its presence in our lives. Everyone agrees that without the dragon, Hollow’s Edge would not be the same.