As liquescent a structure as ere had been born

Fluid in movement ancient evil forlorn

It rose from the surface as broken and torn

Through mirror like glaze the ragged head formed

Then took on the shape of mythological dread

The hunter and the scourge of the living and dead

Seeking blood and soul for a hunger ne’er fed

It rose every night from its hoard of a bed

The villages around at its mercy enslaved

To its will and its service when it sped from its cave

Deep within lake water cold as the grave

And it sought for its prey along tarns stoney shore

Cold hard rocks gave purchase to the legs at its fore

As snakelike behind it writhed serpentine lore

Dripping mucous dropped from the rank fetid maw

Scales of hard metal shed the pallid moonlight

Keen black eyed pupils pierced the night as if bright

Those who saw cringed at the terrible sight

Menacing and malignant beast’s cold beating heart

Razor like claws black knives of the dark

Terror inducing roar shaped the growl of blight’s bark

Spiked tail that it whipped left brutal spike’s mark

The villagers knew it would come just a matter of when

They planned and they schemed in their way of men

But against such a dragon who could they send?

When so many had tried and then failed again

One day came a stranger of the land of yore

So it seemed by his weapons and the clothes that he wore

Confidently speaking with the villagers he saw

Not intending to stay as he travelled some more

But the people saw a chance to hold him by law

And they plotted his detention by creating a score

As a bond so he’d fight at the dragon’s front door

A maiden they ‘suaded of rape she would cry

Of shame and dishonour and that he should die

They held him in prison for a year and a day

They said  they’d release him swore on their shades

If he’d fight the dragon and marry the maid

Before he would agree to do things their way

He thought and thought how the dragon he’d play

And a plan took some shape as he thought that he may

They fitted him with fine armour a new double edged sword

They released him to freedom as a man of his word

And he stood proud and strong in the sunlight en guarde

The road to the cave was hard wearing stone

The chill of the wind cut to the bone

He was cold and was tired as he advanced on beast’s throne

The dragon saw him come as many had before

It counted the notches three score and four

It drooled and it schemed as it watched from haunt’s core

The stranger he’d come from the land of the Goth

Where courage and valour were never enough

Shrewdness and cunning were part of his troth

His weary limbs clambered to the lake mountain loft

He spelled at the mouth of the ravager’s chamber

Took sustenance, slept and awoke with more vigour

For the maid who truly loved him gave magicked liquor

He advanced down the passage to scents of rot and despair

Knowing his fate awaited down there

Each step his last as he rounded each corner

Each shelter inadequate behind massive boulders

Fetid smoke clung to the walls and ceiling of each room

Grey light only to guide him through darkness and gloom

With the breathing of the dragon loud all to soon

His sense of foreboding filled the space as a tomb

Then the roof disappeared the walls out of sight

A gilded shape on the floor sparked as stars in the night

And the massiveness of the creature depicted such might

The stranger sang noble songs to himself to fend off his fright

Apparently sleeping he skirted the great shape

Hidden partially by his stealth and the grey of his cape

He sought out a soft spot near the neck or the nape

As he held out his sword and shielded behind plate

The dragon knew he was there as a dog knows a flea

Playing fearlessly with the stranger nonchalantly

Arrogant in its power of vast energy

To kill with a furnace quick violent deadly

The dragon’s eye was a slit tracking the moves of the stranger

The stranger was calming unaware of the danger

As he prowled and he sought with the skills of a ranger

The dragon plotted its move as for a babe in a manger

A flick of the tongue burnt much as acid

A drop of saliva turned all fresh meat rancid

The tip of its tail was as sharp as a lance head

It’s chances of murder it very much fancied

The stranger noted the eye movement below the eyelid

He realised under veil of sleep a wakeful dragon hid

And he thought of his plan to play the dragon with a bid

He called to the dragon. “I know you are awake you cunning thing

And I think I can beat you, of lake mountain I’ll be king

Because I have something you have not, a secret magic ring

The only way to use it is with the magic words I sing

Now the greedy dragon was curious and true to dragon lore

It  wanted answers fast it cut to the core

Because if there is one thing a dragon must have to adore

It is the thing it hasn’t got because a dragon always wants more

The dragon gave up its ruse of gentle breath and sleeping

It stirred its mighty body to a better position for peeping

It opened its emerald eye to seek the ring it should be keeping

And followed the agile stranger over dragon’s hoard leaping

The ring he said I hold with me has power to turn lead to gold

If you can sing the song of the ring I’ll bring it from its fold

And you will have riches beyond all the riches of times old

But in exchange for the ring I challenge you, your fire must go cold

Three questions you can ask me to learn the words to sing

If you learn the words I’ll give up the power of the ring

If you don’t you will give me what the people want to know

How to quell your fire until it’s cold as snow

The dragon thought on this and being arrogant and mighty

It took up the challenge knowing it’s  intelligence to be weighty

To beat a human would come easily and the ring it did so want

There was no fear of losing when it was effectively savant

Question 1 Where are the songs words to be found that I might read them?

Answer 1  They are unwritten in my memory is where I keep them

Question 2 What do they say that I might use them for myself?

Answer 2 They say that only I may use them or give them for another’s health

Question 3 When my health is so good, how may I learn the song please?

Answer 3 When you ask without threat and villager’s wishes you appease

The dragon considered pondered deep long and ready to refute

Then It came to a decision to make the whole discussion moot

Why not agree to these conditions accept riches share the wealth?

After all it had so much was tired of loneliness and stealth

Not to mention it still had home hearth and many years of health

I withdraw the threat of storming fire and death

If you share the rings secret I will quell my breath

If we can all manage this land without suffering for all

I will accept the people’s offer I answer yes  to their call

Th stranger sighed the deepest sigh ever heard from any man

As the weight of responsibility lifted and he raised his hand

Friend dragon unto you I make this oath.

We will share the wealth of our land from coast to coast

With that he turned to go to find his way back

Aware that the peace of the land was now a fact

A new purpose was in him with promise of a new life

Ahead lay a new community a new home a new wife

And he sang the song of the ring as he wearily trudged to the town

As each foot passed the other as each mile passed going down

“I sing the song of the power ring

For turning lead into gold

The ring that sings of powerful things

That only the truest can hold

For lead be lead and gold be gold

And none can change the two

Except the one who can answer the question of

How to share wealth away from the few?”