A Dragonstone Short Story
By Mark Even
When Loganna became the Lizard Queen, she bonded with the largest of five green lizardstones. The lizardstones came into existence when Loganna crushed a giant lizard’s green heart with a rock, killing the leader of the lizard herd. By defeating the lizard, she now ruled the entire herd and by bonding with the lizardstone, she became a powerful witch.
Over time, as the lizardstone tapped Loganna’s inner magic with her emotions, Loganna began to go mad with the rage and grief from her daughter’s death. Eventually, Loganna set out to rule the entire kingdom of Cladiclad and knew that the only way to do that was to defeat Phef the Wizard in battle.
She blamed Phef for her daughter’s death and became even more enraged when she learned that Phef had married a young woman from Talon and started a new family. Loganna went on a rampage, raiding villages throughout the land, practicing her magic so she could become powerful enough to defeat Phef. Using her magic, she spied on him and when she saw that he had taken his family away, she attacked the village of Talon.
Without Phef to protect the village, she easily defeated the guards of the village castle and killed all who opposed her. Even though the village’s baron was her own father, she rampaged the castle and took whatever she wanted. She found her father hiding in his throne room and demanded that he tell her where Phef had gone to. When her father tried to hit her with his golden scepter, she struck him down with a blast of green energy from her lizardstone.
Loganna picked up the scepter as she watched her father take his last breath and decided that since the scepter was rightfully hers, she would use it to wield all five of her lizardstones. Loganna went to the burning stables of the village and found the blacksmith lying among the wreckage. She told the blacksmith that she would let him live if he forged a new top on the scepter to hold the lizardstones, putting the largest at the top and in the middle with the other four stones surrounding it. She ordered her lizard herd to watch him and make sure it got done and gave the blacksmith one night to finish his work.
Loganna then went back to the castle and ordered the villagers to put on a feast and a party in her honor. Too scared to argue, the villagers did as they were told and cowered under the watchful eyes of more of Loganna’s giant lizards. At the party, Loganna and all of the villagers ate and drank themselves into a drunken stupor.
Months later, as Loganna was raiding another village, Phef the Wizard appeared out of nowhere and attempted to stop her. Loganna battled with Phef, using the power and might of the scepter with five lizardstones and forced Phef to retreat. As she began to launch a final attack against him, a familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach caused her to pause and Phef was able to escape.
A BABY! She thought. How could that be? And then she remembered the drunken party in the castle of Talon. Her spirits soared as she thought about having another child and possibly filling the gaping hole in her soul that was there since her daughter had been killed.
Loganna then went into hiding in the forest, protected by the giant lizard herd until the time of the birth of her new child. After a long and painful labor, her baby was born and Loganna was outraged that the child was a boy! She had wanted the baby to be a girl, to somehow replace what she had lost. With anger and disappointment, Loganna abandoned the baby in the forest and set out to conquer the rest of Cladiclad.
Shortly after she and her lizards were gone, Phef appeared in the forest for he had been watching her with his magic eye, hoping to come up with a plan to defeat her and stop her rampage throughout the kingdom. Phef rescued the baby boy and went to the little village of Brony where a young barren couple had recently taken over ownership of the local inn. Phef left the baby with them to raise as their own and warned them that he would watch over them to make sure they were good parents. Phef did not tell them whose child it was and the couple vowed to love the boy and raise him the best that they could.
Afterwards, Phef transported to a hidden valley, veiled by his magic, where his family and his valet where living. Phef summoned his dragon friend, Paction, and together they plotted a plan to end Loganna’s terror once and for all.
As planned, when Loganna appeared at another village, Phef transported there to confront her.
“Loganna,” he called out, “you must stop this senseless turmoil! It is I that you want revenge with! Come battle with me and let us end this!”
Loganna’s response was a green firebolt that Phef easily blocked. She then commanded her lizards to attack but suddenly they all stopped as an entire army of dragons magically appeared before them.
Phef shouted to the lizards, “The dragons will not fight you if you do not fight them. Loganna is not one of you! You owe her no allegiance!”
When Loganna saw that the lizards backed off and stood still, she was outraged and she rushed at Phef, holding her scepter out like a lance and shooting firebolts from its very tip.
Phef stood perfectly still, protected by some un-seen force and raised his staff above his head holding it with both hands. As Loganna neared Phef, a burst of energy from behind her struck her directly in the back, causing her firebolts to cease. Stunned, Loganna stumbled closer to Phef just as he smashed his staff down, striking the scepter directly at its top. A massive burst of energy exploded from the scepter, knocking everyone to the ground.
Phef’s apprentice came out of hiding from behind Loganna and said, “Your plan worked, Master. The scepter has been destroyed.”
“Not quite, my lad,” Phef responded, “It appears the scepter still holds the top lizardstone. What became of the other four stones, I could not even guess. Maybe some day they will turn up. But for now, we need to deal with Loganna.”
“She should be destroyed for all of the death and carnage that she has caused,” the apprentice said.
“That, I cannot do,” Phef answered solemnly. “For now, I think it best I banish her to a place that she can never escape from.” So Phef began to chant a spell that would send Loganna to a different dimension and place her in an endless trance until he could devise a way to bring her back and free her spirit of its rage and anger. Just as he was finishing the spell, Loganna became conscious and summoned her scepter into her hand, but was too late to use it and she disappeared from the world.
Phef spent the rest of his years repairing the damage that Loganna had caused, assisting the people throughout the land to rebuild and carry on with their lives. As Phef grew older, he also enjoyed his family, watching them grow and become good stewards of the land and of their magic.