Dragonfire

Writober 2025: Day Twenty-one Dragons>Response Post

🔗Links in the Table of Contents are Jump links to my responses to each of the challenges
🐦‍⬛This is original work created by Maria L. Berg and this post counts as copyright. All rights reserved.

🎃OctPoWriMo 🦇Writober Flash Fiction 👻Halloween Photography Challenge

Today’s Theme: Dragons

These are my responses to the prompt post for Day 21 of Writober: Guarding the Hoard with Fire

OctPoWriMo

Clear Skies

the sleeping dragon already took all the treasure
nothing is left within the walls that shines in the light
no precious metals, or carved and polished stones
set to be worn to define value or wealth
there’s a sudden equality when

~the sleeping dragon isn’t burning the village~

there is no threat of fire from above
the people in the market are not coughing and choking 
from smoke, not screaming and running for shelter
diving into the mote around the castle: the drawbridge is down 
because the knights are going to fight the dragon

Writober Flash Fiction Challenge

Fire Breathing

Derrick hadn’t felt right ever since he went spelunking in Dragon’s Cave. He had found a vent and gone deeper into the cave than anyone had before. The vent opened to an enormous cavern full of bones, stacks of bones, a mountain of bones. Somehow a sulfur wind roared through rattling the bones and making Derrick feel sick. He felt hot, like he was on fire and both the smell and the sound stayed with him as he climbed out of the cavern, and were still with him a week later. 

He had had the strangest thoughts since returning home. He had exchanged his savings into gold coins. Poured them onto his bed and slept on them even though it was causing bruising that was hard to explain. He was attracted to anything shiny, rudely grabbing at people’s jewelry on the street and at work. And an infinitely deep ancient voice echoed cavernously in his head at all times saying that it will burn him with his fire. No matter what he ate, he was hungry for more meat, rarer and rarer meat. 

Tonight he was so hungry he couldn’t sleep. He smelled sulfur and saw swirling flames behind his lids every time he closed his eyes. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. “What do you want?” he screamed. “You’re killing me.”

“Turns out we dragons don’t live forever. My spirit had been trapped down there ever since they threw all those plague-death bodies into my cave, and I thought they were sacrificial offerings. I had been so interested in protecting my hoard, that I had neglected my fire-breathing duties and the city over my cave had been ravaged by a devastating disease.”

“Are you saying I . . .”

“Need to burn? Yes and I intend to go scorched earth.”

Halloween Photography Challenge

Today I reset my mirrorworld. At first, I tried using two LED light curtains but LED’s alone didn’t create clear enough shapes, so I added some green string-lights. In the paper filter I cut, I tried to capture all of the different aspects of the dragon that represented my deepest fears. I was surprised my final results were more floral and less fear than I intended. But after all my blurry dirty-gray sighting images, it was fun to get back to the pretty lights.