Tales of Olde

By L. Alan

Death's rattle escapes the dragon's throat

In his victory, Raven does not gloat

The death of the dragon he sorely grieves

In reverence he entombs the body and leaves

Nothing is plundered for wizard, self, or king

Riding away, unsure of the path he is now taking

Homeless and exiled with a lifetime to wander

Is this a curse or a gift? He is doomed to ponder.

Enter a land of magic and mayhem. In the north are the snow-covered peaks of the Whitehead Mountains; and to the south are Burning Sands, Dragons' Teeth, and beyond. The Fates' whims challenge both mankind and dragons alike. Hero and villain are left to those who the Fates have marked from birth to choose.

Ancient lore and knowledge are left from the great city of Stuhlheim to guide the true and the stalwart on their journeys while adding confusion to those that stray, whether they be a young shepherdess or a seventh son, each having a part in the land's destiny. Will man and dragon come together against a common enemy or leave each to face their destruction alone?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9798890614513

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Introduction

Meldra's Curse

Erozohr's Fall

The Watchman's Tale

The Brotherhood

Berserker's Tale

Dragon's Egg

Wizard's Apprentice

Necromancer

Dragon Fire

Dragon's Shadow

A Silver Dragon

Crystals

Flames

A Final Respite

Acknowledgments

About the Author

cover.jpg

Tales of Olde

L. Alan

Copyright © 2024 L. Alan

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2024

ISBN 979-8-89061-450-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89061-451-3 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

For Heidi

Introduction

Wizard

A wandering wizard, gnarled staff in hand

Gathers knowledge throughout the land

Searching for the ancient forgotten lore

Seeking the keys to unlock mystical doors

His quest is both arduous and cruel

And by many, he is thought a fool

Always wary of crowds and strangers

The paths he walks fraught with dangers

As a simple beggar, he often appears

Yet the powers he summons inspire fear

Using the knowledge from lands afar

He reads the portents of the moon and stars

Words and spells are his stock and trade

As lands and men into evil fade

An oath he swore, the light to defend

Until his life or the evil does end

Through his journeys, he honors the pledge

While fate is balanced on a sword's edge

Meldra's Curse

Being harassed, and chased by man with his beasts

From the old kingdom to the wasted lands in the east

Meldra the sorceress plots retribution and revenge

For all her suffering, she swears she will avenge

As an old woman in the markets, plying her trade

Trinkets and charms with hidden portents made

Of love, luck, or money, simple dreams she offers

Satisfying her malice while increasing her coffers

Given a gold coin, in a charm, she will weave a spell

Taking the soul, which to the demons she will sell

For the old kingdom, her hatred knows no bounds

She has vowed she will see it torn to the ground

The horrors she has released on the kingdom's edge

Beating the peasants like a hammering sledge

To the kingdom came reports of a great beast

Destroying all living in the lands of the east

To assess the problem, the king must choose one

Of the three princes or the king's bastard son

Aldane, the oldest, heir to the crown and throne

The second son, Derriam, as a scholar he has shone

Holtane, the third son, having taken his vows to serve

Leaving the bastard son, Heldeme, if he has the nerve

Since the wearing of the crown, he has almost no chance

Only through others' deaths will his fortunes advance

The bastard prince agrees to go, hiding his greed

In envy, to buy a spell of power from Meldra his need

Braving the wasted lands' terrors and barren hell

After finding Meldra he purchases from her the spell

The price of eight gold coins Heldeme will gladly pay

For a charm where in it death's powerful spell lays

In taking the charm, Heldeme feels no shame or regret

As it is the only way he can think of the crown to get

Meldra explains the casting of the spell with the charm

So among the male heirs to him alone it will cause no harm

With the charm in his possession, he causes her death

As she dies, the coins she curses with her last breath

Greedily he hurries to pick up the gold coins as he grins

Unaware of the ultimate cost of this, his greatest of sins

The grand plans he has made to himself are pure wisdom

On the journey back, taking stock of the old kingdom

When into the kingdom's forests he again returned

Within his heart and mind his brilliance is burned

Since by the king he'd been sent on the royal quest

An audience with the king he will be expected to request

To give his report of Meldra's death and the eastern lands

And learn how the reward from the king now does stand

And knowing the king will include his other royal sons

He will release the spell, and the four, then, will be done

As of the royalty in the room, only he alive will remain

Then, as the only remaining male of the line, he will reign

Making his way back to the castle through the old forest

The peasants who live here are the kingdom's poorest

While daydreaming that the throne and crown are his own

He has forgotten that the threat of brigands has grown

Lost in thought, paying no attention to the path as he travels

When unexpectedly his plans are interrupted and unravel

As two bandits with swords unsheathed in the path stand

Stand and deliver, with menacing scowls they demand

Foolishly reaching for his sword, in death he is marked

By an arrow's shaft out of the forest's shadowy dark

Quickly he is stripped of his valuables and possessions

Then rolled from the pathway to a nearby depression

The bandits laugh as they gather their ill-gotten spoils

As around the gold coins, Meldra's curse begins to uncoil

With each thief wanting to make the charm their own

Even though its source and purpose to them are unknown

The few copper and silver coins they easily share

Over the gold coins and charm, their tempers flare

When each receives two gold coins, the fighting starts

Arguing over the gold as each demands a bigger part

The two that stopped Heldeme, demanding three coins each

It is because of their bravery the coins are in reach

The bowman and cutpurse both refusing to agree

An equal share of gold to each is supposed to be

Each man feeling by the others he is being cheated

Weapons are drawn, as the argument grows heated

With an unparried sword thrust, gasping, the cutpurse fell

With that the friendship and partnership went to hell

Fighting to the death, only the bowman still stands

While the blood of the others leaves stains on his hands

Laughing as he had only received a scratch on his arm

Gathering all the coins and then claiming the charm

The heavy gold coins in the pouch at his waist hung

Around his neck, Meldra's charm, on a lanyard, swung

Cleansing the blood off himself in a nearby brook

Staring into a still pool, he takes a long, hard look

His appearance now reflects a hatred and harshness

Of kindness there remains a lack and sparseness

In his being, a man now consumed, left evil and mean

Having scrubbed off the blood, he still doesn't feel clean

Into the old kingdom's