Graves Locknes and The Mad Queen

Hey everyone! So happy to be posting my first original short story, taken from an awesome writing prompt! I have a ton more work that I can't wait to show to you all, but for now I hope you enjoy this story of mine! Thank you so much for the support!

-Semantics

Writing Prompt: You are on the run from a dragon. Not because it wants to kill you, quite the opposite in fact. This dragon hoards powerful adventurers and unfortunately your skills caught its eye. Now it will stop at nothing until you are part of its guild.

Graves Locknes and The Mad Queen

    He couldn’t believe he was in this situation again, it feels like this is the 100th time this decade that he found himself on the run. Luckily, aside from being the most daring adventurer in the land, Graves Locknes was also the fastest runner this side of the Merculian mountains. However, this was no typical foe he was outrunning, Graves found himself fleeing from the most powerful and insatiable dragon in a thousand generations, Queen Seducia, and she wasn’t going to stop until she had Graves for herself.

Just for clarification, Queen Seducia wasn’t chasing Graves because he robbed her, or burnt her armada, or slept with one of the soon-to-be-wed princes or princesses, although all of that would be considered typical Graves. Queen Seducia was after Graves for exactly those reasons; she was looking for daring adventurers with no regard to the rules, warriors to accompany her on the most miraculous and perilous missions. And none fit the bill more than Graves, he had been a legend for hundreds of years now. Rumor has it that his father was a warlock and his mother was a Nereid, and on his 20th year his father cursed him with immortality. Although Graves has neither confirmed nor denied these rumors, most believe it to be true because of his excessively long life span and adept nautical ability. He earned the nickname “The Gray Sea'' when he was charged by a fleet of warships and he reduced them all to nothing but a gray cloud of soot and haze. Since then he has been generally laying low, with the occasional night or two where he boasts of his glory in a drunken stupor. Unfortunately, last night was one of those nights.

Graves was 14 pints of ale deep when he started spouting about his adventures. 

“The Wrath Dragon of Dungreag was a play toy. He made the Merculian Serpent King look like a real monster. I swear...” 

Graves took another large gulp and finished his ale. 

“...I’ve had hounds that could rip that thing to shreds!” 

The rest of the tavern looked at him in awe and fear. Graves noticed certain figures slink away when he mentioned who he was, but he was too drunk to care. After a few hours of boasting and flirting, most of the bartenders and drunkards had gone home, and the tavern was nearly empty. Until, suddenly it wasn’t. The tavern began to fill with men in black cloaks, none would identify themselves or speak, they just surrounded Graves. So Graves did what he does best, and he did it without missing a beat. Within a few minutes the tavern was empty except for the corpses, he would have left but Graves had nowhere to sleep, so he found a comfy stool and dozed off.

When he woke up he felt a strong heat around him. The tavern was still empty, in fact it looked like most of the tables and metal had melted. Graves grabbed his long dark cloak, which was immune to heat, and sauntered out of the establishment. When he walked outside he became aware of why everything had melted... it’s because everything was on fire. The entire village had gone up in flames and not a single live villager in sight. Graves felt the ground shake and saw a shadow appear over him. He turned around and looked above the tower to see a large dragon with shiny silver scales and large, scarred wings. 

“Perhaps you are the hero I have been hearing about” The dragon said in a soft, seductive voice. 

“You killed all my Black Paladins, and even now as I stand before you, you do not even flinch.”

Graves stared dead into her eyes, then spit on the ground.

“You need something? I got places to be, and this area has gotten a little too hot for my liking.”

The dragon smiled and her eyes lit up.

“You clearly have no idea who you’re speaking to. I am Queen Seducia, and I will have you as part of my guild or I will turn you to ash. Choose now, human!”

Graves smirked and wrapped his cloak around his shoulders. 

“Oh, I see there’s been a miscommunication. No worries, I know reptiles are no good at hearing, with the whole no ears thing.”

Queen Seducia became enraged, and in a split second she shot down a storm of fire onto the spot where Graves stood. She cocked her head back, and stared down onto the blazing inferno. Her eyes widened when the flames began to die down, and she saw a dark figure in the center.

“You know…”

The figure came closer and revealed itself to be Graves, completely unphased. 

“Whoever told you I was a human, really doesn’t have your best interest at heart.”

The Queen smiled ferociously, this is the warrior she had been waiting for. She bent over to dive down and grab him, but before she could, he threw an assortment of knives at her eyes and underbelly.  She let them reflect off her impenetrable scales, but she didn’t expect the smoke bombs that were attached to them. 

An explosion of black smoke surrounded the air, Queen Seducia yelled out in frustration and flew high above to regain her vision. Once she was up in the sky and her eyes started to readjust, she looked around rapidly and saw Graves running towards the sea, going faster than any human could.

She flapped her wings with anticipation and licked her lips. 

“This is going to be fun!” she said as she took off in his direction.

Graves flashed back to reality, it felt like he had just lived the past day over in his head. He turned back and saw the angry Queen flying at him in the distance.Graves was a good 2 miles ahead of her, but being the biggest dragon in a ten thousand mile radius gave Queen Seducia quite the advantage. She swooped down low as soon as she was within range of him, but Graves had the hops to repel her. Everytime she dove down he would jump up as high as he could, and when she would turn up towards him, he would launch down with all his might. This went on for a few miles until they arrived at the shore.

Graves was relieved to have reached the sea, he had always been at the top of his game when near the water. Although he didn’t think he needed the help, he had grown bored of this encounter and wanted it over with already. He started to get more volatile with his jumps and dives as he approached the water. Queen Seducia became excited by this and began to follow his lead, going full force up and down in an attempt to catch him. Graves kicked off the land with all his might to get as high above the water as he could, with Queen Seducia closing in on him. 

She finally got right behind him and opened her mouth to light him up again, when she suddenly felt her jaw close quickly. She could no longer see Graves and in an instant, she felt a force push her upward. Graves had anticipated when she was going to open her mouth, then he kicked off her lower jaw to dive directly in the water. The Queen lowered herself to the base of the water, she was infuriated and no longer had sight on Graves. She became enraged and began shooting fire balls into the water randomly.

“ I know you are here! You can’t get away from me, Gray Sea! I will have you if it’s the last thing I ever do!”

She continues to blast fire into the sea, causing the water to boil and mist to rise up. She seizes her fireballs when she hears a loud splash, she flies to the spot and sees nothing. She then hears another splash, and another. She looks around rapidly just to see more and more splashes, until it ends with one big splash of water that goes higher than any of the others.

“You think these distractions will get rid of me? I am the most dangerous and determined Dragon this world has ever known! Nothing you can do will stop me from having you, you are too perfect for my guild. Besides, isn’t that what you always wanted? Adventure and glory galore? You can have it all if you just join me.”

The Queen looks down at the water, waiting for a response, but she hears nothing. She begins shooting fireballs directly downward until she gets some type of response. Then, she starts to hear something, almost like a tiny whistle. It sounds faint at first but then gets louder, as if it’s getting closer. She sees nothing around her or in the water, but when it is already too late it hits her. Queen Seducia gets floored by a rapidly descending Graves and plummets down into the water. Unbeknownst to her, the splashes were a distraction so she wouldn’t pay much attention to the final splash, the one he used to disguise himself launching out of the water. Once Graves was high enough he set his sights on Queen Seducia and started rocketing down towards her. She never knew what hit her and by the time she did, she was deep in the water, where Graves had the clear advantage. 

A few hours later Graves emerged out of the water and onto the shore, there were many onlookers noting that a large dragon had gone underwater hours earlier and still hasn’t resurfaced. Some Black Paladins were there to confirm their Queen’s death, and return the news to the rest of her guild.

Graves thought about how he was now going to have to fight off an entire guild, hellbent on revenge. He took his right shoe off and emptied it of the sand, seawater, and silver scales, then he let out a long sigh.

“Well this is gonna be a hoot.”