Peter and the Dragon

The Story Pitch:

Long ago, in a world very different from ours, a dragon lived in the cliffs by a fishing village.

For as long as anyone could remember, the villagers left the dragon alone, and in turn the dragon left the villagers alone.

One night, a light fell from the heavens, lighting up the night sky and crashing into the ocean.

Shortly after, the attacks began.

Livestock torn to pieces, wreckage of boats washed ashore with no traces of their crew.

One morning the village was attacked by a terrible force. Amid the violence, terror and rage the villagers saw that the once peaceful dragon had become possessed by a great evil.

Among the victims, was the villages net mender and rope maker, Ben.

Driven by grief and anger, Ben's apprentice Peter ventured deep into the woods in search of a powerful witch, with her magic, Peter believed there was hope in defeating the evil beast. Many from the village believed he would never be seen again.

Days later, a delirious Peter wandered back into the village, feverish and mumbling, the young man was covered in spider bites and sputtering deliriously about magic.

Shortly after Peter’s return, the dragon appeared at the villages docks- it's scales covered in a flowing black growth, it's movements erratic and angry, like a rabid animal, its jaws frothed and snapped as it approached the village centre.

The villagers fled in terror- but one young man walked against the fleeing crowd. A knight had arrived clad in strange red mask and armed with nothing but a short sword and a rope he confronted the demon.

A battle ensued, the young knight moved with a speed and strength that the villagers could not believe, using his rope like a whip, he avoided every lunge of the massive beasts claws, and every snap of the dragon’s jaws. Leaping upon the back of the monster, the knight fell blow after blow with his sword.

But no amount of damage seemed to quell the dragon’s rage, and with every passing moment, it got closer and closer to devouring the small red knight.

Retreating away from the village, the red knight fought the beast straight to the lighthouse, and to the villagers astonishment, starting climbing its sheer wall with an impossible ease.

Up and up the Knight climbed and The beast raced behind, claws ripping into the stone pillar.

With no escape atop the lighthouse, it seemed the the battle would soon be over.

Barley ahead of thrashing claws, the knight leapt atop the lighthouse, his sword striking the fog bell, a warning toll every sailor dreads to hear. But not today.

To alls surprise, the dragon screamed and fell from the lighthouse in a crash, convulsing in pain at the sound of the bell.

The dragon convulsed, its skin seemingly ripping itself free from its body, a black mass erupted away from the beast revealing bright scales of the Dragon the village once knew.

It screamed an unworldly roar, clawing at itself, tearing throbbing chunks of black mass away from its head and chest, all to the sound of the Knights sword on the fog bell, ringing over and over again.

As the dust settled, and the last chime faded, what remained at the edge of the village, was the familiar sight of the scaly blue dragon, and a small throbbing mass of inky black, no bigger than a loaf of bread.

With a ragged roar the dragon erupted into the sky, and flew out to sea. Never to be seen by the village again.

Gone from atop the lighthouse, the red knight had also disappeared, none from the village had any ideas on where the saviour had come from, or where he had gone... but the tale of the Spider-Knight and the Dragon quickly spread across the land.

The end.

Post Script:
The black mass of evil was carefully secured by the local Constable Brock in a water-tight chest, and was locked securely away, no one knows where.