Saving The Last Dragonling by ZOT Created: 26-29th of May - 2008 Created with: Poser 6, Vue6i, PS ------- Another unsuccessful contest entry. - A story for it was also required. NOTE: This is resized down from a much larger image. For a look at a different version which is at the real size (2000x1333), please see my gallery here at ArtZone: http://artzone.daz3d.com/index.php?/gallery/user/vi/&mid=113244&aid=15327 ================================ ================================ A tale.... They say one certain thing in life is that you can't choose your parents or family. Our family had always been the poorest in the settlement and our village is so wretched that armies and raiders just pass us by without pause. No trade route passes close by and certainly no house of any royal blood is within a months travelling distance. It's a forgotten backwater of no consequence or note, very much so as is my life. I'm looked down upon by the other villagers, as is my family who are as honest as we are poor. But we don't live in servitude which is one saving grace, and what little we have is ours. We neither owe money nor have it. There's only my mother, father and myself for of our miserable relations the scant few who are still alive don't wish to know us, though as a child I can remember my welcoming old grandmother who lived alone in an old house by herself. I visited only a few times and she seemed far more bold and lively than her great many years would suggest. Of all our family she had the most spirit and life so I was saddened when she peacefully died in her sleep some months ago. As that's where things would have stood had I not been approached one day in the village by a old stranger who passed me a small decrepit journal bound by straps and a bronze clasp that seemed had not been opened for decades. I would have objected to being confronted by this man in such a strange and covert manner but said that he was following instructions from my grandmother who's precise wishes he appeared bound by some unspoken contract to complete. He seemed glad to be rid of the journal, the duty of delivering it, and of getting away from the area where I lived in which he had been forced to travel into. That night by candlelight next to my bed I undid the clasp, unbent the creaking straps, and opened the book.... A small glittery object fell out which I first took to be a leaf but upon closer inspection was something I had never seen before. Foolishly I simply intended to use it as a bookmark in my long reading. I soon discovered the journal was frankly written by my grandmother a long time ago when she was a young woman of great beauty desired by many for her numerous charms. As I read, a new dawning of her came to me as she detailed her life as a young warrior battling the dark forces of Lord Dinoraul and his monstrous minions which he bred.......of his eventual secluded defeat not by some great army but by her own hand with an enchanted sword......and of her saving of the last dragonling from the Jumperias..... Before turning more pages I looked up wondering into the starry night outside........does anyone really know of their grandmothers true life? The scale glitters........the adventure awaits. A tale....by ZOT (May 2008) ================================ ================================