|
|
|
||||||||
|
Enth Tanenth
|
||||||||||||
|
Enth-tanenth was on the prowl. He often was. His soft fur was rustled by the light breeze. His sharp amber eyes with slitted pupils gazed at the world of swaying bamboo. He was a tiger, no, not a tiger. He was a tiger spirit. He was the guardian of this mountain. He could be a tiger, he could be a human, he could be a dragon, he could be whatever he wanted to. This was his mountain and he would make sure that no meddling humans would come to break the bamboo and to drive the animals away and cut the trees. He shook the moisture from his fur and continued on. Dawn was breaking.
Nothing was new. The pandas ate well but not so much as to damage their ecosystem. Birds roosted, humans stayed at a distance. A superstition had arrised about his mountain and most humans stayed away. That was good. Enth-tanenth didn't like to kill humans, it caused too much trouble, but often he had no choice. Wait... a foul stench apon the air... Exhaust fumes. Some where here. Enth-tanenth prowled to the base of his mountain to see them.
There were two, no three. Three and one of their foul-sounding, foul-smelling machines. They were talking. Enth-tanenth pricked up his ears to listen.
"Yeah, I think that this place would be great. We just need to clear this side of the slope. Maybe we could make the other side into a park or something."
"I don't know.. there is wilderness all over the place. Why would they need a park?"
"You're right. We should just buldoze the whole thing then."
"What about those legends? Something about a demonic tiger or something on these mountains..."
"Yeah, right. A tiger? They're almost extinct."
Enth-tanenth took this moment to let out a growling roar that filled the forest and echoed off the trees. Birds flapped and squaked and the two humans looked around frighteningly.
"Lets hire some hunters while we're at it," said one as he got back in the car.
"Yeah," said the other as they drove off.
Enth-tanenth drew his lip back in a feral snarl. They dare to intrude upon my territory? he thought as he prowled. Maybe I'll set up something to dissuade them. Enth-tanenth set forth to provide defenses for his mountain. It would involve the sacrifice of some of the inhabitants but their deaths would save others. Enth-tanenth began to lay out his plan.
When the humans arrived back at the mountain the woman with them turned green with shock. "Please tell me that I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing." Surrounding the mountain was a line of bloody entrails. Enth-tanenth had had to kill many deer and even a panda to get them but he had harvested enough to lay around the entire mountain. He had enchanted them with a warding spell so that no one could pass them. His mountain was safe.
"Eh... probably happens all the time," said one of the men nervously.
"A tiger, eh?" asked another. "Well we know how to deal with them." And they left. Enth-tanenth was alone on his mountain again.
But not for long. After the spell had worn off came the hunters. They were tiger hunters, poachers. Enth-tanenth knew that he was the only tiger on the mountain. The hunters were only too easy for him to avoid. He prowled through the long grass and underbrush quite freely without any fear of harm. Then they began shooting pandas.
This enraged Enth-tanenth. The pandas were gentle creatures not to mention rare. He set upon the hunters and left their partially devoured carcasses out as a warning. Now his mountain was calm again. Calm and peaceful. No humans....
****************************************************************************************************
It wasn't until springtime that Enth-tanenth had another visitor to his mountain. It was another guardian spirit, a female tigress. They mated and come summer a child was born, a male and just as fiery as his father with his mother's beauty. Enth-tanenth decided to leave the mountain to him. This was how he was wandering alone in the wilderness when the dragon found him.
Enth-tanenth rose up and roared but the much larger dragon roared right back. Then blinked. A human was sitting atop the dragon and he peered down at where Enth-tanenth stood. "Hey, you!" he shouted. "Would you like to come and be a candidate?"
Enth-tanenth narrowed his eyes. "A candidate for what?" he asked in a low and growling voice.
"Dragons of course." said the rider.
"Sure."
|
||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||
|
Enth-tanenth watched the egg in the pot. He hadn't expected to have to grow his own dragon. He hadn't thought that they needed pots either.... He felt the side of the egg. It seemed cool. He turned the pot so that the cool side was facing the fire. He was patient. He had lived on the same mountain for most of his life, of course he could be patient. Enth-tanenth regarded the egg silently and waited for its inhabitant to come forth into the world.
|
||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||
|
His name is Uskkimberackle! Story coming eventually.... : P
Head back home? The bamboo dragon is from Lantessama Isle!
|
||||||||||||
| page created with Easy Designer |