The Dragon's Gem
by Lisa Medaglia 1999

	The mountainy winds whipped and whirled about, flapping  Pantera's torn and tattered robe against her cold body.  For a black panther as herself, she was used to the warm climate of her tribe's village, but once she was out on a quest, there was no turning back.  The rest of the villagers thought that she was crazy, but they never dared to say so in Pantera's face...even though she was the village's Shamoness, she was also dubbed the tribe's best warrior ever, and had beaten many odds, where other warriors had failed before.

	Tilting her heard and slitting her eyes from the blowing snow, she continued her way up the mountain side until she reached the mouth of the cave.  Once she set paw inside, she shook the snow off from her back and placed her staff on her back, through the rope that was tied around her robed waist.  `This calls for stealt,' she thought to herself, `I'll need my paws free until my staff is needed.'  She tip-toed down the corridor, which led to a long, dark hallway, with the sounds of mild icecycles dripping from the ceiling.  As the hallway grew darker, she could feel the pupils in her eyes grow, until her pure blue eyes were nothing but dark, black, glazed marbles set in her sockets.  Everything around her appeared as if it were lit by the light of day...again, to her advantage.

	Stealthfully and carefully, she crept down the rocky hallway, and travelled a  good hour or so before the hallway began to  become larger in width.  Now she got down to all fours, so that to make herself smaller and non-noticeable, continuing her stealthness like a true warrior of the night.  She could feel her pupils becoming smaller now, as she approached a glimmer up ahead.  Closer and closer she crept, carefully planning each paw in a specific place along the rocky floor as the hallway disappeared into a flowing room of wonderous treasure.  Mountains upon hills of gold and treasure!  Treasure that was being guarded by a sleeping dragon...

	Quickly and quietly, she slithered her sleek panther body behind a small pile of gold and jewlery.  Peering out from the side of the pile, she slitted her narrow eyes at the dragon, observing it closely from her distance.  In the past, she had dealt with fire-breathers before, but never an Ice Dragon.  It lay in the middle of the cave, curled up in a large ball, with the wings folded, relaxed at it's side.  It's body was made of pure white scales, that glimmered a mother-of-pearl effect.  It had no mane, but in the centre of it's forehead, in between it's sleeping, dormant eyes, was a blue crystal.  Pantera was the last panther to think thoughts of beauty and awe, but she questioned herself, "How can such a wonderous and elegant-looking best, be so destructive and deadly?"

	The answer didn't matter to her.  That dragon had a special gem, buried deep with it's heart, and she was going to get it.  Forgetting the dragon's beauty, she calculated it's size...about 10 times bigger than she was...a relatively small dragon compared to what she's battled before; this shouldn't take long.  She lowered herself back to all fours again and crept up to the sleeping dragon.  Carefully, with her head low and her body just barely touching the floor, she could feel the shivery, icy breath with each of it's silent snores.  The dragon's muzzle was about as long as her body, and when she came close to the head, she raised herself to her hind legs and slowly slid her staff from her back.  Her staff was long and made out of enchanted wood; one end was branched out into three long, boney wooden fingers, which held a magical orb securely in place.

	One of the many ways, and easiest ways, to kill an ice dragon, was to shatter the crystal on it's forehead.  Pantera's eyes grew wild and she raised he blunt end of her staff above the dragon's crystal.  Sheer terror flowed throughout her body as the dragon's eyes suddenly flicked open, awake from it's slumber, and it's pupils focusing on it's soon-to-be assassin.  Letting a low, defensive grunt, it raised it's hind legs as a support for it's swinging tail, as it cracked the tip like a sharp whip against Pantera's paws, knocking the staff some yards away.

	Roaring in great pain over her bleeding paws, Pantera managed to leap out of the way, dodging the dragon's second defensive attack as it snapped at her with it's enormous jaw.  Using her leap for good use, she landed on the dragon's muzzle, holding it's mouth closed by wrapping her arms around it.  The draong then stood to it's feet, it's wings extended to nearly the full length of the cave.  It's emerald green eyes were filled with rage as it violently shook it's head, knocking it repeatedly into the side of the wall to try and crush Pantera's left arm; it's nostrils flared with each unsuccessful attempt.  Pantera grimaced as she managed to endure the pain of her forearm...she needed a destraction!  Keeping her hold around the muzzle with her left arm, she freed her right arm, and, baring her sharp, retractable claws, she plunged her paw deeply into the dragon's left eye.

	The dragon reared, hitting it's back along the ceiling of the cave and causing some small, loosened boulders to break free and tumbled towards the ground.  The dragon released a bone-chilling shriek of pain, as Pantera grabbed a fist-full of eye innards and yanked her paw out of the eye, sending a fountain of puss gushing down from the dragon's torn eyeball.  Pantera released herself from the dragon's muzzle, as it became pre-occupied by holding it's missing and half-torn eye, as the puss continued to ooze it's way between the dragon's fingers.

	The young shamoness landed on her feet-paws and gently massaged her banged-up left forearm...other than a few strips of flesh and fur hanging loose, there were no broken bones.  A mere flesh wound, according to the honourable panther warrior.  The dragon then shifted it's possition, and again, using it's tail as a whip, swung again towards Pantera, the tip just missing her feet-paws as she lept out of the way, grabbing her staff along the way.

	The dragon lowered its hand, exposing the missing eye, grounding itself for it's last resort of self-defence.  Pantera senced it too, as she could sence it from many other dragons before, and she readied herself in an attacking possition.  Holding her staff high in her hurt arm, she snarled at the dragon, showing off her white fangs as she growled out an enchantment wich made the orb on her staff glow a bright blue.  At the sametime, the dragon backed  it's head, swallowing as much air as it could, and opened it's fang-infested mouth, as released sharp shards of ice, some even grew larger as it approached it's enemy.  In the meantime, Pantera raised her good arm, and pointed it at the dragon, as a thick bolt of lightning arched from her staff to her good arm, and used it as a pointing rod towards the dragon, matching it's ice shards with her lightning magic.  Every once in a while, a small ice shard would jab her in the leg, or slash her across the face, but she kept her ground, becoming more and more angrier and impatient.  `The dragon has to breathe sometime!' she thought to herself.

	Sure enough, the shards of ice diminished, and the dragon paused for a moment, regaining it's breath.  This was Pantera's chance!  Muttering and spitting a conjurment in her native tongue, and continuing to point her good arm at the dragon, the lightning disappeared, and was replaced by a brilliant blue energy beam, that again, arched from her arb on the staff and weaved it's way along her good arm and shot out at the dragon, and entwined around the dragon's legs, neck and tail.  Startled at the force of Pantera's magic and power, the dragon moved and struggled to try and get the beams shaken off it's legs, tail and neck.

	No matter how much it struggled, the dragon couldn't break free, and the ends of the energy beams grouned themselves, forcing the dragon to the ground, his neck and tail were particularly ehld firmly down; so the tail couldn't counter-move, and it's head lay still before Pantera.  The energy beam that kept it's head down was so close towards it's head, that the dragon didn't even have any room to open it's mouth to snap at her.  Feeling helpless, it tried to flap it's it's enormous wings to know her down from the force of the wind it would cause, but it was too awkward to flap them in such a crowded cave.  It was no use in the dragon trying...Pantera had already raised her staff and shattered the crystal on the dragon's forehead, piercing through it's brain, sending it into a quick and eternal sleep.  Along with the death of the dragon, all magic ceased.

	Pantera lifted her staff out of the broken crystal, her staff was covered in the dragon's green blood, and she looked down and satisfactorily smiled.  The greater of her problems was now over...now to get that gem out of it's heart.  She walked over to the dragon's belly, and, extending her claws, she attempted to swat at the huge stomache.  She shrieked in pain and took a step back, holding her paw as she saw that left no mark against the scaley belly.  'There must be a way,' she thought to herself.

	She thought for a moment, then walked over to the head again, and stared down at the open skull of the dragon.  'It's messy, but I've done it before,' she thought to herself.  Sliding her staff back onto her back, through her rope belt, she took a deep breath and climbed in the huge hole in the dragon's head.  Extending her retractable claws, and closing her eyes to protect them from the dragon's blood dripping into thtem, she ripped, tore and sliced her way to the dragon's chest.  She felt around the still heart, and wiped the  dragon's blood from her eyes and blinked for a moment to confirm it was the dragon's heart, and indeed it was.  Again, she closed her eyes at the feeling of more blood trickling down her brow, she carefully felt around the great heart until she felt something hard and solid in the lower left chamber.  Using one extended claw, she used it as a sergical knife and cut through the walls of the heart chamber, reached in, and ripped out the gem that was held firmly in place by various muscles and veins.  

	Sliding the gem down her robe, so she would have two free paws, she made her way back out through the bloody, self-made tunnel.  She took a deep breath of fresh air upon exiting the dragon's forehead, and crawled out, usinig's it's useless brain as a cushion to step on to help herself out.  She was completely drenched in the dragon's green blood; it made her black fur slick and shiney and turned her tanned brown robe an odd colour.  She shook off the excess blood from herself as she had gone swimming, and took out the gem that was once in the heart of the dragon.

	She ripped off any existing flesh and veins from it that used to hold it in it's place, and shined it the best that she could with her blood-soaked paws.  It was perfectly round and it had the colour of a true topaz, with a sparkling effect of an opal.  Pantera smiled down at it, and then placed it back inside her robe.

	Finding a backpack along the treasure in the cave, she filled it with as much gold and jewlery that could fit in the pack.  She then flung it on her back and did something that no other panther from her tribe could ever do...she took hold of the dragon's tail and proceeded to drag the large carcass out of the cave, down the wintery mountainside, back to her village.  She had slayed dragons before, and this one was still on the small side...but it should keep her village from going hungry for weeks, maybe even a month or two.

	Her journey took a few days, but she was quite relieved when her tribe welcomed her back to the village.  A group of panther warriors came and dragged the dragon's body to the storage chamber, to keep the meat fresh.  Pantera then handed the backpack of the treasure to the Panther Queen, Myrrhana, a token of honour that she proudly displayed her tribe upon the slaying of the dragon. Being too exhausted to remain for her own ceremony to celebrate her victory and courage, Pantera retreated to her hut, washed and bathed the crusted, dried-up dragon blood from her fur and robe, and tended to her wounds.

	Her ear twitched at a crackling sound just shortly after she dressed.  A small hand broke free from the mystical gem, and then another, and then a small head emerged...a baby Ice Dragon head.  Pantera walked up to the gem and smiled down at the little hatchling.  The little white dragon looked up at her and made a small screatching noise and it continued to hatch from out of the gem.  There are no genders for Ice Dragons, and a single egg is always kept from harm, deep in the heart of the parent dragon...and the only way for a baby dragon to emerge, is for the parent to die.  Ice Dragons are also known to be quick learners, and train well as a pet.  Pantera smiled down at the little one, and slowly stroked it's head, planning out it's training carefully for the weeks to follow.

THE END