Chapter One

The rising sun glistened over the quaint town of Kestramoore, the running rivers shimmered in the suns beaming glow. Cattle grazed on top of the Moore's, seeking the freshest blades of grass speckled in the morning dewdrops. All was quiet through this peaceful villagers town. It had been peaceful for 100 years this day, for today was the celebration of Delvin Nic Marthuna, for he alone had taken down the beastly creature from the depths of ifreann with his brute strength a hundred years ago.

Banners hung high in the colours of green, white and orange. Stalls had been set up going back as far as they eye could see with Oysters, Mussels, and other shellfish that was foraged from the coastline. On other stalls lay wild garlic, wild watercress, myrtle berries, grouse, all kinds of wild birds all sorts of wild animals. Some lay finely cooked on roasting spits. On stalls stationed outside Taverns were decorated with assortations of mouth watering ale, whiskey and stout.

Somewhere in this petite village a woman had awoken from her slumber:

"Kiarnan Nic Cuineain wake up, I won't be asking you again!!" A stern voice screeched from down the hall.

"I'm up, I'm up! calm yourself down, lord help me get threw this dammed day.." Kiarnan had rolled off of her bed and stared at the sun shining threw her window.

"Kiarnan! Kiarnan! Kiarnan! Oh please hurry up! I want to taste the Myrtle berries and the Ale!" A small lad with bright blue eyes had ran into Kiarnan's room with paint scattered across his face in the style of a Warriors and he began prancing about waving his wooden sword.

She looked at her younger brother and smiles slightly. "Aye Rian, just stop that loud galivanting, it's way to early"

"Weather it's 3am in the wee hours of the morning or 12pm in the afternoon when I say you're to wake up, you listen and wake up!" The screeching mother of the two had walked in and had thrown ice cold water on the pair of them. "There, that'll shake off what ails you so!"

Kiarnan and Rian looked at their mother with pure hatred as they both nodded, Rian left the room immediately as did the mother. After the Cuineain family dressed for the occasion they joined the townsfolk gathered in the centre of Kestramoore to hear the Lord's speech before the celebratory events could commence.

A small man appeared from the vast crowd and stood on top of the village well and addressed the people in a shrill tone. "Hear ye, Hear ye! Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the 100th celebration of Delvin Nic Marthuna's greatest fight against the monstrous beast! Our celebration not only signifies his brute strength, but also his valour for it was his courage that helped him win against the fiery beast. So as you celebrate this day together. Remember the qualities of a Warrior that he showed and act upon it as he once did...now let the celebrations begin!!!"

Throughout the day children laughed and played mock battles with each other as the Bards played their flutes and banged their drums in unison, Menfolk drank until the stalls had not even one drop of ale, whiskey nor stout to give out, women sang and danced their hearts out, swordsmen put on incredible matches to show their strength against other competitors.

The sun had begun to set when the Bards drumming sounded more the the steps of a giant growing louder and louder, drawing closer and closer. The screams of delight soon turned into shrieks of fear and pain as the beautiful clear night sky turned black with smoke and ash. Vibrant orange and red flames flashed violently through the smoke as a large dark and shadowy figure swooped down and grabbed men, women and children with it's ginormous paws and dropped them from a great height.

Kiarnan looked for her family with great worry, almost everyone in the village had been burned to ashes or skewered by great talons, even the Lord's body lay lifeless and mangled and entwined with the guts from other people.

"Mam? Rian whe-" Kiarnan had ran to her home, it's beams burnt to charred wood and it's mossy stone walls crumbled to the floor, family heirlooms lay as dust settling on the floor amongst the ashen wood.

"Kiarnan!! It's mam! I can't find her and I've looked everywhere!" Rian rushed to me and clung to my side shaking with immense fear, my brother had turned into his 5 year old self...

"I'm sure she's....." Fine? Dead? Lost? Truth was she was most likely a victim of the beast, but I couldn't bring myself to tell him that. "I'm sure she's fine, she may be fleeing to the next town?"

"You think so...? Well we should go after her! She may need us like we needed her! Come on! Let's go before that thing gets us!!" He had pointed to the sky.

Overhead the dreaded beast circled Kestramoore, this creature looked and sounded like what Delvin Nic Marthuna had once killed, this creature was a Dragon. It dove down almost majestically and landed breathing it's hot molten breath at the ground in a circular fashion. Kiarnan remained hidden behind a beam, ever so slightly peeking out every so often to see what this creature was doing. After a few times of the beast circling it, it tilted it's head in Kiarnan's direction and sniffed at the air, as the dragon turned to look at her a hand grabbed Kiarnan's arm and pulled her away.

"I- Rian!! Stop! It's searching for us!" I shouted in fear but my brother kept running and running.

A thunderous roar was heard and the sound of wings being flapped invaded our ears as we ran faster onto the wide open fields of Windermere. I turned my head to face the beast who was now chasing us and rapidly catching up to us

"We have to keep moving! It's too big to follow us into the forest!"

My brother dragged me into the forest and as we hid under the foliage we saw the dragon fly away into the horizon. At last we were safe....for now.