Aloysius suddenly looked up at Tom, saying softly: "Are you sure you want to know about this? You could just let it be a bad dream.."
"Oh for Christ's sake Uncle Aloysius! Please just get on with it!" Tom cried out exasperatedly.
Aloysius sighed and opened his palm, giving Tom a clear view of what he had brought out. It looked like a long sharp tooth that belonged to some kind of animal. But Tom knew it was not any kind he had seen, because the length of it was at least twice that of his uncle's palm.
The fang was very yellow and seemed at least a hundred years old, with a great jagged edge at the base.
"What is this? Did it break? Why is it broken like that at the end?" Tom peppered his uncle excitedly with rapid questions, his curiousity piqued by this strange tooth.
"Yes my dear Tom, it was broken. By someone..." Aloysius Radnog drifted off and glared at nothing in particular, caught in a sudden surge of angry memories.
"Tell me more, Uncle Aloysius!" Tom urged persistently.
"What? Oh... Okay. But remember, you cannot tell anyone. Not even your father!" The older man raised his voice at the mention of Tim Radnog and stared at Tom.
"Uh... Sure?" Tom stuttered, suddenly finding it very strange that both his uncle and father told him to keep whatever he saw or heard a secret.
"Mm." Aloysius nodded his approval at Tom's compliance and began his tale about the tooth he held in his palm.
The tooth belonged to a ancient creature named Zalorus and it was a majestic beast, standing over ten metres tall at full height. His wings spanned the space of houses and were so huge they dragged on the ground as he walked. He came from a lineage of Dralkons, and he was the last of them, as most in his family were butchered mercilessly by vicious merchants.
Dralkons were magical creatures, and ruled over all beings before humans came into their world. Possesion of a Dralkon tooth brought one infinite power, as it was a symbol that could command legions and no one will dare disobey.
Driven blind by greed, the humans hunted them down one by one and took their teeth by force, leaving the beasts powerless. Men were cunning and would stake out among Dralkon nests, holding their hatched offspring ransom for the coveted fangs. It was a cruel defeat as the beasts would rather lose their majestic power than to risk injuring their babies. Ofttimes, the fragile hatchlings would breath their last before their parent was released. In some ways, they were more humane than mankind as men exploited that weakness and rose to power, corrupted and evil.
It was a cycle that repeated itself till the extinction of Dralkon. On the day that Zalorus was held ransom, and his hatchlings were on the verge of death, Tirius Radnog saved him.
"You mean my Great Grandpop??" Tom interjected excitedly with wide eyes.
"No, your great grandfather's father." Aloysius replied, his tired face suddenly a great contrast with Tom's eager one.
Tirius was an honest young man of eighteen then, and he had a special fascination with Dralkons, enraptured by their power and grace. It was heart breaking for him to see the beasts driven to extinction but there seemed little that he could do.
On that fateful day, he was out gathering wood when he saw Zalorus chained down by iron, heavily wounded with a broken fang. The sight drove him mad and he almost acted upon instinct, raising his axe furiously, knowing that the Dralkons would cease to exist if Zalorus perished. But he held back and lowered his heavy axe, as he realised he was outnumbered against the mercenaries, so he had to use his wits instead.
Tirius' advantage was that the Dralkon's huge body hid him from the sight of the men, so he crept up to the left flank of Zalorus, keeping himself hidden from the view of both beast and men. He looked around the chains frantically and spotted a loose link near Zalorus' left wing, which would release the chains if broken. Using his axe, he hacked at it like a mad man until it finally snapped. Though it pained him to, he had to give a final chop of his axe to break the last bit of metal, which cut into Zalorus' scaly hide.
Feeling the sting from another cut, Zalorus bellowed, an angry roar echoing through the woods, and flexed his wing several times. As expected, the chains loosened and Zalorus realised he was free. He let out another roar, this time triumphant and loud, as he rose to his full height, temporarily blocking the sun from Tirius' view.
The soldiers nearby were thrown into a state of panic and terror, as they knew they were no match for the mighty Dralkon, since there was no more ransom to stop him. Before they could react, Zalorus raised his foot and brought it down on the leader of the group, crushing his skull into the dried leaves of autumn, sending crimson blood spurting wildly all over the dirty forest floor.
The silence that resounded after the final blood-stained leaf had settled was broken by a shrill cry from one of the men: "I-I-I don't want to d-die like him!!!" His frenzied cry caused fear to spread like a contagion and soon, everyone ran away, screaming and stumbling over one another in their blind panic.
Zalorus flared his massive wings and breathed a fiery blast of fire toward the scattering group, signalling his dismissal toward them before turning to a shaking Tirius, suddenly aware of the ancient beast towering over him.
Tirius stood glued to the ground, as if roots had grown from his feet, planting him to the very spot he was on. He did not dare look up, fearful of what Zalorus would next. His mind was racing with thoughts of how he would perish when he heard a voice inside his head.
"Thank you, for saving me."
It was a deep and hoarse voice that sounded raspy, with each vowel stratching the inside of Tirius' skull.
Tirius was certain that Zalorus was talking to him, as there were just two of them in the vast span of woods. But his shock and trepidation kept him from looking up into the Dralkon's eyes.
"We seldom speak the human words. Only when we need to." Zalorus continued, and lifted Tirius' face with his talon. Tirius was suprised at how benign Zalorus' touch felt and found himself staring straight into a pair of clear blue eyes that were accentuated by a shiny black hide.
The beautiful diamond shaped eyes seemed to pierce through Tirius' very soul, rendering him mesmerised and stupefied at the same time, unable to look away from Zalorus.
"Take this." Zalorus spoke again, almost like a command, pushing the broken fang toward Tirius.
"It is broken and has no use for me now. But it will bring you great fortune and power in the human realm."
With Zalorus turning away and releasing his hypnotic stare, Tirius finally managed to speak, albeit a strained croak:
"W-where will you go?"
"I will still be here, but now I have to go to where my friend is." With those cryptic words, the regal Dralkon took to the skies with a swish of his fearsome wings, a magnificent black figure in the autumn air.
