How to Bring Down a Giant
Ragnar the Stormborn – so named because he was born in the eye of a great hurricane – had a plan. He was going giant hunting… and knew how he could succeed where others had failed (and perished).
Ragnar was twenty five years old – old enough to be an experienced hunter, but young enough to still think there was no challenge he could not overcome. He was by far the best hunter in his village, but his village only consisted of eighty six people (including him), so it wasn’t exactly an awesome achievement. There had been eighty nine people, but the previous day a sixty foot tall giant had come by and scooped up – and eaten – three of the villagers while the rest retreated into a nearby cave. Ragnar had wanted to fight the giant of course – it was a wandering giant, but still it attacked this village a few times a year – but he knew he was ill-equipped for the task. Swords and other weapons would only annoy it, like a kitten scratching at a human with its claw, and even magic – if Ragnar had any – might not be effective on such a huge target. No, if Ragnar was ever to rid his village of this menace, he would need a much bigger weapon… and he had just such a weapon in mind: a dragon.
In this whole world there only existed a few dozen dragons, so most of them were known and named. Fazarr, for instance, was a red dragon that had a whole island to herself, as she burnt to a crisp any living creature that came near her. Gondal, on the other hand, was a blue dragon that hibernated for most of the year, sleeping on a giant pile of gold. He rarely needed to hunt, as enough foolish humans came looking to steal his treasure that it was like he was having his dinners delivered to him. Minzet, however, was the dragon that lived nearest to Ragnar’s village. He was a gold dragon, the only one in all the lands. He was considered to be the most intelligent of the known dragons – he understood every human language, even though his dragon mouth did not allow him to speak any of them. He mainly kept to himself high on a mountain, happy to just feed on the local goats and sheep. A few times in history he had chosen to help a human overcome some great adversity, but Ragnar did not know if a mere giant killing would be of any interest to him. Ragnar might need to sweeten the deal, offer the dragon something it could not get for itself. But what? What do you get for a being that is thousands of years old and probably the world’s most fearsome predator?
Well? What will Ragnar offer Minzet?
Will Minzet accept Ragnar’s offer, or ask for something else?
Will the fight versus the giant go smoothly, or will it be more difficult than Ragnar expects?
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