Two Times Fram Fought Scatha, by Elleth

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge:
B7: Off the Map's Edge: Scatha
Format: Double-drabble
Genre: Adventure
Rating: Teens
Warnings: Bugs, dragon-fighting
Characters: Fram, Scatha
Pairings: N/A
Summary: Two times Fram fought Scatha.


A final push - the rock gives up resistance. Toppling, it reveals a hoard of woodlice scuttling from the evening light, rolling and coiling like silver pennies. The boy Fram laughs, stuffing his pockets full. Such riches! What faces his parents will make!

But there! Emerging from its den beneath the rock, a monster, long and hundred-footed winding towards him to attack! The boy Fram draws his knife, ducks flame and tooth, stabs - but his mother calls. A centipede skitters away unharmed, back into its hole.

"I fought the dragon Scatha and defeated it," he'll later boast at dinner.

* * *

A final push – the door gives up resistance. Splintering, it reveals a hoard of gems and jewels glinting in the torchlight, and golden coins shining. The man Fram smiles, steps in, and draws his sword. Such riches! His people will praise him, undoubtedly!

He bends to pick a horn, rider-engraved, on a green baldric. One high-clear note, and there comes the dragon, with a gust of flame! The man Fram ducks tooth and claw, stabs – this battle is not over swiftly, but he'll emerge alive. The dragon lies dead atop the gold.

This time, he'll need not boast.

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Most enjoyable!

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) I don't usually write this era at all, so glad it wasn't a total letdown.

[aliana1.livejournal.com]

This is great! I love the parallel structure of these drabbles, and comparing the woodlice to silver pennies; nicely shows how every hero(ine) was once a child, like everyone else. I also like how he thinks he'll not need to boast the second time he fights Scatha.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) The searching for woodlice was part of my childhood as well, and I hated centipedes, they'd always bite me. ;) Though I never fought a dragon. Ah well, life. I hear they're quite rare these days.

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

A most apt imagining the first time; a most skilled warrior the second time! Excellent! And love to see what will become the Horn of Buckland one day being chosen by Fram first! Yes! Merry and Eowyn would both approve.

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

(And I was always seeking roly polies, myself, also known as potato or sow bugs.)

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I daresay they would approve! And thank you for liking this. :)

(Heh! I had all sorts of creepy crawlies... worms, woodlice, mosquito larvae in a jar of water... most of them to feed the frogs, toads and tadpoles that I also had. XD)