See part 1, LaCroix and the Dragon, for disclaimers, permissions, etc.

As promised yesterday, the second alternate version of how a certain Roman
vampire came to encounter a dragon and its' slayer... Which has somehow
ended up being *far* darker than its' sibling. Curious!

St George and the Vampire 02/02

Lucius was, quite frankly, bored. In the last two hundred years he'd
travelled the length and breadth of the Roman Empire, taken lovers, learnt
new languages and new musical instruments, even travelled briefly outside
the Empire, but those areas had proved to be sooo uncivilised. Why, most of
them didn't even know what a bath was! So, what could he find to amuse
himself with? He'd tried hunting wolves, lions and tigers - and though not
generally in favour of drinking non-human blood, he had to admit those great
predators had a not-unpleasant tang to the blood.

Then, as he was travelling through Egypt once again, and trying to avoid
memories of his last visit and of Divia, news reached him that the town of
Silene, several hundred miles down the coast, was effectively under siege -
and by a dragon, no less! "Hmmm.... a dragon, eh? Wonder what they taste
like? And how difficult are they to kill? They're said to be very very
dangerous. But then, so are vampires...."

His interest piqued, Lucius headed west across the northern coast of Africa.
Unfortunately for him, his timing for once was a little off. You see, he
arrived just in time to see Georgios of Cappadocia truimphantly parade the
head of the once noble beast through the streets of the cheering town....
Heading back out of town, the vampire flew swiftly towards the location of
the dragon's lair, to see the carcase lying there, discarded and already
cooling down.

Kneeling down, he dipped one finger in the congealing blood pooled around
the slashed neck, and carefully, almost reverently, he licked his finger.
Bliss! Ambrosia! Not even the freshest of human blood could compare to the
way this creature's blood tingled on the tongue. His eyes flashed red, and
his fangs dropped so fast it hurt. Normally a fastidious creature, Lucius
threw good manners to the wind, and ripped into the open blood vessels of
the exposed neck to draw out what little blood was still there. But he was
too late - most of its' blood had fountained out, drenching the Christian
who had slain the dragon, and seeping away into the ground beneath its'
corpse.

Anger took over from the denied pleasure, and Lucius once more took to the
skies, reversing his course. With the dragon slain, the people of Silene
were celebrating in the streets, despite the lateness of the hour. It didn't
take him long to find a young couple who'd chosen to slip away from the main
crowd into a quiet back courtyard, intent on doing their own
celebrating..... He swooped, ripping the man's throat out almost in his
haste to swallow the hot passion-laden blood, even as he grabbed the young
woman round the neck with a hand of iron, almost - but not quite - squeezing
the breath out of her. The second kill, laced with the unmistakeable taste
of abject terror, was sweeter still. Yet it was not enough. Three more times
that night he struck, targetting those foolish enough to stray from the main
throng in the belief that they were 'safe' now that the dragon was dead.

An hour from dawn, common sense finally started to reassert itself, and he
hastily gathered the bodies of his victims and took a series of trips to
dump them in a steep overgrown gully several miles from Silene. His sharp
vampiric senses had told him of the presence of a pack of wild dogs very
close by, and it was easy enough to attract their attention by playing lame
in their sight, and then leading them to their quarry. Having made sure that
his tracks were covered, he raced the rising sun back to the dragon's cave,
and hold up for the day on a ledge high up at the back of the cave where not
only the sun could not reach, but where mere mortal men could never come.

One thing was sure - this upstart Christian must pay for his mis-deed in
killing the dragon before Lucius could do so himself. The news, garnered in
some backstreet inn, that Georgios had been a Tribune in the Roman army and
had resigned his commission in protest at the way Christians were being
persecuted, merely made Lucius' lip curl in scorn. Hmmm... Christians are
being officially persecuted, are they? And here was Georgios baptising
hundreds of Silene's men, not to mention their women and children, in
gratitude for slaying the dragon, which is, of course, a mere mythical
beast, and not to be believed in....

A careful investigation soon led Lucius back to Rome, where more gossip
garnered in yet another backstreet winebar led him to one of the Emperor
Diocletian's entourage, a man of ambition and ruthlessness who was known to
hate Christians. A word or two dropped in his ear at just right moment, and
he became a man with a mission... Georgios was indeed going to pay for
killing what Lucius considered to be *his* dragon, and if a carefully worded
'suggestion' had anything to do with it, he would pay very slowly indeed....
As Lucius settled back into life in that great city, Rome, he smiled. It was
a chilling sight.

For the next three centuries, Lucius paid careful heed to any further
rumours of dragons, great worms, or the like, and travelled far and wide in
hopes of finding another, but he was sadly out of luck. Either it turned out
to be mere travellers' yarns, or an exceptionally large snake, or on two
occassions he was way too late, and the dragon was long dead by the time he
arrived. The Dark Ages hindered his search, but even after that, he kept his
eyes and ears open to the possibility of finding another dragon. Of course,
he never told his children what was his real motivation for 'moving on', and
let them believe that mere survival was his reason. After all, they'd never
seen a real dragon, and he couldn't let them think he had a weakness for
mythical creatures, now could he?

But... to those of us who know better, why do you think he has a secret
strong room, hidden deep under a mountain somewhere - we won't say where -
on the planet, filled with scrolls, books, videos, paintings, sketches,
tapestries and embroideries all on the one theme, and a huge collection of
toy, glass, metal, ceramic and wooden.... dragons? 

Written by Kezia Hepden 23/24 April 2003

keziahepden@hotmail.com

kezia.hepden@btinternet.com