#384: Dragonslayer

I know it was not happenstance that set
my foot upon this path those years ago
when I, a lad before my first shave yet
by two more summers, braved the ice and snow
to search for that hard beast. Not chance, but fate
propelled me north from my hometown to sit
by wizards' fires that burned so strange and late
into the night, that by no hand were lit.

The crafts I learned beside those wizened men,
with runes drawn in the wrinkles of their cheeks
and stardust in their beards, will serve me well
when, sweating in the foul reek of his den,
the voice of Ardeth, Ancient Slayer, speaks
once more, and sends that demon back to Hell.
_