Prompt: Sept 10--When Spidragons Fly

Prompt: Sept 10, 2014

Theme: Fantasy

1. Tell me a story in rhyme. Think along the lines of a ballad!

2. Include a mystical creature of your own devising.
Give this creature a name, explain what kind of creature he/she is and make me 'see' it.

3. At least 24 lines.

4. Words to use: dank, damp, ancient, snarl, reclusive, snout.
NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with a word--look it up!
(Harks back to several folks who seem to think oblivious and obvious mean the same thing!)

5. Words NOT to use: unicorn, woods, wand, magic, or fairy<--note spelling. I.E. 'faery' as a form of fae is acceptable.

I

When the Blood-Moon rises high in the sky, when the Wolf and the Darkenbear together do cry,
when the Dusk-leaves rattle and the night-winds moan, that’s when the Spidragon wants to roam.
High in the mountains past Frenife and Trost, beyond the skybridge o’er the Canyons of the Lost,
Down a damply dank trail through a night-darkened cave, spidragon awakens; hungry and brave.
Imagine a spider, furry and black, with eight long legs and eight wings on his back,
with a round fuzzy head, with a very long snout, full of blue teeth with his tongue hanging out.
Spiked with barbs is his long purple tail and each of his toes sport a sharp crimson nail.
He weaves his web with drool and slime, shards of bone grown moldy with time,
long blond locks of princess hair, leftover frog legs, and a lost teddy bear.

II

His name be Drenforkna, so the ancient ones say, though no one’s seen him since way back in the day!
Even so, you needn’t have fears; he’s been asleep for the past hundred years.
Oh. But wait. I might not be right. Some sheep have gone missing from their pastures at night,
and Old Missus McAdams swears she saw him fly in front of the moon sometime in July.
We know he’s out there, you can hear him in the night: the sounds of wings when he’s in flight,
the ‘unexplained’ cries that haunt your dreams and that odd feeling that all is not as it seems.
He’s the very best reason for kids to be good and do all the things that they know they should.
Now humongous spiders are creepy, indeed, and a part dragon-part spider is so not what we need!

III

When the Blood-Moon rises high in the sky, when the Wolf and the Darkenbear together do cry,
when the Dusk-leaves rattle and the night-winds moan, that’s when Drenforkna wants to roam.
The word has come down from Trost and Frenife that the spidragon is lonely and seeking a wife!
The giantess spider’s been seen out of her hole; she who is known as a reclusive soul,
Widow Black’s been sighted up near the skybridge and Miss Lillymae Longlegs was out on the ridge.
Schoolmaster Samuels found a blue dragon claw and the three Henry girls can’t agree what they saw!
It might have been blue or mayhap was green, but had the biggest wings they’d ever seen!
Folks have heard thunderous roars and seen smoke, if the Spidragon’s awake this is no funny joke!
Up in the high reaches a web has appeared across the whole valley! It’s worse than we feared!
HUGE spiders are clogging all of the streets and bridges are falling ‘neath so many feet!
Dragons are flying, they are blocking the sun. How will the Spidragon pick just one?
People are hiding, schools are out. No one knows what to do; what this all is about!

IV

When the Blood-Moon rises high in the sky, when the Wolf and the Darkenbear together do cry,
when the Dusk-leaves rattle and the night-winds moan, that’s when Drenforkna wants to roam.
Then we all got our answer, thanks to Jimmy McCall: He suggested we throw a Spidragon Ball.
We cleared out the valley, brought in tables of food, found creepy music that’s Spider/Dragon approved!
Dragons showed up with dresses of lace and lady spiders danced with eight-legged grace.
Drenforkna, silently, flew overhead inspecting the crowd—who should he wed?
He wanted a wife who knew about screams; how to give even the nicest kids bad dreams.
He wanted one that could snarl and spit fire, who knew the great spells of Damage and Dire!
Not just a spider or dragon would do; she must be a mixture of the two!
Then down from the mountain that spit blood red, past the dark caves of Man’s Worst Dread
flew a Dragider with eyes of green, with wings of silk spun webbed dreams.
She was round and fuzzy, with colors bright, but with dragon snout and teeth to bite.
She circled down from high in the sky, and taunted Drenforkna to come and fly.
Together they flew high as the clouds then spun down spewing fire on the crowds.
The people scattered, running in fear, as buildings burned both far and near.

V

When the Blood-Moon rises high in the sky, when the Spidragon and the Dragider do fly,
when the Dusk-leaves rattle and the night-winds moan, Spi-Dragonkind seek a new home.
They settled to nest high in the caves: beyond the Peaks, beyond the graves,
Drenforkna named her Scarlet Sin Dune, to him, she was his stars and moon,
She laid a trio of eggs in a nest of stone, kept warm by Dragider fire blown.
The village decided to start raising sheep to keep their keepers fat and sleek.
Yet not a one of them lived the three-hundred-odd years for eggs to hatch in hidden weir.
They never saw the two fly again, or heard their screaming in far off glen.

VI

Still, mothers would warn their wayward kin: to behave, else Drenforkna might fly again!
The stories and legends refused to die, as generations wondered when the Spidragons might fly.
Then one night, an old man came to town, with grizzled beard and time-worn gown.
He settled in at the village pub, and allowed, as he’d trade a story for grub.
“It’s been three hundred and fifty-eight years,” says he. “Them eggs be ready to hatch, you see.
Who knows what will happen? Who knows what will hatch up in the Spidragon’s nesting patch?”
He finished his supper, went on down the trail, leaving the town's folk to wonder and wail.
The old man paused, just ‘round the bend, looked beyond pages to readers and then,
smiled and said, “They’ll be coming in herds, each egg holds hundreds! Mark my words.
Beware when spidragons take to flight, spinning webs all day and night.
You see, baby spidragons or dragiders look just like any spider you’d see in a book.
So you’ll never really, ever know if that spider you see is a spider or no!”