15 Stories for 15 Days: Day Eleven

The 15 for 15 contest is held about once every nine months or so. The way it works is that every day at 8:30 WDC time, a picture prompt is posted. You have 24 hours to post your story that the prompt inspires. Here is the interesting part: You only have 15 minutes to write your story. You can think about it all day but once you start writing, 15 minutes is what you get.

ID: 994771   (Rated: 18+) 15 for 15 Contest   Do you have 15 minutes? Come in and join this contest! by Legerdemain (222)

The contest is limited to 50 competitors. Each day, there are 5 winners. First place will get 1004 points, second place will get 1003 points etc. The person with the most total points at the end of the 15 day contest is the winner.

The prompt for this story is the following picture:

My Entry

Rakor looked up from his plate of beans and could see winter taking hold of the mountain top.

The pass would be the next to go. When that happened, all hope would be lost.

There was no time to dawdle. He must not fail.

He loaded up the pack animals with everything except a small pack that he carried on his back. The dragon egg contained within must not leave his immediate possession. That had been the way of his sect for as far back as time could tell.

Before starting off down the trail that was barely a trail, Rakor took a moment to check his progress against am ancient map. He unrolled it with great care for there was only this one and it was very fragile. Generations of the Seculars had passed it down, hand to hand. No one could remember it ever being unrolled before.

That was before the Sign of Ascension signaled a change of times.

Only a week earlier, the High Priest had called for a meeting of the elders. He’d led them deep underground to the ancient Keeping Chamber. As each entered the room, they could see that the time had come.

The dragon egg, left to their keeping ten thousand years before, was emitting a dim purplish light. A dragon was waiting to be born.

Rakor had been dispatched the next day. He had to get to the hidden mountain valley with the egg before winter locked him out.

The egg had to be placed into the Pool of Life or it would not hatch. If he failed it would be another ten thousand years before the opportunity came again.

Rakor, satisfied that he was on the right trail, rolled up the map and headed up the trail and into the coming winter.

He wasn’t going to make it. But he had to try. The world was in a sad way. It was time for a change; a time for some magic to enter people’s lives.

It was time for the Age of the Dragon.