"-And out of the mountain the dragon burst out!" The bard said as he rose up from the log he sat on and spread his arms wide, his face scrounging and nose wrinkling as he tried to look menacing.
The youngest of the children gasped and others stared wide eyed at the stranger that had joined their camp this evening. "So dark were his scales that he hid against the night sky. The only way the people of Lake Town were able to see the true size of the creature is because his body and great wingspan covered the stars and even the moon itself!" The bard added with theatrical dramatics to enhance his story telling.
"How big was he?!" One of the children asked.
The bard paused at that but his quick wit did not fail him. He sat back down buying himself a short moment of time to think, his eyes falling to the curious child "He was so large that one of his feet could have crushed the entire town." The bard finally answered watching as the child's eyes turned wide in awe and fright.
The bard continued on with his tale of the dragon in Dale. It was a tale that most all of the grown had heard a thousand times and would hear it a thousand time more as it was a classic story told by the wandering bards and even within the family the tale was often told to entertain, each telling a little different than the next and so it never grew old.
Loakee sat on the roof of his family's wagon, his feet dangling lazily over the edge and a sharp eye kept on the illuminated grounds around to watch out for cunning critters that would try and sneak something from the campsite to help store their food supplies for the coming winter.
Worse were the crows, however, as they caught the glint of the metal utensils. Over many years the families had lost a good share of forks, knives and spoons to the flying pests, and even coin had more often than not gone missing along with small jewelry and other trinkets that had caught a crow's attention when the metal of the craft would glimmer in the light of the sun, moon or the crackling fire.
He tossed a small rock up and caught it again, a neatly arranged pile of such projectiles at ready to scare off any unwelcomed critters. The bard was nearing the end of his tale and Loakee listened with half an interest. The young ones had scooted closer to the aging bard as he began to recall of how the dragon was finally put down.
However before the tale was done three sharp whistles, one after another, sounded from the trees and the camp went silent and attention turned out towards the woods nearby.
"What was tha-...." The bard's mouth was covered by one of the women to silence him, grabbing onto his arm as the people of the camp were quick to drop what they were doing and scattered towards the wagons to get inside. Children and others who had been practicing near the camp darted back to seek shelter within the roof covered wagons and within moments there was no noise except the crackling of the fire and the bubbling of the stew that sat in the pot over the flickering flames.
Loakee's head snapped towards the whistle and without a pause or hesitation he jumped off the roof and hurried to a chest mounted outside the red wagon.
Flipping the lid open, Loakee withdrew a great black cloak, immensely long and fixed with the skull of an ominous, strange animal atop its hood. He tucked it under his arm and added two slender wooden poles from their hooks above the chest to his arsenal to face the invading beast.
A lumbering beast was approaching drawn by the scent of dinner on the cooking fire, it was a large grizzly bear looking for an opportunity to fatten up before it's winter sleep. It wasn't the first time they had gotten bold around their camps this time of the year.
"Up, ho!" Called Baldvin and cupped his hands together at his abdomen, providing Loakee the foothold to clamber up onto his brother's spacious shoulders. He wreathed them both in the cloak, billowing down about them.
"Got the horn?" Loakee asked.
"Got it." Baldvin replied.
The horn gave voice to a bellow, deep and mournful. The bear stirred and stared warily upon a creature it had never in it's days seen before. It was freakishly tall and stretched, black as the night and it's fearsome face that of a cave claw's skull, mounted with a pair of short antlers. A growl rumbled across the camp as the bear slowly reared, facing the challenger for it's supper. The scent was too inviting.
Suddenly it's wispy figure stretched wide - as Loakee extended the pair of poles tucked underneath the cloak - the tall, scary thing approached and the hungry beast now turned uneasy. Hungry as he were the beast realized he didn't want to press a fight with this towering monster and turned to lumber away in measured haste.
The camp fell silent again.
Finally the whistle came to tell them that the threat was gone, a soft, waving tone that melted the tension away of everyone and bit by bit people moved back out to return to what they were doing.
Loakee grinned to himself and after ridding of the costume and poles jumped off Baldvin's shoulders, the two sharing a laugh and a few jests before putting everything away again. Baldvin returning to his work after and Loakee dragging himself back onto the roof.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before!" The bard exclaimed in excitement as he sat back down with others around the campfire. The father of the two brothers, and the leader of the gathered families, grinned wide "We may be weaponless but we are not defenseless, good bard." The man sat himself down with the rest around the fire "Now finish your tale, I'm eager to hear the ending."
