( variation of Robin Hood )
Now King John wasn't too thrilled to have the Dragon caught,namely because while Danny
of the Sigil would have been happy to rob from the rich to give to the poor,King John,years
earlier,had hatched a plot that was yielding handsome dividends these days.
Basically whilst he'd been Prince John and good King Richard had been off fighting the
Crusades,Danny of the Sigil had been a major pain in the behind,and he and his Merry Men had often
waylaid Prince John's plots.
The last one had seen Prince John hire a bunch of moors to waylay the Army Payroll
Wagon,blame the theft on Danny and the Merry Men and send the stolen Payroll to Prince John.
Alas the moors had proven to be Danny and his Merry Men in disguise,so after he'd paid
in in gold coins,greedy Prince John had opened the Payroll Chest,to find it full of worthless
rocks.Meanwhile the despairing ( and grumbling ) Army General Arthurius had been awakened from a
sleepless night when a " swisssh THUNK" of a Merry Men arrow plunked into a tent post
two feet away from his head.There was a note attached,telling him to look under Sherwood Bridge
for something to please him.
And so General Arthurious owed his neck to Danny of the Sigil.
However he also owed allegiance to the King,and kind hearted Richard never could
see anything wrong in Prince John.
Fuming Prince John schemed and plotted revenge in his sleep,and became aware of the
Dragons Eye,reputedly the eye from the slain Dragon Fafnir,which was supposed to bring out the
good or evil in a human,in the form of a dragon.
So Prince John sent out his spy Sir Guy,who learned from someone
that Danny Sigil hadn't been always goody two shoes.
Whilst a boy,he'd had a dislike for his stepbrother,resulting in a
accidental fall of young Clarence off Sherwood Bridge,and his death.
So it was that soon Prince John had the Dragons Eye safely encased in a wooden chest
that looked like a Army Payroll chest,and a latenight dig by Sir Guy soon had Clarence Sigil's
grinning dirtstained skull sitting in the chest beside the Dragons Eye.
Prince John himself placed the fake Army Payroll in a enclosed alcove-pillared
area under Sherwood Bridge,and had it set up that when Danny snuck in and openned the lid,
a hidden iron gate hanging above would swing down,trapping Danny within the enclosed space.
Word was let out to Danny that a item of great value lay hidden under Sherwood Bridge,and
only General Arthurious and Prince John were present on top of the bridge,a coil of climbing rope
already fastened to the railing.
So they watched Danny of the Sigil sneak in from the wood,the furtive steps as the thief
entered the alcove,then the scratching as his dagger popped open the padlock,then the creak as the lid
swung up,and Danny's shout of shock and pain as it revealled his stepbrothers skull,the Dragons Eye
glowering at him from a bulging ridgy eye socket.
Then there was the "clack" of the trip lever being thrown and the "Baang" as the iron
trapdoor locked Danny in.
Now the two witness's had expected Danny to shout for help,and perhaps a mist nearby to form into
a evil dragon,or at best Prince John thought the dragon spirit would materialize in the same cage as
Danny,and gobble up its human alter ego.
Instead what he heard was Danny's panting grunts,a sound of tearing cloth,but no beastial roars
of a dragon.
Curious,he and the General slid down the rope and stood outside the iron gate,and stared at
a Danny growing in size,becoming more muscular,his clothing splitting and tearing
around his enlarging frame.
The wave of growth stopped,and Prince John thought for a second Danny was turning
into a small giant.
Then the grunts of pain began again and Danny hunched over in the
increasingly smaller prison.
Prince John was staring at one of Danny's meaty blunt fingers resting on the ground
when the finger cracked and lengthened ,its bloody fingernail pushed away as a blood red dragons
talon pushed its way out of the changing digit.
Prince John then had his <Eureka > moment,as he realized that Danny was turning
into the Dragon,.
He watched fascinated as the giant hand's thumb suddenly cracked and swivelled
behind the hand,sprouting a talon as it did so.As the fascinated prince watched.the remaining
unchanged 2 fingers began to fuse into one grarled lengthening digit,and
soon
what once looked like a giant human hand looked more like a dragons taloned
forepaw.
Danny by this point knew what was happening to him,but was not going to give Prince John
the satisfaction of watching him beg for mercy.
The thief had felt his insides changing,and could feel the pressure under his human face of new muscles
skin,scales and teeth.
So in defiance he seized his face with those powerful arms and forepaws of his and tore off
the stretching piece of human skin and nose,which revealed the slit eyed green scaled,demon mouthed
sharp toothed flat nosed short snouted dragon forming below.
That seemed to set off a reaction in his skull,and he screamed a human
cry of pain as his nose and jaws began to stretch out,and new sharp teeth pushed out of his
gums and separated further from each another as his snout lengthened.
The next change wave struck his tailbone and spine,and Dannisigilnation arched his
back as his back lengthened,his neck stretched out and a spiky scaly green tail began to stretch out,thicken
and coil about the prison.
In all his writhings,Danny ended up on his backside,and screamed in pain as the ground jarred two
emerging bumps wobbling and growing out of his back.
A new wave of growth and change and lengthening struck the emerging monster,and
it flopped back on its belly as its ribs began to deepen,the new wings tore free and red
belly scutes raced along its underside.
Danny tried to make one last taunt at Prince John,but all that came out of that
lengthening neck was a low growl,which shocked the once human.
As the former human felt the pressure on his skull as it flattened out and
sprouted horns,Danny realized in a few moments he would be just another
evil greedy dragon.
If he wished to stop the transformation's final outcome,he would need to
slay himself with those bulky powerful dragon limbs.
As his mind and brain began to shrink and alter,a stray thought
" stab drive horns heart" briefly flashed in the nearly dragons brain.
However his two foot long human < hairless ant ape > sword lay nearbt and Dannisigilnation
seized the object,placed it over his still altering scaled chest and with a mighty roar,began pushing it in
towards its dragon heart.
Alas,at that moment the Dragon began its final changes and growth spurt,and the
iron gate and stone pillars began to creak and bulge as the mighty Dannisigilnatious grew in size and might fearsomeness.
As the sword plunged toward the growing beating heart,the chest grew outwards,the rib cage deepened
and what would have been a deadly 2 foot long sword in a 3 foot deep ribcage was a tiny painful
pin in the eight foot deep chest that the Dragon now sported.
The prison burst apart and Sherwood Bridge collapsed around the enraged dragon,which
roared its rage at the tiny human pinprick that lay embedded in the beast.
At this point General Arthurious fled,intent on protecting his daughter
the Princess from this new evil on the land.
However Prince John stood his ground,and realized the former Danny of the Sigil's forepaws
were far too huge and clumsy now to remove the annoying sword that lay buried in his
chest.
Taking a gamble,he rushed into the rubble,ducked in whilst a long taloned digit twitched
ineffectively around the pesky object,grasped the sword
handle and pulled out the sword.
There was a brief shower of black hissing dragons blood that bubbled on the fallen
limestone pillars.However the wound quickly sealed over and Prince John watched
fascinated as red scutes flowed over the wound and healed it.
So the Prince hadn't noticed the giant reptillian dragons head quietly
snaking over as the Dragon looked with smouldering eyes at the hair ape ant thing that
had done him a favour.
Of his past as Danny of the Sigil the Dragon had no recollection.He did however
sense a greedy evil kindred spirit in this hairless ape ant.
And so the Dragon and Prince John got to become partners in evil.And Prince
John became King John,who now had two pesky outsider dragons interfering in his plans...