Please enter this in this weeks contest. I missed the timing. it's called Horgare and the Witches. Please. It's still Friday here.

Horgare rose up slowly. It had been a long successful night of burning villages, eating women, and taking more treasure. “In fact” thought Horgare, “it was a record night. “Three of those women were really tasty. Yum.” And. “Look at all this loot. I could barely carry it all home and it’s almost completely filled the room.”

The cavern was huge, with lots and lots of smaller caves and nasty crevices that only his body could breach. His treasure room was large and protected by four crevices. Even if some of those nasty men got in, they would find nearly impossible, if not impossible, to get to the treasure. Even if they did, they would never get it out. It was his, all his. Riches beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. After all, Horgare had ben collecting treasure for over four hundred years. It was simply beyond value and it was all his. He was very pleased with himself. With a giant smirk on his face, he decided that he was too tired to get up and laid down to take a nap. He went to sleep quickly.

“Hey, gruesome!” A woman’s voice cried out. He didn’t wake up because the voice was in his head. “What?” He sort of mumbled in his sleep and his mind’s eye started looking around. Then, he saw her. A lithe thing, what the humans might call beautiful, but with a real scowl on her face and two long swords in her hands. “Right, dogsbreath. Over here. See me? You ate me and my sisters last night and now you are going to pay the price.”

“Ha ha, wench,” he thought. “You aren’t even real and you are somehow going to harm me? That’s a good one. You must be slightly deranged. I get that.”

“Clang.” The two swords came together with a mighty clang and a streak of lighting rushed from the connection in Horgare’s brain. He was stunned and let out a huge roar of his own. Fire licked at the wall of the room and many valuable coins melted. Now, he was mad.

“I remember you. You were the worst tasting of all the women I ate last night. You were squirmy and sour. Yuck. In fact, you may be the worst tasting woman I have every eaten.”

The glowering image replied, “Well, good on me. Now, I am going to make things worse for you, you scaly hunk of garbage. It was a mistake on your part to eat a witch, which is what I am. An honest to god, power wielding witch of the highest order. You caught me off guard or you would never have eaten me. Now you will pay the price,” she screamed at him. Her swords were joined together at the tips as she thrust them towards his brain. He felt fear as what he saw was the swords coming right at him. All became dark, he was unconscious.

Severe pain racked his brain as he woke up two days later. The pain came in repetitive, awful surges. Horgare was puzzled because he couldn’t remember what had happened to him. There was a vague image of a woman floating in his mind. She was small and naked. Oh, and look, two swords, one in each hand. “Hey, scaly scum, look at me!” Her voice rattled his whole head and the fuzziness started to disappear. “By Zeus, or Odin, or whoever, what is happening? Who is this creature. Oh, oh, oh, the pain in my brain. How do I get rid of it?”

“It’s going to get rid of you, dogsbreath. You are going to be suffering for a long time, and it will get worse.”

Horgare groaned, “How did this happen? What can I do to get rid of this woman?”

“I know you have some limited form of magic, can you bring me back to life? Oh and the village. Perhaps, you could use some of your immense supply of wealth here to build a very nice new village. Then, perhaps we can explore all the possibilities for spending your wealth. Or. Return me back to life, restore my life.”

Horgare groaned again, “No, I can’t do that. Plus, I am not about to give up any of my sweet wealth. Are you crazy?”

The last thing Hogare saw before he passed out again was the two points of swords coming towards him. Then, all was black again. The pain was almost exquisite, it was so strong and deep.

Two weeks later, Horgare regained consciousness with a horrific headache. He sort of stumbled to his feet and tried to clear his mind. Not so easy. Almost impossible. Finally, he settled down a little bit and found that he could think. Of course, that brought back the witch and with her were three other women.

“I have discovered your name is Horgare and that you may be the biggest dragon of all. On top of that, you are the richest dragon of all. Next you are the nastiest, cruelest dragon of all. But, now you have a real problem. I have trained these three women and imbued them with the power of witchcraft. As you might imagine, doodlebrain, they are not happy to have been eaten by you. Not what a girl dreams of. So, get ready, ‘cause we are going to give you a good one.”

Horgare moaned again as he saw eight swords points coming straight at him. Hence, the darkness dark he had ever experienced. Deep, deep dark and quiet, and incredible pain.

This time he was out for two years. As he came to it just made the pain that more unbearable. It grew and grew. He sat in his cave for almost a month when he finally came to and his mind kind of cleared. Then, there they were, all four of them. He groaned early.

Before the witch could speak, he let out a mighty, mighty roar. It was his loudest roar ever and it shook the mountain. The mountain toppled over on its side and all the treasure spilled out into an enormous pile on the ground next to the fallen mountain. Horgare panicked, he couldn’t believe it and he was terrified. Men would come from all over the world to try to steal some of his treasure. “Oh no!”

The four women were dancing in his mind and laughing. “Well, big boy, now you have done it. Ha, ha. Just like you thought, men are going to come from all over the world. Big men, small men, brave men, heroes, villains, oh so many men. We’ll bet there are going to be women too and evertime your try to eat one, you are going to go back to that dark place. Right, my princesses?”

They all shouted in joyful tones, “Oh yes, so right. Horgare, we will let you kill all the men you want, but you even think about, and we know your thoughts, eating a women, we will roast your brain again.” Horgare shuddered. Eating women was his primary source of nutrition. He didn’t see how he could live without that. 

The four women formed a little circle and started chatting. Horgare could not understand what they were saying, but he was happy that they were not challenging him. He tried to assess the damage, His caves had collapsed, he treasure was all over the ground nearby, he knew the men were going to be coming soon, he didn’t know where he was going to sleep and he had a terrible headache. This was the worst experience of this long life.

He saw that the four women were starting to argue and he heard snatches of his name. “Horgare,” called the first witch, “how long do you expect to live? We plan to turn you into a vegetarian.” 

“What?” “I expect to live forever. Are your serious? Well, I guess I could be slain but I am the biggest dragon in the world and it will take a lot to slay me. I also imagine that the four of you could slay me, but, then, you would cease to exist.”

At that moment, four large ships with hundreds of men on them landed on the shore about two miles away from the fallen mountain. The sun was shining on the spilled treasure and an incredible display of color flashed through the skies.

“Men, listen up, you see all those colors on land. Bright reds, pinks, violent blues and oranges. True sparkels like diamonds and quartz. There are rubies, diamonds, emeralds, and coins beyond belief there. You all have bags to fill and when you bring them full, back to the ship, you will be rewarded with your share of the treasure. It will make each of you rich. Rich beyond your wildest dreams and the emperor will be grateful to you for returning the treasure stolen by this monstrous dragon. Take a shield in one hand and a bag in the other. No point in taking your swords, You cannot pierce the scales on this dragon’s body. Protect yourselves, fill you bag quickly and return to your ship. May the gods be with you!”

With a loud shout, the men dropped to the waiting boats to row to shore. Off they went, full of excitement, hope and some trepidation.  The should have been more worried.

The mighty dragon saw them coming for his treasure and let out a roar that chilled them all down to their very toes. Still they came. The women in the dragon’s mind sat back to watch the show. It didn’t last long and every single man was destroyed by fire.

“Run,” cried one of the men, “back to the ships.” Several of the men turned with him and started back, but they did not get far. The dragon’s fire, his flame, was powerful and fast. They stood no chance of getting any treasure or of surviving his rage. The ship’s captain raised his voice and a flag to the other boats, “set sail, now. Move quickly.” Horgare had killed all of his men and now he rose high in the sky. “Quickly men, quickly. Spread out across the shoreline and sail.”

To no avail. Horgare flew to one end of the line of ships, aimed his breath across the line, and roared. The flame burned every single ship and everyone on them. For a brief moment he felt very strong and powerful. So, the women, the witches returned.

“Impressive Horgare, You are really a powerful beast,” said the First Witch. “Sit down on your treasure and let us contemplate things.” Horgare started to object and then saw the eight blades rise. He sat down on the jewels and coins and started what looked like a mope.” The witches started to confer. Then, the First Witch spoke, “you are a greedy, nasty thing. You have all this treasure you have gained by killing men, eating women, burning villages and taking treasure. You know, however, that we could kill you from within. But, we have a different plan. We need to give you a little warning so that you will take us seriously.” The witch standing next to the First Witch raised her two swords and clanged them together. Horgare groaned, fell across the enormous pile of treasure.

When he woke up, two days later, he had a mild headache but didn’t feel too bad. The witches were waiting for him. The First Witch stood up and spoke, “Horgare, we are good witches and we ‘live’ to do good things. Now it is our given task to turn you into a good dragon.” Horgare let out a mighty roar, “Noooo.” The witches sword rose swiftly.

The dragon calmed. “What does that mean?”

“Several things. First, we will be on the constant lookout for good deeds. People who need help, people who need saving, villages to be restored, battles of righteousness to be won. We’ve tried to measure your treasure and it is simply too vast. We are going to start giving little bits away, as we find need or find need to reward. We know that it will take awhile but we will exist as long as you live and this is a blessing for us. You will not believe it but it will be a blessing for you as well.”

Horgare let out a loud sound that was almost a sob, He bowed his head and it looked like there were tears in his eyes. “You know how hard this will be for me?”

“Yes, and to some extent we will suffer with you but there will be joy for us, purpose and meaning. We hope eventually for that for you.”

“Now, pick up one clawfull of treasure and we will fly to some land called Mesopotamia. There,  several villages were destroyed by a savage earthquake. There were lost lives, broken families and flattened villages. We will take treasure to the survivors so that they can rebuild, bury their dead, and recover.”

As he started to protest, the swords rose up from the witches as a warning. He knew better and took a clawfull of treasure. The First Witch guided him to the foreign land. Along the way, she spoke to him, “You are going to get to know us Horgare. We have name ourselves the First Witch, me, the Second Witch, the Third Witch, and the Final Witch. Each witch stepped forward as her name was called. The Final Witch is the strongest and will be responsible for your punishment when you try to resist or rebel. You will not like what she can do.”

The flew to Mesopotamia and found the area of the sticken villages, It was near dusk and when the survivors saw the enormous dragon hovering over them they were terrified. As he slowly lowered to the ground, they screamed and ran in all directions. The Second Witch talked through Horgare’s might lungs. “Do not be afraid. I am Horgare the Good and I bring much wealth to restore your villages, to bury your dead and to rebuild your lives. I will live in that nearby mountain, watching you to make sure that no greedy person tries to take treasure for himself—like this man.”

A man had slipped up to the mound of treasure and was filling his pockets. Horgare simply lifted a claw and squashed the man. “This will be the quickest and easiest way to deal with greedy men and I assure you, I will remain alert. Gather around pick a leader and a council and start your restoration. I am here to serve you. If you need help, call my name, ‘Horgare.’ Bless you all.”

With that, Horgare flew to the mountain and found a cave. “Good work, mighty dragon. We will take turns staying awake and watch over the villages. You can sleep all you want and I think you should just fly over the villages to keep the villagers minds on their mission.”

Horgare felt slightly sick to his stomach, but took a nap. For decades the Witches and the dragon flew around the world doing good, saving people, restoring people, occasionally even fighting other dragons. That we the part Horgare like the best. No dragon was his match and he loved defeating them all.

He grew weary of doing good and came to hate his treasure. He wished that he hadn’t built such a huge treasure. Over the centuries, he gradually changed. The Witches loved him and he grew to love them. He started to appreciate the good he was doing and he loved his well-deserved name, Horgare the Great.