Dragon, Knight, Alcohol

It was rolling into the wee hours of the morning, and the barman's eyes were stubbornly drooping in spite of his many infusions of coffee. He thought about how early he would have to open the tavern in the morrow, and longed desperately for his wife and his bed, but none of the patrons seemed to have inclination to leave. Specifically that confounded pair who insisted on hogging the best seats in the house, and who were dintinctly drawing the horrified interest of the boozing crowd.

The knight and the... dragon. Specifically, a diminutive red dragon with pink wings and a somewhat disgruntled disposition - although it would be fair to say that said disgruntlement was currently being suppressed by the influence of the barrels of alcohol it had imbibed in the past few hours. Not to say that the knight was innocent to the ways of inebriation either. In fact, even the most fleeting of glances would tell you the two were uproariously drunk. *Glances*, if the peals of convulsive laughter coming from their direction were not enough indication of their sozzled condition. Occasionally, you would hear the drunken cries of, "What's that, you say?" followed by outbursts of snorts and giggles that befitted neither champion nor terror-beast.

The crowd had dropped its collective jaw when the unlikely pair rumbled their way into the tavern three hours ago, threatening to bring the timbers down around them as they lashed their tongues vehemently at one another. And then of course sir knight had ordered an ale to keep his throat wet, the dragon had wanted to try some - and one thing had led to another, with the result that the tavern's cellar was being emptied faster on this one night than it normally did in the course of one week.

The barman briefly considered throwing the raucous duo out before the winged one set fire to the alcohol (and subsequently the entire establishment in a ghastly inferno), but the thought of getting his pants singed stopped him. As the merry cries of "More ale!" emanated from their corner, and the hushed orders of another round from other patrons sent the barmaids scurrying, the barman thought sourly that those two had better have the coin to pay for all the drink they'd guzzled.

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Uh, yup. Wilbur and Sir Knight are back - and they're uproariously drunk. I never intended on a second installment - The Dragon and the Knight was meant to be a one-shot - but hell, that just goes to prove one should never say 'never'. I don't think the two have actually become friends; rather, they're probably friendly with each other only through the influence of alcohol. When that influence wears off... they'll probably have too ghastly a hangover to do more than roll over and groan.

And if you're thinking that my mind might have been warped by Gordon Dickson - you're probably not far off. [chuckle]

EDIT (14/9/06): *utarefson670 wondered what it would be like for someone else to colour my lineart, and decided to take up the challenge of doing his own coloured version of this drawing. Check out his version HERE.


The dragon (Wilbur) and Sir Knight (Aidan) © Farlander.