Raguna felt furious. She was ordinarily considered merely homicidal, but this had driven her over the edge. Blood-shot eyes gazed malignantly about the landscape, looking for a sentient being on which to vent her frustration. True, beginning a mass rampage of death would not really console her soul, but in the meantime it did feel good. Her child would be avenged.

A burning rage continued to build to a climax within Raguna’s bowels, but she could tell it was not yet peaked. From her high vantage point, she could see all across the land—a land that would see feel her vengeance. Fury-filled eyes narrowed as they found the target they sought; the ones responsible would soon meet her child in the afterlife. The only thing that occurred to her saturated mind was vengeance; no remorse, no pity, just revenge.

Wind rushed around her body, seeming to concentrate on deterring her from her set course; but Raguna would not stray from her path, and so she easily defeated the wind, hardly even paying notice to her ethereal adversary. It was an old enemy, after all, one Raguna had never lost to.

She floated just above the village, allowing her victims one last gaze at Death before they wandered into his realm. Raguna also found it amusing that some of the townspeople were trying to escape their inevitable demise; her favorite part, though, was watching the ones completely stricken by fear, quailing and shaking, yet unable to command their legs to move. Raguna almost laughed, but the dragon fire erupting from her gigantic maw prevented that. It poured onto the village, a fiery rain of Death, and engulfed not only the township, but much of the surrounding environment as well, overwhelming even the deepest shadows. Satisfied that her judgment had been dealt, the dragon returned to the near serenity of her cave—as near to serenity as she could feel, after her offspring had been kissed with steel death.



While the dark cave would repel ordinary adventurers, it beckoned to Raguna. The great red dragon sniffed expectantly as the warm smell of home wafted to her nostrils—a little too warm. Fear alighted on Raguna’s mind, as thousand of horrible possibilities occurred to her. Attention diverted, she dropped the deer carcass that was intended for her only child. Raguna had not been gone long, nor had she been far away; her child’s cries and the clash of battle should have resonated in her ears. The red knew she wasn’t that old yet. Yet.

As he great claws pounded towards her semi-hidden lair, another smell came to her—magick. So that was how the accursed invaders had eluded her senses, through the use of a silence spell. Finally the dragon rounded the last bend—and found a sight that echoed her worst horrors. There lay her child, staring beyond Death’s domain, and mostly skinned; cursed humans, always seeking new skins to satiate their own cravings for fashion. How dare they take the life of another sentient being to slake their personal lust! This couldn’t be happening again—no, this time, Raguna would make sure the perpetrators would pay. They would pay in blood.

Raguna’s eyes grew blood red, and a roar resounded from deep within her bowels; the scent of brimstone now drifted to her nostrils, but this time Raguna knew where it was coming from. Flames almost erupted for her maw right then and there, but the dragon barely fought down the urge and promised herself sweet retribution.

Oh, sweet retribution.



Raguna’s eyes slowly opened. She blinked once, then twice, adjusting to the sight of her mother’s face. A smile greeted her awakening, and Raguna attempted a smile of her own. Then her mother turned her head toward an unheard sound, at least to Raguna’s young ears. The expression on her mother’s face changed from loving care to nervous anxiety. Moving swiftly, the matriarch gathered up Raguna in a tiny bundle in one claw and hurried to the secret reserve cave the elder dragon kept for just such purposes, and also where her cache of jewels was concealed. Raguna’s tiny mind wondered why the rush, and her childish eyes betrayed her innocence.

Unfortunately, neither the child nor the mother had anticipated the use of magick to find them. The human invaders entered the secluded cavern with swiftness, and instantly used their magickal abilities to subdue Raguna’s mother. The body of her mother completely covered Raguna from the sight of the intruders, and so the child cleverly took the time to hide in an alcove off to the side. The child turned back to see her mother being accosted by the humans. Raguna’s eyes grew in pain and fear as she felt every wound her mother was dealt. Several burning questions attacked Raguna’s inexperienced mind, and she began to shake from the relentless assault. Why would these humans do this? How did they get here? Why were they hurting mother?

The poor child watched in horror as all of her questions were answered. As soon as the sharp blades of the humans had wasted her mother, they then proceeded to skin her corpse. Tears escaped unheeded down Raguna’s cheeks as spasmed from the expected pain.

Once the humans were done, a scent left her nostrils as they exited the cavern. With the absence of the scent, so too did Raguna’s mind seem absent. Then . . . something. Hatred. Yes, that’s what they called it. Everything Raguna burned with a passion to kill the humans. But the tears came, and left her mind once again blank with the pain of what had just happened.



Rage had been Raguna’s companion for many long years, but until now, it had been replaced by love. To have a child of her own broke down Raguna’s self-exile from the world. But the sight of her dead offspring resettled that fury in to her heart and once again induced the rage to take complete control of her body.

Raguna landed among the charred remains of the village. Rage radiated from her, as did the heat from the blackened skeleton. The dragon proceeded among the ruin; the only sound her enormous claws crunching on the ground, Raguna surveyed the dead landscape with twisted pleasure. Her eyes swept the place, taking in the death but looking solely for one thing. When she found that thing, fury almost engulfed her soul. She managed to hold it down, though, if only just barely restraining it.

The red dragon picked up the skin of her dead young. Tears fell upon the flame-licked scales, but instantly evaporated as soon as they touched the still-scalding substance. That signified the explosion of anger.

A roar even more monstrous than the one unleashed in the cave exploded from deep within Raguna’s being. After a few scant seconds, however, the cry of anguish ended; Raguna’s body crumpled to the ground, her heart expended by grief.

The rage had finally consumed her soul.