Free Ancient Prophecy by Richard S. Tuttle

ready to swoop down for food. Gorga is evil and kills elves and unicorns for his food. He is very old and has taken many of my people.
    Are there many of these dragons in your land?
    Only Gorga and Wyka. Wyka is a good dragon. She does not eat elves or unicorns, although she sometimes will steal elves’ animals when she is very hungry.
    Gorga lazily swept down out of the sky to some spot that was out of sight of the group.
    Whatever Gorga is eating must be already dead. When Gorga attacks the living he does not waste time circling, but attacks swiftly.
    Alex started the group moving again and when they exited the pass he saw the remnants of a small village. He headed for the village and dismounted. The village had been very small, probably not more than twenty elves, but Alex could tell from the remaining bodies that Gorga did not kill them. He might be feasting on the bodies, but he doubted that the dragon used arrows to kill his prey.
    Alex walked around the village and stopped by the bodies of a young elf woman and her infant. Both had arrows in their backs and Alex felt his rage boiling. Prince Rigal came over and placed his hand on Alex’s shoulder and Alex pushed the elf’s hand off and twirled to face the elf Prince.
    “I don’t care about your policy of not killing elves,” Alex shouted. “When I catch up with these butchers, they will die! I don’t care if they are your long, lost brothers or not.”
    Prince Rigal stepped back a bit. “Alex, I was coming to tell you the same thing. No one can be allowed to commit such atrocities. In fact, I wanted to ask you if we could change our path to follow them. The trail is not hard to spot. It appears that there are many of them, but they are on foot and should be easy to track.”
    Alex stared into the elf’s eyes and nodded. “First, we must bury the villagers. Gorga will have to turn elsewhere for his next meal.”
    Quickly, the villagers were gathered and buried. The party mounted the unicorns and set out to track the killers. The unicorns set a furious pace and within an hour they had found their prey. They halted on a hillside and looked at the battle in the valley below. About fifty dark elves were attacking another village. This village was larger and had around a hundred people, but it was a farming community and didn’t appear to be defending itself very well.
    Alex hastily came up with a plan of attack. Jenneva would veer out to the west and Egam to the east. The magicians would attack the two flanks while the two Princes and Alex would charge through the middle, turn around and charge back through the line. Alex hoped only that the villagers they had come to help wouldn’t kill them.
    At Alex’s signal they charged, screaming loudly. The attacking dark elves thought, at first, that some of their companions were coming to help because of the unicorns, but when Alex started swinging his sword and dark elves started dying, confusion took hold of the attackers. Alex killed six elves on his first pass through. The Dielderal elves did not expect Alex to turn and charge again and his second pass was just as successful.
    When Alex turned again he could see that they were ready for him this time. He also saw the two magicians hurling fireballs from the sidelines.
    “Just before we reach their lines this time, jog to the right and take out the enemy alongside of the one that you were charging. When we get through, we dismount and fight on foot. The unicorns will be able to double our numbers.”
    They charged as directed and once again the killers were surprised. By the time they dismounted, there were only a handful of the dark elves left and they were running for their lives. Alex and the two Princes brought out their bows and fired at the retreating elves. Kaz and the other two unicorns charged after the retreating enemy and struck them down.
    The villagers ran out and surrounded their unexpected saviors. The villagers were unsure of whether the strangers