The creature moved silently through the still landscape. It had no memories of past times and no hopes or dreams of any future. It only lived in the now of this moment. It was searching for something, or someone. Yes, someone! Someone it had to destroy above all hope of anything else. This destruction was the end-all and be-all of its existence. It had no soul to lead it to a higher plane. It had no conscience to beleaguer its cruel devotion to destruction. It had no notion of "good" or "evil" to confuse its single-minded devotion to death. The image of the one who must be destroyed grew stronger in the creature's consciousness with every passing minute. Its great, spiny jaws snapped together as spittle flew in anticipation of that moment when the target of its purpose was found and ripped to shreds. Its evil, sharp claws curled inward at the thought. The huge, black, scaly body undulated with the approaching thrill of victory.

The image of a young man grew ever sharper; tall and handsome, fair of face, the man seemed to radiate a glowing light; a light that grew stronger day by day, and more hateful to the creature's sensitive eyes; it preferred the darkness.

The young man (not quite truly a man as yet) was traveling with two companions, male and female. These two were of no consequence. Their life or death would only be determined by their own actions in the upcoming battle - and battle there would be, for the creature could not tolerate the boy's existance for any longer than it would take it to exterminate him.

It growled out a great roar of anticipation as it sped toward its destination, concentrating on death and destruction. It had so far to travel as yet.

I hope you enjoyed this excerpt from "Magic's Way" by S. Tilghman Hawthorne. Feedback is welcome, email me at