The Dragon's Tooth
by Elizabeth McCoy
This relic is thought to be a shard of one of the most powerful sorcerer-vampires of legend, the "little dragon," Dracula. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. By this time, does it matter?
In appearance, it's a yellowing shard of bone or tooth, jagged as if broken off in a fight, about the size of a baby's thumbnail. (Yes, it's very small.)
What does it do?
Well, if someone puts it in a field, the crops will wither as if the land had been salted. The one who put the Tooth there will be able to find it again, fairly easily, but anyone else will have to sift the ground, inch by inch, to discover it.
Unless the one who put it there dies, or forgets about it, of course. At that point, it will -- after a short time -- be found again by someone else who just happens to notice it, and pick it up. Usually this person will have the knowledge and attitude to use the Tooth, but if not, somehow it seems to migrate into the possession of someone who will be interested in its abilities.
What else does it do?
It summons dragons. Not real dragons, fortunately, but simulacra. Dream-dragons, given form by power.
Place the Tooth within one's body -- this can be in an orifice such as the mouth (careful, it's sharp!), or actually driven into the flesh so that little or none of it shows. (Surgical implantation, into flesh or a healthy tooth, is also possible.) Go to sleep. Be a lucid dreamer. Dream of dragons, dragons, dragons, rising from the gray earth of the dreamlands to . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: April 18, 2003
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