Got another one of my personal favorite short stories appearing here this week. If I recall correctly, this was the very last short story that I wrote before I began working on my trilogy of young-adult fantasy novels, The Luminous Legend.
In this tale, you’ll be following a young prince who boldly sets off to meet with a monstrous creature. There’s some debate amongst the peoples of the land as to whether the creature’s title of “The Guardian” is fitting, or if the creature is more of a menace, than anything else. My love of giant monsters naturally played a role in this story’s creation, but my greatest inspiration behind it was the famous scene in The Hobbit where Bilbo Baggins first meets Smaug and has an extended conversation with the great dragon.
JEFFREY PAWLAK 