A cautionary tale about greed and hubris from another world.
***
There was a wanderer once in a far-long forgotten land
Who told me of his journey across the Azuna Desert
Where he found himself a great cavern of sand and copper dust.
It was deep and wide; tinged like old gold under the glaring sun
The dusty stones as if carved by talons, and there was no door.
Sunlight streamed like rivers through the channels of gleaming copper
And the mountain frame of this ancient by-gone tunnel of yore
Was as the jaws of a great beast around the small wanderer.
Then, with a glance upon the maw of that glittered cave he spied
A crudely clawed message engraved in the ancient Dragon's script;
"I am Atalante Pride. Ye who dares trample my domain,
Know the Mighty One you have stirred, for your life is now forfeit."
Then within was great wealth: boundless fields of treasure and gemstones.
Yet as the wanderer advanced, no end to the riches was in sight
Until the last chamber, where a colossal mound of gold stood
And atop that mound where fortune and cobwebs rot and mingle
Ancient and barren were the withering bones of a great dragon.