In the United Kingdom, the town of Mordiford, in Herefordshire, sits at the confluence of the River Wye and River Lugg, and is home to a marvellous legend.
A young girl called Maud was wandering about in the fields and forest near her village of Mordiford when she came across a bright green little creature, two legs, translucent wings, a long tail and a snout. It was no bigger than a cucumber, and, delighted with her discovery Maud picked it up and promptly took it home to her parents. She'd been wishing for a pet, and now, here was her chance.
At once, her parents recognised that she had discovered a wyvern.
The wyvern is a mythical, 'dragon-like' creature from European folklore. The main difference between the wyvern and its larger counterpart, the dragon, is number of limbs. Wyvern have just two legs, unlike dragons who usually have four. Wyvern are also smaller, and reputed to be of lesser intelligence than their bigger, smarter cousins.
Maud's parents insisted that she take the creature back to where she found it in the forest. She tried her best to convince them to let her keep it, but finally she gave in, and returned to the forest with her wyvern. But Maud did not intend to lose her new friend. She hid the creature in a place only she knew, and returned regularly with buckets of milk to feed her scaly pet.
The wyvern grew, and grew, and eventually was no longer happy with just milk, and it took to the skies and feasted on the local livestock. The villagers quickly realised what was killing and eating their cows and sheep, and set out to kill the wyvern. It didn't end well for them, with the creature soon gaining a taste for human flesh, as it killed those people who came to attack it.
The only person safe around the wyvern was Maud, and she would travel to its lair in Hauge Wood and beg the beast to stop, trying to soothe it into calmness by stroking its scales and wings.
But the killings didn't stop, and so the villagers sought help from outside their borders.
Here is where the tale branches into various different tellings, but the one that has been adopted by the village of Mordiford in their modern day retellings can be found in their 'Mordiford Dragon Trail. Opened in 2022, the trail takes visitors around the village, with statues and information on the legend.
In their telling, a nobleman named Garstone came to help the desperate villagers. He hid in a barrel by the water, waiting for days until the wyvern finally came to take a drink. Garstone burst out of the barrel, sword in hand, and battled the beast....which was never seen again.
But did Garstone kill the wyvern? He never told the tale.
And it was said that strange footprints were seen around the village after that....and that a mist hangs over Hauge Woods to this day.
A real mist? Or a dragon's breath?
Only Maud truly knows. And it was said that she had a smile on her face, just a few days after the last sighting of her scaly friend.
The Diabolus Chronicles features the town of Mordiford in book two, The Verderer. I couldn't resist adding the town to the journey, after I heard of Maud and her dragon.
But do our able heroes face the mysterious wyvern? Or has the mythical beast been truly relegated to legend?
Read Chapter One of The Bandalore, book one - HERE