Wednesday, May 25, 2022

A Cautionary Tale

 

A mufti woke from long repose and looked towards the clock. He saw

A sight that made him pale ‘twas very late indeed. Across the floor

He sped and leapt into his robe without e’en changing clothes or brush

-Ing teeth. He then departed to his car and in a rush

He sped through lights of red and green. Then through the iron gate

He drove in rather like a maniac. And in a state

Of hurriedness he parked haphazardly and then he flew

Right up the stairs into the complex. Then he hurried through

The doors and passages and corridors until his class came to

His sight. He pushed the portal open, then observed his class awaiting

Therein. He entered and while running stumbled on a single shoe

The mufti rose into the air and flew across the room. Into

The hub he landed but worse was yet to come. He heard a tear

-Ing sound and his robe did rip, what he was wearing underneath was there

Revealed. The students stared in consternation as their teacher rose.

Upon his shirt there read ‘The gamer dad’ it clearly said.

The mufti walked toward his desk and sat upon his chair. He goes

And puts his feet upon the desk and thus begins to teach.

Although he always did so passionately preach

The need to dress and act in decent manner, seldom

Did take his own advice so it should come

As no surprise that his students never followed his counsel

So, understand that if tell someone to perform an act perform the act as well

. . . .

The next day he woke from sleep and leapt from bed. He raced around

Preparing for the day ahead. He never once did glance around

Toward the clock. He jumped into his car and turned the key

The car did choke and then it stopped. Endeavoring with all his strength he

Did twist the key but nothing happened. Then he lost his head completely

Abandoning his car he fled, pursued by fear of being late

Up the muddy street he splashed getting himself so great

-Ly foul and filthy. Covered in mud he ran and ran until the gate

Did come to view. He saw quite clearly; they were shut with chains. He then

Did realise his earliness and an important lesson:

‘Haste in performing tasks result in extra burden’

Thursday, August 19, 2021

The Red Pearls - Part 4/4

Ibn Rajab stood in the night alone, holding a cloth bag containing twenty-five glowing pearls and gloating at his success. The pearls were his. And rightfully so, for he had bought them, hadn’t he? That baron, even if his story was true, had no right to these comely pearls.

Ibn Rajab looked towards the stygian firmament and was surprised to descry a strange green bird flying towards him. It came closer and closer. It was, now he came to think of it, too ponderous for a bird and it had no beak and was covered in scales and spikes.

With a horrible realization he understood that this was the fabled dragon. Now he stood, paralyzed with terror as it came closer and closer. Then he sighed with relief as it flew past. It was not without purpose that the dragon had descended, however. Looking after it, he saw a bulging bag dangling from a long black talon.

Suddenly he felt angry. He had bought those pearls and now the dragon had embezzled them. He looked around; a man was closing a stable door. Without hesitation, he ran towards the man, shoved him aside, and rushed into the stable. Therein was a glossy, black horse. Ibn Rajab did not have any knowledge of riding, but he thought he did so he leapt on the horse, pulled its mane, and kicked its front legs. The horse reared up and Ibn Rajab slid off landing on the hard floor. Then the man entered holding a stick in preparation to beat him. Ibn Rajab picked himself up, pushed past the man and rushed out the door.

He could still see the dragon in the distance, so he began to give chase. The dragon was awfully slow due to its tremendous bulk. In addition to that, it looked fatigued. Ibn Rajab passed houses, shops, inns and finally reached the gates of the town. Two hapless guards were heaving at them, endeavouring to shut them. They were having extraordinarily little success.

“Hail friend,” called one of them, “would you mind…”

“Out of the way!” snapped Ibn Rajab and he sped past.

Now he began running in earnest. Ahead, an alp loomed. The dragon was flying towards it. Then it vanished into a cave. Ibn Rajab, after many hours, many stops, and many wishes for water finally reached the foot. Then began the long, arduous travail up the steep incline.

He investigated the first cave he reached and found it was empty. The next cave contained some invisible atoms. The next five were the same. He observed a phosphorescent golden light emerging from the eighth cave. He approached with caution and peeked around the side of the cave. The cave was tall and very wide. There was a large white ball of celestial light in the centre of the ceiling (he later discovered it was made from something called “majick”). There were piles of golden trappings: doubloons, armour, helms, shields, swords, coins, daggers, crowns, sceptres, rings, model animals and people, statues, spears, lances, helmets, cups, goblets, chalices, vessels, breastplates, and rolls and rolls of golden cloth. There was a clearing in all that glittering, shimmering, glimmering gold and in it was the green thief and an old man. On the floor near entrance was the brown cloth bag containing the pearls.

Ibn Rajab crept forward very stealthily and slowly picked the bag up; then started to back quickly out of the cave. Then the pearls clinked together. The dragon looked up. Then the old man looked up as well.

“Ah,” said the old man, “I see you’ve got my pearls. Please return them.”

Ibn Rajab was about to say no, but the dragon growled so he thought better of it. He dropped the bag and hurried out of the cave. Then was the descent and the walk back to the town and then the lengthy vigil at the gates until morning and finally the long wait for the two guards to open them. Then back to his house and then to bed.


Wednesday, July 28, 2021

The Story of the King, the Dragon and the Clever Knight

In far eastern Wales lived a very foolish, very vain, and very terrible dragon whose name was Draco. He lived in the sea from which he frequently emerged to feast on eggs and soldiers [1].

The king of that time was not at all pleased to have to constantly replace his soldiers so one day he asked the cleverest man in his kingdom to devise a plan that would purge the kingdom of “that dread beast which constantly plagues us”.

The poor man, fearing for the safety of his head, earnestly endeavored to formulate a plan that would accord with the kings wishes but was forced to admit his inability to come up with one. Upon arriving at this conclusion, he decided he would be safer elsewhere and so he sold all his possessions, bought a fast horse, and set off to London where he gained renown as a poet who invented iambic hexameter and iambic heptameter.

Meanwhile, the king, upon discovering the insubordination of his kingdom’s most intelligent man, flew into a terrible rage and, hurling rubies all the while, chased his informer out of the castle. When he returned, he was extremely annoyed to find the mess of 200 rubies all over the floor. After declaring that the one who made the mess would be executed for “the heinous crime of attempted murder through injury of a monarch’s foot” he stormed to his throne room and slammed the door shut. Then he flung himself on his throne to think.

After 2 hours of uninterrupted rumination and reading, he had an idea.

......... 6 hours later

“Friends”, the king began, “I have brought you all hither …”. It was evening, and the king had summoned all his knights to the Square Table of King Arnold for a meeting. “…to discuss the ongoing problem with that dire creature”, the king continued, “the dragon that continually haunts us and holds us in fear. We must do something about this matter, or else it will consume the population of Wales and then spread worldwide.”

 “I was perusing a book concerning history when I came across a story about King Arnold and a dragon. It is narrated that he sent each of his knight…”

 

“I suppose you expect us to do the same”, interrupted Sir James who was a very insolent knight, “why can’t you slay the beast yourself?”

“No! No! I can’t possibly leave them, it’s a king’s duty to look after his people. I must ensure they are well”, responded the king, then he added in a thoughtful voice, “I wonder how your body would look without a head.”

“Well? Who volunteers?”

“I’ll go”, offered Sir William, a hardy knight of many years, “I’ll depart now if you wish”.

“Yes”, said the king, “that would be good. If you slay it then I’ll give you a pot of gold.”

So, Sir William departed thence and rode on his swift steed to the sea. Upon his advent, he observed the dragon lying on the beach. The dragon was large and red, and he was chewing on a large bone.

“Hail, dragon!” called the knight, “I’ve come to meet you and see your so-called ‘majesty’ and ‘greatness’ for myself. I now discover that my informers were quite correct.”

“Ave, knight”, rumbled the dragon, “I hope you’ll not mind being eaten [2] because that’s what’ll betide you”.

“Of course, I won’t mind”, responded Sir William, “but before you do that, I’ve a query for you.”

“You can ask your question, then I’ll consume you.

“Well, I was wondering if you could perform magic? All the dragons in the old tales were.”

“Yes, I am very adept at it.” Replied the dragon smugly,” I can do very good magic”.

“Can you shrink yourself to human size?” asked the knight, “If you could, then that would truly demonstrate your power. If you could defeat me while you’re that size, then you’d probably be feared by the whole world.”

Even though he sensed the trick, the dragon could not resist the chance to acquire fame, so he nodded, closed his eyes, and then shrunk to human size.

The Battle

 [In Blank Verse]

 The warrior thrust with murderous swing

Dragon aside moved, thus avoiding death

So, Will attacked again and with complete

Intention lunged towards his foe, then swept

His sword left to right. His foe fell down

And Sir William was the victor.


THE END!



[1] He would eat real Welsh soldiers and Ostrich eggs. He would fly to Africa to get the eggs.

[2] In addition to being vain and terrible, the dragon was also quite polite.

Friday, March 19, 2021

Saturday, March 6, 2021

The Red Pearl - Part 3/4

As the baron searched, he descried a figure matching the description of the jeweller. He was walking along the road and whistling. He headed toward him and stopped before him. The man looked up.

“What do you want, sir?”, he inquired.

“Is your name Ibn Rajab?”, asked the baron.

“Yes. It is”, replied Ibn Rajab.

“I believe you purchased 25 red pearls from a jeweller, said the baron, “I wonder if you could sell them to me.”

“How do you know I bought 25 pearls?”, Ibn Rajab asked suspiciously, “I will not sell them unless you tell me how you came across that information.”

“Well…I met a man…”, and the baron related his story.

“Intriguing, very intriguing”, muttered Ibn Rajab, “alright, you can have them…for only 25 gold coins. I’ll just retrieve them from my room.”

Ibn Rajab walked away and soon returned holding a sack. He handed it to the baron, who in return, gave him 25 coins.

“Thank you very much”, said the baron.

Ibn Rajab walked away. The baron returned to his waiting horse and embarked.

Then he stopped, he had forgotten to ask the pearl owner where to find him when he had retrieved the pearls.

He decided to return to the place wherein he had met the man. When he arrived, he found the man leaning against a tree waiting for him.

Dismounting he handed the sack to the man who wordlessly took it and peered inside.

The man looked up and his visage was irate as he said, “you tricked me, you wanted to steal my money!”

He hurled the sack on the ground and stormed away.

The baron picked up the sack and saw therein 25 round pebbles.

To be continued ...

 


A Cautionary Tale

  A mufti woke from long repose and looked towards the clock. He saw A sight that made him pale ‘twas very late indeed. Across the floor ...