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]
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.
Great story, Mohsin! I couldn’t wait to see what happened at the end! Looking forward to more stories from you :))
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