That the friends were astonished hardly expresses how they felt when there was suddenly a dragon in front of them. They had all been frightened with the idea of a dragon, and truth be told, they weren’t used to feeling fear. Now that there was a red dragon with yellow breast scales, green horns and wings in front of them, smiling in a friendly way (teeth covered), they were all making several calculations.
T1 and T2 twitched and prepared to shrink into their shells. Hedgehog considered rolling into a ball. Rabbit and Dog, the quickest runners, had flight or fight in mind, but they both knew they would protect their friends, come what may. Frog, however, remained calm and stared boldly at the new guest.
Frog said, “Dog, kindly read again what you just said.”
“These dragons hide their caves with garden plants and go about peaceably,” read Dog obediently.
“Does that describe you?” Frog asked, looking at the dragon.
“Peaceably, for certain,” said the dragon, “Except possibly for ants. I eat ants.”
“This is fine, I don’t mind an ant from time to time myself,” said Frog, “Could you tell us how you came to the bottom of our garden and maybe a little bit about yourself?”
“I certainly would tell you all that, if I knew a bit more myself. When you are a dragon, things can happen in unexpected ways.”
The friends could accept that: each of them came to the faerie house by routes they could not explain clearly.
“What I can say,” continued the dragon, “is that I am having a jolly time. I get so much help with gardening — who is that lady? — and my cave is coming along beautifully. Have you seen it?”
Dog found a voice at this point and said, “Yes, I came across what must be your cave very recently and it is lovely. Although, it has put us in a bit of a tizzy.”
“I am so sorry about that,” said the dragon. “I have been keeping an eye on all of you as well. There is a lot of literature that goes on about “slaying the dragon.” You can imagine that I tread carefully in a new neighbourhood.”
Hedgehog perked up at this, “Oh, we are very gentle here! That is the whole thing about a faerie house. You can’t live here and be mean or miserable.”
“Hmmm.. and how do you define ‘miserable’?” asked the dragon.
“Ahh well, I mean miserable in the way of being grouchy just for the sake of being grouchy. One cannot be happy all the time of course. We all have things that catch us up now and then and make us sad, but here at the faerie house, we try to be kind to each other,” said Hedgehog thoughtfully.
T2 was watching carefully. “Are you miserable Mr. Dragon?”
“I do have a problem,” said the dragon, “and sometimes I feel quite bad about it, but let’s talk of happier things! Would you like to come see my cave?”
The friends were eager to see the dragon’s cave. The dragon seemed trustworthy, but they still hesitated. For one thing, the dragon was bigger than all of them combined, and for another, what if the dragon breathed fire and unintentionally they all became BBQ.
The dragon noticed the hesitation.
“Let me tell you the thing that makes me sad. I think it may relieve some of your worries. I cannot breath fire. I don’t know why not, but it has never come to me. And I have never eaten friends, only flowers and ants. My cave is very safe for you.”
With that the friends decided that trust was warranted and they were excited to see this new marvel at the bottom of their garden.
“Just imagine something so new and splendid so close to us!” said T2.
“Each day is still a wonder to me,” said Rabbit.
“Should we bring water?” asked Hedgehog.
“No, I have a small pond,” said the dragon, “and sometimes water comes out of the ground from a tube. You won’t believe it!”
The friends had to hike in a line to make their way through the greenery. With the dragon at the front of the line and Dog at the back, making sure everyone was making progress and going in the right direction, they headed to the dragon’s cave.
Hiking at the turtles’ pace called upon the patience of the faster friends, but as it was a beautiful day and not a race, slow and steady was the order of the day. When they got to the garden they had a quick look around.
“It’s not that much farther,” said the dragon encouragingly. “Mind the scat. Perhaps I should be more judicious in future,” the dragon added with a blush.
There were flowers and green vines making a pleasant scene even before they got their first view of the cave. When they saw it, they were amazed.
“Stunning!” said Dog. “This is much grander than I remembered.”
“It is glorious!” said T1 and Hedgehog in awe.
“Beautiful, indeed,” said Frog.
“Marvellous!” said Rabbit.
T2 did not have words.
“Would you care to poke your nose inside?” invited the dragon, “It is quite comfortable.”
The friends crowded around to look inside the cave. There was greenery inside as well: spruce tips made a soft bed and there were some flowers set aside for the dragon’s next meal.
After a short visit, Frog said, somewhat formally, “We are very grateful to you for this pleasure. We need to start on our way home now because the hike takes a while. We look forward to seeing again soon.”
The friends all said, “Thank you,” and they started their slow march back to the faerie house.
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