It was a hot summer's afternoon when Tanais the fox slowly walked up the hill to innkeeper Badger's sett. The air was still and the sun shone high in the cloudless sky; an inquisitive fly occasionally buzzed around his head which he knocked away with a deft flick of one of his black-tipped ears. Aside from the distant shouts of cubs and other youngsters from the village playing in the nearby stream, everything was still and quiet, laden with the heavy stillness of a hot midsummer's afternoon.
Tanais paused halfway up to take out a handkerchief and mop his sweating brow. It was certainly the hottest day of the year and most definitely not a day to be tramping up steep hills, but he had an appointment to keep and news to bring. Looking around and admiring the magnificent view from the hill he absent-mindedly patted his waistcoat pocket, out of which stuck an envelope.
Looking back up the hill he saw he had only a little further to go. Despite the heat of the day, the air was nevertheless quite invigorating; stuffing the handkerchief back in his pocket Tanais continued upwards.
"Whew!" he gasped as he finally reached the top of the hill and looked down at the view. It was quiet in the village. Everyone was either indoors, making the most of what little shade they could find, or they were outside, splashing about in the nearby river.
Sniffing the air, Tanais turned and walked up to innkeeper Badger's sett and politely knocked on the door.
"Go away." called a gruff, old voice from behind the door -- "It's far too hot to do any work today and anyway, can't you see we're closed?"
"It's only me" said Tanais good-naturedly. He knew that Badger disliked the hot weather above all and he noticed his old friend getting increasingly grumpy and sore tempered as the hot summer drew on.
Muttering to himself words probably best left unrepeated, the door eventually opened to reveal Badger wearing his old faded green apron; He had been cleaning a pile of drinking glasses. All the shutters were closed and all the taps were neatly covered with tea towels. Badger squinted out at the sunny weather and snorted in disgust at the heat and the sun.
Badger muttered to himself again and stood aside to let the fox in. "It was about time you turned up." He said, "I've set our game up by the window." and he motioned to a pair of stools sitting next to a table with a chess set on it.
Tanais took off his cap and placed it on the table; the inn was very dark inside in an attempt to keep it as cool as possible, but Badger -- whose eyes were beginning to fail him in old age -- eventually decided to open the shutters to the window next to their table so he could see the game a little better.
"Thirsty work... walking up that hill," Tanais said nonchalantly as he sat down, brushed some dust out of his tail and pulled out the letter from his waistcoat pocket and put it in his cap. "I could do with something to take an itch out of my throat, but..." his voice trailed off as he spied a few jugs of freshly made lemonade sitting in a tray of ice.
"...but I suppose you somehow left your den without anything to pay for the drink didn't you?" Badger gruffly finished the fox's sentence with only the barest hint of a smile creeping across his face. "Honestly Tanais, how on earth do you expect me to make any money?"
"I don't suppose you'd be interested in exchanging a drink for a story then?" Tanais said hopefully, pulling out his pipe and then thinking the better of it, the smoke would only agitate his already parched throat.
Badger stopped and looked at the fox sternly over his spectacles -- he didn't approve of Tanais' penchant for smoking and he made sure Tanais knew about it every time he pulled his pipe or his tobacco pouch out. "No... I would not my fox friend. If I gave you a drink for every story you've told me, I'd be even poorer than I am now!" but Tanais just looked wistfully at the jug and proceeded to fidget with his pipe. With a resigned shrug, Badger sighed and shambled over to the counter where he poured out two glasses of fresh lemonade -- making sure he put more ice in Tanais' glass.
"So, what's in the letter then?" Badger asked as he shuffled back with the lemonade and started to arrange the chess pieces. "Good news, I hope."
"Mm?" Said Tanais as he took a deep draught from his glass, savouring the tang of fresh lemons with each gulp, letting its icy freshness bring new life to his parched throat and tickle his tummy. Putting his glass down, he smacked his lips appreciatively, looked at the letter and then smiled at Badger. "The letter? Oh, I'm having a good friend come 'round to stay in a few days time." Tanais said cheerfully, "He just wrote to tell me he'll be flying down sometime early next week."
"Anyone I know?" said Badger, abstractly shuffling the chess pieces around on the board.
"Oh, only a dragon." said Tanais, reaching for his glass for a second gulp.
Badger stopped Tanais with a paw and looked aghast at the fox. "You mean you invited a dragon over! Are you out of your mind?" he growled. "He may be a friend of yours Tanais, but let me remind you that dragons have a tendency to flatten everything in their path, they burn down forests, they don't offer to pay for the funerals," and stopping only to berate the fox with a stern glare from over his spectacles, he sighed; "and what's worse, your friend will no doubt frighten away all of my customers!"
"Oh I don't think so." soothed Tanais, "He's not really like that at all. I met him when we were both very young and over the years we've stayed in touch. He's mostly vegetarian you know -- he can't bear to eat meat -- occasionally he eats the odd insect or two but otherwise he's quite harmless."
"Mhm..." the old Badger grumbled darkly, "and I suppose he starts fires all over the place."
"Hardly," said Tanais, reaching for his glass a second time, this time unimpeded by Badger, "you see, this dragon can't blow flames, or at least not when I last saw him. He was abandoned as a cub and never learned how to even puff smoke. How we met is a long story and I wouldn't want to bore you with the details."
"No, no." said Badger a little too quickly, "Please do tell. I'm sure it's worth another glass of lemonade?" and pouring his friend a second glass (this time leaving out the ice), Badger adjusted his spectacles and made his first move on the chessboard as Tanais began his tale:
"I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning." Tanais said, thoughtfully scratching at an ear. "It was in the early days when I had only just started my traveling and I had not been journeying far. I was walking down a particularly long and rather uninteresting stretch of road when all of a sudden I felt a powerful downward gust of wind and the sky went dark as if a cloud passed overhead. Looking up I caught a glimpse of what looked like a long scaly tail streaming across the sky. I blinked and then it was gone! I just stood there dumbfounded, it all happened so quickly that I wasn't sure exactly what happened. So I sat down by the side of the road and shook my head when I noticed something hidden in the middle of a bush in front of me. It was an egg."
Tanais looked at Badger's opening chess move and went through the motions with a fairly ordinary move with his knight. "I looked around but saw no sign of its owner. It was far too big to be the sort of egg you would find hatched by any bird and judging by its warmth it had only just been abandoned. So I picked it up, put it in my jacket pocket and went on my way."
Tanais thoughtfully rubbed at his muzzle, "I guess at the time, I was more curious than anything else. I certainly wasn't planning on eating it. I was mainly interested in who had laid such a large and oddly-coloured egg -- certainly it wasn't from any creature I was aware of.
"So, I took the egg along with me and walked for the rest of the day until my feet were tired. I decided to set up camp in a field by the side of the road. I made myself a fire and placed the egg in my cap and stuffed it down with some straw bedding. I wasn't sure anything would come of it, but the egg was quite hot and I intended using its heat to keep me warm throughout the night. So I sat down and carefully studied at the egg, wondering where it came from and who could have laid such a huge object."
Tanais took a sip from his lemonade and continued. "I busied myself by lighting a fire and putting some food on to cook. When that was done, I set up my bed for the night. As I started to light my pipe for the evening, I heard the sound of hooves gently clip clopping in the distance. It was a quiet night and sound travels far -- yet it was unusual to hear someone traveling this late at night. I just sat and lit my pipe, waiting to see who was coming down that road."
Tanais peeped into his tobacco pouch and made a mental note to get some more of the kind he liked. Sighing, he closed up the pouch and put it back in his pocket and continued. "After a short while, the sound of the horse's hooves became clearer and more distinct until around the corner walked a magnificent white horse. On his back was a proud knight in armour. Lit by my camp fire, they looked quite impressive. I could see hanging from his saddle was a fine looking sword and all manner of strange looking devices. Strapped to the other side of the saddle was a small shield decorated with the picture of six dragons -- each with a red line struck through them."
Tanais frowned and peered at the chessboard, thoughtfully toying with his pieces until he finally picked up his knight and studied it carefully before putting it down again. "This was a dragon hunter if ever I saw one."
"The knight stopped and looked at me and my fire by the side of the road and decided to stop for the night. `Good evening,' he said as he dismounted his horse and patted her. `Mind if we stop here for the night?'
"`Not at all! Be my guest.' I said, lighting my pipe and suspiciously eyeing his shield, `What brings you to these parts?'
"The knight pulled off his helmet to reveal the face of a proud old otter. He looked at the fire and my fiddle and toyed with quite possibly the most magnificent moustache you had ever seen in your life. `Well, probably much the same as you my boy,' he said good naturedly, `I'm just passing through, doing my business... that sort of thing.' He reached across to unclip the horse's bridle and unfastened his sword. With a grunt, he heaved the saddle from her back and pulled out a stiff brush and adroitly groomed the dust from her flank. It was clear that they had been traveling hard all day
"Sitting himself down next to the fire, the knight watched his horse wander off to nibble at some grass by the side of the road as he struggled with his boots. Finally each boot was off whereupon he wiggled each paw breathing a contented sigh. It had been a long day.
Tanais shifted uncomfortably at the memory and toyed with a chess piece. "I looked at the egg, which was still partly visible under its bed of straw. Thankfully the knight was still unclipping his armour and hadn't noticed anything beyond my campfire. I needed a distraction, so I asked as tactfully as I could, `...and... um... what is it that a knight does?'
"`We go on quests', responded the knight with a proud smile and a flourishing twist on his marvelous moustache. He grinned triumphantly, showing me the row of crossed out dragons on the side of his shield. `Dangerous things dragons. They're a nuisance, flattening everything in their path, burning down forests and frightening people away.' The knight looked thoughtful for a moment and then said `My quest is to get rid of all the dragons in the kingdom. I've been quite successful of late. Only today I found a mother dragon and an egg this afternoon. Scared `em right out of the kingdom... that's what I've been chasing all day today...' and his voice trailed off as he stared into the fire and thoughtfully preened his moustache.
"Putting my waistcoat on top of the egg and moving the bundle safely out of view from the knight who was thankfully oblivious to what I was doing, I sat down in front of the egg and said as nonchalantly as I could `That sounds like an... interesting occupation.'
"`Ahh, but there's a reason for my quest.' The knight said, `As always there's the usual fame and glory if I'm successful. But getting rid of dragons is only part of the story.' he said, preening his moustache still further. `I was told by the King himself that if I bring home the head of the baddest and fiercest dragon, I will win the king's daughter's hand in marriage. Not bad eh?' and unsheathing his sword he cheerfully pulled out an oiled rag and started to clean it -- whistling tunelessly as he wiped at the blade with long thoughtful strokes.
"I sat and said nothing." Tanais said. "Even though I had never met a dragon at this point, I didn't think a mother dragon who was forced to leave her egg hidden in a bush could be considered a bad or a fierce dragon by any means, so I stayed silent about my discovery -- now certain that I would keep the egg a secret, whatever happened."
Tanais sat for a while staring out of he window and thoughtfully rubbed his muzzle. "The egg wouldn't be safe while the knight was nearby. Inwardly I shuddered at the thought of anyone harming the egg, so I hatched a plot to get the knight away from my camp as soon as possible."
Tanais looked at Badger uncomfortably and kicked gently at one leg of his stool. "For the first time in my life I told a lie. Telling a lie is a serious thing and not at all something to be taken lightly -- especially if you're a storyteller. I had a feeling what I was doing would lead to problems later on and I tried to keep quiet until eventually the pressure was so great that I blurted out, `I suppose you'd be interested in hearing about some nearby dragons I heard about just a few days ago.'
"The knight looked up sharply from cleaning his sword and almost leapt into the air at the news `What was that?' he said with a clatter of swords and shields and other knightly paraphernalia.
"`Oh yes!' I continued, `big, angry and fierce dragons. I'm sure they're just the kind you're looking for.' and to make the point even clearer, I drew a map in the ground and pointed into the distance at a range of mountains known as the Lonely Mountains many miles away and with a dangerous looking desert between them. As far as I knew the mountains were barren and unoccupied by anything the knight would find interesting and they were far enough away to keep him occupied for some time to come." Tanais shrugged, "Although it wasn't my best plan, it was the only thing I could think of under the circumstances."
"The knight pulled out his own map and the checked with the rough sketch I had drawn in the ground. Occasionally murmuring `Nasty looking stretch of desert that..' and `Of course it'd be easy for a dragon to hide out in those mountains'. After a minute or so of careful thinking, the knight suddenly looked at me and said, `I'd need to start straight away. We can't have a mother dragon hatching youngsters all the time.' He had made up his mind to leave there and then for the Lonely Mountains.
"The knight sheathed his sword and put his helmet on. It was dark now, but the knight's impetuousness meant that he simply had to go and find the dragons. When he put on his boots and all his armour back on, he whistled to his horse who by now had stopped grazing and trotted to his side.
"`Thank you for that information fox-my-lad. You may have saved me a great deal of time' the knight said, clearly overjoyed at the news.
"`Think nothing of it' I mumbled guiltily, trying not to look at him eye to eye. I felt terrible, because my lie had clearly gotten the knight excited and possibly into serious danger. The desert before the Lonely Mountains was notoriously hard to cross; I have heard many frightening stories about creatures and mischievous fire demons that lived in the desert and who preyed on travelers foolish enough to try crossing their land. It was certainly a place I was avoiding as much as possible.
"Before I even had a chance to own up to the lie... the knight was on his horse. With a final salute he galloped off into the night, heading straight for the mountains and the desert that lay between them."
Tanais paused and looked at Badger as he took another draught from his glass and contemplated his hat with the letter sticking out of it. "I felt terrible for the rest of the evening and felt ashamed at sending the knight off into the darkness on a wild goose chase and possibly into danger." Fumbling with his glass uncomfortably, Tanais continued, "At least the egg was safe, so I decided to take one last look at it before turning in for the night.
Tanais smiled fondly at Badger -- an odd look and one that he normally didn't let others see. "Did you know that if you hold an egg up to a strong light you can often see the shadow of what's inside the egg?" he said. "Well, as I held the egg gently, I noticed it had gotten warmer. So I held it closer to the fire to see if I could see the baby dragon inside through the shell, but as I held it closer to the fire, it started to quiver and shake; at first very gently but getting more insistent with each jerk. After a minute or so it shook from side to side and jumped out of my paws almost landing in the fire! I leapt at it and held on to the egg, but to my astonishment I had to let go as it had suddenly gotten so hot that I almost burned my paws."
Gingerly rubbing his pads at the memory, Tanais grasped at his cold glass for reassurance. "The egg rolled into the fire," Tanais continued, "it was attracted to the heat of the fire and all I could do was to try to stop it by prodding it away from the flames with a stick, but it seemed determined to get closer to the heat. But if I got any closer I'd singe my whiskers.
"Almost as soon as the egg settled into the ashes it split open. First a big crack split along the side of the egg, followed by lots of little fissures around one end. The sound of the crack was quite deep and hollow. Although the flames from my fire were quite low and merely licked around the base of the egg, I watched the fissure grow wider and wider until after a few minutes the egg split in half and out fluttered the most amazing creature I had ever seen -- it was a dragon cub!"
Tanais smiled at Badger who had by now completely forgotten the chess game and was looking at the fox suspiciously, "And I suppose you're telling me that your dragon friend hasn't got a thing about fires then?" he grumbled.
"Don't be silly." laughed Tanais, "Don't you see? The dragon cub needed the heat of the fire to give him one final burst of energy in order to crack the egg open by himself! Dragon eggs are found in hot conditions otherwise they get cold and don't hatch. Of course I didn't know that until much later. Even inside the egg, the dragon cub noticed the heat of the fire and it was sheer perseverance that made him roll his egg into the fire -- despite all my efforts to stop him -- and it was a good thing he did!" said Tanais with a gleam in his eyes as he took a delicate sip from his lemonade.
Putting the glass down, Tanais smiled proudly at the ever-cynical Badger who merely wrinkled his whiskers as if by reply. "Even as a hatchling, the dragon cub was the most magnificent creature I had ever seen." the fox said. "He was tiny though -- certainly no larger than my drinking glass; but as soon as the dragon cub popped out of the egg, he looked at me with deep golden eyes, trilled and leapt into the night sky, snapping at the moths and insects attracted by the light of the fire."
Tanais sat back and put his paws up on a stool next to the table quickly putting them down as Badger glared at him from over his spectacles. By now the old innkeeper could no longer concentrate on the game and sat politely listening to Tanais telling his story. Having heard many of Tanais' tales before, he knew better than to interrupt the fox in full flow and he was captivated by his story anyway. With a start, Badger noticed he was still holding a chess piece in one paw. He thought about pretending to think his way through a very serious move but in the end he just sighed and put the piece down and cleaned his glasses. The game could wait.
Tanais took one final sip from his lemonade and looked thoughtfully at the last few remaining bubbles at the bottom of his glass and sighed gratefully for his cold tummy on such a hot day. Badger made excellent lemonade, but Tanais was at a critical part of his story so licking his chops one final time, he turned his attention back to Badger and continued.
"The dragon cub settled down to sleep after a while. But I didn't get a wink of sleep all night. I worried about the knight and felt ashamed about telling him lies. I sat and thought about all the possible dangers I may have put him into. Then I worried about what would have happened if I had shown him the egg and then I worried about the responsibilities of looking after a newly-hatched dragon cub. Tanais scratched at an ear and looked ruefully at Badger, "with that lot buzzing about inside my head, I lay tossing and turning all night.
"By early morning I decided I would follow the knight into the desert to warn him and face the consequences. It was dangerous and foolish to go into the desert alone and unprepared but I simply had to tell the knight the truth and warn him.
"At first light, I packed up my belongings and quietly crept away as I didn't want to wake the sleeping dragon cub. I knew if I was to catch up with the knight I would have to travel lightly, so I hid my fiddle and camping equipment under a bush and trotted as swiftly as I could in the direction of the desert and the Lonely Mountains."
Tanais frowned, "I don't know how long I had been walking. Even though I knew I had gone into the desert totally unprepared I suddenly realised what that meant. I had nothing to make a fire with, nothing to sleep on or under, nothing to protect myself with, I had no shelter from the cold desert nights and worse still, the mountains looked no closer than when I started.
"Whimpering, I realised the enormity of my task as I sat wondering what to do. I thought about turning back, but it was too far to walk. I was tired and worn out from the day's traveling and the light was fading fast. The sun had already started to set, casting eerie shadows over the desert sand.
"Above me I heard a gentle fluttering of wings and a trilling. Looking up I spied the dragon cub hovering above me. When he saw me, he started cheeping and trilling with excitement. Swooping down to my side and landing gently on my shoulders, the dragon cub wrapped his long tail smartly around my chest where he sat humming contentedly. I was pleased that neither of us had to spend the night alone -- although I was still inwardly worried about the knight.
"After a while I made myself as comfortable as possible. It was getting cold, but the dragon cub was giving off a lot of heat so we would at least be warm. I was just about to drop off to sleep when the dragon cub raised his head and hissed at something in the distance. The next moment he was up in the air and flying off into the night.
"`No! Wait!' I called as he leapt into the air. The moon was just rising over the Lonely Mountains in the distance so I could see clearly the direction he was flying in. I leapt to my feet as and followed him as quickly as my tired paws would permit. After running a few hundred yards I heard the faint sound of shouts and the clang of metal. I recognized the sounds belonging to the knight and it sounded like he was fighting!"
Tanais toyed with his glass and stared out of the window into the distance. "When I heard the sound of fighting I tried to run a little faster. I felt sick. I don't think I could have forgiven myself if the dragon cub had come to any harm. With each clang of metal, I ran deeper into the night until I came across an outcropping of rocks. I hid behind a boulder and caught my breath listening to the sounds of the dragon cub hissing angrily, the knight's horse whinnying and stamping madly at the ground and the clatter of swords. Fearing the worst, I took a deep breath and looked around the boulder."
Tanais pulled out his handkerchief and mopped the last of the lemonade from his whiskers. "I was unprepared for what I saw. Far from seeing the knight and the dragon cub locked in mortal combat, I watched in blank astonishment at the knight and the dragon cub busily dispatching dozens of fire demons that were streaming out through a crack in the ground. The knight was fighting valiantly, but the fire demons were slowly getting the better of him by sheer force of numbers. They crept behind him, and latched onto his armour -- letting their heat travel through the metal and burning him. On more than one occasion he had to drop his sword from their intense heat as he slashed at the fiery creatures.
"The dragon cub was having a much easier time. Swooping in and out of clouds of demons, he snapped at any that came too close, his shiny green scales deflecting those that flew at him in an attempt to burn him."
Tanais grinned at the memory of the spectacle, "All I could do was watch in astonishment. They were too busy dispatching or dealing with the fire demons to notice, but I had the strange feeling that we were being watched. Looking into the night sky, I felt a sense of something huge and... black looming overhead. Peering deeper into the night sky I saw the outline of biggest dragon you had ever seen in your life. He was as black as the night itself and he must have been at least fifty feet long from head to tail. He looked at the crack in the earth with baleful orange eyes and with a belch of sulfurous flames, he blew a jet of white fire at the ground, literally melting the sand and sealing up the crack in the earth.
"Seeing their safe retreat gone, the fire demons chattered madly and dispersed as quickly as they came until all that remained were a few fluttering flames on the surface of the sand.
"The knight had clearly been kept too busy fighting the fire demons to see the dragon. With one motion he lifted off his helmet and stared at the dragon cub -- who was pulling at a fire demon's tail trying to bury itself in the sand in a desperate bid to get away, but the dragon cub had no intention of letting go. The knight blinked in astonishment at his surprise helper and burst out laughing again at the comic spectacle. `Well, well, well! A fire lizard eh? I never thought I'd get help from the likes of you!' He was about to start laughing again when he saw the sealed up hole in the ground. Frowning, he sniffed at the familiar scent of sulfur."
Tanais looked back from the window and stared at Badger. "Something made the Knight look into the sky. When he realised he was face to face with the largest and fiercest looking dragon he had ever seen in his life, he almost took off himself." Tanais grinned... "I've never seen anyone jump backwards as quickly as that knight -- especially as he was weighed down by all his armour!
"For an instant the knight's paws reached for his sword, but something odd happened. He looked at the dragon cub, then at the last few retreating fire demons and then back at the dragon fluttering above him. Instead of putting on his helmet and preparing to do battle, the knight's face softened." Tanais shook his head in amazement. "But before the knight could do anything, the dragon cub flew into the air and fluttered over to my hiding place behind the boulder cheeping and trilling excitedly."
Tanais shrugged at Badger and looked sheepishly, "Both the black dragon and the knight looked curiously in my direction. Clearly there was no point in my hiding any longer, so I walked out from behind the boulder and cleared my throat. When he saw it was me, the knight spluttered in surprise. "Fox-my-lad! What are you doing here?" he said, his huge smile returning -- although it was clear that he was still a little uncomfortable at having a huge dragon looming above his head."
Tanais fumbled with his pipe and shrugged again, "I then told them everything; how I found the egg, how I had hidden it from the knight, and how I dropped it near the fire and it's hatching. The black dragon listened as he toyed with the dragon cub -- blowing smoke rings that the little one flew through in small, graceful arcs. As I told them the truth, the knight looked at the ground and pouted thoughtfully. For a long time he just sat and listened until I was all talked out. Finally I simply said. `I'm sorry.' and sat down on the floor, shaking slightly.
"When I was done, the knight looked at me and then up at the dragon cub and across to the black dragon, who was still blowing smoke rings for the little dragon cub. Finally the Knight nodded and smiled warmly. `Well, all's well that ends well.' he murmured gently as he took off his gloves. `It seems I have a few things to learn about dragons as well.' he said, `It seems I owe you, the little one and our dragon friend here an apology. Turning to the black dragon he held out his paws. `I would like to undertake a new quest... If you will let me.' he began, `I'd like to bring back the dragons I've driven away. I'd like to start by finding this little one's mother.' The knight looked across to the dragon cub and smiled, but it was a smile with a lot of sadness and pain behind it.
"The black dragon glanced at the little dragon cub and then looked deep into the knight's eyes. For what seemed like ages, he just looked at the knight every now and then thoughtfully blowing a gentle curl of smoke into the still night sky. Finally he looked across to where I was standing and simply nodded. With an excited trill, the cub fluttered onto the knight's shoulders and settled there.
"With a rumble and a gust of wind as his powerful wings lifted him into the sky, the black dragon flew off towards the Lonely Mountains. Soon all that could be heard was the distant thud, thud, thud of wings, until they too were lost in the night. The dragon cub trilled a little nervously as the black dragon flew off, but he stayed with the knight, who had been absent-mindedly stroking the dragon cub's shiny green scales -- brushing the ash from where the fire demons had tried to burn him.
"Turning to me, the knight looked tenderly at the dragon cub, who was still wrapped around his shoulders. "I think we've all learned something tonight -- thanks to our dragon friends here.' Looking at the crack in the ground, he shuddered a little and arched his shoulders. `I think we should be going.'
With a whistle he called his horse to his side. Leaving his armour in the sand. He threw away his sword and knightly paraphernalia and mounted his horse. Lifting me onto the saddle behind him, he rode us back to the edge of the desert and to my camp, where I picked up my fiddle and supplies. It was turning out to be a fine morning; the air was fresh and the sky was a deep orange as the first rays of the sun crept over the Lonely Mountains which didn't seem so lonely any more.
"`What about your old quest... and the king's daughter?' I asked rather gingerly.
"The knight pondered for a while and played with his moustache thoughtfully. `Hmm. Do you know, I've never seen her?' he said, `That's not a very good way to find a wife is it?' and grinning, he tenderly stroked the dragon cub, sleeping on his shoulders. `She'd probably be driven up the wall by me anyway... always rushing off on quests or doing the things a knight does.' Stroking the cub gently, he smiled. `When I find this little one's mother, I believe things will have all worked out for the best'.
"We arrived at my camp where I recovered my fiddle and my camping equipment. With tears in my eyes, I hugged the ex-knight good-bye wishing him well on his quest. I gently stroked the sleeping dragon cub's side, who shifted a little and sighed contentedly while he slept."
Tanais wiped a tear from his eyes at the memory. "I gathered my things and started on my way; occasionally I looked around, watching them trot along the path in the other direction until they turned around a bend in the road and were gone."
Tanais leaned back in his chair and stretched. The story was finished.
"And...?" Badger gasped. "What happened? You can't just end it there!" He spluttered. "What happened to the knight and the dragon cub? What happened to the black dragon in the Lonely Mountains... Did the knight find the dragon cub's mother?"
Tanais looked at the letter and put it in his waistcoat pocket. "Well, the letter says he'll be arriving in a few days time." and he looked thoughtfully at Badger. "I think he should be the one to tell what happened afterwards if he wants to. It's his story after all."
Before Badger could grumble anymore, Tanais stretched once more before getting up. The sun was much lower in the sky now and a gentle breeze blew over the hill taking the heat out of the afternoon sun. Tanais looked out at the view from Badger's hill and said briskly, "It's a lovely afternoon. Let's take some of your excellent lemonade down to the river. You should be able to sell a few jugs of it on a day like this." Picking up his hat and stuffing his pipe and tobacco pouch into another pocket, Tanais took one of the two remaining jugs of lemonade from innkeeper Badger and they walked down the hill to the river and their friends.
(C) 1995 Clive Grace. All rights reserved.