Dalgraith The Unusual Dragon! - A Short Story!

From the mind of the olde white-haired sleeping wonder:

Many years ago, in a land far away, cloaked in the mists of time and space, lived an unusual dragon named Dalgraith. Why was he unusual, you may ask, well, if I told you that, I would ruin the story for you? I can tell you that Dalgraith is unusual for two reasons, chiefly at least two that I know of. However, there may be more known and unknown. You will just have to follow along to find out.

Along the banks of the Erehwon River, meandering its way across the Plain of Misery, the Village of Jamaica; was just beginning to awaken from the stygian darkness of the preceding night. Not much usually changes in the Village of Jamaica, however, this morning all that was about to change. It seems that several farmers had arrived in the village that morning in states of consternation and outrage. They were all arguing over whose farm had suffered the most degradation. When not a single one of the farmers responded to the request of the Alderman for silence and an explanation, he took matters into his own hands. He quickly organized a bucket brigade and subsequently had the noisemakers doused with the ice-cold water from the village well.

The dousing had the desired effect, but only to a point. As soon as the angry farmers had recovered from the deluge, they began sputtering invectives and vituperations against the Alderman, and the other Village Leaders. The Alderman just raised his arm toward the villagers with fully loaded buckets of the icy water, and the wind spilled out of the sails of the farmers. After their ardour had cooled down a bit, the farmers explained their plight, however; they did it all at once, and all at the top of their lungs. The Alderman stood there patiently, well, at least as patiently as someone, that has a thousand or more things to do. Luckily for him, however, unluckily for the farmers, the Alderman's wife just happened to be walking by. Bertha took one look at what was going on and decided to take matters into her own hands and play-things by ear. However, not in a good way. She marched over to the nearest farmer, grabbed him by an ear and then dragged him over to where her husband stood. Silence reigned as the rest of the farmers could not believe that Bertha was able to control Josiah so easily. You see, Josiah was not only the largest of the farmers, but he was also the part-time Blacksmith. Bertha climbed up on the stoop with her husband, still holding on to the cringing Josiah's ear.

"The next one of you that opens your mouth out of turn is going to get the same thing, or maybe one of Doris' big wooden spoons!"

With that announcement, the rest of the farmers looked around and sure enough, Doris was standing behind them with a large wooden spoon in each hand. As soon as everyone had quieted down, the Alderman asked Josiah exactly what the problem was?

#

Josiah muttered something under his breath and then squaring his shoulders began to speak;

"Well, your Honour, it's like this, I went to check on one of my wheat fields this morning like I allas do, I found a bunch of wheat smashed down as if a large wild animal had slept on it..."

"Josiah, unless you and the rest of you have something else to add, this is a problem for the King's Rangers, not me and the Village Council!" Stated Derron Dawkins firmly in a no-nonsense tone of voice.

"Well, your Honour, I had a similar thing happen to my Maize, and it looked like it was harvested. What was really strange was the fact that the thief had also built a fire, and roasted and eaten some of the stolen Maize. All that was left was a few pieces of cob! We never saw a fire though." Uttered Tobias Twamley indignantly.

"Did the same thing happen to all of you?" Inquired a very bewildered Alderman.

Well, that was the wrong thing to do as the rest of the farmers bellowed their answers at the same time. However, that didn't last long as a few thwacks were heard as Doris used her Big Wooden Spoon  to great effect.

"So, let me see if I understand this correctly, someone has harvested Maize, Wheat, Barley, multiple kinds of Beans, Beets, Onions, and Garlic, but no Leeks? And all of this without permission or a by-your-leave?" The Alderman's questions all brought a bunch of "Ayes, Yeahs, and Yeses," however, his remark about Leeks brought a hearty round of laughter as only the effete nobility ate Leeks as they considered Garlic and Onions too strong for their supposed cultured tastes.

Of course, Billy Blow had to pipe up.

"Hey, my Leeks are just as good as Onions and Garlic; in fact, I think that they are better!"

Someone shouted out;

"That's like saying river water is better than Ale!"

That bought another round of laughter, and nothing more was heard from Billy.

"Silence everyone; this is what's going to happen I will draft a letter for Bertha to copy and then we will send that to the King's Rangers by the next traveller heading that way." The crowd started making noise again, but a few ear twistings and some head whacking by Doris soon stopped that.

"As I was trying to say, in the meantime, I will call a meeting of the Village Council and see if we can start some sort of roving patrol at night. Hopefully, we will catch the scallywag soon. Now everybody get back to work, so I can rouse up the Village Council." Derron ordered.

Of course, there were a few dimwits that still wanted more done. However, they had forgotten that the bucket brigade was still there. Needless to say, there were soon some very drenched and shivering dimwits, standing alone in the Village Square.

#

Meanwhile:

In a small hidden valley, a few miles outside of Jamaica Village, there just happened to be a small cave in the hillside from which occasional peals of laughter and wisps of smoke drifted out. However, that wasn't the unusual part of the valley, that was the perfectly laid out plots of growing vegetables, of all kinds. In fact, some individuals just might say that those crops looked suspiciously like the crops that had been pilfered from the farmers of the village. While that might have been true, it didn't account for the small orchards of Apples, Plums, and something that was Pear-shaped but had the colour of an Apple. If a curious individual took a much longer look, they would have seen not only Flax but Lavender growing, and those crops weren't grown anywhere near the Village of Jamaica.

Upon a closer look at the cave mouth, a keen-eyed-observer would notice that what, looked like a haphazard pile of grapevines, was actually a cleverly woven curtain of grapevines with some wisteria, and possibly wild roses woven in as well. The gardens and orchards were watered from small ditches leading from a small pond at the bottom of a waterfall to the right of the cave mouth as you looked at it. The strange thing about the pond was that other than the ditches used to water the plants and trees, the water never overflowed the pond. Since the water never left the pond, there was no stream coming out of the hidden valley to announce its presence.

While the plants and trees were growing well due to plenty of sunshine, water and a secret fertilizer, Iago Fishmonger was inside the cave being entertained by his new friend. Iago was so very glad that he had run into his new friend on the day he ran away from his family and their Fishmonger Stand and Business. Iago dearly loved his family, including his younger siblings. Of course, the latter may be because Iago's younger brothers would cuddle up to him on the cold winter nights and keep him warm. As much as he loved his family, he detested fish, and detested was a major understatement, but Iago hadn't learned to swear yet! However, his new friend was taking care of that deficiency quickly.

#

Anyone that had been able to stick their head inside the cave would not have been able to tell what they had seen, as no one, and I do mean no one would have believed the tale. They would have just brushed it off as a tall tale and asked the storyteller what he had been drinking.

Once you entered the cave mouth and went around a slight curve, you would have sworn that you were walking into someone's cottage. The cave had all the comforts of home, a nice fire pit with a metal hook for holding the stew pot over the fire. The floor was covered with rushes and old blankets, with a couple of them strung on a rope over the entrance.  There were also a few chairs scattered here and there, a small table, and even a cupboard or two. Toward the back of the cave were two beds made of straw, bracken, and some sweet-smelling ferns. The larger of the beds was covered with some kind of sacking, while the smaller one was covered with what looked like handmade quilts that had seen better days. The beds were appropriately sized for the two occupants of the cave. In fact, there were both sitting by the fire sipping tea while Iago was busy stirring a bubbling vegetable porridge in the stew pot, between sips of tea. Off, to one side of the fire were several ears of Maize steaming in their husks. All in all, a typical night in the comforts of home.

Except for one big thing, Iago's friend was Dalgraith, not an unusual name around the area. However, Dalgraith was a Dragon, still not unusual either as Dragons have had human friends as long as there has been history. While a tea-sipping Dragon was very unusual that isn't what made Dalgraith really unusual. A small clue might have been when Iago carefully peeled the husk from an ear of Maize and handed it to Dalgraith, who began crunching away bits of Maize flying everywhere.

"Dalgraith....slow down or you'll get Colic!"

An exasperated Iago yelled at his friend.

Yes, my friends, Dalgraith is a Vegetarian Dragon!

THE END

Author's Notes:

Well, here is another Short Story from my crazy mixed-up mind. I started this Short Story just about this time last year. I finally got around to finishing it today, and IT IS FINISHED! There won't be a continuation, PERIOD, END OF DISCUSSION! Despite all that, I do hope that you enjoy it.

TSL

Darryl's Comments: 

OK, my comment is that I like the "short" story.

It is a short story. I will give you that. I don't necessarily contend that you have to add chapters to it, BUT, you can't just leave those two friends without telling us more about them. We already love them.

Don't throw them to the cornfield. credit Twilight Zone episode 'the good life'.

Darryl The Radio Rancher

Art's Comments

You know me, I do want more of the story.

Art

Modi's Comments

Again, another great story! I only had a few suggested edits, punctuation mainly. Keep them coming. I'm finally getting caught up enough to start reading again.

Hugs,

Modi

TSL's Response:

I have too many other projects to work on and complete at this time. 'Goos', A'lexii, Spook, David & Jake, and Tommy & Andreu, just to name a few, and let's not forget Heâvenz GyftHeâvenz Gyft (Heavens Gift), are clamouring at me to write more about them. That's my answer.

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