The Dragon Story

THE DRAGON STORY

One day in a far off land there was a Dragon who lived in a cave.

His name was Colombo and he had a family who loved him dearly.

His father liked reading books and his mother liked eating them.

This may sound rather strange but ~ please remember ~ dragons are strange, and, it did solve the problem of what to do with all the books.

His sister, who was called Dragunda, liked playing games with her brother, Colombo. They played outside the cave in the soft, green meadow with the tall, distant mountains all around them.

Colombo's father used to have a job fighting knights in shining armour. Unfortunately, the knights in shining armour got better jobs as waiters in a big hotel.

This meant there was no work for Colombo's father and no money to buy books. Everyone was quite sad until, one Tuesday afternoon, Dragunda came home from school very excited.

 "In the town in the valley below us", she said, "there's a big building called a Library. The Library is full of books and you can choose the ones that you like and take them home. It's marvellous."

 This seemed too good to be true and made everyone very happy until Dragunda's father said, "I don't think they would allow dragons into the Library, would they?"

They all looked at each other.

"I think we should go anyway," said Dragunda, after a little while, "they may not even notice us. People in Libraries are always busy looking in books. They never look up to see who has come in. Even if you make a noise they only say, 'Shhhhh'."

They thought about it for a little longer and finally decided that they would go the very next day, Wednesday.

In the morning they all set off to the town in the valley below. As it was a special day they decided to have Lunch in a smart Hotel.

This was a mistake!

The food was delicious but the waiters were very rude to them and the whole meal was spoilt. It was almost as if they did not like Dragons for some reason!

They were determined not to let the disappointing Lunch ruin their day and they paid the bill and left but not before Colombo's mother had announced in a loud voice, "We certainly will not be coming here again!" With that they carried on and soon came to the Library.

When they went in everyone was looking down at the books and nobody noticed them.

Colombo walked on tiptoe because, when he was at home, he was always being told that he was the noisiest in the whole cave.

They saw a lady stamping books with a rubber stamp and Dragunda asked her how many books each of them could take home.

"Six books for each person in the family," said the lady, without looking up.

Colombo's mother and father were overjoyed at all the books. They carefully chose six books each and left the Library with twenty-four books altogether.

When they arrived home Colombo's father began reading the books immediately. A little while later Colombo's mother began eating them.

It took six weeks for all the books to be read and eaten.  

In the meadow outside the cave Colombo and Dragunda played the games that only Dragons play and everyone was very happy.

The day came when Colombo's father said it was time to go and get some more books.