The Dragon and the Dwarf

1,811 words.

Twisting backward and forwards around its horde of silver and gold trinkets, the golden scaled dragon rose up on clawed legs and unfurled its skeletal wings as though it would take flight. Instead, the huge venomous snake let loose with a mighty blast of red tongued fire from its nose that licked at the hot glowing heap of precious metals piled high at the center of its lair. As it had done for centuries, it dropped back down to the floor and slithered, coveted, and possessed. However, not even the mightiest of nature’s beasts can survive without food forever.

Suddenly, the sound of something different, something breathing, something moving into its dominion, caught the dragon’s attention. Anger and rage boiled around in the dragon’s belly like a lake of fire tossed by a driving wind as its imagination stoked the flames of its hunger. Visions formed in the dragon’s head of roasted chain mailed knight in an iron shell (with a slightly crunchy center).

When the mighty warrior stumbled into the main cavern kicking pebbles in front of her and whistled through the gap in her teeth, the dragon paused in mid-slither. Squinting through the large red orbs that formed its eyes, the dragon rose up on clawed legs to get a better look at the intruder. Knights were supposed to arrive with shiny armor, and swords. Not only that the dragon felt convinced that somewhere it was written that knights were tall, muscular, and masculine. At four-foot five this furry dwarf with red mittens dangling from her hands was not what the dragon had expected.

Dropping down on its belly the huge snake moved quickly to intercept this threat. Mere feet away the dragon waited for her to tremble, maybe scream, and certainly attack! But she did none of those things, and confusion gripped the dragons mind in a vice of indecision.

A little human hand gently reached out and touched the dragon’s black nose. Horrified, the dragon shot into the air, wings spread wide as it thumped into the high ceiling of the cavern. Unable to recover in time, the dragon came crashing back down as all sorts of shiny treasures flew in every direction. A little girl’s laughter filled the cavern. Raising itself up to its full height it spread its wings and roared with the voice of a lion.

“Sit!” the little girl commanded as though it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

Like a trained dog the dragon sat down amidst its scattered treasure. Excited at the dragon’s obedience the young girl clapped her hands and jumped up and down.

Clenching and unclenching its claws in anger, only the dragon’s inability to comprehend her courage kept a fiery blast from incinerating her on the spot. Reaching a clawed leg forward the dragon prepared to end her little life in one swipe.

“Stop?” the little girl asked in a wavering voice suddenly uncertain of what might happen next.

For the first time the dragon noted that it was a rather dirty and torn furry coat that she wore. Perhaps once grey it was now stained black with mud.

The dragon was confused. This wasn’t supposed to be what knights did. Nor was it how knights were supposed to look. A sudden growl from the dragon’s stomach reminded it, however, that this little girl was dinner.

One hand on her hip, the little girl pointed a muddy finger at the huge dragon and indignantly said, “BAD DRAGON”.

With the clatter and ring of more metal flying the dragon sat down once more. Blinking enormous red eyes the dragon leaned back and its fire re-heated the silver and gold until it glowed cherry red with both heat and light.

“WOW” the awe in the little girls voice brought the huge face of the dragon around to look at her once again.

While it has been commonly accepted that dragons are super intelligent, that didn’t mean that his vocal chords worked like a humans. However, the dragons’ hearing was very keen and its in-ability to speak English did not prevent the dragon from understanding the same.

Lowering its head down to the level of the brave little dwarf, two giant red dragon eye balls starred into the very tiny dark eyes of a little girl. And the dragon could sense no fear.

Limping around the dragon, the little girl stared at the pile of silver and gold trinkets, coins, crowns, goblets, and every imaginable thing that could be done with precious metals. Her mouth dropped open and then closed.

Looking back at the dragon she said oh so politely, “May I have but one?”

An insane rage once more gripped the stomach of this dragon (for after all dragons have been known to think with their stomach and really dragons are not very much into sharing anything) and spreading its wings it flew up, doubled back in a twisted loop and prepared to roast the little thief on the spot.

“My” she wiggled her tiny head back and forth “You really don’t know much about sharing do you?”

Red eyes went purple. Smoke billowed out of the dragon’s mouth.

“Are you hungry?” she asked curiously as she bent down and picked up rather large golden coin.

Panic at the thought of losing any of its treasure rang through the dragons mind. Dropping to the ground it pushed up against the huge pile trying to push it back out of the little girls reach. Which considering the amount of gold and silver was more then a little effort, even for a dragon.

Stepping back out of the dragon’s way, she told him “I’ve been down here for many hours and I’ve yet to see even a rabbit!”

Images of roasted rabbits began to dance in the dragons mind.

“But” she paused, “You’re too big to eat rabbits.” Then she whispered to him as though sharing a secret, “But I know where you could hunt endless herds of sheep and deer as big as elephants!”

Sheep at least were bigger than rabbits. Even the thought of that much free food made the dragons stomach rumble in anticipation.

“Just give me one gold coin and a safe trip to the surface.”

The bargain did not strike the dragon as a very bad one. But no dragon wants to give up his treasure; there were countless centuries of dragon customs against such things! Caught in the quandary between its hunger and its greed the dragon did nothing.

“Oh never mind!” the little girl sighed and sat down on the hard cave floor, “I knew it was too much to expect. You’re just a dumb animal!”

Pride welled up in the dragon’s heart. Using a claw the dragon scooped up some of the more rusty coins and dropped them near her. She looked away unimpressed. Angry the dragon pushed some, emphasis on some, shiny gold coins towards her.

Finally satisfied, the little girl pulled a baloney sandwich on wheat bread out from beneath her coat and split it in half. Tossing one half in the general direction of the dragon it fell somewhat short and toppled to the cave floor. With great difficulty (its claws were nearly too big to pick up something that small) the dragon managed to hoist the small meal and drop it into his mouth.

“There” she said as though some great matter had been settled, “We have a deal then. Friends?”

Scooping up the child in one claw and some gold coins (but again not to many) in another the dragon unfurled its wings to their full span and headed towards the exit. Going vertical it hurtled up a dark black air vent towards the surface, twisting and turning as it went to avoid rocks and odd formations that stuck out like fingers of some stone giant. Blasting through a snow covered entrance; both dragon and little girl soared into the splendor of a beautiful night sky.

Loving the feel of a winter’s night under a full moon and above the rough terrain below, the dragon did double summersaults, barrel rolls, and steep plunges from the sky only breaking at the last possible second. Finally exhausted the dragon set the little girl down on what looked like a well trod path near the base of a mountain. And he dropped her gold beside her as well.

The dragon could feel her confusion as she tried to figure out where she was. Suddenly her eyes brightened as a large truck blew by in the early morning darkness.

Laughing she told the dragon, “Wonder what he just thought?”

A deep rumble in the pit of the dragons belly was actually a laugh this time.

A serious look replaced the laughter, “You’ve got to hide, or no one will stop!”

With that she shooed the thirty foot dragon back towards the woods.

“That trucker worked for my dad. Follow the road to the left. You’ll find a huge parking lot. Towards the back you’ll hear the rumble of huge metal refrigerators. Tare them open and you’ll find millions of frozen turkeys!” She smiled by the light of the moon, “Just toast and eat.”

Well that didn’t sound like sheep the size of elephants, but the idea of eating and eating well was all that really mattered.

“Oh” she said sheepishly “and happy thanksgiving.. in case I don’t see you again.”

The dragon watched her run back towards the road. Moments later a small pickup truck applied the brakes and came to screeching halt as smoke billowed from the roadway behind it. A tall man jumped out and frantically began running towards the little girl.

“Francis! Francis! MY GOD, where have you been?” Tears were streaming down his face and kneeling down he hugged her, “How did you get here? We thought you were dead? I’ve got so many questions.”

“Dad” she told him matter-of-factly, “I had to make a bargain.” Turning back she pointed at the pile of gold coins. Her father’s eyes went wide.

She had to tell him, “All those turkeys you distribute from your freezers ... well they may be gone in the morning.”

Her father looked over at the gold and then back at his daughter.

Deciding it didn’t matter, her father wrapped his arms around her even tighter, “I don’t care. Daddy only cares that you’re safe now.”

Her little eyes shut and she fell asleep in his arms. The next day both a satisfied dragon, hungry no more, and a little girl, who was lost no more, felt the swell of appreciation that comes from a bountiful harvest of friendships made well. Her dad never did understand what happened. But even with his business ruined, the gold proved to be of immense historical value and allowed him to retire early and very rich.