A Most Ordinary Boy

Hesmoth, the baby dragon, dreamed of being human. He asked his mother to tell him his favourite fairy tale again. She smiled, the grey scales around her eye creasing at the corners. "Okay, little one, but you must drink your lava and eat your coal first. Then, come and snuggle up to me in the nest and I'll tell you all about The Boy Who Wrote."

He dutifully gobbled up his coal and settled down to wait for sleep in the crook of his mother's paws.

"Once upon a time there was a little boy --"

"Smaller than me?"

"Much smaller than you. He was no higher than your flanks. This little boy was very special; there was nothing magical about him, whatsoever."

"Couldn't he even breathe flames?"

"Nope. And he couldn't even fly. He was the most ordinary boy in every way, except... he could work words on any subject."

"Anything?"

"Anything! If he found a pebble, he would scribe on walls about where it came from, how big it was and what minerals it was made up of. He would use coal and soot to write on hides at the tannery about how many heifers were led to market, and how many cows. If he found a stick he would write in the sand about silica, rock-pools, flotsam, and jetsam. Do you know what else he wrote?"

"I know! I know! Well, I know what he didn't write -- he didn't write spells!"

"You're a clever boy, Hesmoth. That's right. He wrote such wonderfully ordinary things: things about the weather, about what seasonal vegetables were ripe, what the hunters were catching, who was marrying who, who was the most important person in the village and how many sheep he had."

"And what time the tide came in and went back out again -- don't forget that one."

"I won't -- and what time the tide came in and when it went back out again." She patted Hesmoth's tail with her own to quell his excitement before continuing, "Now, one day a fairy princess from a far off land came sailing over the sea to pick a husband. The boy was now a young man, but no one thought that he would present himself to her court as he was not in the slightest bit magical. But when the day came for the handsomest bachelors to attend the princess's ball, he arrived in stately fashion and joined the suitors' table."

"Could he dance?"

"Atrociously. He stood all over the princess's dew-drop slippers and smashed them to pieces."

"Could he sing?"

"Like a crow. All the ladies fainted."

"Could he recite poems?"

"With no passion and much stumbling. The fairy king had to leave with a headache.

"But when it came to the close of the evening and the entourage made its way down to the boats in the harbour, he ran in front of the party and begged them to wait for one more hour. The guards made ready to dispatch him, but the princess was curious, 'Why should we wait, boy? The moon is fat, and the waters calm.'

"'Aye,' he replied, 'they look calm now, but in a short while they will split with the tide; the great whirlpool will wake and smash your ship with more ease than I did your dew-drop slippers. Wait only an hour and you will be safely home.'

"The princess looked to her father, her father looked to the wizards, and they looked to the townsfolk. Eventually, the town's chief nodded to the princess. 'If anyone would know the turn and twirl of wave and tide then it is this most ordinary boy. He has not one ounce of magic in him, but he watches, notes, and records the workings of the world around him.'

"Upon this confirmation the princess took the boy's hand and declared him a fitting husband, much to the chagrin of the other suitors who had danced so lightly, sung so beautifully, and recited so diligently. 'Why him?' they cried. And the princess answered, 'He has saved my life, and so it is his to keep. A day will come when my feet ache from dancing, my voice creaks with age, and the words of poems leave my memory, but at least I will have a husband who watches, notes, and records the working of things.'

"And they lived happily ever after."

"Can you tell it to me again?"

"Tomorrow night, little one. Now is time for sleeping and dreaming."

"I hope I have the most ordinary dreams in all the world!"

(760 words)