Chapter Four

When Norman reached town, he went in search of a stable where he could sell his horse. Upon finding one, close to the eastern edge of town, the stableman was slightly surprised that Norman wanted to sell his horse when he was obviously not done with his journey.

"Are you sure you want to sell this horse? I can see that you're not done travelling. How are you going to get around?" he asked.

Norman replied, "Don't worry about me. I'm meeting up with a friend outside of town, and he's taking care of our transportation."

"Well, this is certainly a fine-looking specimen. I'll give you...five gold pieces for him."

"Only five? I was thinking more along the lines of ten gold pieces."

"Seven, and that's my final offer," said the stableman.

"Deal," said Norman, and, after he gathered his saddlebags from his horse, he handed over the reins.

Now that he was slightly richer, Norman thought it might be a good idea to pick up some more food and other supplies to make the trip more pleasant. His first stop was a bakery, where he picked up a loaf of bread and some hard rolls. Then he went to a dairy and got some cheese, and from there he went to a butcher's shop for some dried meat.

Now that he had plenty of food, he decided to visit a tailor to see if he could get a small tear in a shirt mended. While he was there, he spied a pair of leather gloves in a display. Norman thought those would come in very handy while riding on a dragon, since the air was sure to be colder at higher altitudes. His shirt was soon mended, and he left with it and the new gloves.

Thus provisioned, Norman headed for the east road out of the town with his saddlebags slung over his shoulder. It wasn't long before he spied a pile of boulders that looked just slightly out of place. Remembering his last encounter, Norman opted not to climb on the boulders, and to call out instead, "Dennis, is that you?" Whereupon the pile of boulders shook itself and changed colors from gray and brown to green and purple; and Norman found himself looking into the face of his new friend. Dennis cocked an eyebrow (or what passed for an eyebrow) at Norman, and said "Of course it's me. Know any other dragons who might be hiding on this road?" Then he chuckled and said "I'm only joking. Are you all set for an adventure?"

"I sure am! I got some new food, new gloves, and I'm ready! I, uh, didn't get any food for you, though," Norman said, feeling slightly abashed. After all, he thought, he really should have shown some consideration for his traveling companion...but then again, what could he have bought for Dennis to eat that would have fit into his saddlebags? Looking at Dennis, though, he noticed that the dragon was chuckling at him, and he remembered what Dennis had said about what dragons really preferred to eat. Norman realized that Dennis would be perfectly capable of providing for himself as they traveled.

With Dennis's help, Norman used some rope he had in his saddlebags to rig a harness to keep himself from falling off the dragon's back. Then, with Dennis providing a boost, the young knight climbed aboard and strapped himself in place. Dennis stretched his neck, accustoming himself to Norman's weight, and launched himself into the sky, heading east.

After the initial jolt, Norman was exhilirated. He looked around with awe. He noted the ground slipping by in patches of green and brown, and the clouds that seemed to be racing with him and the dragon. "This is amazing!" he thought. "Who's ever going to believe that I rode on a dragon? If only my mother could see me now..."

Thinking of his mother made him melancholy, so Norman reached into his saddlebag for his flute and began to play a song that Maria had sung to him as a small child. All of a sudden, he noticed that Dennis was sort of sliding side to side in his flight. Alarmed, he stopped playing.

"Oh, don't stop, that's wonderful!" Dennis exclaimed.

"B-b-but what were you doing? I thought something was wrong," Norman said.

Dennis replied, "Nothing was wrong, I was just moving to the music--dancing, if you will."

The idea of the dragon dancing through the air to his flute made Norman smile, so he brought the instrument back to his lips and began to play again. Dennis again started dancing to the music, and in this way the two new friends began their journey eastward.

To be continued...

Chapter Three

With a bellow, the dragon shook itself all over, then opened its eyes and glared at Norman. It then opened its mouth and, to Norman's astonishment, spoke.

"Are you kidding me?! Do you normally go around climbing on dragons and stabbing them while they're sleeping?" the dragon demanded. "Well?"

Norman, who had been expecting to be charred to cinders, was a little taken aback by the dragon's sarcasm. Well, truthfully, he was mostly taken aback by having the dragon speak to him at all. He stammered, "Y-y-you can s-speak!"

"Of course I can speak! Better than you can, apparently!" the dragon retorted. He cocked his head and said, "I asked you a question, you know. It would be polite of you to answer."

Norman replied, "No, I don't usually climb on dragons or stab them. I've never even seen a dragon before now. I do apologize, though. I saw you flying and was looking for you so I could challenge you to a fair fight. I've been recently knighted, and my quest is to slay the fiercest dragon in the kingdom. So, now that I've found you, I challenge you! Let us find a clear field and do battle!" He somehow thought he might have sounded a bit ridiculous, especially when he noticed the dragon was laughing at him, shaking with silent chuckles and blowing little puffs of smoke out of its nostrils.

When the dragon could control itself, it said, "I haven't laughed so hard in months! What makes you think that you can slay me, or any dragon, for that matter? Look at you. You're puny!"

Norman retorted, "That's what knights do--they slay dragons! And I may be puny compared to you, but really, I'm normal-sized for a human!"

"Listen, human, how many knights do you know who've actually slain a dragon?"

"Well, none, now that I think about it. But that's what the stories all say."

"Uh-huh, that's what I thought. Listen, kid, you just can't believe everything the bards tell you. What's your name, anyhow?

"I'm Norman," Norman replied. "What's your name?" He was still a bit unnerved that this creature was actually talking to him (albeit pretty sarcastically) instead of eating him, but thought that that wasn't such a bad thing anyhow.

"I'm Dennis," said the dragon. "Pleased to meet you. Let me tell you a bit about dragons. We really don't like to eat people. You're stringy, and you just aren't big enough to be more than an appetizer. We much prefer to eat things like cows, wild pigs, deer, you get the picture. We're good at hiding ourselves in plain sight, so most of the time, you humans don't even know we're around. And we tend to travel quite a bit, so that we don't wear out our welcome, so to speak, in any certain area. Myself, I was heading east to see what's been going on in that part of the world in the last twenty or so years since I was there last. What are your plans? Other than the whole dragon-slaying thing, that is?"

"Well," answered Norman, "I don't have a direction in mind. I just decided to go east because that's the way the road from home goes, and then I saw you flying, and now I've talked to you and I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't very well try to slay every dragon I come across, but even if I did slay you--which I'm not going to do!" he added hastily, "I couldn't go home and say that I'd killed the fiercest dragon in the kingdom, because how would I know?"

Dennis was trying not to laugh at this young human. He could tell that Norman was truly concerned with proving himself worthy as a knight, but hadn't expected dragons to be intelligent beings, instead of unthinking beasts. He was fairly young himself, for a dragon--only about two hundred years old--and it sometimes got lonely traveling with no one to talk to. He said, "You know, you could come with me. We might run across other dragons, you never know. If nothing else, you would have adventures and see places that you'd never be able to get to on your own. What d'you say?"

Norman thought about it. "What about my horse?" he asked. "He'd never be able to keep up with you, you know."

"That's true. Well, you could sell him in the next town, and you could ride on my back, instead. There's nothing like flying to get you someplace quickly."

"All right," Norman said. "It's a deal. I'll sell my horse, and you and I will have adventures and travel the world!"

"Right then," said Dennis. "I'll meet you on the other side of town. You'll be able to find me--just look for the pile of boulders." With that, he flew off, heading eastward toward the town that Norman now knew lay just a few miles distant. Norman headed back to his horse, thinking about the amazing turn his life had taken in the last hour, and realizing that he now had a new quest--to explore every corner of the kingdom, as well as the habits of dragonkind in person. It was good to have a new friend and companion to share the journey.

To be continued.....

Chapter two

It was raining. Again.

Norman was sitting under an overhanging rock, which was large enough to shelter him, his horse, and the fire he'd built, eating a rabbit he'd snared earlier that day. He looked out at the rain and grimaced. This was the third day in a row of miserable rainstorms, broken only by brief respites in which Norman could go out and try to gather dry firewood and fresh meat to round out what was left of the food he'd brought with him from home. And he'd only been traveling for a week! At this rate, Norman would never find another town, much less a dragon to slay!

With a heavy sigh, Norman stretched out in his bedroll and went to sleep.

The next day dawned amazingly, startlingly, bright and clear. Norman whistled as he set about cleaning up his temporary camp and preparing his horse for travel. When he had everything packed and the horse saddled, he swung up on its back and headed toward the road. Suddenly the sky grew dim for a moment, as if a cloud had scudded in front of the sun just briefly, but when he looked up, Norman could see not a single cloud up above him, but there was a dark shape like a very large bird up ahead, heading in the same direction that he was. Could it be a dragon?

Norman was excited, though a part of him wondered what he would really do if he confronted a dragon. Would he be able to slay the beast? Or would he end up as dinner, instead? Norman could see that the flying whatever-it-was was circling lower a few miles up the road, evidently preparing to land. He spurred his horse to go a little faster, hoping he would reach the spot before the creature decided to take off again.

As he drew nearer to the creature's apparent landing place, Norman realized that he really should have some sort of plan. Try as he might, though, all he could come up with was to try to sneak in very quietly, hoping the beast wouldn't hear, see, or smell him. Then, once he'd seen what he was dealing with, he could challenge it to a duel, or something. He really wanted to fight the creature fairly. After all, if he didn't, how would he know whether or not this dragon (if, indeed, that's what he was going to be facing) was really the fiercest dragon in the kingdom? Somehow, this logic all made perfect sense to Norman.

After a while, Norman judged he was close enough to where the creature had probably landed, and that it was time to continue on foot. He left his horse hobbled in a small grassy meadow, and continued along a game trail into the shadowy forest. He tried to look for signs of a rather large creature's passage, but couldn't find anything. He was just about to give up and return to his horse, when he noticed a very large, very odd, rock formation. Norman knew it was odd, he just couldn't figure out exactly why it was odd. He walked around it, studying it closely. The color was right, it matched other rocks in the area. The lichens and moss growing on it seemed normal, as well. What in the world made this pile of rocks different?

Norman was puzzled. He decided to climb up on the rocks to get a better look at them. Starting at a point where the rocks came out in a long, tapered point, Norman climbed up what was almost a small hill. When he reached the top, he looked closely at the rocks he was standing on, but still couldn't see anything obviously out of place about them. He'd been using a short, broken branch as a sort of walking stick in order to help him keep his balance while climbing. Now he started tapping on the rocks, listening for any clues that might tell him why these rocks seemed so out of place. No results, except that the rocks almost seemed to be moving. But that couldn't be, could it?

Giving up for the moment, Norman found a small crack in the stone nearest him, and jabbed his stick down into it so he could sit down. This time there was no doubt about it--the rocks moved! With a violent shudder, the rocks shifted under Norman until he fell to the ground, his stick landing beside him. He watched in amazement as the rock pile changed color from mottled grays to emerald green and purple; and with the color change, he could see that what he had thought was a pile of rocks, was, in reality, a dragon. Which he had just woken up by jabbing a stick into it. Norman had an idea that he was in very big trouble.

To be continued....

Norman and Dennis: The Adventures Begin

Chapter One

Once upon a time in the land of fairy tales, a gentle, end-of-spring breeze wafted through the trees. To a young man named Norman, this was the most glorious day that would ever be, for he was about to become a knight. Him--a knight! Protector of the weak! Rescuer of distressed damsels! And, most importantly, Slayer of Dragons! Norman was so lost in his daydreaming that he barely remembered to move forward in line. Suddenly, he was kneeling before the king, who touched his great sword to Norman's shoulders, proclaiming him a knight, sworn to uphold the laws of the kingdom. Then the king spoke.

"It is customary for the new knights to set themselves a task, or quest, to prove their worth," the king said. "What task have you set yourself?"

Every eye was on Norman. Nervous and stammering, he blurted out, "I-I intend to slay the f-f-fiercest d-dragon in the kingdom, your majesty!"

The king smiled good-naturedly at the young knight's brashness, and told Norman that he should probably get a good night's rest first. Norman agreed, and was then excused to attend the feast being held in honor of the young men being knighted.

The next morning Norman was up early, packing his saddlebags for what he suspected would be a very long journey. As he placed his saddlebags on his horse's back, daydreaming about his future adventures, his mother, Maria, stepped into the stable. She was carrying a bundle in her arms and was slightly red-eyed, as if she'd been crying. Maria smiled at her son, though, handing him the bundle.

Norman took it from her. "What's this?" he asked, untying the strings holding it shut.

"Oh, just some going away presents and some food--nothing much," Maria said.

Norman pulled out a beautifully crocheted scarf in his favorite forest green color and said, "Mother, it's beautiful! But it's just the beginning of summer. Why would I need a scarf?"

His mother answered, "Because you never know when you might need it. You never know for sure how long you'll be gone. And because I love you. But that's not all I packed, keep looking!"

Norman continued to unpack the bundle, pulling out a wonderfully worked tinderbox that had belonged to his father, who had died two years before. There were also several changes of clothes, all made by Maria (Norman protested that he had, in fact remembered to pack clothing, but his mother only smiled), some freshly baked bread, a large wedge of cheese, some dried meat, and half a dozen apples. At the very bottom of the bundle, Norman discovered a carved wooden flute, belonging to his mother, and a small money bag.

"Mother, why are you sending your flute with me? You love to play it! And where did this money come from?"

Maria replied, "Yes, I do enjoy playing the flute, but so do you, and I wanted you to have something of mine to remind you of home. As for the money, I've been saving a little at a time since you started your training. It isn't much, I know, but you will need money occasionally."

"Thank you, Mother. I'll think of you every time I play it. And I'll be careful with the money. I love you." With that, Norman hugged his mother and continued packing his saddlebags, filling them with the gifts she had brought him. When he finished, he realized that the bundle itself was a gift--it was a new woolen cloak. Tying the cloak with his bedroll behind the saddle, Norman belted on his sword and led the horse into the stableyard. He swung up on his horse's back and looked down at his mother, who was smiling up at him, though her eyes were suspiciously bright.

"Don't cry, Mother. I'll be home before you know it," Norman told her. With that, he rode out through the gate and onto the road, heading east, toward the rising sun and adventure.

Blog number three...

This is getting silly! But this will be the last one, I'm sure! A few years ago, I came up with the idea of writing a story about a young knight and a dragon who meet up, become friends, and have marvelous adventures. I even started writing it, but never finished it. I dug it out recently, and thought it would be great if I could continue it. SO, that's what I'm going to attempt to do here.
Also, my dear husband, Dave, had made up some stories about a "Carrot Queen" for the older kids when they were little. I'm going to try to convince him to share those stories with you, as well.
I will go for now, off to do some creative-type things, but I will be back with the first installment of my story later! You'll just have to be patient until then!