Little Dragons Demise (one of my personal favorites)

reward
pretzel
Iron-clad
Dragon
Demise
(these were the words given for the week)

Little Dragon was on his way to the Fair. He had hid himself under a cloak so the Humans wouldn’t start running away and call the Dragon Slayer to chase him out of town.
If his father knew, he would most likely send him off to live with his aunt and uncle in Ireland. Not that he did not like Ireland, but there were hardly any Dragons his age to play with anymore.
He took the long way around the Hill away from the main road that led into town. Too many folks from the surrounding farms were taking the road as well; he didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances.
As he crossed the bridge leading through the gate into town, he started hearing music and smelled different kinds of foods. “YUM” he thought as he sniffed the air. He now walked a bit faster, not really by his own choice but because there was a crowd of people pushing him forward into the event.
This has been a plan in the making for the last 2 days now. One night he was flying over Munster when he saw
all these booths and stages being set up. When he came back to the cave he had asked his mother about the strange activities in the small town. She had told him about the Fair and all the great things that were there to see, sparking his curiosity. She had also told him about the time when she was a young dragon and had gone to the Fair, and how she still had the cloak she had used to hide herself from any unwanted sight.
After his parents had gone to sleep, he went into the Trunk with all of Mothers keepsakes, pulled out the cloak , and hid it under the furthest rock in their home.
That day, Mother had gone to meet with her other Local dragon ladies while father was out seeking new adventures.
He should be save from anyone looking for him, for at least a couple of hours.

When he got to the town center of the city he was overwhelmed with all the things to see. There were Booths of vendors selling everything from Food to jewelry to pottery to toys. There were Musicians set up on stages. 3 of them to be exact, in three corners of the town square and grown ups and children were dancing in front of them.
Dragon walked over to a colorful tent that was set up in between a few booths. There was a small platform in front of it and a big sign hanging from a pole. “I-Iro”, little dragon tried to read what the letters said on it, “Iron C-c-clad Guarantee. See our Proo-o-duct and be a-a-ammmmazed.” (His father always made sure he had as much education as possible, which included Human language as well.)
Two ladies appeared out of the inside of the tent and held open the material covering the entrance. Dragon stood silently, waiting for what was going to follow. Next, two very strong men came out, carrying a large piece of brick with some kind of metal attached to it’s top. The two men set the object down, and went back into the tent. A young lad with a drum came out now, set the drum down off to the side and started drumming a steady beat.
More and more people started crowding around the platform, wondering what was being shown. Little dragon became a bit nervous now, being jammed between this many humans, he looked around but didn’t see a way to make a fast getaway if he had to. He took a deep breath and looked back towards the center of attention.

A Man dressed in expensive fabric was now on the stage. He lifted his arm and brought it down fast, the young boy stopped his drumming.
“LADIES AND GENTS!” the man spoke out in a loud  voice. “Hear ye, Hear ye, be amazed, be bedazzled, you have NEVER seen such a thing. This is new, this is amazing!”
The Man now pointed to the big square sitting in the center of the podium. “Feast your eyes on this great new intervention! What is it you ask yourself? Well, it’s a stove! You can cook your stews on top, while baking your breads inside, all at the same time, all in one convenient place. Ladies, this will cut down your troubles preparing meals into half!”
Little dragon looked around the crowd again; there was a man and a woman standing next to him whispering to each other. He leaned his head towards them trying to hear what they were saying. “this could be the end to my demise,” the woman said to the man. “Well let’s hear him out first,” he whispered back, “all things have a price to them, you know.” His wife shook her head in agreement.
“Watch as we demonstrate to you”, he pointed to the object, “THE STOVE!”. People started clapping. The two females went inside the tent and came back out with two large bowls, followed by one of the strong men carrying some wood.
“It’s one of the simplest things to run”, the Demonstrator said, “you place the wood in the bottom, just like Hendrick is doing now, and light it.”
Dragon smiled as he was watching the strong man trying to light the wood he had just put in the bottom of the contraption. He thought to himself how fast they could have a nice hot flame if he would lend them a hand. He had gotten A + in “breathing fire” last year.
“Now we need to wait for the fire to build in strength”, the Man continued, “While we wait, I will have Hendrick hand out brochures that explain how the inside operates.”
The Muscled Man walked through the crowd giving a piece of paper to everybody standing around. Little Dragon looked down at the ground as the Guy walked passed him. He  stood a lot taller than himself and if he would have looked up, he probably would have been able to see inside his hood, which would have meant a lot of trouble!
He heard many “OOOHS” as people were looking at the paper.
“We are now ready!” The Man on the stage announced. Little Dragon was exited to see what would happen next.
“I will have Gwen put the first bowl on top of the Iron Grate, and as you can see on your brochure, the heat is distributed evenly to it by the two tubes running alongside the outside of the stove. Next, Eidola will place this pan into the opening in the middle.”
Eidola held up a metal sheet with a piece of dough formed into a ring high above her head.
Little Dragon has been hungry for a while now, he looked up at the pan Eidola was holding and just imagined that dough being baked into a tasty piece of bread.
He breathed out, maybe a little harder than what he should have, a flame shot out of his nostrils and caught the man’s pants whom was in front of him on fire. The man reached backwards and felt the cause of his troubles and accidentally smacked the hood of Little Dragons head.
Everybody had turned towards the uproar because the gentleman with the flames smoldering away his bottoms had begun to scream for help now.
Everybody noticed the the small cloaked person within their mass really was and they all scattered away from him. “It’s a dragon!” The crowds yelled out in terror.
Little Dragon had become really nervous now and started breathing a lot harder than what he should have. Eidola threw the sheet with the bread ring high up into the air and started running.
Little Dragon looked up and let out a heavy breath as he watched the piece of dough fly into the air. He shot out a big flame and it hit the bread dough mid air.
The Soldiers standing guard came running and surrounded Little Dragon holding their spears towards him, some even poking him into his scales. “OUCH!” Dragon cried out! “That hurts!”
“Kill him! Kill him!” the crowds started chanting. Little Dragon thought about how he had messed up by getting his moms Cloak and going to see the Fair!
A little girl pushed her way through the crowds and picked up the dough, which had landed not far from the panic. It had folded itself into the form of a pretzel, as we know it now. she took a bite out of it; she was just as hungry as Little Dragon was a few minutes earlier.
“Mommy!” she cried out, “this is good!”. The Mother ripped the Pretzel Shaped bread out of the young girls hand. “Don’t eat that!” She scorned her daughter. “it has been touched by dragon fire!” You don’t know how it can harm you!” She handed the mis-shaped bread to one of the soldiers.
“We shall take this dragon to King Friedrich!” a soldier cried out! “You know this is policy in Kingdom! No Dragon shall be killed unless it is by our Dear Kings own sword.”
Little Dragon was shaking of fright. “What is going to happen to me?” he wondered. The tip of a spear poked him into the back and he moved forward, and then stopped again.
Another stab of a spear made him move just a little forward again, and he stopped. Yet another prick made him move forward again, and Little Dragon started to understand that they wanted him to keep moving. He started walking through the town square and saw all the peoples faces. They did not look so happy anymore than when he first entered the Fair. He turned around to see that little girl being drug away by her mother.

He walked up the road leading to the Kings Castle now. Occasionally he felt the sharp point of a spear against his scales and he walked a little faster. There were soldiers in a half circle around him.
He entered the Castle Grounds and was lead into a downstairs cage. He started crying now, because he knew there would be no way out of here. There were guards all around him. he must have sat there for hours, weeping. All he could think of is how his parents came home, discovered his absence and their search for him. All due to  his inquisitive nature.
A man wearing a funny looking cap entered the dungeon he had been locked up in since before the sun had gone down. Little Dragon watched him walking round and round his cage, with his eyes, all while holding his head down.
“So you are the one!” The man finally spoke out. I must say, I imagined you creatures to be a lot bigger than this!” He stopped in front of the Little Dragon, his hands folded behind his back. Little Dragon still did not dare to look up, but he noticed the man with the strange looking hat leaning down, trying to catch his eyes. Little Dragon looked up for just a second, then turned his sight towards the bottom of the cage again.
“You know, my cook is astounded by your talents! He says he has never tasted such an amazing piece of bread in his whole entire life.”
Little Dragon looked up with a puzzled look, because he didn’t really understand what the Man was talking about.
“Ah, yes, now look here. I am the king and if you promise me that you won’t harm any of us, I will let you out of this jail. I want to make a deal with you and there will be a nice reward as well! What do you say?”
“I won’t hurt anybody,” the Little Dragon finally spoke up. Now the king looked a bit confused. He figured the dragon understood what he was saying, but he didn’t know the Beast also knew how to talk his language!
“Well, so be it! Let him out of the cage then!” the King ordered his guards.
“Are you sure that is such a good idea, King Friedrich?” One of the guards asked.
“Why wouldn’t it be? So far he didn’t do anything wrong, even when you brought him here, he never refused to come along or fought any of you, now, did he?”
Little Dragon stood up in his cage. A guard unlocked the door, and stepped back quickly. The King openend the door all the way and gestured for Little Dragon to step out.
“Follow me to the Throne room,” the  King said. “I have some food waiting for you there, and my cook has some questions for you as well.”
After Little Dragon filled his empty belly, the cook entered. He wanted to know how Little Dragon got the piece of bread to be such perfect color outside, but yet so soft and tasty on the inside. Since this happened on accident, Little Dragon didn’t have an answer to either, but after contemplating back and forth for an hour, the Cook and Dragon decided to take it down into the Royal Kitchen to experiment. It did not take long before they solved the question at hand. It was simply the temperature of the Little Dragons flame!
The King hired Little Dragon as the Head Pretzel Maker and since Little Dragons name was Pringles, the Pretzels were named after him, now known as Pringles Pretzels. He was able to stay at the Castle until he had grown too big to fit inside the Castle Walls. He move back into his family Cave and him and his mother experimented with other foods, such as potatoes and other kinds of dough.
The Reward for the Little Dragon was that the King made sure his family could live in peace for the rest of their Life and the annual Fair was moved outside of the City Walls, so that him and his Family could attend each fair without ever having to hide again!

– THE END

MICO

It was a stormy October Evening. I made myself a nice cup of tea and sat down in my favorite chair to read Stone Carvers latest book. I got the recommendation out of this month’s edition of Writers Magazine. Stone Carver has always been my favorite Novelist.

I must have dozed off, because I was awakened by footsteps walking around upstairs. This would be nothing odd, if I wasn’t living on my own, you see.

At first, I figured it might have been just my imagination. I took a sip of the now cold tea and concentrated on the silence in the house.
After five minutes I heard the footsteps again, this time they seemed to be walking around in the room I call my office, though it’s nothing more than just a table with stacks of old bills, newspaper clippings and pens and pencils cluttering it up.
I got up and walked into the kitchen to grab the 2×4 I kept behind the cellar door.
Nothing ever happens out here, not of any serious nature anyways.
Maybe kids letting the chickens out of Farmer Bens coop, or some Fox trying to find dinner for himself and his family, but nothing more than that.
I slowly walked up the stairs. Halfway to the top I stopped again and listened.Once again, silence had fallen over the house.
At first I reached around the corner to turn the bathroom light on, as I looked around I nothing unusual, even that pile of dirty laundry I’ve been meaning to get to was still piled next to the bathtub.

I shut the light back off and went towards my bedroom. Once again I turned on the light. I stepped inside and noticed a pair of muddy footprints leading towards the balcony door.
All of the sudden I heard a loud crash. I raced to my window and saw that a tree had fallen onto the shed. “Great!”, I thought, ” I’ll have to call Mr. Linden and have him fix the roof again!!”.
During last years big storm my small Oak tree had crashed into the roof and he was nice enough to fix it for me and save the cost of having a professional come out here to do it. He told me if I needed any other roofing work done, to just give him a call. He used to run his own roofing company, but he’s 75 years old now, and the work had gotten to be too much for him. He only did smaller jobs for a friendly neighborhood service. He didn’t even expect to be paid for it, but everybody gave him whatever they could afford anyways, just as a little thank you.

But now back to my unusual story.

I went over to the balcony door and slid it open. The wind was blowing strong out there and it took me a second to decide if I should step outside. I turned around to make sure no one was behind me inside the room. My eyes scanned the room very quickly and there I saw it, on my mirror, in small but still very readable letters it said: “Sory four dizturbink you”. It looked like it was written in permanent marker. “I will check that out later,” I told myself.

I went outside and looked over the railing into my yard. I saw something moving in the bushes. I quickly went over to the steps leading down and walked over towards the spot that I really haven’t been tending to since my arthritis has been getting worse.

I stopped for a brief moment and listened to any noise, but the wind was gusting so hard, tossing leafs off the trees, moving everything that wasn’t tied down. It was really hard to make out anything, I moved closer towards the shrubs and heard a faint but distinct to make out: “EEEEK!!!”.

“Who goes there?” I yelled into the blustery weather. “Me!” I heard a thin, tiny voice answering me.

“Come out now before I whack you over the head with this chunk of wood”

“Please don’t hurt me! Promise me you won’t hurt me!” I heard the leafs crunch in the undergrowth.

“I won’t hurt you unless you try something unwise.” I lifted the 2×4 a little higher.

The bush began to move a little harder now and I heard more leafs crackling. When I saw what stepped out of there I dropped my makeshift bat and my mouth stood open for a moment.

“Wha-what are you?” I finally said. I was looking at a two foot tall person, no, not a person, it looked like one of them dwarfs out of my granddaughters fairytale books, but without cloths. It had pointy little ears, and its eyes looked like those of a bird, maybe an owl.
It had greenish skin from what I could make out with the little bit of light that the kitchen window let stream out.

“I’ve been living here for years,” it said. “My name is Mico. I got scared of the storm and thought you were asleep. I only wanted to hide in that big room with the paper mountain until it was over. When your wife was still here she always let me stay up there during the bad weather.”

“You mean Vicky knows about you?” I said in disbelief.

“Yes” little Mico said. “She knew the others too, but they have gone up into the woods when she left in that big noise making machine. She said she would be back in a couple of months because her mother had fallen sick and she was going to take care of her. She has been gone for so long now. Will she come back?” he asked me.

“Uuum, yes she will, her mother is still not better.” I answered quickly.

I started to notice how cold it has gotten in the rain. I was a little weary of what to do next, but I decided if this little “thing” knew so much about my Vicky it can’t be anything bad. Vicky was a little ‘off” as some people would put it, always daydreaming and talking to the plants out in the yard, but she wasn’t crazy. And if she was, and it had rubbed off on me, then it is too late now anyways, i thought.

“Ok, I’m getting cold out here”, I said to the creature, “why don’t we go inside and warm up a little bit. I will have to make a phone call and you can sit in there and tell me a little more about yourself.”

That must have been just what he (or was it a she?) wanted to hear, because it ran ahead as fast as it’s little feet could carry it and then waited under the overhang right outside the kitchen door.

“That door is locked from the inside”, I said. “Let’s go through the Bedroom” and I pointed up the steps.

“No, Mico not want to do that!” it blurted out. “Did you see the mess I left on your fluffy floor already?”

“Okay, stay here and I will be right there to open the door for you” I said as I was heading up the stairs. I didn’t want to make it a bigger mess either, since I don’t have a clue on how to clean carpets at all. Vicky always took care of those things.

I let Mico into the door, and he knew exactly what to do. He wiped his little feet that were just as green as the rest of it’s body, on the towel that sat next to the door.

“I just want to stay here until the storm is gone”, it said. “I will go sit by the paper mountain and wait”, and the creature headed for the stairs.

“Wait” I called after it. “I don’t really think you have to sit up there if you don’t want to anymore. I’m sure Vicky only put you there so I wouldn’t have a fit or something.”

Its big eyes looked at me and blinked a couple of times.

“Seriously”, I said “go over there through that door and sit at the couch.”

Its eyes followed my pointing finger and then looked back at me. “Couch?”, it asked.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, that big poufy looking thing in there, go ahead, go in there, you will know what I’m talking about.”

Micos little feet pitter pattered across the tile floor. Just before he went through the door it turned around one more time with a questionable look.

I had picked up the phone to call my wife. She was in Portland, Oregon to be with her mother who was very sick for the last 3 months or so now. I nodded at Mico, “Go on.” I said.

I dialed the number to my mother in laws house, but the phone just kept ringing. She must be in the hospital with her mom. Sometimes when her mom got really bad, Vicky stayed the nights with her. I hung the phone back up and went into the living room.

“Mico, are you a boy or a girl?” I asked him while stepping into the living room. I didn’t get an answer. I looked towards the couch. Mico was laying on it, flat on his back, mouth wide open, snoring away! I noticed how late it has gotten and I felt quite tired myself all of the sudden.

I unfolded a blanket lying on the floor next to the couch and covered Mico up with it.

“I guess I will find out about you tomorrow” I yawned and went upstairs. As I walked into the bedroom I noticed the writing on the mirror again. “Yes, and I will have to find out who taught you how to spell too”, I thought and fell into my bed, clothes still on, but I didn’t care at the time!

                                                              -2-
I woke up around 7 am, a bit confused from the restless night I had. I stretched and yawned loudly. Suddenly I heard a small giggle from the corner of my room.
I sat up and saw the little creature    

 ………………………… this is where it stops …………………… I assume I meant to write a lot more than that at the time but must have ran out of ideas, time or whatever it was at the time. 🙂 

Black is beautiful

People misconcep the Color Black, a lot. Black is the color that develops when you mix EVERY COLOR together. BLACK absorbs every color out there, it draws colors towards it, no negativity at all. It’s a shade of the most vivid and constantly changing ocean of eye orgasms.
You see black as Sadness? See it as Happy. You see black as Grief? See it as Relief. You see black as Cold? It’s of the most comforting Temperature you have ever felt. Not only does it absorb and contain every single color in this universe, it also absorbs  “you”. Surrounds you with protection and comfort.
The only reason why black scares people is because they have to rely on only limited senses, which are your hearing, your sense of smell and the most awful one of all … FEELING …. Feeling can be scary, if you aren’t used to it.

let it be written, let it be done

Oh August where have you gone

Once again I sit here, amazed at how time flies. Last Post on August 25th? Seems like it was just a couple weeks ago, but I guess not.
It’s been a stressful time, and time does tend to just take flight, before you know it, things have disappeared , people have moved on, and I stand in the midsts of disaster, confused, cold and with 1 or 6 emotions less or ten times changed.
At the same time August seems like forever away, things I have forgotten, faces that have passed, foggy Memories, Foggy Conversations, Foggy Feelings, Foggy Everything.
(ADHD MOMENT) Why does the word Foggy and Forgetting seem so close knit? ….
And onward I go. So what was in August? Hmmm Truthfully I can’t remember. I know I returned to work from my FMLA in August. .. maybe that’s when it all happened. I was at home for 120 days, and that’s all I had to concentrate on, absorb and spit out, rinse and repeat. Now that I’m back at work I have to deal with the “drama” and “changes” there, then return to the dungeon and face a whole other set of “drama” and “changes”. Enough to tear through my thick ass skin and make me bawl at the drop of a dime. It really sucks. I have been broken. I have been “damaged” before but never really broken. It was always fixable, but it’s been a long stretch of dings and other heavy artillery being aimed at me, to leave huge holes where there was once part of me.
For now I have to get going and stick this little Mastermind of mine into his cozy bed, so I can get some form of peace around me. … which won’t last because I still have the big grumpy man here, overshadowing my every move. *le sigh*

let it be written, let it be done