|
This Story is Copyrighted, if in doubt, please read COPYRIGHTS section at TALESetc.com
ALICIA the Dragon by William Cox
In the mountains, high above a little fishing village, there lived a dragon named Alicia. By dragon standards, she was very small indeed, barely six feet long from the tip of her tail to the bump on her little green nose. All day long, she sat and watched the other young dragons at play. They would soar through the air, hiding among the clouds, in a game of aerial hide-and-seek. When they grew bored with that game, they started chasing each other, in a game of tag and flew so high that they were lost from sight. Every time Alicia tried to join them in play, they would laugh at her, and call her names, as she could not fly as fast or as high as they could. Because of this she spent her days all alone, perched on the ledge, in front of the cave in which she lived. Then one autumn morning she looked down at the village far below. There she saw the children of the village playing their own game of tag, and climbing to the tops of the sand dunes along the seashore. When they reached the top, they would sail into the air and try to fly, but not having wings of their own, they would fall into the sand every time. "What if I could join them in play," she thought to herself. "They could sit astride my back and we would fly into the clouds, and have ever so much fun!" Alas, she knew this could never be, because men thought that dragons liked to feast on humans. The dragons thought that this was very funny indeed, because they only ate fish and, sometimes, turnips for dessert; when they could find them. Fearing for rejection, Alicia stayed perched high above the village, only able to watch them at play. Then one morning, she crawled out of her cave and discovered that winter had arrived, with a fury! A cold wind was blowing snowflakes onto the ledge where she stood and, looking down upon the village, the only signs of life that she could see were wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys, far below. Alicia knew that the time had come for her to begin her long winter's sleep, hidden deep in the heart of the mountain. Dragons, like bears, have to do that because they cannot survive for long in the cold. Just as Alicia was drifting off to sleep, she awoke, startled by sounds of anguish echoing off the walls of the cliffs, high above her nest. Fighting off her need to return to sleep, she crawled through the tunnels and out onto the ledge, to see what was happening below. It was there that she saw the reason for the screams of the villagers that had awakened her: the fishing fleet had been caught out on the open sea, by the storm. She watched for what seemed like hours, as one boat after another made it safely to shelter. All, but one lone fisherman, were securely on shore. Then, just as she thought he was going to make it, a wind-driven wall of water washed over the boat, pushing the man into the storm-ravaged sea. Without a thought for her own safety, Alicia flew off the ledge, fighting against the icy winds as they forced her back toward the mountain peaks. Finally, she was able to make some headway, by diving low to the ground and thereby avoiding most of the wind. The villagers screamed in terror as she flew towards and over them, in order to reach the water, on her mission of mercy. When the crashing sea subsided momentarily, she spotted the man floundering in the water, just moments before he sank from sight. Diving into the water, she began to search below the surface until she thought her lungs were going to explode. Just when she thought that all was lost, one of her wings brushed up against him. Grasping him gently in her claws, she fought her way back up to the surface, broke free of the water and began heading back to land. As she neared the shore, she felt her strength fading fast: the weight of the man was pulling her down, and her wet wings were freezing stiff from the cold. She knew that if she didn't drop him back into the sea to save herself, then her life would probably soon be over. Never again would she see her family or the other dragons of her clan but, unwilling to sacrifice the man, she flew on to the shore. Dropping the man on the beach, she began her flight back, up to the mountains and the safety of her cave. She had only flown a few feet before her wings froze solid and could no longer support her weight. She fell like a rock, and crashed, onto the roof of one of the village huts. As she was passing out, her thoughts were that she was going to die, alone, just as she had lived. To her amazement, she awoke to find herself surrounded by the villagers, and her family! They told her of how the villagers had overcome their fear of dragons, and carried her up the mountain and deep into the caves, to save her life. Alicia knew that from this day forward, she would never be lonely again! The villagers and the dragons had overcome their fear of each other, and would be friends forever, thanks to the bravery of one little dragon called Alicia! The End
|
