BACK

DRAGON8  6' The prince, the princess and the dragon's egg

Once upon a time a long time ago in a land far, far away, the
prince woke up with a gasp in the middle of the night and sat up
in bed.

"My princess!" he exclaimed.

Quickly, he got out of bed and got dressed. His butler, hearing
the noise, knocked on his door asking, "Is everything alright,
Your Highness?"

"No!" exclaimed the fully dressed prince as he ran out the door,
"My princess, my true love is in great danger! I must save her!"

He ran to the stables and saddled his own horse, then galloped
at full speed toward the sea. By the time he got to the sea, it
was dawn. He paid passage on a ship on its way to the land of
his beloved princess and galloped his horse on board the ship.

It took all day for the ship to reach the land of the princess.
But the prince did not wait for the ship to dock before he
mounted his horse and, with a running jump, he jumped his horse
over the gunwale of the ship and onto the dock. Then, he raced
at full gallop toward the castle of his beloved princess.

Meanwhile, at the castle everyone was astir. That morning
everyone awoke to the news that the princess has disappeared
during the night. The king sent his servants and soldiers out to
search for her. But when they all went out to the center
courtyard of the castle, they found a huge dragon egg.

They concluded that a dragon had eaten the princess and had laid
an egg in the castle. Everyone in this land had seen this
before. The laying of the egg was the first sign that a dragon
intended to take over the castle and build his nest there. The
worst news was that the last time this happened, the dragon ate
every person he could reach. And those he couldn't reach he
would burn to a cinder with his firey breath.

Already in tears at the loss of his daughter, the king didn't
want to deal with the dragon, since noone saw the dragon
actually eating the princess or laying the egg. All he could do
was pace the floor, repeating, "My poor darling daughter! My
poor darling daughter!"

Finally, at midday his prime minister convinced the king what
must be done to deal with the dragon once and for all. The king
ordered that the dragon's egg would be moved next to the castle
wall while six of the strongest men in the kingdom lifted a 600
pound stone up the stairs, one stair at a time to the top of the
wall. Then, at the kings command, the stone would be dropped
onto the egg, crushing it to bits.

While the men were lifting the stone up the stairs, hundreds of
logs were set on fire in the center of the castle court. After
the egg was crushed, the pieces would be thrown into the fire
and burned to a crisp!

By the time the six strong men finally lifted the stone to the
top of the castle wall, the fire in the middle of the castle
court was burning blazing hot. It lit up the evening sky like
the sun. They rolled the egg along the top of the wall until it
was directly above the dragon's egg and then all eyes turned to
the king to give the signal. The crowd hushed. Only the roar of
the fire could be heard.

Suddenly the loud sound of horse hoofs at a gallop were heard
coming across the draw bridge.

"Wait! Wait!" cried the prince as he galloped to the center
court.

"Prince William!? What are you doing here?" asked the king.

"A dream woke me from a sound sleep last night." replied the
prince, "I have ridden and sailed at full speed to get here."

"Well, you are a great warrior. But what can you do now?" asked
the king, "You're too late! The princess was eaten by a dragon.
And we are about to destroy the dragon's egg!"

The prince asked, "But noone actually SAW the dragon eating the
princess, did they?"

"Well, no." replied the king.

"And noone actually SAW the dragon laying the egg, did they?"
asked the prince.

"Well, no." replied the king, "But how could you possibly know
that?

"My dream." said the prince, "There was no dragon in my dream."

"But surely the appearance of this dragon's egg is connected to
the disappearance of my daughter!" exclaimed the king, "It can't
be a mere coincidence!"

With that, the prince jump down from his horse and ran to the
dragon's egg while drawing his sword saying, "If you will allow
me."

"What are you doing?!" asked the king, "We were about to crush
the egg and burn the pieces."

"Please," begged the prince, "I think you're making a mistake.
Allow me."

The king nodded.

The prince bowed to the king, then turned toward the giant egg
and tapped the egg with the sharp cutting edge of his sword in
three places. Then the egg cracked in two. The prince threw his
sword on the ground and pulled the halves apart.

Out fell the princess!

Everyone gasped.

The king fell back into his throne. "To think I almost crushed
my own daughter!"

Someone shouted, "Is she dead?"

"No," replied the prince, "She's under a spell."

And with that, the prince kissed her. Immediately, she opened
her eyes.

"My prince! My true love!" she exclaimed.

And all of the people cheered as the prince helped the princess
to her feet.

Then the king stood up and shouted, "Are you saying someone cast
a spell on my daughter?! Who would do such a thing?!"

The prince turned toward the throne and pointed to the left of
the king. "She did!" shouted the prince.

Everyone gasped as the younger sister of the princess backed
away.

The king turned to his youngest daughter and asked, "You did
this?! You plotted to have ME kill my own daughter?! Why?!"

"I was jealous. I wanted to marry Prince William myself."
admitted the princess. "But I didn't have the courage to kill
her myself. So I had the wicked witch cast a spell on her."

Then she turned and ran but after she took three steps, she
turned into a bat and flew away. She was never seen again.

The prince and princess were married later and they all lived
happily ever after.

©2008 Bob Snook. Conditions for use:
This story is free. Pay no fees or royalties.
Do not sell this story or rewrite it.
You may reproduce and distribute this story freely,
but all copies must contain this copyright statement.
http://www.bobsnook.org/kid  email: bob@bobsnook.org

BACK