BACK DRAGON9 9' Peasant girl befriends a sea serpent Once upon a time a long time ago in a land far, far away, Michaela was in the hen house feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs, when she heard the thundering of several horses' hoofs. She went outside to investigate. It was the king's royal coach pulled by four white horses. There were two knights on black horses in front of the coach and two knights on black horses behind. They were all galloping at full speed toward the house. When they saw Michaela coming out of the hen house, they steered their horses away from the house and toward Michaela at full speed, then they halted the horses inches away from her. The footman jumped down from the coach and opened the door. Out stepped the king himself. Michaela and her family bowed down. The king pointed to Michaela and asked, "Is this the child who has the pet dragon?" "Yes, your majesty." said her mother. "Come with me." commanded the king. Inside the coach Michaela asked, "Your Majesty, did my pet dragon do something wrong?" "No, child," replied the king, "Yesterday the fishermen in a small fishing village awoke to find a dragon's egg in the middle of their beach. They feared that, if the dragon inside would hatch, it would destroy their whole village and eat all of them. "So, three of the fishermen wrapped the egg in a fishing net, attached ropes to the net and pulled it with their row boats out to the deepest part of the sea. When they got there, they stuffed large rocks into the net to weigh it down, then let it sink to the bottom of the sea. "Later that day, the three boats belonging to the fishermen washed up onto the beach. But the fishermen had vanished. I'm afraid that the fisherman may have angered the dragon who laid the egg. And now the whole fishing village may be in danger!" "What can I do?" asked Michaela. "Well," replied the king, "You seem to have a way with dragons. I was hoping you could tell us if the fishermen just had an accident or if the dragon ate them." When the royal coach arrived at the fishing village, Michaela examined the beach where the egg was found. "That's odd!" exclaimed Michaela. "What's that?" asked the king. "There aren't any foot prints in the sand. There's no sign that a dragon laid this egg." explained Michaela. "What do you make of that?" asked the king. "I don't know." replied Michaela, "Maybe the dragon laid the egg somewhere else and it just floated here on the ocean. Maybe it just washed up on shore." "What are we going to do?" asked the king. Michaela replied, "I'd like to go out in a row boat to where those fishermen sank the egg." But the other fishermen were so afraid that they refused to take her. So, she asked them how to get there. They gave her a compass and told her to go directly east until she couldn't see land anymore. She got into a boat and rowed out to sea following the compass until she could no longer see land. Then she put up the ores and looked down. The ocean was so deep that it looked black. So, she bent over the gunwale of the boat and pushed her face under water. When she opened her eyes, she saw two eyes staring back at her! She pulled her head out of the water, and gasped. She'd seen those eyes before. Those big round eyes looked just like the eyes of her friend the dragon. She took a breath and sank her face into the water again. Again, she saw the eyes staring back at her. But this time, she made the same sound that she always made to let her friend the dragon know that she loved him. It was like the cooing of a dove, but much deeper. The beast down below made the same sound but even deeper. But immediately, he began swimming up to her. She pulled her head out of the water and fell back into the boat, thinking that the dragon in the water was about to eat her. But instead, he stuck his head out of the water and bent his neck to look into the boat. Again, he let out the low cooing sound. But this time he laid his head gently on the gunwale of the boat. "Maybe you're not going to eat me after all!" said Michaela softly to herself as she moved slowly toward the dragon. When he didn't seem to react, she moved closer and closer until she could reach out and touch him. She petted his face and neck exactly like she did to her friend at home. He let out another cooing sound and closed his eyes. While his eyes were closed, Michaela examined his head and as much of his neck as she could see. But he was different. Different horns, different scales, different color. Michaela wanted to see more, so she dived into the water with her dress on. The dragon followed just as she'd hoped. She wanted to see how a flying dragon could use its wings underwater. To her surprise, this dragon hardly had any wings at all. And its legs were only half as long as those on her friend the dragon. "You're different kind of animal altogether, aren't you big boy?" asked Michaela. He let out a loud coo that was so loud and so deep that she could feel it in her body. It felt like an earthquake. "That must be how you talk to other creatures underwater." said Michaela, "You are definitely not a dragon! What shall I call you?" She noticed that the big animal seemed to swim more like an alligator, by swishing its huge tail. It slithered through the water more like a snake. "I shall call you a sea serpent!" exclaimed Michaela with a smile. With that, he dived under her and when he came back up to the surface again, she was riding on his back between his stubby little wings. He let out another coo and started toward shore at high speed, leaving the boat behind. "Where are you taking me?!" exclaimed Michaela. But he just cooed and kept swimming. Then, he nodded his head and dived. He seemed to swim faster underwater. But Michaela couldn't breathe underwater. And just when she was about to let go and swim up for a breath, he swam to the surface to take a breath. As soon as she had enough breath, he nodded his head. By now Michaela knew that this nod was a sign that he was about to dive again. So, she took one last breath. After four of these dives, the sea serpent dived straight down. He swam into an underwater cave near the shore and came up in an underground cave. He slid across the sand with his head down so she could step off of him. "What is this place?" she asked as she stepped off his back onto the sand. Suddenly, Michaela heard the shouts of men. She turned and saw the three fishermen who had wrapped the dragons egg and sank it in the ocean. But they were now wrapped up in their own fishing net and were unable to move. The sea serpent opened his mouth and growled loudly. Michaela shouted, "No! No food!" The sea serpent stopped growling and put his head down on the sand. Michaela continued, "No food! These fishermen are my friends! No food!" Then Michaela patted the sea serpent on the head and said, "You brought me here to feed them to me, didn't you, boy? You thought these poor fishermen were food for me. That was very nice of you to do. But you wouldn't want me to eat my friends, would you?" The sea serpent cooed. Michaela unwrapped the fishermen and let them go. She pointed to the sunlight in the other end of the cave saying, "You can go now. You're safe now. But don't pick on the dragons and the sea serpents. They're our friends now." The men ran as fast as they could toward the light. Michaela got on the sea serpent's back and said, "Take me home!" He swam back out of the underwater cave and swam back to the fishing village so fast that he arrived at the beach before the fishermen. Everyone gasped as the sea serpent slithered up on the beach. The king's guards were so startled that they drew their swords. "Wait!" commanded the king. "The girl is on his back." When the sea serpent lowered his head to allow Michaela to step down, they all could see that Michaela had returned completely unharmed. So, they all put away their swords. Just then, the fishermen came running and shouting. "We were kidnapped by a huge sea creature. He was going to eat us. But this little girl..." Just then, the fishermen saw Michaela and the sea serpent. They pointed and gasped, "That's the creature who was going to eat us! Aren't you going to kill him?!" "No!" replied the king. "The dragons have become our friends. And now these... these... what shall we call them?" "I call him a sea serpent." replied Michaela. "Yes, these sea serpents are our friends too." said the king, "And with them on our side, we will fear no enemy, thanks to our little friend Michaela." ©2008 Bob Snook. Conditions for use: This story is free. Pay no fees or royalties. Do not sell this story or rewrite it. 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