Bedtime stories

Dear Canela,

I am writing you the stories I once told you so you can read them while I am gone. I cannot tell you how exciting it is for me to be used while I am invisible on a real quest to fight dragons. Study hard, read these when you are down, sad, happy, mad and think of me.

As I have told you before, all Dragon-Fighter children are taught at home and school about dragons, gremlins and other nasties as they grow they learn to identify and fight them. Their parents tell them stories of Dragon-Fighters who have gone before them so that they may become wise and courageous.

In the early 1900s (ordinary time) a cockatrice was born- the experiment of a skilled, very unwise and selfish dragon-loving boy who had an unnatural desire for power, and was unusually close to the dragons. He laid a stolen chicken egg under his pet snake, who had just laid her own eggs, and it hatched a cockatrice. The cockatrice would obey one voice and that was his, and caused devastation across the ordinary world and La Paz. He hatched the egg hoping to use the monster to guard his cabbages from crows, which it did for a while, but then he used it for more nefarious purposes… stealing what he wanted from his neighbours and enemies. Little did he know that the cockatrice really obeys no flesh covered person, it merely enslaves them and causes destruction and havoc.

The man and his brother began with unleashing purple dragons on most areas of the world, then dragons in all colours. They took delight in seeing the ordinary men form sides each side blaming the people they feared most for destruction caused by the cockatrice, dragons and gremlins (who always travel with dragons). As the hatred grew the population and size of the enemy beasts grew. 

Dragon-Fighters also grew in number and many worked hard to restore harmony and promote justice.

For many years the world paid the price, dragons roamed freely, hatching and growing at an alarming rate. Xionss fought long and hard to keep them at bay. The funny thing about a dragon crisis is that when they are numerous in size and number; it seems to awaken ordinary people, they see more clearly and though they may not understand what is happening at the time they fight alongside the Dragon-fighters. Ordinary people are not aware that neither can win their battle without the help of the other.

But before the victory is the time when all hope seems lost; the time most people accept defeat… it was at this time that a man had a plan, a tricky plan… but it just might work. This man was a weasel farmer, not by choice; he‟d tried farming sheep, carrots and the usual animals but the weasels found him. He knew that they were plucky little creatures, able to work themselves into the most amaising places, and he knew that they were the one creature that the cockatrice feared. He thought if he could get eleven Dragon-Fighters and one hundred and eleven weasels together, they could get close enough to the cockatrice to defeat it. Hunting the cockatrice took eleven months, eleven days and eleven hours and on the eleventh of November, at 11:00 the cockatrice disappeared in a puff of smoke. There was much rejoicing throughout the land. For the people, ordinary and Xions were free, on the Day of the weasels (Xions time) a wave of brave fury critters went speeding towards the cockatrice, the plucky little critters easily out-ran the beast. The Dragon-fighters who saw it described it as a weasel wave enveloping the beast, and in 11 minutes the beast was gone. With the cockatrice gone the “master” and his brother were easily defeated. The dragons went into hiding and the people in the ordinary world and La Paz celebrated.

Three hundred years ago, the lance was a popular dragon-fighting weapon, and no one had a better reputation with a Lance than Solomon Zerubbabel the Daring. 

Zerubbabel siblings (Solomon and his sisters Kateleigh and Danika) planned to go camping and happened to pass by the Village of Schneider. From a distance, they noticed a thick fog covering the town and getting closer, seeing everyone sick, they realised they were dealing with a green dragon or three, perhaps four.

Moreover the closer they came to the city the more the heroes realised how much fun the gremlins were having too. For there is nothing a jade gremlin loves to do better than to hide a person‟s medicine or make them forget to take it. Jade gremlins will surround blue and green dragons, as illness and misery are closely related. Just like their cousins, they absolutely love to cause chaos wherever they can. Jade gremlins have even been known to put their fingers into people’s minds and make them think that the medicine is too revolting to take and they love to watch people spit it out and choke. Dragon-Fighter children firmly tell the gremlins to leave relax and think about something nice and the medicine usually goes down fine. Then the Xions parents give them a hug afterwards telling them that they are special and brave and good.

Solomon was excited that he had the chance to lance a real dragon, targeting the biggest one; he, Danika and Kateleigh rode their horses at the dragon from all sides, allowing Solomon the leverage he needed, it was hard work, but eventually the dragon left taking a lot of fog with him.

Danika and Kateleigh were busy with the salt tipped bows, which left the smaller dragons shrinking as they flew away, taking the disease and rest of the fog with them.

The siblings helped the village to recover, which was a much easier job now the dragons had gone, though some were still weak, the people were feeling much better. The towns-folk offered them a place to rest and gave them yummy food. The people in village of Schneider felt so much better by that evening that they had a huge party with plenty of salty foods, singing and dancing. By the time the party was over everyone was well again and not even a bit tired anymore.

As the Ehud siblings Zackhya, Braeson and Mikinley were travelling home for Christmas. They were tired as they drew close to the town of Seven, and the hope of rest disappeared as they could see the Yellow dragons more clearly. Hundreds of yellow gremlins were drunk with vicious delight… The town of Seven was in Chaos, the people were so greedy.

They were taking each other‟s money, food and belongings; people would put their money in a “safe place” but if they had a gremlin on their back, they forgot where the “safe place” was and would fight with their family and neighbours as the gremlins whispered in their ears that someone must have stolen it.

Some people were lying down because they couldn't walk as they had eaten so much food. Those people had gremlins sitting on their shoulders convincing them they were still hungry, by the time they realised they weren’t hungry they anymore, they were too full to move.

When people were buying things they would pay with mixed real and fake money and the sellers were putting fewer things in than they were charging for. People had special pockets sewn into their clothes so that they could hear their money jingle as they walked.

Nobody trusted anyone very much and most preferred to stay home and count their money then spend time with friends (who might just be friendly so they can take my money, the gremlins whispered). Some people even did terrible things to others just for a bit more money.

It was hard work to get rid of the dragons, Zachyha distracted the people, by throwing money for them to catch as Mikinley and Braeson fought off the dragons. The people had been getting in the way at first, as they thought that they owned dragons, what they didn't know was that eating so much food and wearing your money makes it harder to run away when the dragons decide to eat you. The dragons were happy to let the people think they owned them, because that just kept the food they liked eating that much closer. 

When the dragons were gone and the fog was lifted, the people of Seven were very sorry for their greedy behaviour. They shared their food and money with others, even people they had not met. They felt compassion for orphans and widdows the Dragon-fighters told them of and sent workers to help and protect them. Children who no longer had any parents were venerable in many ways but when our new sharing community became involved; more caring and contented children in any place other than Seven were rare.

The dragon-fighters were proud of the progress the people of Seven had made, and told them to keep being generous. They stayed in the town of Seven for several years, teaching them to fight dragons.

Another story:

Amelia and Cohen, members of the Zerubbabel family (distant cousins of cousins to the boys you met before), were heading off to meet family for Easter one year and on their journey they found that the town of Tranquil was not very peaceful with Purple dragons flying about and purple gremlins making trouble.

The gremlins stuck their icy fingers around the people‟s hearts, making them frustrated with others over the most trivial things, eye-colour, hair-style “You looked at me the wrong way” they screamed. They provoked and retaliated, hurled abuse, threw things, yelled, destroyed property and continued swearing, kicking and hurting each other. In fact some people were very hurt but they could not get to hospital as the ambulance drivers, doctors and nurses were too annoyed to work.

Several times the dragon-fighters had to duck to avoid objects being hurled. Amelia (an ancestor of Gabe) found Zavier, her shield handy for dodging junk as well as dragon fire. Cohen was disappointed that he couldn't use his lance and dodge the junk at the same time, so the small team fended off the fends using many arrows dipped in salt. They had to be careful taking aim as they only wanted to hit dragons, not the citizens of Tranquil. 

With the departure of each dragon, the people in the village, seemed to calm a little bit more, and peace was restored to Tranquil when the fog had lifted and the last purple dragon was gone. The Zerbbabels began helping them to restore some order to the town, so everyone could get a decent rest that night.

The dragon-fighters stayed in town for a many years to help their new friends to re-build their lives and town. When the work was done, the town was a Dragon-Fighter fortress; our duo said “Good-bye” and promised to visit again when they had helped some more dragons to bite the dust.

They reminded the people of Tranquil of the ways to fight dragons and encouraged them to love and show kindness to each other. “We believe in you,” they said "Remember to tell 3 people each day that you love them and 2 things you like about them. Also try to do 3 kind things for other people every day and keep a journal of who you helped so you don't forget".

I believe in you too Canela

Cheers

Beau

Post Script: I will try to write to you, while I am gone.

This story dedicated to Eddie and young people who have tragically lost their lives due to choices people have made under the influence of alcohol or drugs

and to the people who miss them.

Canela was overjoyed to receive mail from her invisible friend, while he was away fighting dragons; she put this letter in her journal along with the other.

Dear Canela

We arrived in safely in Seven I couldn’t help thinking of the Dragon-Fighters who had been here before me 300 years ago, fighting dragons. We had a few minor tussles with 

dragons and gremlins on the journey but nothing prepared me for what I saw as we approached the city. About 20km away it was obvious that the city was covered in fog (of course you remember that dragons are afraid of sunlight and prefer to cover the town in fog to party) there was such a sight to be seen, people were sleeping on the roads, telling each other how comfortable their beds were, eating rubbish from the tip saying how yummy the food was, giving their dogs hay to eat and horses meat to eat, trying to fly off their rooves with a feather on each hand saying "Tweet tweet".

I knew what makes people behave so crazy but Michael said it first

"Light-Brown dragons"

"Let‟s get them" this is the first time I have ever been in a group situation when we all said the same thing at the same time, we laughed and got on with the job.

Armed with bows, arrows, swords and salt we tracked the dragons down one by one.

Forest had to do some fast talking, at one stage a man had a small dragon that he was patting, saying "nice kitty"

Cara said "Oooh what's his name?" pretending to go over and pat it as he sprinkled salt on the animal, there was a huge scream first from the dragon and second form the frightened man who dropped the dragon like a hot potato. There was a puff of smoke and it turned into an egg. Cara’s pretty good at calming people down, and I was impressed that this time was no different.

As we were putting the egg onto a buggy to bury it out of town, another dragon flew over and made off with the egg, earning an arrow in its side it flew away shrinking and shrieking, but landed far enough from Seven to be not much of a problem.

Oh and then there was this lady who had a snake that she was trying to use as a rope to tie some things together with. It was no use reasoning with her, I thought and quickly got him with my sword. Deborah offered her the use of her sash as a replacement rope as I disposed of her “friend”.

The more we worked, the thinner the fog became. It seemed to take forever but finally there was too much sunlight for the dragons to be happy and they flew away in terror.

The fog cleared and the people wondered what they were doing at the dump, on the roof and laying on the road. When we told them about the brown dragons, they were sceptical at first but Aiden, the mayor, thanked profusely the dragon-fighters he could see and offered the us a place to stay for the night (yes a real bed in a house) and food (not from the dump) for the journey.

Where does an invisible man who does not want to frighten people sleep? With the horses, actually the hey was quite comfortable. The Xionss slipped out to bring me food, while they “checked on the horses”, so I had company and food too. I have never before experienced how great it feels to do something for someone, see them happy and blissfully unaware that they should thank me. It‟s actually a good feeling and I had to tell someone.

Post Script: Many people in the town of Seven could not remember the crazy things that they had been doing yesterday and the days before, when the dragons and gremlins were partying there were some strange haircuts, bruises, "How did I lose my... Where did that... come from?" I wish you could have seen it. It’s so hard not to laugh when you are in the moment because being invisible I would confuse people.

We reminded the people of Seven that the best way to prevent a dragon attack again was to use salt and light but we also gave them some training in using daggers and swords and helped the people repairing the damage from the dragon attack. I think the mayor’s brother, Tyrone is definitely a future Dragon-fighter and I am sure the team is working on getting him to come to college next year.

Activities

1. Light brown dragons like to make the people around them do very silly things, can you think of some more silly things that they may make people do.

2. Tranquil, Seven and Schneider are not real towns in Europe. Seven of course is a number that is one of my favourites. Google the other words and find out what they mean.