A Fairly Fairy Tale

“Once upon a time” is how these types of stories usually start out but this particular story has been told time and time again as you’re about to learn. The players and the setting are all the same. The outcome never changes and likely never will. The good guy wins, the princess is saved and the bad guy is defeated. All is right with the world by the time the final act ends. And it is all wrapped up in a neat little bow, usually with the words “… and they lived happily ever after.” Sometimes even children grow wearisome of this formula but it’s interesting to note that even the drabbest or most contrived story can be made interesting with a change of perspective.

“Uncle!” young Theodore exclaimed from his chamber door.

“What is it, Master Theodore? You two should be asleep! Or at the very least quiet enough to make the rest of castle think you are. That’s what clever kids would do, not this yelling about business,” Uncle Draco responded as he closed the chamber door.

“But we can’t sleep!” a voice giggled from underneath the sheets of the other bed.

“Young Lady Madison, I can’t believe you’re up too! Well, what can I do to convince you two to get in bed and go to sleep?”

“How about some of those pastries we had for dessert tonight? I know we still have some.”

“Theodore! No! We’ll surely get in trouble for that.”

“No, we won’t! Not unless you tell mother and father!”

“Do you want to get Uncle in trouble too?”

“Your sister is correct, Master Theodore, besides. Sweets before bed will just give you nightmares and I know how easily you scare.”

“I’m not scared of anything! And I hate it when you call me Theodore; both of you!”

“Very well,” Uncle said, “Get in bed, you two. I’ll tell you a story.”

“What kind of story?”

“That’s entirely up to you. What kind of story would you like to hear, Madison?”

“Tell us how mother and father fell in love again!”

“Oh no, not that one again!” Theodore bemoaned.

“What’s wrong with it?” Madison asked.

“We’ve heard it so many times already! And you know how much I hate love stories!”

“But it has adventure in it too! Daddy slays a dragon!”

“Well,” their uncle interjected, “I can’t say that that’s entirely true. After all, I was there. I remember exactly what happened.”

“We all do!” Theodore said, “Once upon a time mother and father are madly in love and on the night before they were to be wed an evil dragon kidnaps mother. Father searches for an entire year before asking every wizard and fairy in the land for magic to find and defeat the dragon. When Gannil Corom: the Great Wizard of the North says he had such magic father didn’t hesitate to use it to rescue mother and slay the dragon. But the price was his first born (me, by the way). Father fought Gannil Corom and trapped him within one of the dragon’s scales. That’s how father made our kingdom the most respected in all the realms and he and mother lived happily ever--”

“Theodore!”

“What? That’s what happens!”

“You’re not telling it correctly! Let Uncle tell the story!”

“It’s still going to be the same story!”

“Oh, my! I’m afraid you’ve been deceived by lies, children. Who told you that that was what happened?”

“Maiden Helen,” Madison replied. “And everyone else tells us that’s what really happened.”

“Oh, dear. That won’t do at all! Tuck yourselves in and I’ll tell you the truth of your mother and father’s legend. It’s every bit as fantastical as the original but, as you’ll find when you get older, there are complexities to the truth that make it all the more preferable to listen to than stories of make-believe.”

The young boy and girl were tucked into bed by their uncle who pulled up a chair between their beds. Madison smiled and scrunched up her nose, a bit worried that there wasn’t going to be nearly as much romance and love in this new version of the story. Theodore scrunched up his nose, a bit worried that there would be much more. Their uncle nodded and reassured them that there was just as plenty adventure and romance that each one could possibly want in a story.

“First things first,” Uncle began, “The true villain of the story is indeed Gannil Corom and NOT the dragon as many would have you believe.”

“Uncle, you’re telling it wrong already!” Madison yelled, giggling from excitement.

“Oh, of course!” Uncle continued, “Once upon a time, your mother’s beauty and charm won the hearts of everyone in the land but two found themselves smitten by her. As you know one of them was your father. But what you might not suspect is that the other was the dragon.”

“The dragon?! How could a dragon have fallen in love with our mother?” Theodore asked.

“Dragons are complex creatures, terribly misunderstood because of their appearance. I don’t blame anyone being scared of such a giant and powerful creature. But dragons have as much potential for creation as they do for destruction. The legends say that dragons are the ones who brought magic to this land.”

“But there is no magic in this land!” both children said in unison.

“Are there any dragons in it?”

“Of course not!”

“Well then it makes sense that dragons are the source of magic, doesn’t it? Now, where was I? Oh yes, the business about the dragon kidnapping your mother the night before her wedding was actually a terrible mix up that Gannil Corom had taken advantage of. You see, when word got out that your mother and father were getting married, the dragon decided that he could no longer live within their kingdom. It would be too painful to see the woman he loves with a man, in all honesty, the dragon did not like.”

“Why didn’t the dragon like father?” Madison asked.

“That should be obvious!” Theodore exclaimed “We come from a long line of dragon slayers!”

“But our ancestors only slew evil dragons who destroyed crops and terrorized villages and things like that. If this dragon could fall in love then he couldn’t be evil.”

“That’s quite right, Madison,” Uncle replied, “But you see he knew some of those evil dragons, and was even close to a few of them. While he understood that their evil acts got them killed the scars of their deaths take long to heal. In the dragon’s eyes, your father could never accept him for who he was. Your mother understood best what a kind soul the dragon was and sought to find him and invite him to the wedding. The dragon politely declined and wanted to tell her how much he loved her but he could not. For obvious reasons, the dragon knew that nothing could ever happen between them.

“The land was treacherous from the dragon’s cave to your father’s castle and the dragon offered to escort your mother back home. But Gannil Corom was all too aware of their whereabouts and cast a vertigo spell and they ended up wandering in circles for nearly a day. You see, when the truth is passed down from person to person, certain embellishments are most certainly going to attach themselves in order to make for a more exciting story. While the legend you heard said it took a year for your father to find the two, it really took less than a week. But that’s not as exciting as a year-long search. The wizard, it seems, cloaked them from even the best trackers and hunters abilities so a small army could not find the dragon or your mother. And that’s when he approached your father and told him that the dragon had kidnapped your mother.”

“But why would he do such a thing?” Theodore asked.

“Why, he wanted the dragon dead, of course! The parts that make up a dragon (teeth, skin, scales); they are very rare and very potent in the world of magic; even rarer still that this was one of the last known dragons in existence at the time. So the wizard pointed your father and his most trusted knights in the direction of the creature. The story about offering you before you were even born was true, Theodore though only Corom knows what he needed you for.

“Your father is a brilliant tactician and managed to subdue the dragon and ‘rescue’ your mother before either of them had a chance to explain the truth of what was going on. Before the dragon could raise his voice to explain to your father that it was all a ruse for the wizard to obtain their firstborn child and magical dragon parts, Corom appeared and struck the final blow. With his dying breath he whispered into your mother’s ear.”

“Did he tell him he loved her?”

“Did he tell her how to defeat the wizard?”

“You know, one thing most people don’t know about dragons is their ability to concisely say what needs to be said. If there ever were a quota of words, a dragon would never have to worry about running out of them. You’re both right. He did finally confess to her how he felt and melded his own mind with hers so that she knew how to trap the wizard in one of the dragon’s scales. And with that the dragon died. And you know the rest.”

“But you didn’t say ‘…and the lived happily ever after’” Madison pointed out.

“Maybe it’s not finished yet. Besides, I know if I was there I would have collected something of the dragon as proof that it existed.”

“And what would you propose to collect? The dragon bones? A tooth? Surely you wouldn’t want a scale? Once your father trapped Corom in the scale of the dragon he had the scale destroyed to prevent the wizard from causing anymore trouble, effectively ridding the land of its remaining magic.”

“Well,” Theodore said, contemplating a nagging plot hole in his uncle’s story, “Even if father wanted to let the dragon rest in peace, someone somewhere would have seen something left of the body. Perhaps someone stole the body? Or if they burned it other villages would have seen the pillar of smoke! But there were never tales of anyone outside of our realm seeing this dragon. It’s suspicious is all.”

“Well, Theodore, I can see you’re just as clever as your mother. You see, while your mother loves your father, she cared a great deal for that dragon and made him promise to live.”

“That’s a silly thing to promise.” Madison added “He couldn’t control dying.”

“Very right, Madison. The dragon could not control his body from deteriorating especially since the wizard knew exactly how to kill him. But like I said, dragons are full of magic.“

“What does that mean?” Madison asked. Her eyes sparkled and she wanted to smile suspecting that there was yet another hidden happily ever after.

“You see, it would take what was left of the entire dragon’s life force but he would take a different form. He would no longer look like a dragon or have any of the magical properties that being as such would hold. To fulfill the promise he made to the woman he loved he spent his last bit of magic and became human. And now he roams the kingdom in secrecy to protect it.”

“So we might have seen him and not even know it?” Madison inquired.

“We may have met a former dragon?” Theodore said as his mind raced through the possibilities. The two children yawned and their eyelids barely remained open.

“It’s finally time for bed, you two.” Uncle tucked in the two young ones as they settled into their beds. Madison lifted her head as her uncle opened the chamber door.

“Uncle,” she said, “You didn’t end the story the way it’s supposed to be ended.”

“Lord Draco,” the guards hailed Uncle, “The king and queen request your presence in the throne room.”

“Tell them I’ll be down in a minute.”

“So is that how it ends?” Theodore asked, his voice fading quickly into the chilly night air.

“You know how it ends, children. Your father and mother had a glorious wedding. Theodore was born and Madison arrived to the world just two years later. The dragon learned to love you two as if you were his own children, secretly guarding you as he had promised to the woman he had once loved.  While most magic had gone from these parts, they all knew (your father, mother and protector) that love was the one power that could never be taken away from them… And they lived happily ever after.”