retold for a third
grade audience
by Barbara Hartley Seltzer
Once
upon a time dragons were as common as cars are now. Every prince
was expected
to kill a dragon and rescue a princess. Soon there were fewer and
fewer dragons
left. In fact, it became harder and harder for a princess to find
a dragon to be
rescued from. Finally, there was one real-live dragon left in the
world. He
lived in a big cave. He was said to be very fierce. The dragon was
70 feet long.
He had a terrible spike at the ed of his tail. And he had iron
scales all over
his body that rattled when he walked. He even breathed fire and
smoke. Everyone
was very frightened of him.
Near
the dragon there lived a King who had one daughter. When she was
16, she was
expected to go and face the dragon. Every night the Princess heard
stories
about dragons. Of course, the dragon was never supposed to eat the
Princess.
Instead, a handsome prince would free her. But the only princes
the Princess
knew were silly little boys.
So
she asked her father, "Why must I be rescued by a prince?"
"Why?"
grumble the King. "Why? Well, that's the way it's always done. I
rescued
your mother from a dragon when I was a prince."
"But,
Father," she said, "why can't we send one of the silly little
princes
to the dragon? Then I'll rescue him. I fence much better than any
prince I
know."
"But,
but," stuttered her father, (he was quite upset), "that's just not
the way it's supposed to happen."
"But,
Father," continued the Princess, "this time it's different. He is
the
last dragon. That makes him different from all the others."
The
King could see no sense in this at all.
But he did not want to make his daughter cry; so he said,
"Off to
your lessons now. I'll speak to the Queen about it. We'll let you
know what we
decide."
The
Princess went to her fencing lessons. She worked very hard. She
wanted to be
the strongest and most sensible princess ever, (not just the
prettiest and
nicest).
But
the King and Queen told the Princess that she had to be rescued.
The days went
by. Finally, it was time. The Prince had been chosen. He was a
nice boy, very
good at math, but not very strong. And he had never taken any
fencing lessons.
The
Princess felt very sorry for the Prince. And for herself. After
all, she didn't
want the dragon to eat her. And if the Prince could not kill the
dragon, that's
exactly what would happen. The Princess thought and thought. "What
am I to
do?" she wondered. Then she got an idea. The Princess had a plan.
She sent
her pet parrot to the Prince with this note:
Please,
Prince,
Come to the Garden.
I must talk to you.
ALONE!
The Princess
When
they met in the garden, the Princess said: "Tell the truth now. Do
you
really think you can kill the dragon?"
"I
will kill the dragon or die trying," said the Prince in a very
princely
way.
"But
why in the world would you want to do that?" asked the Princess.
"Because
I love you, of course," said the Prince.
"Oh,
dear. You have been reading too many fairy tales," said the
Princess.
"look here. No one will be with us tomorrow. They'll just tie me
to a rock
in front of the dragon's cave. Then they will leave. When you come
to the cave,
untie me very quickly. And I'll fight the dragon and save us
both!"
"But
it wouldn't be safe for you," said the Prince.
"It
will be much safer for us both. You can't fight at all. And what
good would I
be tied up and helpless?"
The
Prince agreed.
The
next day, everything happened just as the Princess had said. After
the Prince
untied her, they waited for the dragon.
"It
seems to me," said the Prince as they waited, "such a shame to
kill
the dragon. After all, he is the last dragon in the whole world."
"Well,"
said the Princess, "I've got another idea. It's a grand idea. We
won't
kill the dragon. We'll tame him instead. We'll teach him not to
eat
princesses."
"Or
princes either," said the Prince. "But how do you tame a
dragon?" he asked. You see, he had learned nothing about taming
dragons in
math class.
"We'll
just the very kind to him," said the Princess. "We'll begin by
giving
him something else to eat."
So
the Prince and Princess made a lovely snack for the dragon. They
gathered some
strawberries to make jam. Then they they began to enter the
dragon's cave.
"My,
it's awfully dark in here," whispered the Prince. And it was very,
very
dark. The Princess suggested they wait outside.
They
waited and waited but the dragon did not come out of the cave. So
the Prince
called, "Yoo hoo. Hello. Dragon, are you there?"
There
was no reply. The Prince shouted again, "Dragon. I say Dragon!
We've
brought you a present."
Just
then the dragon growled back, "Present? Present? I know all about
you and
your presents. Some princess, I suppose. And I'm to come and fight
for her?
Well, I'll tell you right now. I'm not going to do it. If it were
a fair fight,
maybe. But I've read a lot of fairy tales too, you know. And I'm
supposed to
lose. The dragons always lose. And even if I win, why do I want a
princess anyway?"
The
Prince was very surprised, "Why to eat her," he answered.
"Eat
her? Fiddlesticks! I don't like to eat princesses. All those fancy
clothes and
jewels get stuck in your teeth. Have you ever eaten a princess?"
"Well,
no. Of course not!" said the Prince.
"Well
then, "Why should I?" asked the dragon.
"Because
you're a dragon, that's why," said the Prince.
"Well
let me tell you. Those princesses taste yechy. Now go home. I
don't want to eat
a princess. Stop bothering me. Come on now, SCOOT! Get out of
here. Go away. N
one's home. Skidaddle. Shoo. Get Lost. Please?'
And
with that, the Prince and Princess heard the dragon clank away,
deeper into his
cave.
"What
shall we do now? We can't tell your father that the dragon didn't
want to eat
you. The King would be very upset. He'd be so mad he'd come and
kill the dragon
himself," said the Prince.
"There
must be some way to make friends with the dragon," said the
Princess. Then
she called into the cave ever so sweetly, "Oh, dragon. Dragon,
dear."
Clank.
Clank. They could hear the dragon coming. Suddenly there he was.
The Princess
pulled out her sword. But she did not attack. She the Prince
started moving
back slowly. Very slowly. Now they could see all 70 feet of the
dragon. They
heard his terrible clanking. They saw the mean spike at the end of
his tail.
Closer and closer the dragon walked toward the Prince and
Princess. At last,
they could go no further. Their backs
were against a huge rock. There was no escape.
The
dragon got nearer and nearer. Just when they expected him to
breathe fire and
smoke, he didn't. Instead, he began to cry. Great tears rolled
down his cheeks.
"What
is the matter?" said the Prince.
"Don't
cry, dragon dear," said the princess.
"Sniff.
Sniff," cried the dragon. "Nobody ever called me 'dear' before,"
he sobbed.
"Oh,
is that all that's wrong. Why I'll call you dear whenever you
want. You see,
all we want to do is tame you," said the Princess.
"But
I am tame," said the dragon. "That's just it. That's why nobody
has
ever killed me. Why I'm so tame, I'd even eat out of your hands."
"Eat
what?" asked the Prince.
"Anything.
Anything you'd like," said the dragon. And then he began to cry
again.
"You're so kind. No one ever asked me what I wanted to eat before
They just
kept giving me princesses."
"Well,
how about some muffins and strawberry jam instead? We have some
right
there," said the Prince.
"Why
that would be just lovely," said the dragon. "But do you think...
I
don't mean to be rude, but do you think... Never mind. I couldn't
ask. You've
been so kind already."
"What
do you want to ask?" asked the Princess.
"Do
you... do... Aw, shucks. Could you call me 'dear,' just one more
time?"
"Why
of course, dragon dear," said the Princess. The dragon started to
blush.
"And
do you think," the dragon said to the Prince. "Do you think you
could..."
"What
dragon? Could I what?" said the Prince.
"Could
you perhaps shake claws with a poor old dragon like me?"
"Why
of course I could. I'd be glad to," said the Prince.
The
dragon held out an enormous paw. The prince held out his little
hand. Very
carefully, very softly, the dragon closed his iron claws over the
Prince's
hand.
And
so the Prince and Princess went back to the Palace. They got
married and
promised to love each other forever and ever. The prince promised
to teach his
wife math if she would teach him how to fence. They went to live
in a new
palace and Fido Dear (for that's what the Princess named the
dragon) went to
live with them, too.
The
Prince made a large saddle for the dragon. 150 people could sit on
it. Every day,
the dragon would take the children to school. In summer, he'd take
them to the
beach. The children loved the dragon very much and loved them,
too. Each one
called him dear, which made the dragon very pleased. And everyone
lived happily
ever after.