Real Dragons

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. There was a time, not so long ago yet ages before any of us can remember, when the Valley was quiet and empty.

The people lived in their houses and raised their children. They farmed their land and raised their livestock. They played music and had celebrations. It was a happy and peaceful time. It could have continued this way forever. If they had only left the witch alone.

Now this small village was like many others as it was built near a wood. The men would chop down the trees to build houses, barns and fences. They used the trees for their cooking fires and to keep warm. But the more people that lived in the Valley, the more wood they needed. So they kept chopping and chopping.

As the woodsmen looked for larger and larger trees, they went deeper and deeper into the woods. It was in this searching that they came upon a small cottage. It was not built like the homes in the Valley. This cottage was made of stone with a roof made of thatch and covered with moss and vines. A light glowed from inside and a trail of smoke drifted skyward from the chimney.

The woodsmen wondered who could possibly live there. One brave soul dared to knock on the cottage door. A woman emerged that appeared hideous to some and beautiful to others. She was young and old at once. Stooped yet graceful. Each man saw something different but all men knew at once that she was a witch.

They had all heard the stories of the witch in the woods. The warnings not to disturb her or you would be cursed forever and your children and your children’s children as well.

She looked around at the men gathered there and knew what it was they were seeking. They wanted her trees. Her trees, the largest in the woods. The tall strong trees with the dark bark and many branches. And she agreed. They could take half of her trees for their homes and barns and fences. They could come into her woods and find the timber they needed for their shelters. On one condition – they must not touch the white trees in the glade near the spring.

The woodsmen agreed and a peace was struck. For many years the people of the Valley built their houses, their barns and their fences with the strong dark wood of the witch’s trees. They would venture into the woods for what they needed for their cooking fires and to warm themselves. They kept to the promise they made to the witch. Until one year.

A new family moved into the Valley and the woodsmen brought lumber for their home and barn and fences. They provided wood for their fires for cooking and keeping warm. All was as it should be. The man’s wife was to bear him a child and they were happy. He wanted to make a cradle for his coming offspring. He was not a woodsman but he did know some carpentry. He went into the wood to find the lumber for a cradle.

He found the perfect tree and chopped it down and took it back to his home where he fashioned a cradle. It was a beautiful cradle of plain white wood. It smelled of the fresh glade near the spring where the tree had lived. Before the man had cut it down.

He did not know what he had done. But the witch knew. She had lived in the woods by the Valley for nine lives. She lived with her dragons that kept her company. Their slits of pupils and swishing tails and eyes that watched everything. She had always kept her magical dragons as many other witches were known to do. But witches are good at hiding both themselves and their dragons. They had learned that people were afraid of dragons and hunted them, so witches had learned to transform them and hide them.

Since the people of the Valley had broken their promise, the witch released her dragons into the Valley. They snuck into the village by night, their eyes searching, their tails swishing their teeth glistening in the moonlight. They crept into the homes and made themselves comfortable by the warm fires. They moved into the barns and feasted on the rats. And the people accepted them because they did not know.

The witch had hidden her dragons in plain sight. She had hidden their scales under fur and changed their fiery breath to a loud hiss. Without knowing the people had taken in the dragons and made them pets. They did not know. But the dragons watch and wait and sometimes enjoy a nice saucer of milk. And now there were always dragons in the Valley.