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Stranger Danger

Could you learn to live with Dragons?

By Catherine shovlinPublished 2 years ago 9 min read
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Beware the obvious

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. It seems inconceivable now that things weren’t always this way, but some of the elders could still remember the early days of their arrival. Rumours in the queue at the butcher’s. Reported glimpses in the Dark Forest to the north. A flurry of fear through the town. The confusion and terror of the early days.

The court astronomer (and recently appointed Chief Scientist), from high in her observation tower saw them properly, scientifically, allegedly first. Desdemona decided it was too risky to invite more people – and generate the usual procrastination. So she drew on her considerable powers of autonomy and issued an immediate warning to the whole kingdom.

Terrifying news!

Lock up your children and guard your livestock.

The Dragons Are Coming!

The notice that appeared overnight on every maypole, every gibbet, every staging post, caused quite a stir. Even for the many citizens who couldn’t read, the picture of a fire-breathing winged reptile was quite enough to raise their blood pressure and send them scattering to their homes in alarm, stopping only to buy all the bread and provisions they could carry. Within minutes the marketplace was emptied of both produce and people.

“I’m sure I mentioned it to you first,” the Chief Scientist responds to the queen when she is called to court almost immediately. “But it must have slipped my mind what with the rush to the printers and all that.”

“Slipped your mind!?” repeats Queen Alila, arching a perfect lilac eyebrow as she flicks her matching hair over her shoulder. She really is breathtakingly beautiful thinks Desdemona before sweeping the distraction aside to focus on the more pressing issue of the new arrivals.

“Well anyway,” she continues, keen to move on before the full political implications of her ‘slip’ are painstakingly dissected by the queen. She enjoys exercising her power when she thinks it’s for the best, but she doesn’t want the queen to think too badly of her. Just in case the attraction is mutual. “The important issue now is what should we do? What do you suggest?”

The queen sighs dramatically. It is so tedious having an intelligent Chief Scientist. Desdemona always knows exactly how to make her, the queen, look foolish. But she has been on the throne for two years now and she is starting to feel slightly more confident. Truth be told though, she has absolutely no idea what they should do in this particular situation - once the initial urge for blind panic wears off.

Her father had tried to prepare her for the role as she was growing up, but nobody had expected him to die in a horse-riding accident while she was still so young. She feels like he was maybe a quarter of the way through telling her what she needs to know. So far she has bumbled through and survived by asking lots of questions, but this feels more serious.

“Let’s call Council” she announces. “See what that lot have to say about it.”

Desdemona sighs as she leaves the court. Life would be so much easier if she was in charge of everything instead of having to pretend to be a team player.

The Council meeting is the usual shambles. Predictably, the harumphing General is all for amassing an instant army, drafting in every peasant able to stand up straight and shout his name. The anxious Treasurer wrings his hands in despair, wondering how they can possibly fund any response. The Chief Doctor, taking himself as seriously as ever, announces his grave concerns for medical treatment capacity before demanding an instant doubling of his budget so he can scale up operations.

“Just imagine the state of things,” he declares, “If we had so many injuries that the clinics couldn’t cope. There’d be uproar.”

“What about you?” challenges the queen, even though her head is already spinning, and she could really do without any more points of view.

Both the Chief Scientist and the Wisdom Keeper start to speak at once. Then stop. Then both start again and finally both stop.

The men, bored with this already, turn to arguing amongst themselves about who should have how much money and why each of them has the most important job. Only the Chief Education Officer is more circumspect. He felt strongly that cancelling Dragon Defence classes was a mistake - but 3 years ago the country had been so short of funds that he had allowed himself to be talked into it. He opts out of the squabble to think over how he can recycle the teaching materials and create an emergency information campaign for the people.

“Be quiet!” snaps the Queen, with unusual authority. The men stop their dispute, a little shocked. If it had been her father then fair enough but this little slip of a thing – well, truth be told, they don’t really see her as their ruler. More as a pretty decoration in the Council Chamber. They certainly aren’t used to her having so strong a voice. Little do they know that within a matter of days it is she who will be showing the greatest courage in approaching the dragons.

“Desdemona first,” she clarifies.

“Firstly I recommend full transparency,” starts the Chief Scientist, “so the tree posters are a good start. We need to keep people informed throughout, so they know they can trust us. And because some of them might have good ideas about how we handle this.”

The General snorts with derision and the Treasurer sniggers at the stupidity of this idea. The Queen silences them with a fierce look, quite enjoying this newfound way of exercising her power. She wouldn’t say she likes the Chief Scientist, but she can’t deny she is smart. And a lot less trapped by convention and the need to show off than most of the Council.

“Yes, that makes sense. I’m appointing you as temporary Minister of Dragons. Including communications. So I want to see you in the main square every morning sharing updates and allowing the people to bring their concerns and ideas to you.”

Desdemona is not thrilled about this. She is much more interested in science than humans. But it’s probably better than having one of the others manhandling it.

They all turn now to the Wisdom Keeper. As usual she is staring into the middle distance, a faraway look on her face.

She pushes some of her wild blue hair out of her eyes.

“They are in need,” she starts, “They are coming here because they need our help. They come in peace. They hope we can work together and share technology”

The General snorts again.

“Fat chance!” he declares. “That lot would eat you up soon as look at you. We must defend ourselves at all costs. I will start my men developing super-size crossbows immediately. Don’t worry your pretty little head, Queen Alila, the only risk will be that of being hit by a dragon falling dead from the sky.

So we will order everybody to stay indoors while we defend our city. Lockdown the whole bally lot of them and get to work on Dragon Destroying!”

“That would be a mistake,” continues the Wisdom Keeper, “They are beautiful creatures with much to teach us. Why not create an area for them on the outskirts so they don’t frighten people. A kind of dragon camp. Soon people will get more accustomed to them, and then we can start to integrate and work together.”

Now it is the Treasurer’s turn to object.

“That’s a terrible suggestion. Have you any idea how much a dragon costs to feed? Not to mention setting up the camp and hiring guards. Then if they are, as you say, so smart, they’ll take all of our jobs and the people will be furious. I’m with the General. Repel the invasion! We can always raise taxes to cover the cost.”

“I understand your fear,” says the wise woman, turning to her fellow Council members with compassion, “It is human to fear change. But I will be here to protect you. To protect all of our people. I can prepare herbal remedies that will minimise panic and fear, allowing people to open their hearts to our visitors.”

The Chief Medical Officer can scarcely believe his ears. “What nonsense!” he expostulates. “Here’s the plan - using proper, modern medicine, I will go now and quickly develop a special vaccine that will protect our people from the dragons. Once they have been inoculated, the dragons won’t be able to touch them. It will be every bit as successful as my previous work with Winter Disease!”

“Well that success is arguable,” Desdemona launches back into the conversation. “If I look at improvement of resistance to Winter Disease I see a stronger correlation with rising air temperatures as Spring approached, than I do with your so called Cure.”

The ensuing argument is heated, loud and altogether unhelpful. After 20 minutes of making no progress the Queen calls the meeting to a halt and kicks them all out to take a walk and cool off.

“We’ll meet again in a day or two. I’ll let you know when. Meanwhile NOBODY does ANYTHING dragon-related without checking it with me or Desdemona first.”

“You. Stay,” she calls to the Chief Education Officer. He stops in his tracks and looks straight at her. Just in time she manages to stop herself commenting on his amazing green eyes or tumbling tawny curls. She forces her mind back to the current situation.

“How many of our people can read and write?” she asks.

“Almost a quarter. A significant improvement since you introduced education for the peasants too. We’re getting there.

Most children aged 6 to 10 can read now, many of their parents cannot.”

“Thank you. Then we will have to develop communications that are accessible to everybody. I don’t want the rumour mill taking over. You remember all that superstition and gobbledegook with Winter Disease? I don’t want all that panic this time. Please help Desdemona with that aspect of her work, she’s er… not so adept at the people stuff. I’ll try to distract the troublemakers till you have sorted out a plan.”

He nods. He doesn’t mind at all spending more time with the highly intelligent and slightly aloof Chief Scientist. He feels they would have a lot to talk about, if she just gave him a chance. Maybe by working on this project together she will start to notice him. And he is sure that given the chance, he can find a way through that steely exterior and into her heart.

“Of course, I’ll go and see her right now and offer to help.”

“You know that won’t work,” observes the Queen astutely, “But hopefully by the time you catch up with her you’ll have worked out a better approach.”

Fantasy
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