“The Princess and the Dragon” begins with a beautiful princess named Betty, who lived in the highest tower of a scary castle on a rocky island in the middle of a stormy sea, all alone. Alone, that is, apart from a huge dragon who guarded the island day and night, never allowing another soul to set foot on it.
Despite the town’s many brave souls who promised to rescue her, excuses always arose, and no one came. As the years passed, Princess Betty remained on the island, gazing at the dragon with a mix of fear and curiosity. Little did she know, an unexpected friendship—and a surprising adventure—awaited her.
The Princess and The Dragon
Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess, named Betty. She lived in the highest tower, of a scary castle, on a rocky island, in the middle of a stormy sea, all alone.
Alone that is, apart from a huge dragon, who guarded the island day and night, and never let another person set foot on it.
Back on the mainland the townspeople all agreed that someone should go and rescue her. Many brave people said they would go, but at the last minute there would always be some excuse. Darren’s guinea pig was poorly and he needed to take it to the vet. Jonathan’s dad needed some help fixing a door, and it simply couldn’t wait. Simon had a tummy ache.
And so years went by, and the princess remained on the island.
You may wonder what she got up to for all of those years. Well, at first she was very sad and lonely. She would spend many long hours looking out of her window of the high tower, in the scary castle, on the rocky island, in the stormy sea.
Out of the window she could see the huge dragon. It was as big as a house, and it was green with purple spikes down its back. It had black beady eyes and a long snout. Its claws were as long and sharp as swords, and its teeth were like daggers. It had huge wings, bigger than a jumbo jet. Most frightening of all, it breathed huge hot plumes of fire from its mouth, burning anything in its path to a crisp.
Princess Betty would watch the dragon from her window, and it watched her right back. Sometimes she would lose sight of the dragon for a moment, and think perhaps it had flown away, but then suddenly it would swoop past her window, almost close enough to touch, and she would run and jump under her covers in fright.
As time went by, the princess began to grow bored in her tower, and she found that with a hair pin and a lot of patience she was able to pick the lock, and she could leave the high tower. She explored the scary castle, and found that it wasn’t actually that scary, it was just a bit dusty and cobwebby.
After she cleaned it up a bit and opened some windows it was much nicer. And after she painted some colourful pictures on the walls it was positively cheerful.
Next, Princess Betty decided she could try exploring the island. Although there was still the obvious dragon problem. The dragon always seemed to be watching her, and whenever she tried to leave the castle it would chase her back in.
She tried disguising herself as a bush so it wouldn’t see her, or rolling in stinky mud so it wouldn’t smell her, but the dragon could not be fooled, and it got so bad that as soon as she opened the big wooden castle door, the dragon would rush towards her and she would slam it closed again.
And so, there the princess remained. Sad and lonely, with no hope of ever getting home.
Meanwhile, the people on the mainland were starting to get a little impatient. The Mayor decided that if everyone claimed to be too busy to rescue the princess, then he would have to choose someone to go, whether they wanted to or not.
All the young, strong people in the town wrote their names down on scraps of paper and threw them into a big empty cooking pot. Everyone gathered in the town square for the lucky (or unlucky) person to be chosen. The big moment came, and the mayor of the town pulled the scrap of paper from the pot and called out the name.
“Steve!” the mayor said, and young Steve was nudged forward. He smiled and waved at the townspeople, but inside he was terrified. He couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag, how on earth was he going to take on the dragon?
The townspeople helped to prepare him by loading food, armour and weapons onto a rowing boat, and they pushed poor trembling Steve out to sea.
All the while, the princess continued to wait in her tower. One day, she was sitting at her window as she usually did, and she was watching the dragon, who was laying on the lawn with its head on the ground, resting between its sharp claws. The dragon was lazily watching her too.
The princess sighed. The dragon sighed too. The princess sighed again, even more dramatically. The dragon sighed too, puffing a little cloud of smoke out of it’s nostrils. “Wait a minute,” thought the princess, “could it be…?”
She sat up straight, and the dragon lifted its head to look at her. She tilted her head to the side, and she couldn’t believe it when the dragon did the same.
Princess Betty stood up, and ran down the stairs of the high tower, through the castle, and heaved open the big wooden door.
The dragon came racing towards her, making the ground shake with every thunderous step.
Instead of slamming the door like she usually did, she stood her ground, and closed her eyes – hoping she was right, and that she wasn’t about to become the dragon’s lunch.
Then the thundering steps stopped, and all she could feel was the hot breath on her face. She opened one eye, and there was the dragon in front of her, almost close enough to touch, laying on the ground like a dog.
Princess Betty couldn’t believe it. She took one careful step forwards and reached out one hand to gently stroke the dragon’s nose, right between its nostrils. The dragon’s tail started thumping the ground, like a ginormous scaly dog.
“You poor thing,” Princess Betty said, “all this time I’ve been so afraid of you, but you’ve been just as lonely as I have!”
She walked along beside the dragon, her hand gently stroking its scaly side. She stopped by it’s front leg and said “May I?”.
The dragon huffed a friendly little puff of smoke from its nostrils, and seemed to try to lay down flatter on the ground, to allow her to climb aboard.
The dragon beat it’s enormous wings and up they flew into the sky! Round and round the castle they flew, and in and out of the clouds. The princess had never felt so free!
Just as they were about to land again on the rocky island, Princess Betty spied a man on the beach, next to a smashed up rowing boat, destroyed by the stormy sea. “We must try to help!” she said.
They landed next to the man and Princess Betty said “Are you quite alright? What are you doing here?”
The young man looked like he was trying very hard to be brave. “I am Steve,” he said. “I am here to rescue you, princess.”
The Princess looked at the young man, and then at the dragon, and raised one eyebrow. “It looks very much like you are the one in need of rescue, Steve.”
Steve laughed, and the princess laughed, and the dragon puffed a little cloud of smoke out of its nostrils. “Hop on,” the princess said, and the three of them flew back to the mainland, where the princess assured all of the townspeople that Steve had indeed been extraordinarily brave in rescuing her.
What of the end of our story? Well, Princess Betty and Steve became best friends, and then without really meaning to they fell in love. They were married in the castle which was now full of laughter and joy, and the dragon stayed with them for the rest of their days.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Also read: The Three Little Pigs
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