theo.tammes

CHAPTER FOUR

MONDAY’S ADVENTURE

Meanwhile, Monday had her own adventure. After being taken high in the sky by the fierce winds, she suddenly found herself in a different place and time. Stars were shining down, and a fairylike landscape, lit by the light of a crescent moon, unfolded before her eyes. Far down, she spotted a beautiful castle. Being alone, and in need of food and shelter, she decided to fly down and take a look.

Slowly she circled downwards and landed on one of the great towers. As she neither saw nor heard anybody around, she started to climb down the stairs. She came to a big hall, nicely decorated, but it seemed, totally deserted.

"Hi there, hello, is anybody around?" she cried.

No answer came, but after a while she thought she heard a faint whisper. Once more she looked around and listened more carefully. Then she saw some very very tiny kind of being. She could hardly see it, and she couldn’t tell what it might be. It seemed to crawl nearer to her on the surface of the table.

Monday waited. Then she heard a tiny voice, but she couldn’t understand what was said. She had to listen very carefully to hear anything at all, but after a while she started to understand.

The tiny voice told her that all the people in the castle were under the spell of a mighty magician, who now called himself the Lord of the entire kingdom of Sunupandownia. Monday was shocked by this. She thought it was really awful.

So she decided to help these poor creatures Speaking as softly as she could, she asked questions.

King and queen were kept in deep dark dungeons. They were freed, and soon a big party was in full swing in the hail. Everybody cheered and wanted to congratulate Monday on her victory. But Monday grew sad, thinking of how she had killed the magician. She really wished there had been another way. The king pronounced her friend and savior of the royal family forever, and invited her to stay as long as she wished. So Monday stayed for some days, but then she grew restless, and started to realise she longed for her family.

The king noticed this of course, and told her she was granted one free wish, as a thanks for saving them all.

And Monday decided she wished to be home.

But Monday jumped on the magician

CHAPTER FIVE

WINTER IN SPAIN

As winter came nearer it started to get cold on top of the mountains, and Julie and Robert started thinking about going south, to spend the winter in a nice warm climate.

The young dragons were all big enough to look after themselves, and so they called a family meeting. After Robert revealed that the two of them wanted to spend the winter in a nice warm country, he asked who wanted to come along.

Now there was some turmoil, but after a lot of discussion, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday decided to come along. Monday and Tuesday were to stay home, Sunday wanted to go and visit their relatives in Wales, and Thursday just couldn’t make up her mind at all. So it was decided that for the time being she would stay at home too. By the end of December the dragon family started to split up, and final preparations were made.

Robert led the way. He and Julie had decided to go to Spain. Of course it was along way off, and they would need some time to get there. First of all they went down from the Glencoe Mountains, following the coast to Oban. They crossed the Firth of Clyde, and then took a rest on the beautiful island of Arran. Wednesday was specially tired, and needed some sleep.

As everybody was quite hungry, Robert went hunting for some food. Soon he came back with a sheep. He scorched it with one fierce flame, divided it, and they all started eating. Wednesday and Thursday went for a nap, while Julie and Robert discussed the best route for the next

part of the journey. Saturday lay on his back and counted clouds. He just loved that.

By nightfall the dragons were all high in the sky on their way to England. They kept close to the shore, and far below them they could see the lights in the houses.

They crossed the Solway, and had a magnificent view of the whole coastline. Far in the distance they saw the Isle of Man. It grew bitterly cold, the stars shone brightly in the crystal clear night, and the dragons enjoyed their flight so far.

The crossed the Midlands, and went down near London for a short sleep, but they were on their way again by daybreak. It was still afternoon when they reached the south coast near Plymouth, and now Julie decided that they needed a long rest before crossing the sea. She knew that the most difficult part of their journey still lay before them, and she wanted them to have a good sleep and a hot meal.

They slept on the beach, waking up once in a while when it grew too cold. Then they breathed some fire in the air around to warm themselves. And then the stars faded, daylight appeared slowly, and they were on their way before sunrise.

Robert led the way, circling higher and higher, until at last they were so high up that they could hardly see the sea at all.

All day they flew along, sometimes below the clouds, sometimes above them. By nightfall they needed a rest, and they went down. Robert told everyone to look out for an island, or a ship. And they were lucky. Friday spotted a big sailing vessel, and when they came nearer they saw that it was one of the Viking ships.

Friday crashed down, just as Thursday would have done, ripping the mast and the sails apart.

All the Vikings aboard fled into the water, terrified by the sudden arrival of a band of dragons. As the mast was broken and the sails ripped apart, there was enough space in the ship for all of them, and the dragons went to sleep. Only Robert remained awake, to keep an eye on the Vikings. And indeed, after a while one of them tried to climb back on board. He shouldn’t have tried that, however, because Robert immediately blew a big fierce flame from his mouth, and he never saw the Viking again.

And so, after a couple of hours they were rested and fit again for the last bit of the journey. It was still far to go, and they had to fly through most of the night before they saw the coastline of Spain coming nearer.

Totally exhausted, they came in the middle of the night to a city. Robert led them past, and found a nice place to rest not far off. They fell asleep as soon as they landed, and slept well into the next day.

CHAPTER SIX

TUESDAY VISITS LOCH NESS

Soon after Robert and Julie had left with Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, Sunday took off for Wales.

The other three young dragons had a good time. They were still very very playful, and one of their games was to dive out of the sky into a treetop, crashing the tree as they did so.

It was very funny indeed when one of them made a mistake and got stuck in the branches. Then the others had to come and save him. Thursday especially loved this game. She was the most playful one of the lot, and although in most respects she could hardly make up her mind, in games she always knew exactly what she wanted.

They played fly tick, run tick and I spy with my little eye. Gradually it was getting very cold at night, and Tuesday was getting restless. After considering what he would do, he decided to go to Loch Ness.

It wasn’t too far away, an easy day’s flight, and he had become really interested in the stories about the Loch Ness Monster.

"I’m sure Nessie is some sort of relative of ours." he told the others. Thursday considered coming along, but again, couldn’t make up her mind. So Tuesday went off on a nice crisp morning. First he followed the mountain peaks and had a beautiful view over our famous Scottish Highlands. Mind you, in those days Scotland was still covered in forest, and it looked quite different.

When high winds started, he went down into the valleys and flew over the lochs. Long before nightfall he arrived at Loch Ness, and started to look out for the monster. He didn’t have to wait for long.

Sitting on top of a small hill, he saw a flight of seagulls diving down on a shoal of fish, when suddenly a head arose in the midst of the fish. Nessie had been hunting too!

The seagulls backed off, disappeared with indignant shrieks and cries, and Nessie had the fish for herself.

Tuesday cried out for joy and jumped up. With a couple of mighty strokes of his wings he was overhead Nessie, and called out:"Hello!" Nessie was astounded to see a dragon. She had heard about them of course, but never seen one in her life so far. They started talking, and there was enough to talk about for sure. Tuesday told Nessie all about dragons and their history, and Nessie told him about the water dragons, as she called them. Her parents had moved away to another loch, but came to visit her quite regularly. For most of the time she caught fish, and she was angry at the seagulls. "They eat half my meals!" she complained.

Tuesday liked Nessie and Loch Ness so much that he stayed there over the winter. He learned how to catch fish, and really started to like it. Most of all he liked the salmon, coming up the rivers.

It was a magnificent sight to see a dragon swoop down from the clean blue sky, down into the water, and coming up with fish in his claws or his mouth.

Fortunately the climate down at Loch Ness was a lot milder than on the mountaintops, and Tuesday was happy enough there.

Next summer he didn’t return to Glencoe, but built himself a nest high up in the Cairngorm Mountains. From there he could visit Nessie any time, and everything was perfect. For a long time he lived there on his own, till one day he met a nice female dragon.

Their story isn’t part of this book, you can hear about them some other time.

But for sure, Tuesday did all right in his life, and was as happy as a dragon can be.

CHAPTER SEVEN

SUNDAY GOES TO WALES

Sunday went off to Wales to visit their relatives there. He went all on his own, but since he was the very oldest and strongest of the dragons, he didn’t see any problem there.

It took him a long time to get there, for he travelled slowly, inspecting all the lands beneath him, making many stops and lingering in different places. The first stop on his journey was Glasgow, on the banks of the river Clyde. In those days Glasgow was only a small market place on the crossroads by the river. It was a lovely place to dwell for a while, the forests were dense and endless, there were lots of deer and rabbits to feed a clever dragon, and Sunday felt very much at home.

He went on to the soft green hills of Dumfries and Galloway, and really, he just loved it as much as Glasgow. It was wonderful to sail over the mountaintops, follow the rivers downstream and take a bath in the sea.

Afterwards he went to the Lake District, and again, he was touched. How lovely! It would be difficult later on to choose where to settle down.

He arrived in Wales late at night in a strong cold breeze. Gusts of rain had chilled him to the bone, and he looked for shelter. As you know, dragons have an uncanny instinct for finding caves; they can do it in their sleep!

Soon Sunday found one, entered it, chased away a couple of bats and a family of foxes, breathed fire to warm the place and fell asleep.

Next day he flew over big parts of Wales, and all that he saw pleased and impressed him.

There were wonderful valleys, steep mountains and forests as far as the eye could see. Plenty of deer, rabbits, mountain goats and even bears! Of course he met some other dragons soon enough, and they invited him to their nest to spend the winter there.

What a good life they had, doing exactly what pleased them, flying, hunting, playing, sleeping and talking just as they felt like.

It was here in Wales that Sunday met his first Giant.

This one had come over from Ireland, where originally all the giants had come from, as you know.

Sunday was pleased. He made friends with the Giant and they spent much time together. The Giant lived in a castle that he had occupied. He had ripped out most of the inner walls and staircases so that he could move around more easily.

He was blind in one eye, but his hearing was so excellent that it more than made up for the partial loss of his sight. They loved to play all kinds of tricky mind games together, and had a lot of fun.

Sunday stayed in Wales after the winter, and he leaves our story now, you can hear about him some other time.

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE HUNT

Monday and Thursday were the only ones left from the big dragon family who remained in Glencoe. They had moved to a big cave as soon as the first snow had started to fall, and it was nice and cozy in there.

As they were very playful still, they loved the snow. On their bellies, they slid down the steepest inclines, taking to their wings as soon as they reached the bottom of the slopes. It was great fun, and a marvellous sight for anyone watching.

Well, I’m sure you remember how the farmers had sent a messenger to the king to ask for help with killing the dragons?

And one day that winter the king’s men came, and together with all the farmers from the valleys they came up the mountains to hunt the dragons. Men were sent to spy out the dragons, and slowly a big train of soldiers and farmers with lots of different weapons made their way up the slopes of Glencoe.

Well, this task proved to be a little bit too big for them!

As soon as Monday and Tuesday became aware of the men, they started laughing. These little men thought they could just come and kill a dragon? How utterly ridiculous! Thursday flew over their heads, circled around a couple of times well out of reach of their arrows, and flames of fire shot from her nostrils and mouth. She enjoyed this, but for the men and their horses it was a fearful sight.

Monday came up from behind and killed one of the horses in a quick attack. The soldiers panicked and their horses went wild. They ran off in different directions, scattering equipment all over the place. Only the captain kept a clear head.

There were three men with a sort of old fashioned gun called a thunderous, and he ordered them to stand in line and fire on the dragons.

Monday and Thursday didn’t like that at all.

They flew away to their cave, to discuss what they could do against the gunmen. Thursday was all for attacking again, and she came up with a splendid idea. They would just drown them in snow!

And so they went to the top of the slope the soldiers were climbing and started to make lots of big snowballs.

Then they let them roll down the mountain.

It was a nice victory, and for the rest of the winter it was the first and last attack on the dragons.

Much of the rest of the time they spent sleeping in their cave.

CHAPTER NINE

THURSDAY GOES TO IRELAND

Thursday had finally made up her mind. It was early spring and she was going to Ireland. Monday would come along for part of the journey, but she didn’t want to leave Glencoe, she just loved it too much.

Rain drizzled down on a dark, cold morning when they went off. Down the coast they went, past Oban, across the Firth of Clyde, and then they landed on Bute for a bite to eat and some sleep. They gave a great show for the amazed fishermen of the village, flying somersaults, diving down, even flying backwards!

They crashed into treetops, chased each other around, dived down in the sea swimming under water, and came up somewhere else. They sure had fun!

Then at nightfall Thursday said goodbye to her sister and went off on her own. In the middle of the night, guided by the stars, she came to the Isle of Man, where she went down to find some shelter and have some sleep.

During the next afternoon she crossed the Irish Sea, and saw, from high

She landed near a small village, slept for a while, and then went hunting. She knew well enough by now that people get upset when you kill their cattle, and so she went for a deer. Sure enough, she caught one by surprise, and filled her stomach. Then Thursday slowly walked over to the village and hid herself between some trees.

She liked to observe people and to hear what was going on. Soon enough she discovered that everyone was moaning about a witch. The witch had apparently put a spell on their boats and nets, and for weeks none of the men had managed to catch one single fish.

Thursday felt sympathy for them, and decided to help out. She listened more carefully to see if she could discover where the witch lived. It didn’t take long either, for some of the men were swearing oaths at the witch of Tinbury Castle. Thursday knew enough, she only had to find out where that castle was, and then she could deal with the witch. So she took off again, and flew over Ireland, the green jewel, in search of her relatives. On a mountain near Dublin she spotted the first dragon, and soon this one led her to his family. Of course there was lots to talk about, but before long all the dragons were on their way to Tinbury Castle. The witch, Reekankeekyou, saw them coming. Although she was a mighty one for casting spells, there were simply too many dragons.

Two of them she had changed into frogs, two others were turned into falcons, but that was it, she had no more time for more spells, the rest of the dragons were upon her.

As soon as she was done away with, the spells she had put on the four dragons lost their power, and they regained their original form.

There was a great gathering of dragons for a party that night in the mountains near Dublin, and such a thing has never been seen before or since.

All the dragons in the whole of Ireland had come, and the fun they had and the noise they made were unheard of.

Even today some people in Ireland can tell you about it, for this story has been passed on from generation to generation.

Thursday went back to Glencoe the next summer to meet Monday, and for the rest of her life travelled between Ireland and Scotland.

CHAPTER TEN

WHAT HAPPENED IN SPAIN

You remember Julie and Robert went to Spain with some of their children? Well of course they had lots of adventures, and you will hear some of them now.

After they had rested and fed themselves, they wanted to visit the town of Santander, near where they had landed.

So they flew there, enjoying the warm sunshine. For a while they circled over the town, stirring up a big commotion. Those people had never seen dragons before, imagine!

When they got tired Robert decided to sit down on top of the temple, and the rest of them followed his example. But the construction of the roof must have been of a poor quality, and indeed proved not to be strong enough. The whole dragon family crashed through the roof as it started to give in and break apart. The consequences for the faith of the people were uncertain, but the dragons were very dismayed.

They left the town and went deeper into Spain to explore it. Robert and Julie found a wonderful spot, with plenty of rivers and lakes and any amount of game, and they settled down there.

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday went to see some more of Spain. They had a lot to see, for Spain is an enormous country.

Friday finally settled down in the Pyrenees, she found them exactly to her liking.

She loved the high peaks, the abundance of rivers and forests, the hot springs, and the fact that there was any amount of game and cattle. Soon enough she learned to leave the wild donkeys alone, for they fought so viciously that she never managed to kill one. They seemed to have an uncanny instinct for spotting dragons, and they put up such a fight that it was too much for Friday.

One day, as it happened, she drank from a magical well. Local dragons might have warned her, but she hadn’t really spoken to any of them about dangers, and so she just didn’t know.

This special water turned her into a miniature dragon, no bigger than a small cat. Some other dragons must have drunk from the same well at some time, for she found companions in different sizes.

And it’s from there on that the line of mini-dragons originated, and has

been going on until today.

People nowadays call them lizards, but you know better now.

Oh yes, and they all lived happily ever after.

The End.

The whole dragon family crashed through the roof