Copper

                One sunny spring day, Arianne was flying over the meadow, when she noticed something moving about in the grass below her. Swooping down, she saw that it was another dragon, one with little bits of eggshell still nearby. He seemed to be inspecting something else on the ground. Flying down, Arianne landed nearby.

                “Excuse me, hi! Are you new here?” she asked, knowing that he must have just hatched.

                “Hi! I am. I just got out of that egg. What is this place?” replied the slightly startled new dragon.

                “Well, they call this whole valley Cwm Jones. I’ve only been here a few weeks myself. A whole bunch of us live with the wizard in that house over there. All the humans around here are pretty great – and there’re a few other animals too. I’m called Arianne. What’s that you were looking at?” Arianne nodded toward the brown-red, metal-looking lump on the ground. 

                “I don’t know, but it’s really interesting, isn’t it?”

                “Yeah, I guess so. Hey! I’ll bet the wizard knows. We could take it back and ask him.”

                The new dragon agreed to this, and the two little dragons attempted to pick up the lump of rock and fly it back. It was heavier than it looked. Finally, after alternating between carrying it and rolling it, and with some help from Sandy, whom they met along the way, the little dragons managed to get the lump over to the wizard, who was in the goat pen. 

                “Mr. Wizard!” they shouted, “Do you know what this is?”

                Stooping down, he picked up the rock, smiled, and said, “Sure, it’s a nugget of copper. Where did you find it? Oh, and hello to you. It’s always nice to meet a new dragon.”

                “It was in the meadow, just back there. It was right next to where I’d hatched.”

                “Well, that’s interesting. One doesn’t normally find copper in the middle of meadows. In fact, I only know of one place nearby that would have copper. See those mountains up there to the north? Those are full of all sorts of metal and gems. Truly remarkable mountains those. Not at all common to find such rich rocks all in one place. There’s a whole group of dragons who live up there. They’re a little different from those of you who hatch around my place. They all look like the different metals and jewels that they live near. Some are gold and silver; others look like emeralds or sapphires. They’re all quite nice, though. They come and visit here sometimes, and I’ve been up there a few times myself. One of them must have left this by your egg.”

                “Why?”

                “No knowing, but I daresay you’ll find out someday. In the meantime, how about if I give a tour of the place, and maybe find you something to eat? You other two want to come along?”

                So the four of them went off, walking and flying and talking, and the mystery of the copper was left to another day. However, Calumet, as he wound up being called, was always curious to find out more about those mountains, the rocks they contained, and the other dragons who lived there.

 

Building Blocks

               The wizard was a great toy-maker. One of his favorite hobbies was making toys for the local children. The toys were primarily made of wood and paint, and the workmanship was phenomenal. Often, he and his wife would work on them together, especially when it came to designing new toys or painting.

                One day, the project consisted of a large set of building blocks. He had been working on it for most of the week and was nearly done. Sitting at his workbench, he suddenly noticed a white egg sitting in the windowbox outside. Seeing that it was likely to rain soon, he brought the egg inside, set it in a safe place on his workbench, and promptly forgot about it.  A couple of hours later, having finally completed the set, he left the workroom to go do a few other jobs around the house.

                Later that night, everyone was gathered around the fire and enjoying being in from the rain. The wizard and his son were reading and occasionally joining in on the various conversations going on in the room. The wizard’s wife was painting and supervising Arianne, who was fingerpainting. There was nearly as much paint on the little dragon as there was on the paper. Dominic and Tuor were playing chess, and Springer and Sandy were watching. Eustace and Neville were wrestling, practicing breathing fire, and chasing one another around the room. 

                Eventually, a little red nose peeked its way out of the workroom. Intrigued by the noise and warmth, a small, brightly colored dragon shyly crept his way into the room.

                “Well, hello there,” said the wizard.

                “Hi,” said the little dragon shyly, as all the others in the room turned to look at him.

                “Hi!” “Where did you come from?” “Did you just hatch?!” exclaimed a chorus of voices.

                All the little dragons flew over and Eustace introduced them all to the newcomer, and they all told him a little bit about themselves and how long they’d each been there. Having made their introductions, they asked where he had hatched, and how long it had been.

                “Well, it was just back there, in that room. I didn’t know where I was, or anything about anything; I’m sure you remember what that’s like.” They all nodded, and he continued. “There were all these bright pieces of wood all around, and I felt a little shy about going and looking for anyone right away, so I decided to try stacking them and building something, especially since it was so nice to be able to move after being in that egg. Now, I’m just really tired and hungry, so I thought I should go looking and see if there was anything to eat and anywhere to sleep.”

                “There’s certainly somewhere for you to sleep, and I’ll go get you something to eat right now,” said the wizard’s wife. She got up and brought back some goats’ milk and cheese. “And I’m sure these guys will be plenty willing to teach you how to hunt tomorrow.”

                “Absolutely!” said Tuor. “You’ll love it, and there’s lots of good food around this time of year.”

                Neville, meanwhile, had been trying to get a look through the doorway and see what the new dragon had built. Finally catching a glimpse of it, and being intrigued, he went further into the room, and then called: “Hey guys, you gotta come see this!”

                They all came, looked, and were absolutely astounded. There, on the workbench, was an entire castle built of blocks. There were intricate arches, turrets, and all manner of fancy architecture. Soon, everyone was flying around, climbing, looking inside, and marveling at the good work. It was soon time for sleep, though, and the next set of adventures was left for tomorrow.

Thunderstorms

               It has been mentioned that the wizard had a dog. This dog was a kind and gentle, generally quite intelligent springer spaniel. His name was Buster. Most of his time was spent outdoors, though he also enjoyed being indoors with his humans. When outside, he was often with the other animals, and he and the cat played a continually running game of tag (and Buster always seemed to be “it”).

                One particular day, Buster was off exploring the woods. He was just roaming around, sniffing all the new scents of spring and re-familiarizing himself with the wood. Late in the afternoon, he felt a thunderstorm brewing and knew it was time to head home. The storm came on faster than he expected, and great drops of rain came pelting down as he bounded through the woods. 

                Nearly out of the woods and close to the goats’ enclosure, Buster saw a weasel scurrying away with something round and white in its mouth. At first, he thought nothing of it, but then he suddenly wheeled around and tore after the weasel. It was a dragons’ egg! Buster had never even heard of another animal trying to steal a dragons’ egg and was determined to rescue the tiny thing. Tearing through the pelting rain, thunder rumbling in the distance, and mud splashing up, the dog rushed past the stable, trying to keep the creature in sight and to close in on him. As he ran past, he saw Panini, the pony, looking out. “He-has-an-egg!” Buster barked out. Panini ran out the door of the stable to help and galloped after the weasel. Finally, back just inside the woods, pony and dog had the weasel trapped between them. Realizing he had no chance, the weasel spit the egg out into the mud, whipped around and scuttled his soggy, draggled body away through the underbrush.

                Mission accomplished, soaked and muddy, the pony and the dog made it back to the shelter of the stable, Panini carrying the egg in his mouth. Reaching his stall, he gently laid the egg in the straw. “Here, I’ll help keep it warm,” said Buster, and he carefully curled around the egg, protecting it from the post-storm, night chill. The next morning, when the wizard came to check on the animals, all were still sleeping in the stall, with eggshell fragments in the straw and a baby dragon curled and asleep in the fur on the dog’s shoulder.