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.