are like! That’s why so many frightening and enticing legends are written about them! On the one hand is splendor, on the other is destructive evil.
The golden dragon zigzagged in the gloomy sky above the mountains. Its breath sent a wave of fire through the surrounding forests.
Rosamunda rushed back to the carriage. It was still possible to leave. The road had not yet gone up in flames. But both the carriage and Dandy were gone.
You had to believe a frivolous person who’d abandoned his queen in danger. He took all six horses with him. Should she walk home or call for help?
There was an armed troop coming down the road. It was a pity that it was approaching not from the side that led back to the castle, but from the opposite side, where the border with the enemy kingdom was.
Someone in the cavalcade pointed at her with a hand. Rosamunda didn’t know where to go. But suddenly a dragon intervened. Its claws caught the head of the troop. It was a moment, and the fragile little man in the dragon’s claws was left without a bone. Rosamunda watched in horror as the dragon devoured several more guards. The arrows and spears flying at it didn’t even scratch its scales, but boomeranged back at those who threw them.
Apparently, having had enough, the dragon decided to play a bad joke on the invading party. It opened its mouth and exhaled such a powerful jet of fire onto the road that it resembled volcanic lava. The rest of the squad was burned alive.
The road was on fire. The dragon spread its wings and flew over the conflagration. How graceful it is in flight! It looked like a monster, but it was as beautiful as a jewel that had come to life. He was gold and glittering. But with one paw it can crush an entire army.
«Look, there’s the queen!» Someone shouted from behind. «Get her! Get her now!»
Why didn’t she take off the crown? And why did she believe Dandy? How naive she was! And how despicable those who said they wanted to help could be! Rosamunda felt so furious at the sight of the guards running towards her from behind that she could no longer control herself. If she had had a sword or a dagger with her, she would not have hesitated to attack them, even though the forces were unequal.
Her anger made the ground beneath her feet shake again. Or was it the dragon’s fire that was to blame? Its roar could bring down mountains, let alone a mild earthquake. Only it was gaining strength. The ground beneath her feet cracked and vibrated. Rosamunda fell. She should have run, but getting to her feet proved too difficult. The guards behind her were stumbling and falling and cursing too. Their curses rang in her ears, diluted by the dragon’s roar. Cracks spread across the ground like the claw marks of a giant. The pursuers were falling through them! There was a whole regiment of them. The cracked earth greedily swallowed them all. These are not enemy soldiers. They’re wearing her insignia. Someone sent her own soldiers to kill her. It’s a plot against the queen! And there’s only the dragon. He is neither friend nor foe.
Rosamunda herself was lucky not to fall through any of the deep cracks.
«Magic will keep you safe, but it may not be for long,» Dandy’s voice whispered above her head. But where was he? Did Rosamunda look around for her counselor and coachman? Perhaps he had been swallowed by a dragon. She hated to believe that Dandy had left her to the mercy of her enemies.
The foes themselves, however, were gone. Some were burned by the dragon. Some had fallen underground. There were no screams from the crevices. So the guards didn’t survive.
The dragon’s gone too. Poisonous smoke swirled over the flaming road, making her skin red and her eyes watery. It was urgent to take cover. It was worth going back to the cave. Rosamunda crawled there. She tore her dress. She hurt her shoulders and arms.
Inside, it was cozy and warm. Instead of a glowing spinning wheel, the whole interior of the caves now glowed. Someone had brought a whole pile of gold in here. What a surprise!
Rosamunda approached the gold pile and almost jumped with fear. The pile of gold was alive. It had a tail and wings that she hadn’t noticed at first. It was a dragon! It was satiated, exhausted, and sleeping. It was a good thing its spike-topped head was turned to the other side of the cave. The queen in her sumptuous dress with train was only a tiny biped to him, impossible to see under a magnifying glass. So there’s probably nothing to fear. He won’t even notice her, but Rosamunda felt a shiver in her knees.
It’s a dragon! It’s alive! It’s real! He’s burned an entire troop, and he hasn’t touched her. Why? Probably just didn’t pay attention to her.
Outside, everything’s burning and collapsing. Still, we’d better get out of here. Just because a dragon is asleep doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. It could wake up at any moment and crush her with a single claw.
When Rosamunda got out of the cave and managed to get past the cracks to the narrow mountain path, she noticed that her carriage was hanging there over the cliff. Another moment and it would fall. But Dandy, drinking something from a flask, didn’t even think of panicking. He was perched on the rump, clearly waiting for her.
«Hurry up, or we’ll burn,» he nodded at the blazing road below, when he saw Rosamunda.
«You don’t think we have a flying crew, do you? How are we going to turn around and get away?»
The clawed coachman laughed wildly again. He laughed so often that he resembled a madman. Rosamunda’s heart trembled. Who is more dangerous: him or the dragon?
The carriage turned as if it were supported by wings. And so they drove off, with Rosamunda barely managing to climb in. Partly the carriage hung over the cliff, as if carried by invisible wings, partly slid with its wheels along the narrow path. It all resembled a ridiculous dream, but sometimes it seemed that the wings growing straight out of the walls of the carriage were really rustling above them.
A commotion at court
The dragon swooped down in the morning. Barely awake, Rosamunda learned that several villages and hamlets in the south of her kingdom had burned to the ground. If this continues, she will be left without a kingdom at all.
«Are you sure it was the dragon and not the neighbors who came to war without warning?» She asked hypocritically to her omnipresent advisors.
«Knights from the forts on the borders and sentries from the lighthouse saw the dragon in the spyglass.»
The answer was frightening. If the only survivors were those who were so far away from the fires that they had to use a spyglass, then everyone in the villages had burned.
«Any survivors?» The queen inquired.
«No one is from the burned areas.»
«That means we are left without the best grape growers and plowmen,» Rosamunda sighed.
Dandy was hiding somewhere. Probably he was hiding under her bed. Or maybe he was in her jewelry chests. He was frightened. When people saw him, he’d hide immediately. They must have teased him more than once for his ridiculous appearance. For Dandy, except for his scholarship, could pass for a little monster. It might have occurred to someone to catch him and show him in a circus. Maybe it would be for the best. Because of Dandy’s advice, she had inadvertently awakened the dragon.
Rosamunda climbed to the highest tower of the castle to survey the damage with her own eyes. The damage done to her domain by the dragon’s fiery breath was colossal. All the lands to the south resembled a scorched wasteland.
Rosamunda almost fainted. One of the loyal knights supported her. Otherwise she would have fallen into the castle moat, or worse, crashed into the sharp stone blocks below.
The sky was still bright and calm. No dragon was traveling across it. Rosamunde would have found it hard to believe there was one if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes last night. She had no business going for a walk in the mountains. It was all Dandy’s advice.
The scorched earth may have