The helpful dragon and the red pebbles

The helpful dragon and the red pebbles(Dill McLain) THE HELPFUL DRAGON AND THE RED PEBBLES
by Dill McLain


Wei, the young man, awoke from a terrible dream. He stretched his legs, squinted and realized that he could not move his hands. He opened his eyes and looked around. 'Where am I' he cried astonished, and 'why am I tied up?‘. He saw nothing but tall trees. He looked up, then looked over his shoulder. He tried to pull his arms, but they were fixed behind the stem of a tall tree. He pulled and pulled, however, it did not help. He stood there tied to a tree. All alone in a deep forest. He cried for help as loud as he could. Again and again. He was alone. No one came. No one aswered. There was only the groan of the trees around him.

Then, all of a sudden, he heard a thin voice: 'Good morning Wei, I am so glad that you woke up‘. 'Who is talking to me?‘ said Wei the young man, pleased to hear some words, but he could not see to whom the voice belonged. 'I am Bei, the snail, I am right in front of your feet in the deep moss‘ answered the thin voice. Wei looked down, first to the left, then to the right. And then he saw a beautiful forest snail looking up to him and waving with his feelers. 'Oh, hello Bei, now I see you. It is so nice to meet you‘. Bei the snail said: 'I am pleased too, no animal talks to me, they all either fly or rush by and do not even take notice of me. I feel quite lonely in this big forest‘.

They chatted a bit about the weather and the world. After a while Wei asked: 'Do you know why I am tied up to this tree? You must have been around. Maybe you observed something?‘.

'Yes young man Wei, I know it all. I saw the men, the three unhappy sons of the old magician of this forest. They are useless and stupid. And they hate their father. They stole his magic cube and then pushed him from a high rock to the depths below. But before he died he pronounced a heavy curse over the three and whispered that the magic cube would only work three more times from now on and then they all would turn to stone‘.

Bei the snail paused.

Wei asked: 'Dear snail Bei, what happened then?‘. The snail took a deep breath and continued with his report‚ 'The three untalented fools attacked the small castle on the hill. In the said castle lived Fangli, a beautiful daughter, with her father. They kidnapped the father and locked Fangli in the upper room of the tower. Then they put the key in a box which they put in an unreachable place. If before midnight today, the daughter Fangli can be released – but it will need the said key – they all will go up in smoke and become stones. And this forest will be free of fools. If not, the beautiful daughter Fangli is lost and will die.‘

Bei the snail sighed and let his feelers drop. And – although Wei could not see it – tears ran over Bei‘s snail face and trickled away in the moss.

'No, beautiful Fangli must not die, no, no, no !‘. Wei pulled on his bonds until the back of his hands were sore. 'No, I will go and release her. I love her ! I do not want to live without her !‘ declared the young man Wei.

The two – the snail Bei and young man Wei – were weeping for a long while. Their heart-rending sobbing together with the groaning/creaking of the trees was enough to melt a heart and crack a stone. When the sobbing became less because they both were exhausted, a deep, deep voice was heard: 'Good afternoon young man Wei, good afternoon snail Bei, we have spent now enough time with our grief. Now we should think up a plan !‘. Young man Wei looked around. Bei the snail looked around. They could not see anything else but trees. 'Who was talking ?‘ said young man Wei with an astonished voice. 'I have no idea‘ answered snail Bei.

'It is me, Li the owl, I am sitting on the branch right above your head‘.

Young man Wei and Bei the snail looked up and now they saw Li the owl.

Li the owl continued: 'I have an idea. Xiao the woodpecker will destroy young man Wei‘s bonds. In the meantime I will go to the dark cave and call Huo the dragon to come and help us. Then we all go to the river and from there we move up the hill to the castle. There we discuss the next step !‘.

Young man Wei and the snail Bei were flabbergasted and stared with open mouths up to the wise owl. Then they said in chorus: 'You are certainly the wisest owl in the world !‘. Li the owl thanked them and said: 'Sitting on the branches the whole day long gives one a lot of time to think. Now I have to organize the first steps of our plan. You two can relax, we have some hard hours in front of us !‘.

The owl Li hopped to the next branch and disappeared through the leaves.

Only a few moments later Xiao the woodpecker arrived‚ 'Hello you two, young man Wei and snail Bei‘ and started immediately to work. He concentrated on his task of bond pecking and could therefore not make conversation. After a while young man Wei sighed and said: 'Even if we manage to find the key box, get to the castle and finally release beautiful Fangli, we still have one serious problem which is almost impossible to solve !‘. 'What would be impossible to solve ?‘ asked snail Bei patiently.

'Well, beautiful Fangli will only marry me – she said so – if her father agrees‘ answered young man Wei with a sad voice. And he added in desperation: 'How could he agree. Her father has been taken away. Probably he is dead. So it is all for nothing and she will never marry me !‘.

Tears run down his face and he let his head hang and closed his eyes.

Xiao the woodpecker continued without pausing with his demanding pecking task.

Then snail Bei stated with a calm but decided voice: 'Dear young man Wei, this problem you mention will be the smallest in the whole matter, believe me. Just wait and see !‘.

The hours passed.

Then, all of a sudden, Xiao the woodpecker spoke with great pride in his voice: 'Done ! Young man Wei, you can now move your arms !‘.

Young man Wei opened his eyes and realized that he was sitting on the foot of the tree stem. He tried to move his arms and could, but could not believe it: Yes, he was free. He turned his head to Xiao the woodpecker and said: 'Thank you Xiao for pecking me free, thank you !‘. 'It was my pleasure to peck‘ answered Xiao the woodpecker.

The three chatted and Wei followed their advice and moved his arms and hands about carefully to restore the blood circulation.

After a while Li the owl came back, landed on the branch above the three and reported: 'Everything is arranged, Huo the dragon is under way. He will help us‘.

And soon after, a noise like cracking wood could be heard in the forest and a shadow fell over the waiting group. There he was, a giant beautiful dragon stood in front of them and said: 'Hallo everybody. I am pleased to have a real task. I am so fed up with playing Huo the dragon monster, which I am not at all. I was hiding in my cave and felt quite alone. Dragons are not evil at all and they also have a good heart and could help the world. So now we will stand together and solve this case !‘.

The owl Li and the woodpecker Xiao were sitting on the branch of the tree and seemed amused as well as proud. Young man Wei and snail Bei stared with open mouths up at this magnificent dragon who stood there in his full elegance and wiggled his tail while blowing small flames into the air.

'What a heroic appearance‘ they sung in choir. And a shy smile spread over young man Wei’s face and signs of hope could be seen in his eyes.

Li the owl reminded them about the limited time remaining and started to instruct them about the next steps. Then they formed an unusual parade: Young man Wei took snail Bei and placed him on his shoulder, then Wei climbed on the back of Huo the dragon. Li the owl sat on the right shoulder of Huo the dragon while Xiao the woodpecker sat on the left shoulder of Wei. And off went the dragon with his load across the forest.

It was a wild ride – almost a flight – and the dragon moved very fast and spat from time to time flames into the air.

They crossed the river and moved up to the path towards the castle. Right in front of the big gate the dragon stopped and peeped through the window. 'Yes, beautiful Fangli is there, she seems to sleep on a huge table‘ Huo the dragon reported. Li the owl flew up and sat on the window sill. Xiao the woodpecker followed and knocked on the lattice window in order to wake beautiful Fangli up. Li the owl whispered: 'Fangli, we have come to rescue you !‘.

Beautiful Fangli opened her eyes but seemed still overcome with sleep, and had very sad eyes. 'Is this a dream ?‘ she said. 'No, we are all here to help: Young man Wei, Bei the snail, Xiao the woodpecker, Huo the dragon and myself‘ answered Li the owl. 'And we must know where the key is‘ Li the owl added.

Fangli jumped up and stepped to the window. When she saw the head of the dragon in front of the window she got frightened and crawled under the table. Huo the dragon presented his friendliest face and said as tenderly as he could: 'Do you know where they put the box with the key ? We must find it before midnight !‘.

Beautiful Fangli tried to remember. 'Yes, I heard something like‚ old oak trees‘. There is a group of very tall oak trees near the bridge on the river ! Beautiful Fangli answered, almost breathless.

'O.k. Fangli, relax, we will be back soon‘ said Li the owl.

Again a wild ride this time down the path from the castle and to the bridge. There they saw the oak trees. Xiao the woodpecker flew up to the tips of the trees to look for the box. The sun was just about to disappear below the horizon. Xiao the woodpecker had to call Li the owl, because there was not enough light anymore for his woodpecker eyes.

'Yes, here it is‘ they cried from above after about 30 minutes flying about and circled around one of the trees. Now was the turn of Huo the dragon who said to young man Wei and snail Bei: 'Hold tight‘ and then stood up, stretched his body and spat a huge flame up the tree. The crown of the tree was burning within seconds. The burning wooden key box fell down to the ground. Huo the dragon pushed it away from the trees towards the river. They had to wait until the burning box would turn to ash, Huo the dragon swallowed riverwater and blew it into the crown of the tree to extinguish the fire.

Very quickly they were all sitting back on Huo the dragon’s back waiting anxiously for take off.

Close to 23.30h Huo the dragon hit with his claw on the key box and finally it crashed open as the wood fell into ash. 'Here is the key‘ cried Huo the dragon with triumph in his voice.
'Hurrah‘ they all sung as a heavenly choir.

Huo the dragon took the key in his mouth and rushed with his load back to the castle. At 23.40 young man Wei jumped down and took the vital key. He tried with his shivering hands to open the huge door. Huo the dragon helped and pushed the door open. In this moment young man Wei felt something moving on his right shoulder where Bei the snail had sat. But young man Wei had no time to wait and rushed up the stairs, falling over twice in the dark. Young man Wei removed the wooden beam which blocked the door and stepped into the room. It was completely dark and he could not see anything. But all of a sudden, light burst into the room. Huo the dragon spat out small flames in front of the window.

Young man Wei saw beautiful Fangli, and embraced her. 'Will you marry me?‘ he whispered.

She did not answer but stared with wide open eyes over his shoulder. Her eyes were full of pleasure. 'Father‘ she cried.

Young man Wei turned his head and saw a man standing in the doorway. The man said with a friendly voice: 'I am her father, I was transformed into Bei the snail by the 3 sons, it was their first curse with the magic cube. Now I am back because she could be released in time by your heroic deed !‘.

'Yes, I will marry you‘ beautiful Fangli said to young man Wei.

Shortly before midnight that night the three sons of the magician were sitting on the rock from where they had pushed their father down into the depths, when they felt an earthquake. The rock was transformed into a statue showing the old magician and around him a fountain was formed. Then the three sons fell as red pebbles into the water.

And from everywhere in the world people come to visit this fountain and to look at the red pebbles in the water.