Edgar and the Dragon Read online

  Lucretia was the first to break the stunned silence that followed. “Edgar,” she said, “could you be carrying the talisman? What do you have in your bag?”

  Edgar opened his backpack and began pulling out items and laying them on the table: a flashlight, a knife, a tennis ball. . .

  When Lucretia saw the tennis ball on the table, she snatched it as quick as lightning and stuffed it back into his backpack. “Try to be a little bit more careful,” she whispered, looking around to see if anyone had noticed.

  Edgar continued pulling things out of his backpack – but then the crystal suddenly shifted from orange back to red. All three companions looked around hastily to see if someone or something had moved. Unfortunately, the whole room was full of all kinds of people and creatures milling around, serving drinks, getting up to order food, or heading out to the outhouse or up to their rooms.

  “Someone in this room has the magic talisman,” the dragon said quietly.

  “Someone who was within one meter of us just a moment ago,” Lucretia said. “But who? Did you see anyone come close and then walk away?”

  The boy and the dragon shook their heads.

  Suddenly, the crystal shifted back to orange. All three looked around wildly, but no one had come within a meter of them.

  The dragon, suddenly remembering that she had a jeweled bracelet around the tip of her tail and that she tended to swing her tail to and fro, swung it in under the table. The crystal did not react.

  “Strange,” Lucretia said. “The talisman is within one meter of the crystal, but the only people who are that close are the three of us.”

  As she spoke, the crystal flickered from orange to red, and then back to orange again. “Are you carrying anything else that could be the talisman?” she asked.

  “Only my raincoat, and the boots and pajamas I’m wearing,” Edgar replied. “But they haven’t moved this whole time. But wait, didn’t you say that the crystal flashes when you start moving in the right direction? What if you try walking around in a circle?”

  Lucretia hesitated. She did not want all the strangers in the room to see the crystal, and besides, she had already tried homing in on the talisman here, without success. But they did not have a lot of options. She stood up and began circling slowly around the table, keeping the crystal hidden in her hand so that she could see just the faintest glow between her fingers. It did not flash. It did, however, change color several times as she walked.

  Lucretia shook her head and sat down again.

  Suddenly, Edgar got an idea. “Lucretia,” he said, “could you focus and lift the crystal straight up?”

  Lucretia did this under the table, and the three companions stared as the crystal began flashing orange.

  “The talisman is upstairs,” Edgar concluded. “It must be in the room directly above us.”

  “The ceiling is more than a meter away from the table,” Lucretia pointed out.

  “True,” said Edgar, “but maybe the crystal sees the world like a flat map when it comes to distance – if the talisman is above us, maybe it counts as being right here with us. Anyway, shall we go up and check?”

  Lucretia and the dragon hastily agreed, and the three companions made a rush for the staircase. As they mounted the stairs, the innkeeper motioned for them to be quiet – people were sleeping up there! So they tiptoed up the staircase and into the dark hallway above.

  “Which room is directly above our table?” Edgar whispered.

  Thankfully, the crystal’s flashing answered his question and led them to a door near the end of the corridor. Judging from the light seeping out from under the doorway, the room’s occupant was still awake.

  Edgar raised his hand to knock, and suddenly realized that he had no idea if the person with the talisman was a friend or an enemy. He or she could be a dangerous, powerful magician! Who else would have a talisman that could defeat a whole army of shadow dragons?

  “We’ve come this far,” he thought, after a moment’s hesitation. “We can’t stop now when the talisman is so close; the dragons need our help!”

  He knocked lightly on the door. A moment later, it opened, flooding the hallway with lantern light.

  Chapter 7

  A figure stood in the doorway – a pajama-clad man who looked to be about the same age as Edgar’s father. He was rather ordinary-looking, aside from the fact that his pajamas were even more ridiculous than Edgar’s (he had a polka-dotted night cap with a little pom-pom on the end.) The man held a book with a black leather cover tucked under his arm.

  The crystal had begun glowing orange.

  “Yes?” the stranger said, peering curiously at the boy and the girl who had come with their dragon and their glowing crystal to disturb his rest.

  Edgar cleared his throat. “My name is Edgar,” he began, “and I am on a mission for the King of the Dragons. The Dragon Kingdom has been invaded by evil shadow dragons, and –”

  “And I can assure you that they are not hiding in my room,” the man interrupted. “Will that be all?”

  “I’m Lucretia,” the girl cut in, “and I have been sent by Virgil the Magician to find the talisman that can defeat the shadow dragons. This magic crystal has shown us that the talisman is in your room. Do you mind if we look around? It should only take a minute.”

  The man sighed. “Will you leave me in peace afterwards?” he asked.

  “Of course,” Edgar answered, and the man stepped aside and let them into the room.

  The dragon paused to introduce herself as she passed. Like all dragons, she had an impossibly long name: “Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga,” she said.

  “May I call you Naga for short?” he asked.

  “No,” the dragon replied. “In the Dragon Kingdom, short forms are considered extremely rude.”

  The man was so taken aback that he forgot to be suspicious, and he introduced himself. “Cornelius,” he said. “I am a simple man of the forest, and I can assure you that I do not have any magical talismans.”

  Lucretia walked around the room with the crystal, observed how it flashed and changed color, and wandered back toward Cornelius. She circled slowly around him, watching the crystal.

  “It looks like the talisman is on you,” she said at last. “Do you have anything in your pockets?”

  “I have no pockets,” he replied.

  “What’s that book you’ve got under your arm?” Edgar asked. “Is it magical?”

  “I don’t know if it’s magical,” Cornelius replied, holding out the book for inspection. The black leather cover was old and worn. Some title had quite possibly been written there, years ago, but if that was the case, time had wiped it away.

  “May I take a closer look?” Edgar asked, and Cornelius handed it over.

  Lucretia took a step toward Edgar, and the crystal flashed again. “That’s definitely it,” she confirmed.

  “How could a book stop the shadow dragons?” Edgar wondered. He opened it to the first page and read aloud: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Wait, what?” He looked up at Cornelius. “I know this book,” he said.

  “You do?” Cornelius asked excitedly. His tired crankiness had suddenly vanished, replaced with a kind of child-like wonder.

  “Yes,” Edgar said. “We have them in my world. But how did you get this one?”

  “Well,” Cornelius began eagerly, “it all started when I was working at a trading post in the Western Wood. . .”

  Chapter 8

  Cornelius had started working at the trading post as a young man, serving food and drink to travelers who came to trade, and keeping the guest rooms clean for them. He worked there for many years and met all kinds of interesting people: hunters, merchants, warriors, and magicians, each with interesting things to trade and fascinating stories to tell.

  Out of all these travelers, the one who made the greatest impression on Cornelius was a young woman who showed up late one night with nothing to trade, but with the most remarkable st
ory to tell.

  Cornelius heard the visitor long before he saw her. She came riding on the largest animal he had ever seen, a colossal yellow reptile with a long neck and a tail like a tree trunk. The creature crashed through trees and made the earth shake as it walked.

  The woman’s name was Emma, and she said that she and her enormous yellow friend – who she called “Ploddy” – were adventurers from a far-off country. They were lost, and they needed directions to find a source of fresh water and the Old Forest Road.

  Cornelius led them to a nearby spring of fresh water, where they quenched their thirst and filled up all their water bottles. They had planned to camp out, but Cornelius offered Emma a meal and a guest room, in exchange for the story of how she and her companion had come to the Western Wood, and where they were going.

  Emma agreed, and over a bowl of wood-pigeon stew, she told him all about how the cave-elves of the Gemstone Mountains had invited her to come and help them with some nasty goblins that were bothering them. She had agreed to come, but she had a secret plan to try to make peace between the elves and the goblins. She had some special books with her, called Bibles, that were full of good words that could bring peace. She planned to use these books to teach the elves and the goblins to stop being nasty to each other, to forgive each other, and to be friends. “The Bible says, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers,’” Emma said, “so I am going to try to be a peacemaker.”

  “But aren’t you afraid?” Cornelius asked. “Traveling to another land, to a place full of fighting and nastiness – doesn’t that scare you at all?”

  “Sometimes it does,” Emma said. “But whenever I’m afraid, I think of something else that the Bible says: ‘God has said, never will I leave you.’”

  Emma stayed the night in a guest room, while Ploddy slept outside in the forest. The next day, they left on their mission of peace. Cornelius showed them the way to the Old Forest Road, and Emma gave him one of her Bibles to thank him for his help.

  Cornelius thanked her politely, but at first, he was not very interested. The Bible was a big, thick book, and he was not very good at reading. Once, he became a little curious and opened it up to a random page, but that page was hard to read, and he just got confused and disappointed. And so the Bible lay unopened on his nightstand for many weeks.

  But each day, he saw the Bible on his nightstand and thought about Emma and Ploddy. Most of the other travelers he met were just looking to make some money or have fun, but Emma and Ploddy were different – they really wanted to help others, and they were willing to travel all the way to another land to do it. He really admired them, and some days he thought that he should read this book that gave them so much courage and inspired them to be peacemakers.

  And so, one day, he started reading again. It was hard, but he managed to do about one sentence a day, and he did not give up. As he read, he dreamed about how wonderful it would be if he could find someone to teach the Bible to him, like Emma was going to do for the elves and the goblins. This dream grew in his heart for many months, until he finally left the trading post and journeyed out into the world to find a teacher.

  He would have a great time at Sunday School, Edgar thought as Cornelius finished his story. He really seems love the Bible!

  But then he suddenly realized that if this Bible was so important to Cornelius, it might be very hard to convince him to give it up.

  Chapter 9

  “So,” Edgar said when Cornelius had finished his story, “your Bible is the magical talisman that can stop the shadow dragons.”

  “In a way, I’m not surprised,” Cornelius said. “If this book is powerful enough to give people peace and courage, who knows what else it can do?”

  Edgar paused, struggling to phrase the request that he had to make. “You know,” he said finally, “we need the talisman, if we are going to stop the shadow dragons. I could give you two tennis balls for it.” He opened his backpack and pulled out a pair of tennis balls.

  Cornelius hesitated, visibly pained by the situation. “I remember the price a tennis ball could fetch at the trading post,” he said. “You are offering me a fortune! But I don’t want to be greedy,” he continued. “I want to learn from this book and become kind and brave like Emma and Ploddy. But it would be kind to help the Dragon Kingdom. . . Oh, I don’t know!”

  “Edgar,” Lucretia said, “didn’t you say that you have these books in your world? Can’t you fly back with Alarusthrastoganuthromianaga and get another one?”

  “Wow,” said the dragon, who had never heard a human pronounce her name correctly before. “But no, I cannot fly to Edgar’s world and back again so soon – the portal to get there is only open for one hour when the moon is full, and that hour won’t come again for another month! By then it will be too late!”

  “Are there many Bibles in your world?” Cornelius asked.

  “Oh yes,” Edgar replied. “At Sunday School – a group I go to on Sundays – we have at least ten!”

  “Are there people in your world who could teach me about the Bible?” Cornelius asked.

  “Sorry,” the dragon said, “but people from our world can only stay in Edgar’s world when the portal is open. When it closes – well, I think we disappear, but no one has ever returned to tell the tale.”

  “Hmmm. . .” Cornelius said, disappointed. But then he suddenly brightened. “If you go to this Sunday School every week,” he said, “then you must be able to teach me something about the Bible!”

  “Well. . .” Edgar said. Suddenly, he wished that he had spent more time paying attention in Sunday School, and less time drawing funny pictures of the teacher and passing them to his friends.

  “Yes,” Cornelius went on, “if you would be willing to teach me, then I could lend you my Bible. I could follow along on your quest to save the Dragon Kingdom, and you could tell me all about the Bible along the way. I think I could be of use to you; I am a very good hunter and tracker. What do you say?”

  Edgar considered. He noticed Lucretia making quiet signs for him to accept the offer. The dragon seemed to be waiting silently for him to decide.

  “How many people can you carry when you fly?” he asked, seeing a possible problem.

  “You,” the dragon said.

  “But what about. . .” Edgar began.

  “Oh, I have a horse out in the stable,” said Lucretia.

  “So do I,” said Cornelius. “And I know the way to the Dragon Kingdom.”

  “Oh, all right,” Edgar said at last. “Welcome to the team, Cornelius.”

  “Thank you,” Cornelius said. “You won’t regret it. I look forward to learning from you.”

  “We should probably get some sleep before tomorrow’s journey,” Edgar said. Then, remembering a detail from his most recent Sunday School lesson, he added, “But I can give you your first lesson right now – a very short one. The shortest verse in the New Testament – that’s the second half of the Bible – is John 11:35: ‘Jesus wept.’”

  “Jesus wept,” Cornelius repeated. “Jesus wept. . . Why did he weep?”

  “Oh, ummm. . .” Edgar tried to remember the Sunday School lesson, but only managed to recall an especially funny drawing of his teacher as a mummy coming to life and leaving its tomb. “I’ll tell you tomorrow,” he said finally. “By the way, could I borrow your Bible tonight?”

  Chapter 10

  The next day, shortly after sunrise, Edgar, Lucretia, Cornelius, and the dragon ate a quick breakfast and were on their way.

  Edgar had given the innkeeper one tennis ball, which was enough to pay for their dinner, their rooms, breakfast, and some provisions to take on the journey, with a little bag of silver coins as change.

  Perhaps something should be said here about the value of tennis balls. Tennis balls, in that world, are considered to be a kind of gemstone – the only soft gemstone, and the rarest of all, because they cannot be mined anywhere. No one knows when the first tennis ball was brought there from our world, or by whom, but
the kings and queens of various countries began collecting them at some point, and so otherworldly visitors sometimes brought them as gifts or items of trade.

  Edgar had, by chance, happened to take a tennis ball with him on his first journey to the Dragon Kingdom, and the King had paid him a huge sum of money for it. Edgar had returned home with his pockets stuffed with gold at the end of the month – only to wake up in his bed the next morning with empty pockets and a tennis ball missing. That was the way it went with things from the dragons’ world.

  Anyway, Edgar’s tennis ball bought them all the supplies they would need for a long journey, which was good, since their journey was now going to be a bit longer than planned. Because Lucretia and Cornelius were traveling by horse, the dragon had to slow down to the speed of a horse and slither along beside them. But this was all right, since it gave Edgar the chance to teach Cornelius what he knew about the Bible.

  “So, how does it all start?” Cornelius asked as they rode along.

  “Well,” Edgar began, thinking back to Sunday School. “Hmmm. . . How does it all start?” He vaguely remembered a lesson where they had looked at a picture of some stars. He remembered having fun making little animals out of clay, and he had even learned the memory verse that week and gotten a piece of candy for it. Now, what was that verse again? In the beginning. . . “Ummm. . .” He opened the Bible and peeked. Oh yes, he had read this last night! “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” he read aloud.

  “Wow,” Cornelius said, amazed. “God must be an incredible artist, if he made all that! You know, I do a bit of painting myself. Does it say what kind of paint God used for the clouds? I always have trouble with clouds, and it would be good to know how he did the originals.”

  “Paint?” Edgar said. “No, I don’t think –“

  He was interrupted as three dangerous-looking men dressed in leather armor and armed with knives leaped out of the forest, blocking the path ahead of them. Two more appeared from the trees behind them, cutting off their escape.

  Lucretia and Cornelius reined in their horses and came to a halt on either side of the dragon.

  “I saw them in the inn last night,” Lucretia whispered. “They must have followed us.”