Kind Little Edmund] · page 21 2 3101You see, he had heard so many wonderful tales from him and had believed them all--and when you believe all a person's stories they ought to believe yours.102This is only fair.103At the mouth of the cockatrice's cave Edmund stopped, very much out of breath, to look back at the town.104As he ran he had felt his little legs tremble and shake, while the shadows of the great yellow cloud fell upon him.105Now he stood once more between warm earth and blue sky, and looked down on the green plain dotted with fruit trees and red-roofed farms and plots of gold corn.106In the middle of that plain the gray town lay, with its strong walls with the holes pierced for the archers, and its square towers with holes for dropping melted lead on the heads of strangers; its bridges and its steeples; the quiet river edged with willow and alder; and the pleasant green garden place in the middle of the town, where people sat on holidays to smoke their pipes and listen to the band.107Edmund saw it all; and he saw, too, creeping across the plain, marking her way by a black line as everything withered at her touch, the great yellow dragon--and he saw that she was many times bigger than the whole town.108"Oh, my poor, dear granny," said Edmund, for he had a feeling heart, as I ought to have told you before.109The yellow dragon crept nearer and nearer, licking her greedy lips with her long red tongue, and Edmund knew that in the school his master was still teaching earnestly and still not believing Edmund's tale the least little bit.110"He'll jolly well have to believe it soon, anyhow," said Edmund to himself, and though he was a very tender-hearted boy--I think it only fair to tell you that he was this--I am afraid he was not as sorry as he ought to have been to think of the way in which his master was going to learn how to believe what Edmund said.111Then the dragon opened her jaws wider and wider and wider.112Edmund shut his eyes, for though his master was in the town, the amiable Edmund shrank from beholding the awful sight.113When he opened his eyes again there was no town--only a bare place where it had stood, and the dragon licking her lips and curling herself up to go to sleep, just as Kitty does when she has quite finished with a mouse.114Edmund gasped once or twice, and then ran into the cave to tell the cockatrice.115"Well," said the cockatrice thoughtfully, when the tale had been told. "116What then?"117"I don't think you quite understand," said Edmund gently. "118The dragon has swallowed up the town."119"Does it matter?" said the cockatrice.120"But I live there," said Edmund blankly.121"Never mind," said the cockatrice, turning over in the pool of fire to warm its other side, which was chilly, because Edmund had, as usual, forgotten to close the cave door. "122You can live here with me."123"I'm afraid I haven't made my meaning clear," said Edmund patiently. "124You see, my granny is in the town, and I can't bear to lose my granny like this."125"I don't know what a granny may be," said the cockatrice, who seemed to be growing weary of the subject, "but if it's a possession to which you attach any importance----"126"Of course it is," said Edmund, losing patience at last. "127Oh--do help me.128What can I do?"129"If I were you," said his friend, stretching itself out in the pool of flame so that the waves covered him up to his chin, "I should find the drakling and bring it here."130"But why?" said Edmund.131He had gotten into the habit of asking why at school, and the master had always found it trying.132As for the cockatrice, he was not going to stand that sort of thing for a moment.133"Oh, don't talk to me!" he said, splashing angrily in the flames. "134I give you advice; take it or leave it--I shan't bother about you anymore.135If you bring the drakling here to me, I'll tell you what to do next.136If not, not."137And the cockatrice drew the fire up close around his shoulders, tucked himself up in it, and went to sleep.138Now this was exactly the right way to manage Edmund, only no one had ever thought of trying to do it before.139He stood for a moment looking at the cockatrice; the cockatrice looked at Edmund out of the corner of his eye and began to snore very loudly, and Edmund understood, once and for all, that the cockatrice wasn't going to put up with any nonsense.140He respected the cockatrice very much from that moment, and set off at once to do exactly as he was told--for perhaps the first time in his life.141Though he had played truant so often, he knew one or two things that perhaps you don't know, though you have always been so good and gone to school regularly.142For instance, he knew that a drakling is a dragon's baby, and he felt sure that what he had to do was to find the third of the three noises that people used to hear coming from the mountains.143Of course, the clucking had been the cockatrice, and the big noise like a large gentleman asleep after dinner had been the big dragon.144So the smaller rumbling must have been the drakling.145He plunged boldly into the caves and searched and wandered and wandered and searched, and at last he came to a third door in the mountain, and on it was written THE BABY IS ASLEEP.checked by a teacher146Just before the door stood fifty pairs of copper shoes, and no one could have looked at them for a moment without seeing what sort of feet they were made for, for each shoe had five holes in it for the drakling's five claws.147And there were fifty pairs because the drakling took after his mother, and had a hundred feet--no more and no less.148He was the kind called _Draco centipedis_ in the learned books.149Edmund was a good deal frightened, but he remembered the grim expression of the cockatrice's eye, and the fixed determination of his snore still rang in his ears, in spite of the snoring of the drakling, which was, in itself, considerable.150He screwed up his courage, flung the door open, and called out: "Hello, you drakling.151Get out of bed this minute."152The drakling stopped snoring and said sleepily: "It ain't time yet."153"Your mother says you are to, anyhow; and look sharp about it, what's more," said Edmund, gaining courage from the fact that the drakling had not yet eaten him.154The drakling sighed, and Edmund could hear it getting out of bed.155The next moment it began to come out of its room and to put on its shoes.156It was not nearly so big as its mother; only about the size of a Baptist chapel.157"Hurry up," said Edmund, as it fumbled clumsily with the seventeenth shoe.158"Mother said I was never to go out without my shoes," said the drakling; so Edmund had to help it to put them on.159It took some time, and was not a comfortable occupation.160At last the drakling said it was ready, and Edmund, who had forgotten to be frightened, said, "Come on then," and they went back to the cockatrice.161The cave was rather narrow for the drakling, but it made itself thin, as you may see a fat worm do when it wants to get through a narrow crack in a piece of hard earth.162"Here it is," said Edmund, and the cockatrice woke up at once and asked the drakling very politely to sit down and wait. "163Your mother will be here presently," said the cockatrice, stirring up its fire.164The drakling sat down and waited, but it watched the fire with hungry eyes.165"I beg your pardon," it said at last, "but I am always accustomed to having a little basin of fire as soon as I get up, and I feel rather faint.166Might I?"167It reached out a claw toward the cockatrice's basin.168"Certainly not," said the cockatrice sharply. "169Where were you brought up?170Did they never teach you that 'we must not ask for all we see'?171Eh?"172"I beg your pardon," said the drakling humbly, "but I am really _very_ hungry."173The cockatrice beckoned Edmund to the side of the basin and whispered in his ear so long and so earnestly that one side of the dear boy's hair was quite burnt off.174And he never once interrupted the cockatrice to ask why.175But when the whispering was over, Edmund--whose heart, as I may have mentioned, was very tender--said to the drakling: "If you are really hungry, poor thing, I can show you where there is plenty of fire."176And off he went through the caves, and the drakling followed.177When Edmund came to the proper place he stopped.178There was a round iron thing in the floor, like the ones the men shoot the coals down into your cellar, only much larger.179Edmund heaved it up by a hook that stuck out at one side, and a rush of hot air came up that nearly choked him.180But the drakling came close and looked down with one eye and sniffed, and said: "That smells good, eh?"181"Yes," said Edmund, "well, that's the fire in the middle of the earth.182There's plenty of it, all done to a turn.183You'd better go down and begin your breakfast, hadn't you?"184So the drakling wriggled through the hole, and began to crawl faster and faster down the slanting shaft that leads to the fire in the middle of the earth.185And Edmund, doing exactly as he had been told, for a wonder, caught the end of the drakling's tail and ran the iron hook through it so that the drakling was held fast.186And it could not turn around and wriggle up again to look after its poor tail, because, as everyone knows, the way to the fires below is very easy to go down, but quite impossible to come back on.187There is something about it in Latin, beginning: "_Facilis descensus_."188So there was the drakling, fast by the silly tail of it, and there was Edmund very busy and important and very pleased with himself, hurrying back to the cockatrice.189"Now," said he.190"Well, now," said the cockatrice. "191Go to the mouth of the cave and laugh at the dragon so that she hears you."192Edmund very nearly said "Why?" but he stopped in time, and instead, said: "She won't hear me--"193"Oh, very well," said the cockatrice. "194No doubt you know best," and he began to tuck himself up again in the fire, so Edmund did as he was bid.195And when he began to laugh his laughter echoed in the mouth of the cave till it sounded like the laughter of a whole castleful of giants.196And the dragon, lying asleep in the sun, woke up and said very crossly: "What are you laughing at?"197"At you," said Edmund, and went on laughing.198The dragon bore it as long as she could, but, like everyone else, she couldn't stand being made fun of, so presently she dragged herself up the mountain very slowly, because she had just had a rather heavy meal, and stood outside and said, "What are you laughing at?" in a voice that made Edmund feel as if he should never laugh again.199Then the good cockatrice called out: "At you!200You've eaten your own drakling--swallowed it with the town.1 2 3← previousThe Fiery Dragon]↑ back to The Book of DragonsThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/14/page/2/