by Pam Lynne
water.”
“Ahhh” said the dragon in a knowing manner. It was clear to him what happened. As mentioned before dragons are very intelligent and this dragon more so than others. It is also impossible to lie to dragons and they in turn never tell a lie. He quickly ascertained that this female was truly nothing more than a pawn in their game and had no ill intent of her own. This was important of course, for it determined whether she lived or died at that moment. For now at least, she lived.
“Well my dear, I hate to shatter your little fairy tale adventure but they lied to you. You are not a diversion capable of rending me helpless; you are bait that is wearing an amulet full of poison. They believe the nonsense that dragons love to feast on fair maidens and assumed I would take one look at you and gobble you up along with the poisonous amulet - which by the way would not come close to harming me." The dragon could smell the supposed poison as soon as May entered and knew its nature; it was made of fermented Dragon's Bane which despite its name was not a bane to any dragon.
Something inside her told her the dragon spoke the truth and it was the others that had been lying all the time. Poor young, naive Maydon was naive no longer. Though she did not want to believe in her own foolishness, she also understood the dragon’s strange question and realized the water was not simply water and the prince was not going to whisk her away to safety and the knight was not going to jump out and slay the beast.
“And all of this for what?” asked the dragon sitting up at which time Maydon realized the cavern was filled with mounds of dragon gold and other treasures. She looked in awe, her fear for the moment, gone.
The dragon did not speak as he waited, giving her a chance to look. “Well, what do you think?” he asked after a few moments. “Is this worth sacrificing a fair maiden for?” Maydon’s awe quickly turned back to fear as she looked again at the dragon. “Tell me what your name is.”
She hesitated but instinct to preserve life for even a few moments longer by keeping the bringer of her doom occupied took over. “M-Maydon – Maydon Fare” she answered, her voice quivering. The irony was not lost on the dragon; a fair maiden named Maydon Fare! How delightful. No doubt the three rouges thought it quite brilliant when they managed to trick her into coming on this fool-hearted quest. Well, we shall see what’s to be done about that later, the dragon thought to himself. For now, he had every intention of amusing himself at their expense.
“Quit quivering. I’m not going to eat you.” To which she did seem to let go some tension. “Yet, anyway.” he added as an afterthought. “And maybe not even at all. You must understand that you cannot just expect to walk into a dragon lair and walk out again easy as you please. For if that was the case, than everyone would be doing it wouldn’t they? No, now that you are here, you cannot leave until you answer one question. Answer correctly and you shall leave here alive - that I promise.”
Maydon could only nod. Perhaps there was hope yet.
“Tell me which is the most valuable piece of treasure here by morning light.”
What spark of hope flared in her was quickly extinguished as she looked around at all the piles of treasure. In her lifetime she could not hope to succeed let alone in one night! Where to begin? She was but a young farm girl who had never been beyond her small village that was growing smaller every year. Never in her life could she image such treasure and neither could she comprehend its value. It would take days just to sort through one of the multitudes of piles surrounding her.
As if he read her mind the dragon said “It is not as hopeless as it seems Maydon Fare. I will help you with three things. The first – the most valuable thing is within plain sight of where you now stand, though I will not tell you in which direction. Second - not everything is as it appears. Finally, true value cannot be measured by monetary means alone. Now, since I am feeling generous, I will allow you to ask any question about any object except of course 'is this the most valuable'."
That at least was something; besides, what choice did she really have? There was no one to run to and nowhere to go. Taking a deep breath she walked over to a pile that was almost as tall as she was and picked up a beautiful necklace studded with emeralds and diamonds. Surely this was extremely valuable but she remembered he said not everything is what it seemed so maybe this was a magic necklace!
“What is this?” she asked the dragon.
“It’s a necklace.” he answered.
“No, I mean what does it do?”
“I believe it is a custom of your people to wear it.”
“No – that’s not what I mean.” she said, somewhat flustered. Clearly she was not asking quite the right question. She took a moment to formulate a better question. An obvious question was how much was it worth but the dragon had said that value is not measured by monetary means alone.
“Besides being beautiful, is there anything special about this necklace?”
“No.” The dragon was very direct and clear with his answers; she just had to ask the right questions.
She put the necklace down and looked around again. This time she grabbed a pair of goblets that were identical except one was gold and one was silver.
“What do these do?” she asked quickly realizing it was not the right question.
“They are designed to hold liquid.”
May stopped and thought for a minute. Though she knew she didn't have a lot of time, she also didn't want to discard something so quickly thereby missing its true value. “Yes, but do they change the liquid - by that I mean, if water is placed in it will it become something else like a healing potion?” looking at them she thought it would be wonderful to have such a thing and imagined presenting it to her parents to drink from and them being healed of all the aches and pains and illness they suffered.
“Whoever drinks from one will always tell the truth. If they drink from the other, they will always tell a lie.” responded the dragon.
“Which one is which?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I never bothered to ask.”
A cup of truth might be valuable, but she could not see the value in a cup of lies and decided that the necklace by virtue of beauty alone was more valuable than these so she moved on.
She picked up a copper armlet that was very plain and would provide little protection to the wearer. It did not have the appearance of being valuable but she was taught not to judge by appearance alone. Thinking her question through first, she asked the dragon “Will this do more than protect the wearers arm?”
“Yes.”
“Could you tell me what more it could do?”
“Yes.”
She paused waiting for the dragon to answer her but then realized he had – Yes, he could tell her but she didn’t ask him to tell her.
Taking a deep breath she said “Would you please tell me what else this copper armlet that I am holding in my hand can do beside protect the arm of the person wearing it?”
The dragon was beginning to enjoy this little game and found the young maiden quite amusing. “Of course” he said pleasantly. “It acts as an entire suit of armour and though it just covers the arm it will ward off any blows from any weapon to any part of the body.”
“Oh!” she responded. This could be valuable and decided to hold onto it for the time being. As a seemingly after thought the dragon added “Of course the last owner died of the flu.” May let the armlet drop realizing that it was not as valuable as she first thought if it couldn’t protect against illness.
She moved from pile to pile and picked up trinket after trinket. Some she discarded immediately, some she hung onto until such a time that she found something she thought more valuable.
And so the night wore on and Maydon’s search intensified. It felt that she had no sooner picked up one object that she thought of great value, when another one two feet away looked even more valuable. The dragon answered her questions though sometimes it took several questions to gain the answer she wanted or needed. At first, it was easy to be mesmerized
by the treasures, but each time she had to question the dragon about it, kept her that much longer from finding the next, more valuable item. She lost all track of time as she became more and more weary. Finally, still clutching the last object she had selected – a silver bracelet that when worn would lead the wearer to any lost object, or would it warn of unseen danger? - no longer able to remember what he had said about this one she slumped down intending to rest for a moment and try to clear her head when she fell asleep. Of course, she did not mean to fall asleep and did not realize she had fallen asleep until she woke up. And when she did finally wake up it was with a start and she looked around confusedly. It took only a few seconds to remember where she was and the peril she was in. Did she still have time? She tried to stand but though she was awake, her legs weren’t quite ready and she quickly sat down again on a pile of golden coins.
“Well,” said the dragon “the night is over – you slept half of it away. What a foolish waste of time! You must tell me which is the most valuable piece here – now!” he leered.
Maydon would have cried if she had been able to but even that was beyond her at the moment. She had never been so miserable in all her life! She was well loved and protected and always had a soft bed to sleep in and had never gone hungry. Now she was so hungry her belly ached. Every muscle screamed in pain whether