The Bell and The Blacksmith
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By well-wisher
- 381 reads
Once there was a town in Andorra which was attacked by a dragon with three heads, one that spewed out fire, one that belched out clouds of poison gas and one that spat out bolts of thunder.
And every time the dragon was sighted a big churchbell of bronze would be rung called the Dragon bell, to warn everyone in the town that the Dragon was coming so they could then hide away in rooms underground called Dragon shelters.
But one day when the bell rang, two little girls were out playing in the forest and so couldn't get into their Dragon shelter in time and when the Dragon saw them it picked up one girl in each of its talons and carried them off, screaming, back to its cave.
Hearing the sound of the girls screaming for help their parents came out of their shelter but too late to save them.
And so they pleaded with the other towns people,
"Please, we must rescue them".
"But we are not soldiers or knights", they replied, "We can't face a dragon".
Fortunately the father of the two girls was a blacksmith and so he said, "Atleast give me the church bell so that I may melt it down in my forge and make a sword and shield and armour from it. Then I will go and rescue my daughters myself".
Now some of the villagers didn't want to give him the bell because they thought that, without it they would have no warning bell to signal when the dragon was approaching but enough of them, those who had children of their own, were sympathetic to the blacksmith and his wife and so agreed to him having the bell.
And then, when he had made a bronze suit of armour, sword and shield for himself with the sign of the cross upon each of them, he rode to the cave in the hills where he knew the dragon lurked.
And when he heard his daughters screaming from within the cave, he could not bear it and so rode right up to the mouth of the cave and yelled, "Come out and fight me, you monster. Leave my daughters alone"
But then, seeing him outside, the dragon emmerged from the cave and roaring with the first of its heads it blew out a jet of purple fire.
And the fire was so hot that the blacksmith saw his shield begin to melt and so he was forced to draw back.
But then the dragon roared with its second mouth and blew out a cloud of poison gas that, enveloping the blacksmith, made him gasp and choke and he was forced again, to move further back just so that he could breathe.
And at this point, the blacksmith was starting to lose all hope of rescuing his daughters, his heart, under his breastplate, breaking.
Then, sadly, as if that were not bad enough, the dragon roared with its third head and spitting out a thunderbolt, struck the blacksmith with it so hard that it threw him right out of his saddle and onto the rocky ground.
But then, as the blacksmith was falling onto the ground, suddenly, the sword he was holding clattered against his shield and, when it did, a strange ringing like a church bell came from the shield and the blacksmith saw the dragon cover the ears upon the first of its three heads while the other two cried in pain.
"The ringing hurts the dragon", said the blacksmith with amazement when he saw this and struggling to his feet as quickly as he could, he struck his shield again with his sword.
And when he did he saw the dragon cover the ears of its middle head while its left and right head roared in pain.
"The ringing hurts the dragon", said the blacksmith again, this time with joy, striding forwards towards the monster while striking his shield with his sword a third time.
And this time, when the blacksmith struck his shield, the dragon covered the ears on the third of its heads; its first and second heads roaring in pain.
"The ringing hurts the dragon", shouted the blacksmith bravely, now running and even skipping as merrily as a child towards the dragon, beating upon his shield with his sword as if he were beating out a rhythm on a drum.
Finally, unable to stand the ringing anymore and finding it impossible to cover up all six of its ears with only two hands, the dragon flew up into the skies and far beyond the clouds.
And when it did the blacksmith ran into the cave and, seeing his two daughters, alive and unharmed, dropped his sword and shield, clattering, upon the ground and hugged them both tightly.
But then, not only did the blacksmith save his two daughters, inside the cave they found a giant horde of treasure; gold, silver, platinum; diamonds, rubies and emeralds which the blacksmith shared with the people of his town; buying, amongst other things, two new church bells that were twice the size of the old one and twice as loud.
And after that the dragon never bothered them again either, so the blacksmith, his wife and daughters and all the people in his town were able to live happily ever after.
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