Spike the Magic Dragon by Vicki

Authors Note:  This story was an entry in the Writers Ranch "story before bed" contest.  The beginning of the story was written by Raye, explaining how a rider had been asked to babysit Emma and Sam's two children, Grace and Thomas.  After leaving instructions that the children MUST get a bedtime story, Emma and Sam left.  This story takes up the tale later that evening.

Cody settled back in the sofa, rubbing his stomach contentedly.  It was hard to decide which of Emma’s desserts he’d favoured the most, he mused.  Was it the brownies, with their gooey center and rich chocolate frosting?  Yet the apple crumble had a certain zest that delighted the sensory palate as well.  And the pecan tarts! Well, just the mere smell of them was enough to drive him to distraction.  Of course, he was saving them for later.  They were going to be his well-deserved “the kids are in bed and asleep because Uncle Cody is the best baby-sitter EVER” treats.  He had no doubt that he’d have earned every succulent bite.  After all, this babysitting thing was a snap!

Those pecan tarts were calling to him though.  Welllll…

“All right kids, time for bed!”

The chorus of “awwww”’s could have stopped a rampaging buffalo in his tracks.

“No bed, Unca Billy,” Thomas pleaded.

“We can’t go to bed yet, Uncle Billy,” Grace said reasonably, tiny hands perched on her hips.

Cody quirked an eyebrow.  “Oh?  And just why is that, Grace?”

“Because we ain’t had our bedtime story yet!”

Cody’s shoulders slumped as Grace’s lips curved in a triumphant smile.    He glanced from one child to the other as they made their way to the sofa, Thomas’s blanket trailing behind him like a loyal little puppy.  There was no way around it.  He was roped into this bedtime story as surely as a wild horse in Teaspoon’s corral.  With a sigh, he tucked Thomas into the crook of his left arm before hoisting Grace onto his right, then settled them onto the cushion next to him.  

“A bedtime story, huh?”

Two little heads nodded eagerly.

“All right.  A bedtime story.  I can do this.”  Cody paused.  He could spin a fine tale with the best of them, but… a story for kids?  Little ones?  Impressionable young minds easily led astray by misguided yet well-meaning adults like their favourite uncles?  He gulped, suddenly finding it hard to breathe.   “A bedtime story?”

“Uncle Billy!”  Grace did her best Emma impression, and it was enough to make Cody sit up straighter in his seat. Put a rolling pin in her hand and he’d be running for his life.

“Aww, I’m just teasin’ you.  Not only am I goin’ to tell you a story, it’s goin’ to be the BEST danged story you EVER heard!” Cody rubbed his hands together and put on his most devilish smile, all the while casting about anxiously in his mind for something to say.

“Let’s see…”

Anything, just say anything!

“Which story should I tell you?”

They’re kids, it don’t matter, just TALK!

“Got it!  There was a castle—”

“No, no, no!”

Cody frowned down at Grace.  “There wasn’t a castle?”

The little girl sighed elaborately.  “That ain’t the way it’s s’posed to start!  It always begins ‘Once upon a time’.  Everybody knows that!”

“Once ‘pon time,” Thomas repeated with a solemn nod.

Cody let out a breath, reminding himself that he did love these children.  “Of course everybody knows THAT.  I was just testin’ you.”

“Once upon a time…” Cody paused to take in the satisfied nods of his charges, “there was a castle surrounded by rolling green hills in a faraway land.  Now you got to understand, this was the most beautiful place you ever seen.  The sky was always blue as a robin’s egg, and the castle shone like a diamond under the sun.  The people who lived there were very happy, and they spent their days just singin’ and dancin’ and havin’ fun.

“Now the castle needed to be protected, of course, by the valiant knights of the realm.  All of the knights were brave, but there was one knight who was the strongest, the bravest and the handsomest in alllll the land.  And his name was… his name was… Sir Cody!”

Grace let out a full-throttled laugh.  “It was not!”

 Cody looked shocked.  He laid his open palm against his chest.  “It was!  You doubt me, Gracie?”

“No, Uncle Billy.”

“Well all right then.  Now where was I?  Oh yeah, as I was sayin’, one day Sir Cody got called in to see the prince and princess.  The princess, she was the prettiest girl you ever did lay eyes on, with bright red hair that shone like a stormy sunrise.  Her name,” he said pointedly, “was Princess Grace.”

“Ooooh!”  Grace wiggled appreciatively in her seat, a wide grin splitting her features.

“I bet you’re wonderin’ about the prince.  Well, he had big sparklin’ brown eyes and hair the colour of fresh straw, and his name was Prince Thomas.  Well, Sir Cody got—” 

A tug on his sleeve made Cody look down.  Thomas held his blanket in one grubby little hand.  “Thomas blankie!”

Cody slapped his open palm against his forehead.  “Of course!  Prince Thomas always carried his blanket with him, because… because… because the threads that sewed the blanket were magic!”

Thomas hugged his blanket to his chest with a grin.  “Blankie.”

“Now Sir Cody got called in to see Princess Grace and Prince Thomas, only to hear some horrifying news!  It turns out that the land far to the west of their realm was bein’ attacked by a monstrous, fire-breathin’ dragon!  Since Sir Cody was the bravest and strongest and handsomest of all the knights, it was only natural that the prince and princess would ask him to go to the west and save the people from the dragon.  And since Princess Grace and Prince Thomas were also brave, they insisted on goin’ along with Sir Cody to make sure everything turned out all right.”

Grace’s eyes were wide.  “Weren’t they scared, Uncle Billy?”

“Scared?  Heck yeah!  There ain’t nothin’ wrong with bein’ scared, Gracie.  Bein’ scared can make you careful, and bein’ careful can keep you safe.  Sir Cody was scared, but he knew what he had to do.  They traveled day and night, night and day, till finally they reached the land of the west.” 

Cody pitched his voice lower.  “The land was in ruins.  Instead of bright rolling hills, the ground was covered in soot and ashes.  The dragon’s fire had burned all the trees and flowers.  The people of the western land were very frightened.  Sir Cody searched high and low, and he finally found the dragon on a lonely hilltop.  Now I bet you’re thinkin’ the dragon was green, like a lizard, right?”

Grace and Thomas nodded their heads so vigorously they seemed in danger of wobbling right off.

“Well, he wasn’t.  He was black, and covered from the top of his head to the bottom of his tail with bright yellow spikes.  His nails and teeth were as big as a buckboard, and his scales glistened with all kinds of black goop.  He was just about the scariest thing Sir Cody had ever seen!

“Sir Cody took a deep breath and drew his sword.  He knew it was goin’ to be a long hard battle, but he had to save the people of the west.  He walked as fast as his legs could carry him. Just as he reached the dragon, it opened its mouth and let out a tremendous bellow!  The ground shook as Sir Cody ran forward to engage the dragon in a duel to the death!  And then…”

Cody glanced down at the children.  Grace was leaning forward in her seat, one little hand covering her mouth.  Thomas’s eyes were as wide as he’d ever seen them.  Cody held in the chuckle that wanted to creep out.   He was the best baby-sitter ever!

“And then… the dragon spoke!”

Both children let out a great gust of breath.

“’Who are you, sir knight?’ asked the dragon.  When Sir Cody told the dragon his name, the dragon reared up on its hind legs and pawed the air.  ‘I have heard of you, brave Sir Cody,’ the dragon said.  ‘Your name is known throughout the land as the strongest and noblest of knights.’

“Now this surprised Sir Cody, ‘cause aside from bein’ the bravest, strongest, and handsomest of all the knights, he was also the most humble.  Sir Cody stepped straight up to the dragon and said loudly, ‘Since you know my name, sir dragon, it is only fitting that I know yours, and that I ask you to remove yourself from the land of the west, or you will taste the steel of my blade!’

“The dragon thought about this for a long moment, all the while breathing out thick puffs of smoke that coated the air.  Finally he said, ‘My name is Spike, and I want nothing more than to leave this place, brave Sir Cody.  I mean no harm to the people of the west.  But alas, I have lost my way.  And there is no way for me to get home to my dragon friends.’”

“Poor Spikey,” Thomas said mournfully.  

Cody stifled a laugh behind his hand before continuing the tale.  “Now at first Sir Cody didn’t understand what Spike the Dragon meant.  The land was all burnt to a crisp!  But then he realized that when Spike talked, fire and smoke dripped from his nose.  He couldn’t help it.  So it wasn’t Spike’s fault at all.  The poor dragon was afraid and only wanted to go home.  As Sir Cody watched, a tear the size of a grown man fell from Spike’s eye and splattered on the ground.  Sir Cody knew that he had to help his new friend.”

“Oh yes, he’s got to help him!” Grace clutched at Cody’s sleeve anxiously.  “What did he do, Uncle Billy?”

“Well, he asked Spike what he could do to help. Sometimes that’s the best thing a person can do.   At first Spike didn’t want to talk about it, but Sir Cody was like a hound dog with a bone.  He never gave up!  Finally Spike said, ‘The only way for me to get home is with magic, brave Sir Cody.  And the things I need no longer exist here in the great land of the west.’

“”What do you need?’ Sir Cody asked.  The dragon let out a giant-sized sniffle, then said, ‘If only I had a magic thread!  I could tie it around a lock of red hair, and then I’d say the magic words, and POOF! I’d be swept away to the land of the dragons!’”

“Oh!  Oh!  But Uncle Billy, Uncle Billy!”  Grace was waving her arms excitedly, as Thomas tried to out-yell her with his repeated cries of “Blankie! Blankie!”

“You guessed it,” Cody grinned.  “Just when Spike thought all was lost, Princess Grace and Prince Thomas emerged from their glistening silver carriage.  Princess Grace walked right up to that dragon with never a backwards glance, took a tiny pair of scissors out of her purse, and offered him a lock of her hair.  Then she handed the scissors to Prince Thomas, and he cut a patch out of his blanket.  They tied the magic thread around the hair, and gave it to Spike.

“Well, there was never a dragon so happy as Spike right at that moment!  Promising that he would never forget brave Sir Cody or his new friends Grace and Thomas, he said the magic words and just like he said… POOF! He disappeared.  Spike went to live with his dragon friends, and Sir Cody, Princess Grace and Prince Thomas returned to their kingdom.  And they all lived…”

“Happily ever after!” the children squealed.  

“You got it.  And now… bedtime!”

Five minutes later, Cody returned to the living room and flopped onto the chair, grinning from ear to ear.  His gaze swept over the floor.  Toys were strewn from one end of the room to the other.  He knew that somewhere under that mess there was a rug that Emma had made, but darned if he could actually find it.  He had figured on cleaning up, but heck, it was a living room, wasn’t it? That meant it should look like it’s being lived in!  

Besides, he mused as he pulled himself from the chair, stepping carefully over a wooden train, six blocks, and a doll with bright orange hair, there were some pecan tarts waiting in the kitchen for the best baby-sitter ever.