Wisdom of the dragon part 3-10

The Dragon and the Rabbit

 

Long ago, on a tall mountain, lived one of the last of the wise dragons. Every day, this wise dragon would leave its cave and head down the mountain to a particular clearing about halfway down the mountain. There, people from around the land could come and ask the dragon questions, and she would give them her wisdom. From time-to-time, people would even stay on the mountain and train as an apprentice of the wise dragon.

 

At this moment in history, the wise dragon had a young human boy named Noyet, who had learned many skills in his training with the wise dragon. He had stood by the dragon’s side each day for five years as others came and asked their questions.

 

He had heard all the answers to these questions, and each night after the crowds

left, he would get to ask his questions about what the dragon had said throughout the day.

 

Most of the time when people would come and ask the dragon a question,

the dragon would think for a few moments and then answer, but sometimes she would not answer them. Instead, the wise dragon would tell the person to go up the hill a little way and to talk to the wise one who lived in a small shack there. That they were wiser on such matters thane even her.

 

Today, Noyet had witnessed another of these moments, when a royal from a

foreign land had arrived seeking the wisdom of the dragon. He had approached, head held high, and did not bow, as was the custom. Noyet had noticed that this did not seem to bother his master.  When he spoke, he did so as one who was new to the language.

 

“Great lizard, I have travel far to seek ye, my kingdom has had plentiful troubles. If my people do not work upon each seventh day, they will not pull in the harvest before the great snow comes. If this passes, they will starve in the cold of

winter. But it is commanded by our god that each seventh day is a day of rest.

 How do I convince my people that it is just and rightful for us to live and to do so they must work every day till the snow comes, even on the seventh day?”

          

The dragon thought on this for some time, then told the king to go up the hill and speak with the wiser one. There, she would tell him what to tell his people about keeping their commandments with their god.

 

The man walked up the hill and went into the shack. He was there for only a few moments, then came back down, now angry at the dragon, and even put his hand on the hilt of his blade but did not pull it, as his manservant grabbed his hand and whispered something in his ear. The royal figure and his party then left without

saying a word. That night, Noyet thought back to other times he had seen his master send people to the shack, he remembered that many of them had come back

looking more confused than when they had gone up. He had to know who

the master in the shack was, and what they could have said to anger the king so much and confuse so many others.

 

So, he asked the wise dragon, “Who lives in the shack?”

 

The dragon told Noyet, “One who is wise in guiding others who

wish to control others’ beliefs.”

 

Noyet thought about this while the two ate their dinner. Then asked his master, “What does the wise one in the shack tell these people who wish to control others?”

 

The dragon smiled, something Noyet still could not get used to, for when his master smiled, she showed her massive teeth, and even though Noyet knew he was safe with his master always, it was still a bit frighting. She then spoke, saying,

“If you are curious, why don’t you go ask the one who lives there?”

 

Noyet became excited and asked his master, “I would not be bothering them this late?”

 

“No, no, she loves company,” answered the wise dragon with another grin.

 

Noyet went up the hill to the small shack. He had never been higher up the mountain than the clearing and felt like he was almost intruding. By the time he found the shack, he could see the dragon’s cave opening farther up the mountain. 

 

The door was still open to the shack, so Noyet stepped inside to see a table. On that

table was a large brown pillow with gold tassels at each corner. Setting on that pillow was a large, white rabbit with long, soft, fluffy ears, that drooped down till the tips were resting on the soft pillow.

 

At first, like the others who had come before him, Noyet was confused. He stood for a moment and waited for someone to come out of the shadows, but nothing happened.

 

Then he thought, I have heard tales of talking animals, and this rabbit does just sit there with the door wide open and does not run away as any caged rabbit should.

Perhaps it has some magic to it.

 

Noyet asked the question that the king had asked earlier that day, but again  nothing happened.

 

Noyet thought for a moment, possibly the rabbit knows this question is not my own, so it answers not.  So, he tried to remember every question he had ever heard his master refuse to answer and had sent the asker here for guidance.

 

 

 

It came to him that all the questions he had heard had dealt with prayer or devotion, and he tried to think of a question of his own that delt with such a topic.

Finally, it came to him, and he asked the rabbit.  “The last time I went to town,

I noticed my sister did not wake for morning prayers with the sun as she should, and now I worry she may have fallen off the path. What should I do?”

 

Again, the rabbit just sat there, it did not speak or even make a sound.

 

Noyet was used to waiting for answers from the dragon and did not want to seem

impatient, so he waited for quite some time, till the cold night air filled the tiny shack, before leaving and closing the door. As he walked back down the mountain, he was met by his master walking up the mountain.

 

“What have you learned, Noyet, from your visit to the wise one?” Asked the wise dragon. Noyet looked a little sad as he answered his master.

 

“I am not sure I understand, master. I asked the question the king asked and even asked another question about prayer and my sisters’ path in life, but again, the rabbit within the shack said nothing.”

 

The dragon let out a small sound that Noyet could only guess was a chuckle,

Then spoke, saying, “Yes! That is right, Noyet. Nothing! You wish to one day be as I, a guide of men. Remember this lesson well. Noyet, when men come asking you what I should tell others about how to live or how to worship, tell them nothing, for it is not their place to tell others these things, nor is it yours or mine.”

         

The wise Dragon finished by saying,

         

“The best answer to such people who would seek to tell others who their God

or Goddesses should be, or how to be one with them,

is to say nothing at all.” 

 

THE END

 Wisdom of the dragon 2-10

The Dragon and the Queen

 

Long ago, on a tall mountain, lived one of the last of the wise dragons. Every day, this wise dragon would leave its cave and head down the mountain to a particular clearing about halfway down the mountain. There, many people from around the land could come and ask the dragon questions, and she would give them her wisdom. From time-to-time people would even stay on the mountain and train as an apprentice of the wise dragon.

The kings and queens that ruled the city in the valley below the mountain often came to ask the dragon for her wisdom on issues of state. At this time, the valley was ruled by Queen Sali. A young but wise queen who listened to her people’s wants and needs and tried to help her people wherever she could.

 

One cloudy afternoon, Queen Sali came to the wise dragon and asked the following question.

 

“Oh, wise guide to all that ask. I stand before you with great sadness,

for my people cry out, asking me to build a canal from the river to the city

so that they need not walk the miles each day to the farmland to gather water. 

I would do this, for their plight is just and I wish to lessen their daily work, but the master of the waterways says that if I do this it will lessen the water that flows to the croplands and the produce will suffer. By extension, the people will then suffer as prices for food will certainly rise. How can I help the people when both options cause suffering?”

 

The wise dragon thought for a long time on this and then finally spoke.

 

“You are truly a compassionate and sensible ruler. If you have the funds within the

kingdom to bring the water from the river to the city, and the master of waterways

has the wisdom to know that this will hurt your croplands, then surely one of you must know that the water that falls on the city from the sky is the same water that falls on the river to make its banks swell with its life-giving goodness?”

 

Queen Sali thought for a second, then responded, “I had not thought of that,

but I do see how that is true. I am sorry, though, I do not see how knowing this helps my people’s plight?”

 

The wise dragon looked a little surprised that the queen had not made the connection between what she had said and the solution to her problem. Then, after a moment of clarifying her thoughts in her head, the wise dragon responded.

 

 

“If it is the same water that falls on the city as the river, can you not use the same funds that you would have built a canal with to now build some way to collect and store the water as it falls from the sky before it rolls down your streets and across the ground to the river? So, would not this be the same as bringing the river to the people, as it is the same water the river has within it?”

 

Queen Sali thought about this and was very pleased, for she knew that the dragon had given her a solution to her people’s troubles.

 

Before she left to go put into action what she had learned, the wise dragon spoke one more time to her, saying.

 

“Remember, all the water that falls from the sky on your land is yours to use.

 Use it wisely.”

 

THE END

 

Wisdom of the Dragon 1-10

(This next few week's posts will be for my English class I have chosen to write a set of short stories in hopes of one day compiling them into a book that will of course accompany a new quest pack for may Mazith Game System.) 

 Wisdom of the Dragon

 

A little bit about these Dragon stories:

They come from my family, and I can trace some of them back at least seventeen generations. As a child, my grandfather would gather us around the fire once a week and tell one of the tales. As I grew up and he grew older he taught me to tell the tales around the fire and how to create new ones. He explained that it was our duty to tell the next generation the tales of old but also to add new stories with morals that my own generations had learned. As far as I know, they have always been passed down by word of mouth, and this is the first time I will be writing them down so those other than my family can learn from them. 

 

Some notes on pronouncing names within the stories:

In names “A, O, U, and E” are said with their English soft sound. On the other hand, “I” makes the sound of a long E not the sound of the English I.

 

The Dragon and the Cloud

    Long ago, high atop a towering mountain, there lived a wise dragon who was one of the last of her kind. Each day, she would leave her cave and make her way down the mountain to a clearing where people from all around the land would come to seek her wisdom.

    Currently, the wise dragon had a young apprentice who would show up every day to learn from her. On this particular day, the wise dragon looked at her apprentice and said, "I have a test for you, are you ready?"

    The young dragon eagerly replied, "Yes, master, I am ready." The wise dragon then pointed to the sky. "Do you see that cloud lingering there? I want you to make it disappear."

    The young dragon thought for a moment and replied, "Yes, master, I think I can do that."

    

    The wise dragon smiled and said, "I will be taking a nap under that large tree over there. When I rise, we'll see how you've done."

    The young dragon thought back on all the lessons his master had taught him and remembered one about visualization. He closed his eyes and imagined fiery arrows striking the cloud, making it heat up and rain. He slowly opened his eyes to see nothing had happened. Next, the young dragon thought back to a lesson on how we are all connected, even to the spirits of nature. He tried singing to the wind,

“Great sister spirit, the breath of the sky, hear my cry. Please grant your gift, so the wind may blow. With your grace and guidance, let it go. So please take this cloud away from here. Bring your light and make it clear. Great sister spirit, the breath of the sky. Deliverer of creation, hear my cry. But still, nothing happened.

       Frustrated with this, he flew up to the cloud and with all his might flapped his massive wings, creating gust after gust of powerful blasts, but try as he might, the cloud remained stubbornly in sight.

    Determined not to give up that easily. He tried using his fire breath to heat the cloud and make it rain. He began to gather the flammable liquids from his stomach into his mouth, combining them with oxygen to ignite a huge wave of fiery breath upon the cloud. To his delight, the cloud began shrinking, but in the time it took him to gather a second breath, the cloud regrew into its original size.

    So, with his last bit of effort, he tried to tear the cloud apart by diving his body through it while landing. When he looked up, he saw the hole his body had made was already sealing back up and the cloud looked even stronger.

    After resting a moment back on the ground, he was feeling defeated and couldn’t think of any new ideas. He knew the cloud would be still there when his master awoke.

    Soon, the wise dragon awoke, looked at her apprentice, and said, "I see that the cloud is still there."

    The young dragon hung his head, face covered in defeat, "I am sorry, to have failed you, master. I tried everything I could think of, but I couldn't make it disappear.”

    The old wise dragon smiled and spoke. “Do you see the lake down there in the valley where the deer drink in the morning and the fish swim all day?”

    The young dragon, with a puzzled look, asked. “Master, are you hungry, do you want me to get you some fish?

    To this, the master replied with a chuckle, “No, young one, I'm not hungry. Look up to the sky. What do you see?”

    The young dragon looked up to see a clear, beautiful sky, not a cloud in sight. “Master, what happened to the cloud?”

       The old dragon replied, “The cloud did what all clouds do. It was only temporary, as are all things. It is best not to dwell on things we do not want to hang around. It served its purpose and has now gone to join the lake and ground. It is on this day we have learned a valuable lesson. Sometimes, by trying to force things away we only make them stronger. If you want something to disappear, you must not focus one's energy on it. Simply ignore it, and in time it will go away.

    Only then will you see the change you desire.”

 

 

 

                                                  THE END