The Fire That Wasn't
~How Feebles Got Unlucky ~
Hooblinka, in a rare show of personal affection, moved closer to the now-named 'Feebles' and patted a small patch of his drooping tail. (Dragons, like people, tend to droop when they're feeling low. For a person, they might show it with a down hung head or a mouth turned into a frown.... it seems that everything in nature just gets heavier when things are going poorly, and then droops rather noticeably.)
Hooblinka made this connection too. "We're all like flowers," she thought,"in need of water."
So she reached down into a rain puddle pooling from a light shower that very afternoon, and scooped up two skinny hands-full of water. "Want a DRINK?" she said brightly to the dragon, hoping she'd stumbled on some sort of answer.
"No. Thank you," he sighed. (A dragon sigh is something between a horse snort and the wind squeezing through a crack, and it went on and on.) "I just need to get a few things straight here. Make no mistake, I'm very pleased you've given me a nickname, but the name given me by my dragon family, though HIDEOUS, still fills me with a great deal of dragon pride, so I don't think I can accept this new name."
"Not without you knowing what I'd be giving up," he added.
Scatcat the tooth rolled his black eyes and thought, "Oh boy. Here it comes. A long, gassy, self-important story." (Also, since HE was the one who renamed their new friend 'Feebles', he was a bit put out by the dragon, truth be told.)
"My godfather was a wizard," Feebles began, and old...VERY VERY old. When I was only two weeks into this world, my dragon mother and dragon father took me to the 'Cave Of High Purpose' at the edge of the great blue ocean to find the wizard who lived there so he could properly bestow upon me most important dragon gift.
"Fire. Dragons MUST have the gift of fire first and foremost."
"But when mother and father told the wizard what they were asking for me, just then the ocean and the wind both crashed into the stony mouth of the cave at once, and made a FEARFULLY loud RUSH of sound. The wizard said, "WHAT? WHAT???" --and cupped one ear. "Oh, BLAZES, yes!" he said --and before anyone could stop him, even if they knew the mistake he was about to make, he whirled in his cape, adjusted his high-hat, swept his magic wand counter clockwise three times and said: "I HEREBY BESTOW UPON YOU, YOUNG DRAGON... THE ANCIENT DRAGON GIFT...
OF FLOWERS!"
There. It was done. And no helping it.
"I opened my light green, baby-dragon gums and coooooooed not fiery jets-- but poppies! Pansies! Dandelions. I hiccuped tulips, and I burped black-eyed susans. I was hopelessly ruined." At this memory, the dragon's big, hooded, snake eyes began to fill with tears.
But the image was so funny, both Hooblinka and Scatcat began to snicker, then to chuckle, and before long, they were rolling on the ground in laughter.
"Petal Pusher!" shouted Hoobie. "Hyacinth Hurler!"....."SNAP........DRAGON!!" continued Scat, unable to stop himself. They held their stomachs and wiped their eyes. Took one look at eachother --and then Feebles-- and started up all over again. "CARNATION CANNON!" continued Scat, laughing so hard they barely saw Feebles begin to droop lower and lower, then slink off a ways, sniffling, his great shoulders shaking with sorrowful embarrassment.
"NOW look what you've done!" scolded Hoobie. "You've run him off, the poor thing."
"Me???" Scatcat answered, becoming cross. "YOU were laughing HARDEST!"
"That was thoughtless of us, Scat. Both of us. Hey, Feebles.... or whatever all those names are of yours, we're SORRY. COME BACK," she shouted.
And Scatcat said, "Yes, Feebs. Tell us how you got your POLKA DOTS," then, not able to contain his giggling, both he and Hooblinka began their rolling and laughing once again. It was completely beyond them to stop it.
Oddly, the dotted dragon did turn around, and he DID come back. He sat down, put his arms around his new friends and said, "You know......it is terribly funny," and he began to laugh with them.
The three odd creatures- witch, tooth, and dragon, sat for an hour listening and talking, talking and listening, falling deeper and deeper into friendship.
Sometimes......oh, who knows why, friends can say things to one another that no one else can without getting a punch in the nose. Such is the wonderful nature of friendship. And Feebles DID tell them all about his spots... his names.. and how he'd never scared anything in his LIFE- (and how he was really glad about that.)
So he started in on another tale... of the pixie... and her unfortunate sticky pixie dust.... (and why you must never point at a cow.)
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Hooblinka, in a rare show of personal affection, moved closer to the now-named 'Feebles' and patted a small patch of his drooping tail. (Dragons, like people, tend to droop when they're feeling low. For a person, they might show it with a down hung head or a mouth turned into a frown.... it seems that everything in nature just gets heavier when things are going poorly, and then droops rather noticeably.)
Hooblinka made this connection too. "We're all like flowers," she thought,"in need of water."
So she reached down into a rain puddle pooling from a light shower that very afternoon, and scooped up two skinny hands-full of water. "Want a DRINK?" she said brightly to the dragon, hoping she'd stumbled on some sort of answer.
"No. Thank you," he sighed. (A dragon sigh is something between a horse snort and the wind squeezing through a crack, and it went on and on.) "I just need to get a few things straight here. Make no mistake, I'm very pleased you've given me a nickname, but the name given me by my dragon family, though HIDEOUS, still fills me with a great deal of dragon pride, so I don't think I can accept this new name."
"Not without you knowing what I'd be giving up," he added.
Scatcat the tooth rolled his black eyes and thought, "Oh boy. Here it comes. A long, gassy, self-important story." (Also, since HE was the one who renamed their new friend 'Feebles', he was a bit put out by the dragon, truth be told.)
"My godfather was a wizard," Feebles began, and old...VERY VERY old. When I was only two weeks into this world, my dragon mother and dragon father took me to the 'Cave Of High Purpose' at the edge of the great blue ocean to find the wizard who lived there so he could properly bestow upon me most important dragon gift.
"Fire. Dragons MUST have the gift of fire first and foremost."
"But when mother and father told the wizard what they were asking for me, just then the ocean and the wind both crashed into the stony mouth of the cave at once, and made a FEARFULLY loud RUSH of sound. The wizard said, "WHAT? WHAT???" --and cupped one ear. "Oh, BLAZES, yes!" he said --and before anyone could stop him, even if they knew the mistake he was about to make, he whirled in his cape, adjusted his high-hat, swept his magic wand counter clockwise three times and said: "I HEREBY BESTOW UPON YOU, YOUNG DRAGON... THE ANCIENT DRAGON GIFT...
"I opened my light green, baby-dragon gums and coooooooed not fiery jets-- but poppies! Pansies! Dandelions. I hiccuped tulips, and I burped black-eyed susans. I was hopelessly ruined." At this memory, the dragon's big, hooded, snake eyes began to fill with tears.
But the image was so funny, both Hooblinka and Scatcat began to snicker, then to chuckle, and before long, they were rolling on the ground in laughter.
"Petal Pusher!" shouted Hoobie. "Hyacinth Hurler!"....."SNAP........DRAGON!!" continued Scat, unable to stop himself. They held their stomachs and wiped their eyes. Took one look at eachother --and then Feebles-- and started up all over again. "CARNATION CANNON!" continued Scat, laughing so hard they barely saw Feebles begin to droop lower and lower, then slink off a ways, sniffling, his great shoulders shaking with sorrowful embarrassment.
"NOW look what you've done!" scolded Hoobie. "You've run him off, the poor thing."
"Me???" Scatcat answered, becoming cross. "YOU were laughing HARDEST!"
"That was thoughtless of us, Scat. Both of us. Hey, Feebles.... or whatever all those names are of yours, we're SORRY. COME BACK," she shouted.
And Scatcat said, "Yes, Feebs. Tell us how you got your POLKA DOTS," then, not able to contain his giggling, both he and Hooblinka began their rolling and laughing once again. It was completely beyond them to stop it.
Oddly, the dotted dragon did turn around, and he DID come back. He sat down, put his arms around his new friends and said, "You know......it is terribly funny," and he began to laugh with them.
The three odd creatures- witch, tooth, and dragon, sat for an hour listening and talking, talking and listening, falling deeper and deeper into friendship.
Sometimes......oh, who knows why, friends can say things to one another that no one else can without getting a punch in the nose. Such is the wonderful nature of friendship. And Feebles DID tell them all about his spots... his names.. and how he'd never scared anything in his LIFE- (and how he was really glad about that.)
So he started in on another tale... of the pixie... and her unfortunate sticky pixie dust.... (and why you must never point at a cow.)
(Back to Top For NEXT CHAPTER)
