Dragon Tales: The Wyvern

At the top of a hill, in a cave that was completely closed all year round, lurked a sinister flying dragon named Wyvern that hoarded a great amount of gold, silver and jewels. All year round, this cave was closed, except for the midnight before Easter, when the dragon would emerge to wash in the shining sea.

Then it would fly until morning and its scales, glistening in the moonlight, emitted beautiful music. He had lost one of his eyes many aeons ago, and in its place was a huge glowing ruby. This was removed during his bath.

Now it was well known that during the monster’s midnight bath, if one could get to the top of the mountain and throw a crust of bread into the cave, whatever treasure the crumbs touched would belong to the taker.

One of these nights, a young mother and her son dared to undertake this journey. The father had died many months before due to starvation, and the young mother believed that this was the only way to survive.

So they went up the mountain. They hid when the Wyvern appeared. But just as they were about to toss the bread crust, the distant Easter bells began to ring and the mother knelt to pray. She was so tired of hunger that when she closed her eyes to pray she fell fast asleep.

The young man, oblivious to everything, ran to the cave and spent the next few hours playing with the gold and precious stones.

The mother woke up to a bright red light. “Oh no!” she thought, “Dawn!”

However, it was worse than that, as it was none other than the dragon’s bright red eye. The dragon rushed into the cave and the stone entrance closed, not to reopen for another year.

She moaned and groaned off the rock, but to no avail. It wouldn’t open until next Easter and by then her son would be dead. She cried for many days.

The townspeople noticed that he had disappeared and guessed what he had done. They climbed the mountain and found her there. But she didn’t move. One of the richest women, out of kindness, decided to bring him some bread and milk. The mother took a small bite and took a small sip, but for reasons she couldn’t articulate she decided to leave most of them out of the dragon’s cave. When he looked the next morning, it was gone and now he knew what to do.

Every day the kind rich women brought him bread and milk, and every day he left most of them outside the cave, where in the morning he was gone. This went on for a year. At midnight before Easter, the Wyvern emerged and the woman quickly ran into the cave and threw on her last crust of bread. By the grace of God, one of the crumbs fell on a small child whom the mother grabbed and ran away crying, without thinking of taking anything else. When he reached the foot of the hill, it was dawn and it was too late.

She looked at her son and said, “What do I need with those trinkets? You are the only treasure I need.”

“Then you won’t want this.” said the boy, pulling out a huge diamond from his pocket. From that day on, she and her mother spent their lives in wealth and leisure.