Douglas the Dragon: Book 1 - Douglas the Unloved Dragon

by William Forde

Come on, you stupid dragon, why did you burn down your neighbour’s house?” the Mayor commanded.

  Frustrated and angry with his inability to speak, Douglas snorted loudly, and two angry balls of fire shot out of his nostrils towards the Mayor; setting the seat of his trousers aflame. The Mayor jumped up and down as he tried to put out the flames. Then, he began to roll about on the ground before deciding to jump into a nearby stream. When he returned soaking wet, he shook his fist at Douglas. He was fuming with rage.

  "How dare you? How dare you treat your Mayor with such contempt, you....teenage hooligan! How dare you make me jump up and down in such an undignified manner? I’m your Mayor! That's it, you… you arsonist! That's it, Buster! You too large to live in the centre of the village and you're too dangerous to live on the edge of it! Pack your bags and clear out, you… you nasty dragon! Go on! Clear off! You're not welcome around here anymore! Clear off!"

  Douglas was very sad as he left the village that night. He felt very lonely, unwanted, rejected and unloved. He walked until he came to the two hills, which stood side-by-side. The Hill of Fear seemed to stretch into the sky and he decided to climb to its top. The Hill of Anger at its side seemed quiet and the dragon knew that it wouldn’t wake up for many years yet. Douglas the Dragon plodded up The Hill of Fear, until eventually, he reached the top. Looking out from the top of the steep hill, he could see Marfield Village in the distance below.

  "This will do for tonight," Douglas thought. "I’ll bed down here tonight and decide what to do tomorrow when I wake up."

  The next day Douglas woke up feeling very grumpy and angry. He went to the edge of the hill and looked down at the village below. He could see the villagers. They were like small dots on the landscape, going about their daily business as they went to work. He imagined the children setting off for school and the shopkeepers opening their premises. He could faintly hear the hustle and bustle noise of village life below and he knew that he was no longer a part of it and would never be so again. This awareness made the anger surge up from deep inside and he roared it out aggressively at the villagers below.

  "Ahg....h! Ahg....h! I'll teach you for running me out of town!" Douglas roared. "I’ll teach all of you..... Every last one of you. Well, here I am and here I’ll stay! Nobody will ever budge me again! Nobody! Ahg.........h! Ahg.........h!”

  So Douglas the Dragon decided to stay on the top of The Hill of Fear. He also decided to build himself the ruin of a castle, using stone that he fetched from a quarry in the next valley. It took Douglas almost 2 years to build his castle on top of the steep hill, and when it was finished, he named it ‘Grumpy Castle.’

  In time, the villagers of Marfield forgot about Douglas the Dragon, but he never forgot them. He never forgot that they had sent him away and had rejected him. For every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year, for the next 40 years, Douglas thought about what they've done to him and this made him angrier and angrier.

  Every day would commence and end in the same way; with the dragon going to the edge of the hill and looking down on the village below and roaring out his anger that was eating him inside.” Ahg.....h! Ahg....h!”

  For 40 years, the angry dragon spent all of his days and nights stood at the top of ‘The Hill of Anger’, looking down at the villagers below and stalking their every movement, getting angrier and angrier. If ever any villager left the village alone or entered it after dark, Douglas saw to it that they were never seen again!

  One day Douglas the Dragon became so angry, that like the volcano before him, he blew his lid! He decided that enough was enough and that he had to get his own back on the villagers who’d turned him out of his happy home 40 years earlier.

  "I'll teach them!" Douglas snorted angrily. "I'll teach every last one of them! I’ll kill them! I’ll murder them! Turning me out of my happy home, just because I grew too big and accidentally started a little fire! If they want to see a fire, I’ll show them what a real fire looks like! Agh....h!"

  Douglas couldn’t stop the anger rising up inside of him, willing him to explode in rage. When the anger inside his tummy had reached boiling point, he snorted two fireballs out of his nostrils and began running down the hill towards the village. His eyes looked murderous and he was determined to do damage! The hillside began to tremble with the weight of the angry dragon as he made his way downwards, bellowing huge gusts of angry flames in all directions and destroying everything that crossed his path: burning to cinders, the crops in the fields, houses, shops, livestock, pets and people; anything or anyone which got in his way.

  In the village down below, the sound of the dragon’s footsteps sounded like the coming of an earthquake. The villagers didn’t know what was happening as the earth around them shook violently and all the crockery and plates began to fall off their dressers and tables.

  The closer Douglas the Dragon got the village, the angrier he became. Chimneys began to topple from their roofs and walls began to tumble as the dragon ran on, spitting out gusts of fire at everything he passed. Any poor villager who was unfortunate enough to be in his line of fire was engulfed in a puff of flame! As Douglas made his way back up The Hill of Fear, most of the village behind him had been reduced to ash and rubble.

  "That will teach you to turn me out!" Douglas snorted in a puff of angry satisfaction as he gazed down the The Hill of Fear and saw the village in ruin and flames.” Now, that’s what I call ‘a real fire!’” he bellowed. ”That was no little accidental fire. I did that on purpose. That’s what I call ‘a real fire!’ Agh.......h! Agh.....h!”

  Now, because dragons can live for hundreds of years and have a different time span to that of humans, Douglas didn't realise that the present villagers of Marfield were different people to those villagers who’d turn him out many years earlier. In fact, the adults there today were the children of those children with whom he had played many years before; but it was now so long ago that even they couldn’t remember the dragon.

  All the villagers were frightened of this ferocious beast that could burn down their houses and engulf them in one huge, fiery breath. Douglas the Dragon hadn’t finished with them though. He waited patiently until the villagers had re-sown the crops in their fields, restocked their farms, rebuilt their houses, shops and bridges, buried their dead and found foster homes for the orphans before he blew his top and burned them down again and again and again! For 10 long years, Douglas the Dragon made the villagers’ lives a misery and he became their ‘Angry Neighbour from Hell!’

  As the years passed by, Douglas the Dragon continued to grow angrier and angrier and he began to hate human beings more and more. He watched them from his hilltop day and night. He stalked them and killed them at every opportunity. Most days, the angry dragon would keep the village under siege; preventing anyone going in or out of it. Douglas never gave the villagers a few moments peace. Fired by a deep pit of anger within him and driven by a never-ending thirst for revenge, he hounded them incessantly.

  The villagers lived in constant fear of the next dragon attack, although they always knew when the dragon was about to come. Douglas the Dragon breathed so heavily that the fire from his mouth lit up the whole sky, and the earth all around trembled and shook violently. Houses would collapse around them as the prowling dragon advanced in rage towards the village centre. Douglas the ferocious dragon had a huge appetite, and although he didn't eat often, when he did, he could easily gobble up 100 houses and still have room for a second helping!

  One day, a travelling wizard called Yaffe came to Marfield Village. Wizard Yaffe was a good wizard who was wise beyond his years. Wizard Yaffe had one prime purpose in life; to use his knowledge and the power of his magic helping others to find the peace and love that lives within all of us. He was wise, gentle and considerate and had become a philosopher and expert of human behaviour.

  Whenever Wizard Yaffe used his magic, he always used it for the power of good, but he used it sparingly. W
ith his book of magic spells and box of magic potions, Wizard Yaffe could perform many magical feats, but his greatest magic of all sprang from his belief in the ‘Power of Love.’

  He had the wisdom to know that all people; young and old, large and small, male and female, black and white, Muslim and Christian, have the power within, to either hinder or help themselves in a way that no wizard could ever do.

  The cornerstone of Wizard Yaffe’s philosophy and way of life was ‘The Power of Love.’ Wizard Yaffe believed that there was no greater human emotion capable of producing change, withstanding hardship, overcoming any obstacle or maintaining happiness than that of ‘love’. The wise wizard believed that the earth was created out of love, that it continues to spin on an axis of love, and that it is the love expressed by all humans, which keeps it spinning in harmony. To the wise wizard, love was the only thing powerful enough to make the world turn round!

  Despite their troubles, the villagers of Marfield were kind and generous people and always welcomed strangers into their midst. Wizard Yaffe had arrived in Marfield Village tired and hungry, having walked many miles without sleep, food and water. His strange clothes quickly