Treasury of Fairy Tales

The Dragon and the Baker

By Nina Boyd

Once upon a time there was a very ugly dragon who hated everyone and everything. 

He lived alone in a dark, dank cave, never seeing the sunlight and inhaling the damp mustiness formed by hundreds of years. 

He had never been happy, exactly, but he also didn't desire anything beyond the life he had. 

One day, an amiable sort of fellow happened upon the cave, not knowing that a misanthropic dragon lived there. 

The man's first mistake was to be whistling while he entered the cave, and the cheery sound bounced merrily off the walls, which hardly knew what to do with such a noise. 

The dragon awoke abruptly from his slumber, pupils narrowing to slits at the intrusion. 

The amiable fellow had no idea what was in store for him, and so continued down deeper into the cave, leaving the sunlight behind him. 

The dragon lumbered to his feet. The cave walls shook with every move he made. 

A distance away, the amiable fellow paused, wondering at the shaking.

He had heard stories of the earth shaking before, but these wondrous tales had always been from outsiders visiting his village. It was not something that happened here. 

He moved back a few steps, hesitating--should he flee? 

But then a hellish glow rose up from the depths of the cave before him, and it was too late. 

He knew the smell of dragon fire well, as his brother had long been adventuring to slay dragons, and came home often with singed clothes smelling of the stuff. 

The beastly monster now rose before him, gnashing his terrible teeth and breathing up a storm of smoke. 

The amiable man screamed, and the dragon closed its horrible mouth. It seemed confused. The dragon leaned towards him and poked him with one ghastly claw. 

The trembling man tried to hold his breath. Sweat poured down his forehead and he closed his eyes, ready for the end. 

Suddenly the dragon threw back his head and laughed. The sound ricocheted off the cave walls. Fire poured out and lit the whole scene nightmarishly. 

The man opened one eye cautiously. 

"Are you afraid of me?" the dragon growled incredulously. 

The man, who couldn't decide if it would benefit him to lie, replied, "I'm sure a magnificent creature such as yourself would know the answer to such a question." 

"I do believe you are!" the dragon exclaimed, walking a full circle around the man, his long tail brushing the walls of the very wide cave.

"You know, I've never met a person face to face," the dragon continued. "I've avoided everyone by hiding in this cave. You are the first one to come into it." 

The man did not know what to say to this. 

"You shall live here," the dragon declared, picking the man up between two of his claws and setting him down several yards from where he'd been before, now much closer to the heart of the cave. 

"But, but," the man sputtered, "I have a home in the village in which I'm quite content. Surely I could still live there and come to visit you often?" 

The dragon looked very put out by this suggestion, and the man fell silent. 

"You shall stay here," the dragon went on, "and be my friend. You shall be my eyes to the outside world." 

"A great beast like yourself could be much better eyes than mine," the man coaxed. "You could fly high above the kingdom and view everything you wanted." 

"And dodge the constant archers' arrows or knights' swords when I finally land?" the dragon demanded. "I think not!" 

"Well," the man said, resigned to his difficult position, "I suppose I must stay here, then..." 

The dragon sat back on his enormous haunches, satisfied. 

"But what am I to eat, and where am I to sleep?" the man asked. 

"You shall find food in the village," the dragon answered, "and you shall sleep by me." 

"This cave has too hard of surfaces for a human," the man said. "I have no dragon hide to cushion me." 

"You shall sleep in a bed of leaves just outside my cave then," the dragon said finally. 

"And where will I get the money to buy the food?" the man asked.  

"You shall keep earning your living in the village," the dragon said. 

"So I must work in the village, eat in the village, and sleep on the border of the village," the man said slowly. "But I must spend the rest of the time with you." 

"That is correct," the dragon said triumphantly. 

"I work every day from morning 'til night," the man said, "and at nightfall I sleep." 

"Then you cannot spend any time with me," the dragon deduced mournfully. 

"That is correct," the man said triumphantly. 

The dragon snorted. "Then I have no choice but to accompany you wherever you go," he said. 

The man was alarmed. The dragon would hardly fit in the kitchen of his bakery. 

"You are not to leave until morning," the dragon said, "and I will follow you to work." 

The next morning, the man arose and the dragon followed him into the village, tail swinging this way and that, sweeping carts and people to the side of the roads in its wake.

The man apologized profusely to everyone, but could not stay to help, as he had to hurry to open his bakery in time for the morning rush. 

"You must stay out of the way," he instructed the dragon. "Perhaps by the side of the building. You can stick your head through the window and watch everything, but don't scare away my customers." 

The dragon followed his directions and contentedly stuck his head through the large back window, watching everything with great interest. 

He watched the man drag wood from the back to the large overworked oven, stack the wood and stoke the fire himself, then wash his hands to handle the dough, then repeat the process every few hours. The dragon watched all of this and a shadow of an idea began to form in his head.

At the day's end, he knew what to ask. 

"Let me provide your fire," he said to the man. "Then you may work only the dough, and not worry about your oven." 

The man thought it over. "All right," he said, "You will live with me, in the forest behind my cottage, and you will hunt at night for however long you please, and I shall make a dozen loaves of bread for you for your trouble."

The dragon thought this over. Then he remembered a term he had heard all day in the bakery. "As long as it's a baker's dozen," he said. 

The man laughed and agreed, and he and the dragon lived happily ever after. 

The End