The Great Fairy Book

The Dragon and the Mouse

The Dragon and the Mouse

There once was a beautiful castle, on top of a high mountain. In that castle, lived a dragon. He was a very big dragon, but he did not like hunting for food. Big dragons need a lot of food, you know. But the dragon had found a solution. He caught a beautiful princess and kept her in his highest tower. Many princes and knights came to save her, but the dragon ate them all. He liked the taste of princes better than the taste of knights, to be honest, but he couldn't be picky.

One day, the dragon was very hungry, but there weren't any princes around. He couldn't even find a knight, so he caught the little brown mouse that ran between his paws. He brought it up to his mouth, but-

"Wait!" cried the mouse.

The dragon stopped, holding the mouse up by its tail. "What is it, little snack?"

"Well," squeaked the mouse, hanging upside down, "I am too small to be a decent meal, don't you think?"

The dragon blew out a puff of smoke from his nostrils and the mouse coughed. "What should I do with you then?" asked the dragon. "You are a nice little snack, and I am very hungry."

"What if I found you another princess?" asked the little mouse. "Then more knights would come to save the princesses, and you would get more food-not just a little snack like me."

The dragon frowned and thought about it. "You know, I don't really like knights. All that armour gets stuck between my teeth, and you have no idea how hard it is to find good toothpicks of my size. But alright, little one, if you bring me another princess, I'll leave you alone."

He let go of the mouse and then went to look for something else to eat.

The little mouse left the castle and went down the road, hoping to find a princess. But of course, there weren't any princesses around. The only one on the road was big knight on a horse. The little mouse ran towards him.

"Knight!" called the mouse. "Knight!"

The knight looked around, but he didn't see anyone. He thought he had imagined the voice and drove on.

"Down here!" squeaked the mouse.

The knight looked down and saw the mouse. He stopped to get off his horse and bent down. "Yes?" he asked.

"Hey, knight," said the mouse, "can you help me? I have a plan to save the princess."

The next day, the mouse returned to the castle, with the knight dressed up as a princess. He showed the princess to the dragon, and the dragon was pleased.

"Well done, little snack," he said and he grinned, showing his long and sharp teeth. The mouse could even see some bits of armour between the dragon's teeth, from the last knight who tried to save the princess. "She's not as pretty as the other princess, but it's good enough. I'll leave you alone."

The dragon took the disguised knight up to the highest tower and put him in the same room as the princess. The mouse slipped in just before the dragon locked the door.

"Who are you?" asked the beautiful princess with a frown. "I've never seen you before, and I know every princess there is."

The knight pulled off his wig and said, "I am a knight and I've come to save you, princess!"

"Oh," said the princess. "And how do you plan to do that? I've been stuck in this tower for ages and if there was a way out, I would have found it. Besides, all the other knights who tried ended up in the dragon's belly."

The knight smiled and pulled a rope from under his dress. "We'll tie this rope to your bed and climb out of the window."

"Oh. Yes, well, that could work."

The knight pointed to the mouse and said, "It was all his idea."

The mouse climbed on the bed. "Let's get out of here," he squeaked.

The knight and the princess climbed down the tower with the mouse on the knight's shoulder. When they were safely on the ground, the knight ran towards his horse, but the princess said, "Wait!"

She went back to the castle and locked the front door with a big key. "Now that dragon can never catch another princess, or eat another knight," she said.

They rode back to the princess's kingdom where the knight and the princess were married. The knight was so grateful to the mouse he offered him a chest full of gold and very big castle. But the mouse didn't want it.

So in the end they appointed him royal cheese taster, and the mouse really couldn't refuse that.

The End.

~

If you enjoyed this, you might like my longer fairy tale "Heart of Stone".

Thank you for reading!