The Legend
Our story starts in a very poor kingdom in Scotland. Their kingdom was so poor in fact that they could barely afford food. This kingdom is ruled by king Liam who is short, brown haired and he is a pushover. No one has ever been punished by him in all his long years as a ruler. Therefore he had to marry someone in order for the criminals in the kingdom to be punished. He married a beautiful woman named Lidia. She was brave, tough, barely shows emotion and is respected by all the kingdom (basically the opposite of her husband). After some time they had a son named Loyd. Loyd looked just as his father when he grew older in fact the only difference in the two was the king wore a long flowing purple robe while Loyd wore no cape. Loyd is respectful, kind and everyone can act normal around him. This characteristic was very good in their kingdom because all the clothes everyone had were decrepit. When Loyd looked outside a window in his kingdom he got very depressed, there were small children wearing pillow cases that were held together by strings and dogs that were so skinny that you could see every bone in their poor little bodies.
" Mom is there nothing we can do?" asked prince Loyd his face full of worry for the peasants and their companions animal or otherwise who were all starving.
" No my son I told you we are too poor to buy food,we have no farmland that will grow food, and in case you forgot all the cattle died from a disease ." answered Lidia passively as she stared out the window, her head on her hand as she engaged in the boresome conversation that was again taking place.
" What? We are just going to let people starve?" cried Loyd " We can't! Innocent people are dying and you are just going to sit there in no interest for somehow finding a conclusion?"
" what would you like to do? " demanded Lidia finally showing emotion
Loyd cried triumphantly after a few moments of deep thought " I know! The legend! The legend!"
" what about it dear?" asked Lidia calmly
" The legend says :
Go over the Mcnair river,
Not through or you'll lose your quiver,
Go along the path,
Or you will face my wrath,
Don't sleep in that bed,
Or you'll lose your head,
Go through the forest of loch,
Tick-tock,
Then you'll come to a clearing to fight,
the dragon of the light,
To announce your win,
Put his head in the bin,
Then out will come a chest,
Now it is time for you to rest," Loyd said .
"What does that mean?" asked lidia thickly as she finally stopped staring out the window and gazed into her son's rare sky blue eyes that were full of joy and determination.
"The legend is saying that there will be treasure in the chest. I'll go retrieve the treasure in the morning." declared Loyd
The next morning Loyd gathered his stuff (but with great difficulty because he hit his head and then all his thought began to jumble around and became disoriented ) once that task was done he said goodbye to his mom as he marched away.
" Good bye mother, don't let anyone die!" he said as he set off along the twisting winding path. After some time he made it to the Mcnair river.
" how does that rhyme go again?" he asked himself thinking hard "oh yeah, go into the river or lose your quiver." and in he went half way through the river the current suddenly became stronger and stronger then the prince slipped on some moss and fell losing his quiver and bow in the stream. However, he managed to grab on to the bridge next to him by the time he got his footing back his bow and quiver were long gone in the streams current. As suddenly as the current became faster it slowed to the original speed.
"Oh no!" he exclaimed " oh, well I must keep going, besides I still have my sword to thwart any menace that crosses my path. Then he set off again on his chosen path . After a while he thought of walking in the cool grass that had trees for shade. As he put one foot off the path a troll appeared who hit him and got ready to hurt the prince again lest he put his other foot over into the grass, the prince getting the message with drew his foot from the grass reluctantly and then continued along the path.After a two hours of walking he noticed the troll disappeared. The prince knew why too, he spotted a tall and lean figure in the distance .
" hello!" he cried "hello?" Once he got closer he realized it was actually a scarecrow not a person. The scarecrow was dressed in a plaid shirt and overalls. Next to the scarecrow was a king sized bed to sleep in.
" wait a minute, I remember this from the legend." he stepped forward and heaved the tall lean figure of the scarecrow on the bed. Suddenly a giant guillotine blade falls from the sky and chops off the scarecrows head.
" onward!" cried Loyd nervously as he stepped around the giant blade and continued on the path before him. After an hour of walking he came to a dense forest with tall menacing trees.
" the forest of loch!" he cried " I'm almost there" Then off he ran into the deep dark wood. As he gradually started his journey he started to hear a faint tick-tock in the distance and suddenly heard his mother screaming bloody murder. Then the moans of the peasants joined his mother's painfilled screams.
" we are hungry." they moaned " soooooo hungry."
" please no my son is going to come back shortly with food. PLEASE!!!! NO!" she cried helplessly
Then all that was heard was the sound of chewing and dripping of blood on stone. The Queen was dead.
" No!!!!!" cried loyd as he broke out in a run headed for the clearing. His mother could not be dead! She just couldn't be! Not when he was so close to the money that would grant them food! The ticking ceased once he was in the grassy green clearing. There he met the dragon of light. The dragon was 60 ft tall and was coloured like fire.
" hello," said the dragon " who are you ?"
" I am prince loyd of the poorest kingdom in Scotland ." replied he
" well, come on then cut off my head for the treasure, I will not fight the poorest prince in Ireland." said the dragon as he stuck out his long slender neck.
" it is Scotland, not ireland." replied the prince " there is a difference you know."
" but, why not fight me beast?" loyd asked
" because I pity you fool, now come on let us get this over with." the dragon said irritably
With one great swoop off went the dragon's head. Once the head was firmly placed in the basket that sprung out of the wall a chest as black and evil looking as possible popped out. Once it was out Loyd grabbed the chest and put the head back on the dragon.
" you got the chest." it announced "not surprising actually"
" yeah and you are going to fly me home, I am not going through that wretched forest again. No way!"
" very well" the dragon sighed. The dragon then laid down so the prince could climb on and off they flew, when they finally reached the kingdom everyone gathered in the palace and they opened the box. Suddenly everyone except the dragon fell down on their knees. Then as the poison sunk in they all eventually dropped down in an eternal slumber. Dead, they were Dead and no one could wake up the victims of a good deed gone wrong. The dragon picked up the chest and flew home to wait for his next victim.
" up in heaven you'll be
For eternity" announced the dragon as he flew off.
How ever not everyone was in that chamber. the king, Was preparing a special treat for the prince since he saved the kingdom ( or so the king thought). When the king finally returned the poison had dispersed so he could not join his wife, son or all his court in the deep eternal, peaceful, silent slumber which death was so strongly present. The king being so slow to process this realized he was alone and no one could take care of him. That is when the king decided to go to another kingdom and start a new life pretending to be his son. All the king had to do was put his cape on loyd. However when he did the king thought he saw Loyd move twitch, even. Then off went the king I mean " Loyd" to start a new life as a poor peasant. Later "Loyd" got married to a Queen and lived a long and prosperous life, that is until he met the dragon again. The dragon saw him for who he truly was and killed him two years after his marriage with the same poison that killed his wife and son three years ago and so ends the mcnair family line.
