A story of a wise shoe-maker and

a dreadful dragon

I LICEUM OGOLNOKSZTALCACE IM. MIKOLAJA KOPERNIKA W TORUN POLAND

Story illustrated by Attila Leszl

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nce upon a time in Kraków, in the south of Poland, there live an old king

called Krak. He was a very good ruler and together with his wife enjoyed their

peaceful life. The citizens of Kraków were also happy as their king and queen

governed well and fairly so both the city itself and its neighborhood became really

prosperous.

Unfortunately, one day there came an unexpected and cruel guest. It was a dragon,

which settled down in a cave just next to the defensive walls of Kraków. As the area was

really wealthy, the monster found it to be a marvelous place to stay. It could eat the animals

being bred around and drink water straight from the Vistula river flowing through the city.

After some time, however, when the dragon, which was always hungry, had devoured

all the horses, cows, sheep, and pigs available, it decided to launch a habit of eating two

citizens of Kraków every day to satisfy its hunger. The wisest people of the city started to

think how to get rid of the dragon but no one was able to come up with an effective idea.

One day, though, there appeared a young shoe-maker, who had travelled around

Poland. At the beginning nobody treated him seriously when he claimed that he knew how to

solve the problem. The king, however, got interested in his plan.

One day, the king summoned him to the court. The young shoe-maker was standing

in front of him. He was dressed poorly in a patchy brown robe.

“Young man, I heard that you have an idea. How do you intend to get rid of this

plague?” asked the king.

“Your majesty, I don’t think that you will believe my story but let me begin. I was a

knight in the Order of Sleheyron. Our duty was to defend the humans from the threat of dark

O

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magic. A few months later a dragon attacked a village. My family was living in that village,

too.

There was only one way to defeat a dragon. My mentor had a sword with

a crystal inlaid in its hilt. It was the sword of Sleheyron, the founder of the

Order. I didn’t have time for anything else, so I took the sword without my

mentor’s permission. Yet, my effort was in vain…When I arrived in the

village, it was already on fire. My family was already dead, only few people

were still alive. It was a tough fight. I left the dragon with a scar. Even so the

sword exploded when I hit the dragon. He left and I never heard of him

again. After that I was exiled because I had stolen the sword.

Nevertheless, before I left I took this.” And the young shoe-

maker took out a green shiny crystal from his pouch.

“Let me guess! That’s the crystal from the sword of

Sleheyron… A very interesting story, young one. I don’t know

if I should believe you but I’m so desperate that I’ll let you try

your luck, but before you leave, I would like to know your

name…”, said the king smiling.

“Lyonell Dulake, my majesty. Thank you for believing my story. I will see what I can

do. Let’s hope that the crystal is as powerful alone as it was in the sword” answered the

young “knight” and shortly after he left the room.

“Is this our hero? Is this the one that will save us? We shall see…” thought old Krak

scratching his beard…

After two days of preparations young Lyonell Dulake was standing in front of the

dragon’s cave equipped with his old armour . He entered the cave and looked around. He took

the crystal out of his pouch. He whispered a few words and the crystal started to shine very

powerfully. It had a lot of energy…

“By the name of Sleheyron, I command you to

show yourself and answer to my bidding!” said

the young knight. He heard some large

footsteps and after that, from the dark he

could see the giant face of a black

familiar dragon… Shortly after he

recognized the scar made by him. It

was the same one that killed his

family long ago…The dragon

kicked him with his huge tail

and broke the crystal. It

exploded and the flow of

energy seemed to be absorbed

by the dragon.

“Finally, I can feel the power

flowing through my veins!

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Nobody can defeat me now. All the villages will be on fire! I became unstoppable!” ,

bellowed the dragon and flew out of the cave.

Young Lyonell Dulake fell on his knees on the cave’s floor. He watched helplessly the

dragon as he flew out of the cave.

“No!…It can’t be!…No!...”…

…The dragon now was more terrible, his magic powers let him be as a cloud, to move

as fast as the wind, be as light as a feather and he could become a simple

sheep or a horrible ogre. And, as he was a cloud dragon, he was

the only able to throw fire and rays through his mouth. He

attacked the villages only for pleasure, to hear the

villager’s screams when he appeared.

Our young shoe maker was desperate

because this was the second time he had been

defeated by the dragon. So he decided to come

back to his own village thinking about how to

kill the dragon.

One stormy day, a special customer

got into his shop. This was a wizard in a

disguise of a poor man and he asked to make

some shoes. The young man felt sorrow and he

made them very carefully. The client was so

pleased that he gave a bag of gold coins. The poor man confessed that he was a wizard and he

told the boy the solution to save the city of Krakow from the dragon. He had to follow his

orders strictly. Firstly, he would travel to Toledo to buy a sword and he had to look for a

weird plant in the mountains called “the poisonous Dalia” with which he would make a

potion which would make the dragon sleep forever.

Our young gentleman got to the Mountains and after getting all the items, he had some

coins left with which he paid some hunters to kill a golden eagle to make a flying shoes with

his skin…

The young shoemaker took the challenge to avenge the loss of his family and help the

city.

He began a long journey through the mountains, to Toledo, where he bought a knife.

Hiding in the forests of wild animals, he slept in caves until he found the plant "poisonous

Dahlia", which he used to make the sleeping potion.

The shoemaker now had everything necessary to confront the man-eating dragon.

Back in the old land he could not recognize the city. There was no trace of green fields,

castles, river, industrious peasants. Everything was burnt, and few other people were hiding in

the woods in case the king had been captured in the cave. The young shoemaker started to

weep at the sight of this view and believed that this time he should succeed.

For a few days he was watching the cave to see the dragon's habits and develop a plan. Every

morning before stepping out in search of food the villain harassed the king. He fattened him

because he was too skinny to become his food. After seeing why the king was needed, the

young shoemaker had another idea.

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He set a trap and caught a rabbit, killed it and filled with a decoction of poisonous

herbs. Even small, it would be a chunk for the dragon.

One morning when the sun rose, the dragon took off, and the shoemaker took

advantage of it and came into his lair. Inside he saw everything wrapped in cobwebs. It

looked terrible. The shoemaker took a knife and began to release the captive. Unfortunately,

that very day the dragon returned earlier, it found the intruder inside the cave. The young man

had just cut down the last thread of the spider web. Seeing the terrible beast, a little scared but

still alert, pulled the rabbit and threw it over the dragon’s nose. He grasped the king and with

the flying shoes, made of a killed eagle, they both strolled off from the dragon’s cave. The

dragon went to chase them, but it was so hungry and greedy that it prefered the juicy bunny.

It devoured it in one bite and an hour later it closed its eyes in eternal sleep.

When people heard about the salvation of the king everybody returned to the city and set it up

again. They barricaded the cave and erected a monument in honor of the cobbler - saviour.

He, in turn, opened his workshop, married a beautiful girl and lived

quietly, with his family.

The king was so happy that raised the celebration, which lasted three

days and three nights.

But what they didn’t know was that the dragon wasn’t

really dead. Out of his blood grew a young dragon that grew four

times faster than his father. In one week, he had the power

nobody had seen until then. Fortunately for the citizens, he did

not know about the power that laid inside him.

Something that was more important than his existence

appeared in our shoemaker’s life– a son. This son was lonely

and never understood. His name was Alexander. He spent his

days singing and playing his flute like an angel. And just like

any genius, his music didn’t come from any teacher or master

of the world, but from the chords of his heart. Flowers

bloomed and even the most fearsome became

docile as he sang his beautiful lullabies. In his

world there was no evil, just good and peace.

One day he got lost while he was guarding the goat herd. He ventured near a sealed

cave that he did not know about. While singing, there was a great earthquake and the old

monument that covered the entrance fell. Alexander was fearless and got inside it. Among the

ruins he saw a pair of big sparkling scared eyes.

“Don’t worry! I won’t harm you!” Alexander said in a sweet voice.

The creature raised his head from the rocks and came towards the young boy. At his

sight, Alexander tried to touch him, but the dragon roared and went back. The boy started

playing his flute, when suddenly, he heard a weird voice inside his head. He stopped his

lullaby, and looked around…there was nobody there but him and the creature. Looking into

his eyes, Alexander could see that the fear was gone, its place being taken by kindness. They

could feel a connection.

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The next moment the dragon started making funny sounds. Alexander couldn’t

understand what he wanted to say. He once again started to play his flute and, to his surprise,

realised that he could understand what the dragon said.

“Who are you?” Alexander asked once again.

“I don’t know who I am ! My mind is blank! I’ve been living inside this cave for as

long as I remember! Thank you for setting me free!”

Every day, the boy visited his new friend while he was grazing the goats. One day he

had an idea.

“Why don’t you come with me in the city? We would be closer then!” Alexander said.

The dragon accepted immediately - he got lonely from living inside his small cave.

They flew over the plains and the river and crossed the walls of the city. Barely had they

landed in the street, when people started shouting and running like crazy. They tried to attack

the dragon, so he flew on the roofs. In his mind thousands of images crossed. He then

remembered the fate of his father and remembered that he was to revenge him. He gathered

air in his lungs and…

The sense of compassion in his heart died down, instead there came up rageful

eyebeams and a heart flaming with vengeance. He, on the one hand was keeping on ravaging

the city, on the other hand was thinking about his true friend Alexander. He wavered between

fidelity and vindication. On the one hand, he haunted the annihilation of his father, on the

other hand, he was thinking about the harm his friend, who saved him from the cave he had

been imprisoned for years, did to the people he loved.

The bemused dragon went to Heaven’s Waterfall to think by ending his destructive

harm. The sound of the waterfall made him relax and calmed him down. Relaxed giant fell

asleep after a while.

In the meantime a few people following the dragon took advantage of the dragon’s

sleeping and called for other people. Among the people who took the news there was

Alexander as well. He couldn’t witness blatantly the dragon’s having been caught and killed.

He had to do something because Alexander had seen the innocence inside his eyes. He

thought the things he did was all the screeches of a boy who had lost his father. A short

paragraph came up to his mind from a magic book he had bought as he once was interested

in.

The paragraph said: “The dragons are big animals. The sleep of these big animals is

deep just as themselves. The only way for them to wake up is to sneeze via dust particles

escaped their noses. He thought of saving him by applying this method so that he could save

him. Right after somehow he was going to speak out to the whole city that the dragon wasn’t

as vicious as his father. Meanwhile the whole city gathered. They were walking to the

Heaven’s Waterfall with the screams of revenge. Alexander had to reach the Heaven’s

Waterfall earlier than them. He wore his flying shoes and set off…

Thanks to his shoes, he managed to arrive at the place before the citizens, who

meanwhile were preparing themselves by picking up axes, hayforks, clubs, spears, swords

and other items which would eventually do a lot of harm to the monster. Finally, they lit up

the torches and continued approaching the dragon’s hideout. At the same time, Alexander was

already trying to wake up his friend. None of the methods he tried ended up successfully,

beginning with tickling his nose in order to produce the sneeze , and ending with thrusting

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the pin in his eye. He was helpless, as he fell down on his knees and realized there was

nothing he could do. The worst thing was that he was standing by the dragon, but couldn’t

help the situation. Bitter tears ran to his eyes. He felt other people coming and the fear took

over his mind. Alexander felt the raindrop on his temple. Not only the torturers were coming.

After that, he didn’t precisely realize what was going on around. He saw things like through

the fog; men with weapons approaching the dragon, the arrows swish, screams, fire, the rain

in its apogee, the shadows and shapes and finally the horrifying roar of the dragon. Now, the

only thing Alexander was hearing was this terrifying noise, mixed with people’s screams, full

of rage and the wish of revenge. The last thing he felt was the pair of strong arms, lifting him

up. Then, darkness shrouded the world.

Alexander was captured by the town guards. The dragon was dead, butchered by the

enraged crowd, and the hero was going to be publicly executed for treason. All of the Kraków

citizens gathered in the market by the town hall, where the whole thing was going to happen.

The hero was ready for death, feeling no connection to this world anymore. He was going to

be hanged at noon and nothing changed it, as he was standing at the platform with the gibbet

among the silent crowd. The air was fresh after the last night’s rainstorm. The executioner put

the slipknot on Alexander’s neck and his hand was already on the lever. But he didn’t pull it,

because he noticed everyone was staring at something above the city walls. At first sight, it

was a storm cloud. It was huge. Enormous. It covered the whole sky and the sun, making

everything darker. Lightnings cracked the air and people realized it wasn’t a cloud. It was a

giant hord of creatures. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions, and more and more were coming.

The executioner pulled the lever as the dragons reached the walls. It was quicker than

everyone thought it could be. Smoke, fire, destroyed buildings, screams, beggings and silence

afterwards. It happened fast; everything razed to the ground. Completely everything. There

was nothing left. Nothing except one man, grasped by one of the creatures just in time, before

the hell began and being transported above flames and ashes. When this man woke up, he saw

the dragon who saved him and asked him:

”Why did you spare me?”

The dragon looked deep in the eye of the one who asked the question.

“Because you wanted to save one of our brothers.”

And without any further explanations, the creature left him alone at the hill outside the

city ruins. Alexander was looking at him joining his kinsmen and flying away into the sunset.

The end