Dragons and flowers
One May morning, old Aunt Mary Moses was walking along by the shores of the Loe Pool, gathering armfuls of wildflowers to decorate her cottage. Mary loved red campion and laid them thick in her basket, she found white ox-eye daisies, pretty pink thrift, bright blue spring squill and creamy yellow buttercups. She was kneeling and choosing the perfect bloom when a huge shadow moved above her. She didn’t think much of it and dismissed it as a rain cloud. But then it passed again and she looked curiously up at the sky. There, flying right above her, was a giant dragon with fiery red wings and green snakeskin scales on its huge strong tail. It was as if one of the serpentine rocks of Lizard Point had heaved itself into the sky. The creature appeared to be heading for the town of Helston and Mary feared for all her nieces and nephews at school. Mary thought of all the children playing in the school field and she thought of the fire and smoke the dragon would blow at them and she screwed up her eyes tight and wished the dragon away on the wind.
Mary watched the dragon expecting him to be coursing through the air at speed, she could see that the dragon was not flying as it should. In fact, it was turning in the air and struggling against an invisible opponent. The incredible dragon curled its great tail about its belly and wailed, snakeskin wings flapped listlessly in slow motion and for a moment a huge shadow hung above the Loe Pool. As Aunt Mary Moses watched, the Helston dragon fell with an almighty splash out of the sky and into the water. Mary was soaked right to her shift with the force of water spraying out of the pool following the dragon’s fall. All was quiet as could be by the shores of the Loe Pool. Mary stood very still holding her basket and watched to see what would happen next. As she crept to the edge of the water, all she could see were one of the wings and an enormous scaley belly floating on the pool. The dragon was surely dead and Helston had been saved.
With great excitement she wove some of the flowers into a garland for her hair and walked all the way to town. ‘The dragon is gone,’ she cried as she walked through the streets, ‘let the dancing begin.’ All the children ran from the school gates with their teachers and Mary handed out soggy wildflowers for them to make garlands for their hair. ‘Decorate the town with flowers,’ sang Mary. ‘Call the town band. We’re to have a Furry to celebrate like never before.’ The first Furry dance took place through the streets of Helston as everybody in the town came out to dance and sing to celebrate the freeing of the town from the enormous scaly red, and green dragon that had terrorized them for so long. Aunt Mary happily held the small hands of a niece and nephew as they danced with pinks, blues, yellows, and white flowers in their hair. She didn’t for a moment notice that her dress was soaking from the dragon’s last splash.