The Kingdom without a Dragon Chapter 1

                              Chapter One.

                           A Small Country.

          Somewhere along The Great South Road lay the Kingdom of Minisculia. If you had closed your eyes for a short nap whilst being driven along that particular stretch of the road, you may well have missed seeing the Kingdom at all.

It was not a very large country. It was just a narrow strip of land on either side of a wide river. The west end of the country was in the mountains where the river had its source. The eastern end was where the river widened out and ran into the sea.

Even if you kept your eyes open you would not have seen much. Minisculia was boring as well as thin. The river was just an ordinary bit of water, not very wide and only just too deep to be forded. It had no rapids or waterfalls. It did not flood and cover the plains with rich silt like some other rivers do. The bridge which carried The Great South Road over the river, was much the same as many other bridges. The boats which sailed on the water were very much like boats anywhere.

There had never been any important battles nor any major disasters. The country had produced no great heroes or heroines. Not one of its kings or queens had achieved international fame. The people were much like people anywhere, most good, some bad. None of the good were so good they became saints and none of the bad were so wicked as to be spoken of in hushed tones.

The land was not very rich nor was it very poor. It was a pleasant place to live, if incredibly dull. The people who lived there like it that way. The rest of the world left them alone to get on with their lives in peace. If the truth was to be told, the country only existed because it stopped its neighbours going to war with each other.

The present King and Queen were not as happy to be ignored as were their subjects. They did not want to go to war and conquer the world or anything like that. They just wanted to be remembered when invitations were sent out for Weddings, Christenings, Balls and such like things.

Queen Roberta felt most strongly about it. There was always something going on in the other countries. She read about them in the newspapers and got very upset. She would dearly liked to have been invited to some of the Weddings. People did not mean to ignore them. They just somehow seemed to forget Minisculia existed.

Eventually King Simon could take no more of his wife’s complaints. He decided that something had to be done. The fact that he made this decision after he had yet again not been invited to the Annual Kings Hunt had nothing to do with it.

King Simon sent for the Butler, Mr. Lawrence. He was also the Prime Minister and every other government official too. So little went on in the country that it saved a lot of money by having one person do all these jobs. Mr. Lawrence was a clever man and usually had some good ideas.

"We really must do something to put the Kingdom on the map," said the King. "We have had enough of being ignored by everybody."

"But, Sire, we are on the map," replied the Butler.

An Atlas was sent for. The three looked through it. Sure enough, Minisculia was on the map. You could see it quite clearly, with a large magnifying glass.

"You see, your Majesties, we are on the map." said Mr. Lawrence, pointing to the page.

"That is not quite what I meant," snapped King Simon. "We need something to make people look closely enough at the map to find us."

"And quickly!" snapped Queen Roberta. "There is a Wedding in Fortunia in three months time and I would like to be invited."

"I will do my best, your Majesties," promised the Butler.

The very next day he presented his ideas to the Royal couple.

"There is only one main road though our country. We could put up a road block and charge everybody to cross the River," was his first idea.

King Simon shook his head. "That would probably upset people you know and we are trying to be friendly with them."

"In that case, we could build a Tavern by the bridge and encourage travellers to stop and eat. If the food was good enough then people would talk about it and the fame of our country would spread." That was the Butler’s next suggestion.

Queen Roberta shook her head. "If might well work, but surely that would take a long time, building an Inn and so on."

"The Queen is right, you know. We need something which will give instant results. Though the Tavern is a good idea. We should have built one years ago." King Simon said.

The Butler was not finished. "Perhaps we could organise a Grand Fireworks display on barges in the river."

"Tried that," sniffed the King. "We sent out hundreds of invitations, but only those who live in Minisculia turned up."

"Flower show?" the Butler persevered.

"Same problem," replied the Queen. "Besides these things cost money and we need something cheap. Anyway we do not want people to come here. We want them to invite us there!"

"That really does make it much harder," said the Butler.

"What we need is something which will get into all the newspapers in all these other countries," mused King Simon. "Something that will make them sit up and take notice."

The Butler walked around the room with his hands clasped behind his back. He found thinking easier that way. The sad monarchs sat and watched him.

Suddenly he clicked his fingers. "Got it!" he shouted. "What we need is a Dragon."

"I beg your pardon," said the startled King. "A Dragon! There is precious little of the country as it is without half of it being burnt up by a nasty fire-breathing Dragon."

"That is not quite what I had in mind," smiled the Butler. "What I was thinking of was a tame Dragon."

The monarchs looked puzzled.

"Please, Your Majesties, "Leave it with me. I will organise everything. And I promise you there will be no damage to the kingdom."

Reluctantly King Simon agreed to let the Butler do what he wanted. "Just remember that it should not cost too much as we will need to buy clothes and things, if your idea works that is."