Sir Luke, the dragon slayer.

                                     Luke McGinnis and the fire breathing Dragons.

         Long ago and far away, in a land that saw dragons flying in the sky and twenty-foot crocodiles swimming in pools, there lived a courageous knight named Sir Luke McGinnis. He rode on a huge horse named Stormy and carries a huge broad sword that weighed over twenty pounds.

         The magnificent sword, named dragon slayer,  had notches on its handle. Each notch represented a fire breathing dragon that Luke and struck from the skies with a mighty swing of that huge sword. The heads of these dragons were mounted of the castle walls. Their scary appearance of these severed heads itself was enough to frighten most dragons away.

        When these flying monsters weren’t away bowling at the South Pole or playing Tennis with other dragons, they would swoop down on the local villagers with a breath of fire and then swallow them whole. But, they didn’t do that when Sir Luke was around.

         Sir Luke lived in Altoona Castle with his sister Finley. They did their best to help their neighbors. Just last week. Finley had jumped into the Lake and wrestled with a twenty-foot alligator, who was trying to eat her friend Adeline. Now, the gator’s long snout was stretched out on the castle walls with the dragon’s heads. No nasty gator ever gave Finley any troubles. They knew she would beat them to a pulp.

         Sir Luke rode stormy every day, looking for more dragons to slay. But the dragons were too smart. When they heard Sir Luke was nearby, they flew far away, to lands across the great oceans. They had a big cave there that they lived in. The walls were lined with ugly remains of things that they hunted. Their television set was broken so they were in a grumpy mood. They were very bad dragons. As they sat around their big fire, they wondered how they would best beat  Sir Luke and swallow him whole.

         “Maybe if we dropped lots of magic carrots near his horse Stormy and made Stormy go to sleep, we would have a chance,” said Darryl the Dragon. “A bunch of us could then try and capture Luke while he was on foot.”

         “Perhaps” said old Donnie the dragon. “But we have to figure out a way to get that awful sword away from him.”

        When Sir Luke and Finley made dinner one night, they talked about the dragon’s and alligators that swarmed across the area. As fierce as Sir Luke was, he couldn’t slay them all. There were just too many. And Finley said there were too many alligators too. One had even tried to steal her lunch box last week before she boxed his ears. What were they going to do, they wondered ?

       “What if we called up Mason the Magician and asked him for his help?” asked Finley. “I bet he can figure out something.”

          “That’s a good idea, Finley.” Said Luke. “Mason the magician has an answer for everything. “

            Luke and Finley wrote a very long letter asking Mason for his help. Then they tied the note to an owl’s tail and sent it off to Mason. 

            It arrived a few days later. Mason the magician had to think and think. “How could he help Sir Luke and his sister Finley?” he wondered. He looked through his store of magical things.

            “Hmm” he said.” “The poisoned apple won’t work. Dragons only liked onions and lemons.”

             “Aha!” he thought. “I know. I will send them tums and pepcid and other anti-acids, disguised as candy. Dragons loved Candy.”   And the tums will put out the fires in their belly. So, they won’t able to fly down and breath fire on the local villagers. And he did just that, wrapping the gifts in orange flame cloth so the Dragons would eat it. The gift was too big for an owl’s tail, so he called up the local monkey delivery service and they agreed to carry the gifts to the dragons.

              After a few week, Mason heard from Sir Luke. It was a huge jar of pickled onions, something Mason like very much. Luke reported that the dragons weren’t breathing and fire and had agreed to help the villagers grow more food. The smart villagers used the he beasts to plow the fields and carry things to market.

           Mason hoped Sir Luke would find some other rascals to chase away, for there were always bad people around them trying to steal lunch boxes or not make their beds when their mothers asked them to.

          Finley would have to go on wrestling twenty-foot alligators until Mason could figure out a way to help her defeat them.

             Sir Luke and Finley lived to a ripe old age, older even than Mason. But they never again had to slay a dangerous dragon. And they lived happily ever after even when the television didn’t work.

                                                -30-

                                Joseph Xavier Martin