Maddy's Dragon Tale

It was deep into January, on a very dark cold night never before seen by the residents of Gig Harbor. Snow was falling hard and fast; in fact, it was snowing up a blizzard and the temperatures were rapidly dropping below freezing. By the morning's light, the entire town would be undulated under a foot of thick snow. The town children would be shouting with glee, finally getting a chance to use the new sleds and toboggans they had gotten for Christmas. Snowmen would be built, complete with carrot noses, coal black eyes, and wearing old Mackintosh jackets, once upon a time belonging to their fathers. Little girls would fall backwards in the snow to create wispy snow angels as their mothers laughed at the cuteness of it all.

However, on this night, things felt a little out of the ordinary, just a bit off kilter. Almost as though someone had peeked in your window and ... you felt it. It did not matter that you could not see anyone. You just ...knew. In addition, you felt just a little unclean ... a little dirty that someone had queered into your private moments. At least that is how it felt to Maddy, the local bag lady.

Standing in the doorway of a small warehouse on one of the tiny, dark alleys off Main Street, she stood shivering, stomping her feet to keep the circulation going. Blood never seemed to flow very fast when you got old and it was a never-ending battle keeping warm when the weather turned into winter.

Tonight, she was trying to stay warm with newspapers she had wrapped around and underneath her thin jacket. She had come out of the warehouse, where she sometimes slept in an empty storeroom, to smoke one of the cigarette butts folks threw down on the sidewalks. She spent a good part of her days looking for them, along with bottles she could turn in for the change.

As she puffed at the short and stumpy old soldier, Maddy could feel an unusual electrical charge in the air. The hair on her arms stood fiercely erect and her hair moved with a life not of the wind's making. She sighed. It always started this way. One minute, she would be quietly minding her own business and the next; she would be somewhere she could never quite put her finger on. It was most disconcerting, to say the least, but she was afraid to mention it to anyone.

If they knew some of the thoughts that went through her mind during these moments, she would be in Piney Ridge, the rest home for old derelicts, instead of living her life the way she liked. It might be a bit haphazard and even downright uncomfortable at times, but it was her choice. That is, she had a choice except when these strange feelings started to come over her.

Suddenly, right in the middle of her musings, she heard a loud sound. A sharp clanging that rattled her nerves down to the pink fuzzy mules on her feet. Tilting her head, her eyes closed against the stinging bite of snow, she listened. The noise was just below the level of the wind and most people would not have heard it behind their closed windows and doors.

Even so, Maddy was not surprised. She always heard a noise before one of her "attacks". Belatedly, she wished she had not felt the urge for a quick smoke this night and had stayed curled up on her tiny little cot. Reluctantly, her feet started toward the corner and Maddy was not sure she could have stopped them from doing so. Cautiously, she went to investigate the noise. Closer and closer she crept, her feet dragging closer to something yet unnamed.

On the corner, a soda machine was making a grinding noise. It rocked softly backwards and forwards and back again, reminiscent of a child rocking a hobbyhorse. Maddy, unconsciously dreading what might happen next, walked to the machine. Out of habit, she checked the change return for forgotten coins, but found nothing. As she leaned into more than against the machine, she also lifted the small silver cover, revealing the dark hole where she sometimes found a can of cream soda. She suspected the owner of the warehouse Mr. Moore sometimes left it there for her, knowing her penchant for the drink. Just as she suspected he knew she slept inside the warehouse. He often seemed to forget to lock the little door on the south side of the building when the weather was bad. Nevertheless, Maddy was not one to question her luck too far and she made it a practice to sweep out the warehouse every once in awhile. Just in case.

Suddenly, a beam of light shot out of the machine cover, a black glass insert with the words "Get Your Cold Drinks Here!" written on it. It streamed out, undulating like a brilliant white snake, striking Maddy in the middle of her forehead. The force, immense enough to throw her down on the sidewalk, flowed around her hair, in and out of her eyes and mouth with a bright pulsating glow. Maddy screamed and mercifully passed out.

*******

In the very next instant it seemed, Maddy woke up, "I... I... What happened?" she moaned. Her head was pounding and flashes of red and green scrambled across her range of vision. She carefully stood up, holding onto the side of the soda machine to keep from falling. "Whoa" . . . she thought. "I must have hit my head." She faintly remembered the flash of blinding white light. Then, she realized she was not holding onto the machine anymore. Instead, a large rectangular stone stood before her. Strange writing covered an ebony escarpment protruding out from the stone, slanting over her head. She had to lean backwards on her heels to see the entire thing. She realized she could see her reflection in the shiny black surface, as though it were a mirror. She gasped in alarm and fell back, falling onto the ground beneath her.

Maddy staggered to her feet and scrambled away from the stone. Breathing heavily, she held her hand over her heart, pressing it down hard, hoping it would not come crashing out where it could be seen. She looked back at the stone and it drew her back, seemingly to insist on her presence. Unwilling to return, she tried to escape, but her feet no longer listened, treading of their own accord back to the monument, for Maddy knew it was more than just a mere stone. She had a fleeting glimpse of something inside the sheen, and it made her afraid.

However, while trying to walk forwards and backwards at the same time, she stumbled and fell to the ground. As she tried to regain her footing, she noticed her right hand. Only it was not a hand any longer. Instead, a large hoof was attached to the end of her arm. Maddy gaped, astonished. "What? What is this?" She scrambled crab-like back to the stone and looked up into the glass-like reflection. Using her one good hand, (the hoof would not grip the side of the smooth stone) she tapped against it. Her face was no longer her face. Instead, a long, roman-nosed equine profile faced her in the reflection. "I'm a horse." She cried, as fat salty tears formed at the corners of her large brown eyes. "A horse, a silly white horse!"

Maddy felt a strange sensation. Looking down, she now saw both of her feet had also turned into a hoof like the one on her right hand. Her body, now covered in soft, white hair, was changing, stretching. She watched in dismay as her left hand also transformed into a hoof, causing her old watch to clatter to the ground. Sprouting from her shoulders, massive wings appeared, already fluttering gently in the air. Suddenly, Maddy felt the sensation of being very light on her feet - or hooves in her current situation.

However, Maddy did not notice the loss as she trotted quickly away from the stone. Standing in the heather, she stamped a hoof, wondering what she had done to cause such an affliction. Gathering her wits and some little courage about her, she returned to the stone and leaped in a decidedly unladylike bound to the top of it. Maddy leaned down closer, gazing intently at the black glass.

Inside the shimmering surface, she could see other creatures. Some looked like fairies with gossamer wings, flitting about thousands of flowers in brilliant hues of ruby red, golden yellow and azure blue wings. Others were small and dainty white and black unicorns, flashing their golden horns, prancing in great circles around a lovely emerald green meadow. A momentary tinge of jealousy blossomed in Maddy's chest, as she realized how chunky and unsightly she seemed compared to the unicorns and fairies.

Abruptly Maddy's newly acquired weight caused the monument to tip over, leaving Maddy lying spraddle-legged across the top of it. She felt herself sink into the black glass, which had now magically changed into a clear pool of water. The next thing she knew, she was swimming frantically for the shore making a somewhat feeble attempt at a doggy paddle. She was not sure horses knew how to swim in the first place! After swallowing what felt like half the water in the pool, Maddy reached the shore. She gratefully crawled up the bank.

Gulping air and breathing rather heavily, Maddy sat down and tried to take stock of the situation. Everyone, with the exception of herself, appeared to be fragile, ethereal creatures. Closer to the unicorns, Maddy could now see they were almost transparent and their golden horns flashed like sunbeams. "Wow!" she thought! I am the only solid person here! (She mentally refused to think of herself as a horse, especially one who could fly.) Out of the corner of her left eye, easy now that it was on the side of her face instead of in the middle, Maddy saw another creature, a monster of some kind, headed toward the dancing unicorns and fairies.

The newcomer looked suspiciously like a black dragon. Except this dragon stood at least 20 feet tall at the shoulders, with wings that fanned the air hard enough to create a dust storm. His head was shaped like a pig's head with eyes that were small, beady, and full of hate. The round, porcine-like head had tusks 4 feet in length, hanging from a huge, distended mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. The monster's body was covered in glossy black scales, each the size of a dinner plate. Sparks seemed to fly as he tossed his head with the long tusks and pulverized the ground behind him with a lengthy, coiling double forked tail.

"How odd!" Maddy commented to herself. "That dragon is wearing a black beret!" Maddy harrumphed at the thought. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was reminded of someone evil. For evil was exactly the message she was getting from this overgrown brute. "My my! A dreadful one, for certain!" she sputtered.

Maddy drew a quickened breath as she realized the huge dragon was now headed toward the ethereal figures dancing in the meadow. She knew in her heart this black dragon was not going there to take part in games, but was instead a dangerous foe to all of them. Shaking her head, causing her mane to whip into the air, Maddy stomped her hooves and fluttered her wings, murmuring, "Well." I cannot stand here and do nothing while that beast harms those extraordinary beautiful beings."

Maddy started to gallop towards the monster. Then suddenly she was hurtling through the air, flying towards the meadow where she intended to intercept the intruder. As her hooves struck the ground, gigantic flashing bolts of lightening flamed the air around her. The closer she drew to the dragon, the larger she felt. In fact, Maddy was twice the size she had been just a moment before. With all the strange events that had already happened, Maddy just noted this strange development and kept on running.

In the meantime, the dragon had reached the edge of the meadow. Slowly and one by one, the fairies and unicorns sensed they were in harm's way. Now grouped together, shivering in terror as they watched a menacing danger in the form of the huge pig-like dragon approach them. The beast stopped and roared a battle cry of victory as he surveyed such easy pickings. Soon there would not be any fairies or unicorns left in the entire world. Instead, he would rule with hate and fear over all the remaining inhabitants. The very thought pleased him.

The dragon did not see Maddy, who was fast approaching at his rear. As he gathered himself to charge into the middle of the now terrified animals, Maddy reached him. She reared high into the air and came down hard on the dragon's tail with enough force to smash the two forks into one. The dragon screamed and turned around, looking for the source of his pain. Spying the white horse, he opened his mouth to hurl a blast of hot fire, hot enough to melt steel. Maddy corkscrewed around, kicking out with her hind feet, connecting with the end of the dragon's round, porcine nose. As her hooves sank deep into the hard scaly hide, great bolts of fire flashed into the wide-open nostrils of the piggish beast, down into the deep recesses of the dragon's brain. All at once, there was a loud explosion as the dragon exploded into flames - and disappeared.

The fairies and unicorns, seeing the danger had vanished, cheered as Maddy finished with a final stomp at the place dragon's head used to be. "Well," Said Maddy. "I guess it's really true what they say. The bigger they are, the harder they fall." Realizing the danger had passed, Maddy swaggered (she felt just a teeny weenie bit entitled to showing off just a little) over to the meadow. The unicorns gathered around the white mare and the fairies landed on her mane, where they commenced to create delicate braids, filling them with threads of silver and gold with the shimmer of fairy dust.

*******

Maddy moaned softly. Her eyes slowly opened and she was for a moment lost to her surroundings. As her mind slowly awakened, she realized she was in her small bed inside the warehouse. Every muscle in her body ached and she felt as though she had been in a battle. Carefully sitting up, Maddy perceived she had just been through another one of her "spells." Whenever it happened, she would always be sore for a few days afterwards, although she could never remember exactly what happened the night before her attacks. She just knew everything was again all right in her world.

As she rubbed her hand across her face and pulled the hair out of her eyes, something sparkling fell down on the blanket beside. Looking, she could see some kind of shiny dust embedded in the lines of her hands and scattered across her bed. She could never figure out where the stuff came from. "Oh well." Maddy sighed. "Maybe I have a fairy godmother!"

For just a tiny second, Maddy thought she heard a giggle. She never gave the dust another thought as she got up to begin another day of sweeping out the warehouse, keeping an eye out for discarded smokes and nickel bottles. If she were good today, perhaps the warehouse owner would leave her a cream soda in the machine down by the corner.