Chapter Three
Invitations
The first invitation arrived the very next morning. The Post Office was one of the few institutions which could find Minisculia, especially when it came to delivering bills.
"Simon, my dear, look. An invitation." cried an excited Queen Roberta.
"Oh how nice," said Simon, not really listening. He was reading the morning newspapers. There were further stories about the horrors taking place in Minisculia. This report claimed that the people there were having to live on boats in the river for safety. This rather puzzled him, as most people already lived on boats in the river, since there was so little land.
"It is from Queen Margaret. She wants us to go to a Ball tomorrow evening. Shall we go?"
"May as well, make the most of it while it lasts!" replied the gloomy king.
He handed over the newspapers which Roberta quickly scanned.
"Oh dear, what shall we do. They are sure to ask about the Dragon?" she wailed.
Simon sighed, "That is what is bothering me!"
The Butler entered the room with the breakfast tray. "Good morning Your Majesties. The postman has brought an unusually large number of letters today. I trust that some of them are the Invitations you wanted?"
"Ah, Butler, certainly there is at least one invitation," replied Simon, looking at the card Roberta was holding.
"But we do have one small worry about accepting it."
"Sire?" The butler sounded surprised. "I though the whole point of the exercise was to get invited to parties and things?"
"It was," replied Roberta. "But what do we say when people ask us about the Dragon and the damage and people disappearing and having to live on boats?"
The Butler smiled. "It is very simple, Your Majesties. Tell them the truth."
Roberta sniffed, "I don’t understand."
Simon was also puzzled. "I don’t understand either. If we tell them the truth then they will know it was all exaggeration and laugh at us."
"Will they? That all depends on how you go about telling the truth." explained the Butter patiently.
The monarchs still looked puzzled.
"We DO have a Dragon." said the Butler.
The couple nodded. "But!" protested Simon, "You cannot say he is the world's' fiercest creature. I mean, look at him."
Cedric was playing on with a ball of wool, for all the world like a large pink kitten.
The butler sighed. "If anyone asks you about the Dragon all you have to do is say that you prefer not to talk about him."
"Well, that is true enough," said Simon.
"And, " went on the Butler. "The field behind the palace has been burnt by a Dragon. I gave him the matches myself and watched to make sure he came to no harm."
"I suppose so, "agreed Simon. "So now explain these disappearances."
"Have you seen either Betty or Jane, the chambermaids recently?" asked the Butler.
"No, I was going to ask you about them," said the Queen.
"There you are then," said the butler in triumph. "Some people have disappeared. And before you mention it, people do live on the river in boats. All you need to do is tell the truth, shudder and say you had rather not talk about it."
The king and queen nodded.
The Ball was a huge success. Roberta and Simon were the stars of the evening. Everybody wanted to talk to them. Roberta had a wonderful time and accepted invitations to all sorts of Balls, Christenings, Weddings and parties. Simon found himself the centre of a group of rulers who wanted his opinion on every subject under the sun. It was a tremendous feeling.
As they drove home by the light of the moon, Roberta snuggled up to her husband and said sleepily, "The nice thing is that we don’t have to invite them back just yet. They won’t come until we have got rid of the Dragon and Cedric is far too nice to want to do that."
Chapter Four
Trouble with a Hero
Next day a small problem did occur. In the afternoon Simon was in the throne room dealing with the day's business when the Butler came in and announced "A Petitioner, YourMajesty."
A group of Minisculia citizens followed the Butler into the room. They were carrying a large roll of paper. The leader of the group bowed low and presented the roll to the king. He opened it and read "To his Royal Highness King Simon of Minisculia. We the undersigned respectfully request that the king take action to protect his loyal subjects from the Dragon which at this moment is ravaging our fair country." Underneath were a large number of signatures.
"But, but......." Simon was rather taken aback. "Have any of you actually seen this Dragon?"
"Not as such," said the leader of the group. "But there must be one. We read about it in the papers."
Simon looked wildly to the Butler for help.
The Butler stepped forward. "King Simon thanks you for your petition and assures you that everything in his power will be done to protect the citizens of our beloved country from the Dragon. Even now steps are being taken to see that any damage done by the Dragon is being repaired with the utmost speed."
King Simon’s eyebrows almost disappeared into hair.
The leader of the group bowed and said, "We are grateful to his Majesty for his kind words and wish him every success."
"Thank you. Before you go I do have one question to ask of you," said Simon.
"I am yours to command," replied the man.
"When are you coming to sweep the kitchen chimney?"
"Ah, well now Your Majesty. I have got you down for a fortnight on Tuesday." The leader of the group was indeed the Chimney sweep.
"Well, I hope so. Now just go away and leave it to me."
The group backed out of the room and the Butler closed the doors behind them.
"Well?" asked Simon when they were safely out of earshot. "What do we do now? And how could you tell such a great big fib?"
"What fib?"
"The one about repairing the damage done by the Dragon," said the King
"That was no fib. I looked out of the window and the gardener is replanting the rose bushes that Cedric dug up yesterday," said the Butler
"Oh!" replied the King.
"As to what to do, we issue a Proclamation," finished the Butler.
"Saying what?” asked Simon.
"Oh, the usual, you know. ‘Whosoever riddeth the kingdom of the Dragon shall receive half of the kingdom as reward.’ That one," said the Butler.
"Hang on, the place is small enough as it is without giving half of it away," protested Simon.
"We won’t have to, "said the Butler. "One. No right minded person is going to fight a Dragon for such a small reward and Two. We do not want to actually get rid of the Dragon anyway."
Simon gave a great big sigh. This was getting very complicated. "You had better go ahead and issue the Proclamation then."
The next month was very busy. The King and Queen were out almost every night enjoying themselves. Quite a few would be heroes came, but as the Butler said none of them were willing to fight a Dragon for such a small reward. The locals went back to their boats and since there were no more fires and no more disappearances, they were not unhappy, Indeed, the only sign of the Dragon was the smoke from somewhere in the palace. The chimney sweep had not yet managed to sweep the kitchen chimney.
However, at the end of the month it happened. A hero came who was not in his right mind and did not care about the size of the reward. In fact he offered to do the job for no reward at all. He just wanted to fight a Dragon to impress his girlfriend.
"It is not a very big one!" said King Simon to the would-be hero, Sir Roger de Masham.
"All the better then Sire," he said. "I am a bit nervous about the whole thing. It may be better to start off with something small." He pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled at the King.
"Yes, I suppose so. The Butler will show you to your room. You look as if you have had a long and weary journey."
"Thank-you Sire. Yes it was a long journey. I had terrible trouble finding the place. I kept falling asleep in the coach and driving straight through," said Sir Roger
The Butler came in.
"Ah, show Sir Roger to a guest room. He has come to kill the Dragon for us, "ordered Simon. "Then come back here, I wish to talk to you."
The Butler bowed and led Sir Roger from the room.
Simon sat tapping his fingers on the arm of the throne until the Butler returned.
"Well," said the Butler. "This is a bit of a problem, but do not concern yourself you majesty, I will think of something."
"You had better." Simon was almost frantic with worry. "The queen would never speak to either of us again if that.... idiot..... killed Cedric."
"I do not think it will come to that," soothed the Butler.
"Well, whatever you do, I don’t want to know about it," said Simon. "Just find a way to get rid of that clown upstairs without him hurting Cedric."
The butler bowed himself out of the room. He was beginning to wish he had never thought of the idea in the first place.
