One day a knight named Sir Daniel came to a town named Legodas. He was on a journey to a far mountain where there was an evil enchantress, but that’s another story.
Sir Daniel stopped at the bar to have a “root” beer float. As he walked in, he saw that it was an ordinary bar with many wooden chairs and wooden tables specially designed to fit a forest scenario. The walls were crammed with moose heads and stuffed geese.
“Can I have a ‘root’ beer float?!” Sir Daniel yelled to the bartender. The crowd was so loud he had had to yell. To his left he overheard some commoners speaking of a ferocious pestilence.
“I heard it took the old man down on fifth and Shacoma,” one of them said.
“Didn’t it just take the lady who lives near the medicine man?” the other asked.
“That beast’s gonna wipe out our whole town!” the first said.
“Excuse me,” Sir Daniel interrupted, “What kind of a beast are you talking about?”
“George, it’s a knight,” the second one whispered. “He’ll get himself killed like all the others.”
“Shut up, Bob!” George said. “It doesn’t matter anyway. The town’s setting up a trap for the dragon scheduled for tomorrow.”
“Dragons…I’ve dealt with them before,” Sir Daniel stated.
“Not one like this!” Bob exclaimed. “It’s taller than this building!” Sir Daniel scoffed: another town folk tale. Dragons never got that tall. They rarely reached eight meters tall, and the building was at least twelve meters tall.
“It’s been nice talking to you.” Sir Daniel would see how large this “monster” really was at the night of the town’s “trap”. “By the way, I didn’t catch your names.”
“I’m George Rechovak and this is Bob Stallockie, but please, just call us George and Bob.” They shook hands and Sir Daniel took off to find more information about this dragon.
As Sir Daniel wandered about the streets, he saw that the town was average size with its main square in the center and the houses surrounding it. It probably held five thousand people by the look of the houses, but when Sir Daniel peered into the houses to see a busy housewife or scampering chicken, no one was there.
Sir Daniel decided to stop and rest at a corner block that read “Seventh and Alps.” There was an old man, homeless by the looks of him. “Excuse me, townsperson,” Sir Daniel said, “why are there so many empty homes?”
The worn out man peered at Sir Daniel for a while and then, as if realizing Sir Daniel was new in town, stated, “It’s that lousy dragon! It’s driving everyone away! It’s not safe to live here anymore. There used to be nice homes and wealthy people here, huh! But they can afford to leave! The rest of us have to live a scared life in this doomed village.” He chuckled a little. “You know, there used to be eight thousand people in this town. Now there’s less than four thousand! Almost all the houses have been taken down and sold as lumber. The only reason this town is alive is because of the lumber industry. You can’t even imagine how bad the dragon hurts the cattle farms.”
