麻豆社

By Annabel Davies

T'was Britain in the days of old,
For years it had been wrapped in cold.
And villagers would hide in fright,
Whene'er the beast came into sight.
More than 12 foot across was he,
With scales the colour of the sea.
A roar like thunder filled the air,
When he flew back towards his lair.
With eyes that glowed with orange flame,
And no-one dared to speak his name.

For terror spread across the land,
The world was under his command,
The best of best was saved for he:
Jewels, pearls from the depth of the sea.
He used all to adorn his throne,
It grew in wealth till it alone
Was worth more than a human hoard
Amassed by any king or lord.

No hero dared to steal this prize
For fear of meeting his demise,
And so it lay beneath the earth
Until a man might prove his worth,
By sneaking in and stealing all
The treasure from the lizard's hall,
But none so far had made it past
The evil dragons fiery blast.
Until one day a stranger came,
Who'd beat the dragon at his game,

This story you have heard before
With heroes, monsters, quests galore,
But now I shall retell this tale
And the plain truth I will unveil
The honest narrative is quite
Unlike what's told by fire-light,
Our hero is no bear-shirt tall
In fact she is a both young and small.

A girl who used her brains not brawn
And in that cave from dusk till dawn
Challenged him to a game of wits,
And now her statue nowhere sits
To show she won the clever fight
That took place throughout the night.

The dragon raised one evil claw
And pulled three treasures from his drawer,
He placed them each on top of stone
A diamond, pearl and piece of bone.
And all the men who'd tried before,
Had chosen from the dragon's store
The flawless-jewel or shiny pearl,
But these two did not tempt our girl.
She knew the bone encased his heart
And with one move she did outsmart
The winged-lizard who'd been sure
That none would choose the broken claw.
She held his heart above her head
And with a cry he fell down dead.

This is the ending of our tale,
For now the truth has been unveiled,
A girl it was who killed the beast
And proved to him that she at least
Was smarter than the hairless-apes
That came before and met their fates.