September 22, 2006

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s story time.

Once upon a time, not that long ago, a maiden named Carlin was walking down the street, enjoying a nice leisurely stroll, when she stumbled upon a beautiful, large Silver egg. Now Carlin had never seen an egg so huge or in such a colour before, and she was fascinated by it. She bent down to look closer at it, to hear a slight shuffling sound coming from inside it, and realised that there was a baby something in there. Looking around her, she couldn’t see a tree with a nest in it anywhere in sight. The egg was simply sitting there on the ground, looking like it had been abandoned. So Carlin did what any decent person would do. She took the egg home, created a nest for it, kept it warm, and waited for whatever was inside to be born.

It took a few months for the egg to hatch, but when it did a beautiful baby dragon emerged from it, its wings, scales and talons the same beautiful Silver colour as the shell, and its eyes as black as onyx. And when it let out its first mew-like cry, Carlin couldn’t help but fall in love with her new baby dragon which, of course, she named Silver. She nurtured the newborn, fed it well, and took extraordinary care of it. When Silver was learning to walk, it stumbled a few times, but Carlin had the patience to help it until eventually got the hang of it. And when Silver was learning to fly, Carlin always stood nearby with open arms, waiting to catch it should it fall.

But babies can be expensive, so Carlin searched high and low for extra income. She tried to find a second job, but baby Silver was very demanding so it was impossible for her to find one. She went to several different banks to try to get a loan, only to be told by all of them that she didn’t have enough income to get a loan. Finally, she researched and found several different lords, hoping that one of them would be willing to help her with baby Silver until it could take care of itself. As luck would have it, one of them was willing, but very busy and he travelled a lot, so it took a while for the two of them to get together to do the paperwork.

Then a horrible thing happened. The evil ogre landlord, his jester son and hag daughter all decided that they didn’t want to wait for the lord to give the loan to Carlin, and they decided that having a dragon in the building was just too risky. So they took out their bows and arrows and took aim at the beautiful baby dragon while it was having a leisurely flight. Poor baby Silver fell to the ground, terribly wounded, but thankfully not mortally. So Carlin had to move all of Silver’s things out of its room and into hers, and began searching for a new home for them where she could nurse the dragon back to health.

So how does the story end? It doesn’t. As we speak, Carlin is searching for that new home and is determined to find one very, very soon. Before you know it, baby Silver will be up and flying again and, thanks to the wonderful lord, its new home will be bigger, better and in a more dragon-friendly part of town. So please return to this stage from time to time to hear the rest of the tale as it unfolds.