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A story of a wise shoe-maker and
a dreadful dragon
I LICEUM OGOLNOKSZTALCACE IM. MIKOLAJA KOPERNIKA W TORUN POLAND
Story illustrated by Attila Leszl
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nce upon a time in Kraków, in the south of Poland, there live an old king
called Krak. He was a very good ruler and together with his wife enjoyed their
peaceful life. The citizens of Kraków were also happy as their king and queen
governed well and fairly so both the city itself and its neighborhood became really
prosperous.
Unfortunately, one day there came an unexpected and cruel guest. It was a dragon,
which settled down in a cave just next to the defensive walls of Kraków. As the area was
really wealthy, the monster found it to be a marvelous place to stay. It could eat the animals
being bred around and drink water straight from the Vistula river flowing through the city.
After some time, however, when the dragon, which was always hungry, had devoured
all the horses, cows, sheep, and pigs available, it decided to launch a habit of eating two
citizens of Kraków every day to satisfy its hunger. The wisest people of the city started to
think how to get rid of the dragon but no one was able to come up with an effective idea.
One day, though, there appeared a young shoe-maker, who had travelled around
Poland. At the beginning nobody treated him seriously when he claimed that he knew how to
solve the problem. The king, however, got interested in his plan.
One day, the king summoned him to the court. The young shoe-maker was standing
in front of him. He was dressed poorly in a patchy brown robe.
“Young man, I heard that you have an idea. How do you intend to get rid of this
plague?” asked the king.
“Your majesty, I don’t think that you will believe my story but let me begin. I was a
knight in the Order of Sleheyron. Our duty was to defend the humans from the threat of dark
O
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magic. A few months later a dragon attacked a village. My family was living in that village,
too.
There was only one way to defeat a dragon. My mentor had a sword with
a crystal inlaid in its hilt. It was the sword of Sleheyron, the founder of the
Order. I didn’t have time for anything else, so I took the sword without my
mentor’s permission. Yet, my effort was in vain…When I arrived in the
village, it was already on fire. My family was already dead, only few people
were still alive. It was a tough fight. I left the dragon with a scar. Even so the
sword exploded when I hit the dragon. He left and I never heard of him
again. After that I was exiled because I had stolen the sword.
Nevertheless, before I left I took this.” And the young shoe-
maker took out a green shiny crystal from his pouch.
“Let me guess! That’s the crystal from the sword of
Sleheyron… A very interesting story, young one. I don’t know
if I should believe you but I’m so desperate that I’ll let you try
your luck, but before you leave, I would like to know your
name…”, said the king smiling.
“Lyonell Dulake, my majesty. Thank you for believing my story. I will see what I can
do. Let’s hope that the crystal is as powerful alone as it was in the sword” answered the
young “knight” and shortly after he left the room.
“Is this our hero? Is this the one that will save us? We shall see…” thought old Krak
scratching his beard…
After two days of preparations young Lyonell Dulake was standing in front of the
dragon’s cave equipped with his old armour . He entered the cave and looked around. He took
the crystal out of his pouch. He whispered a few words and the crystal started to shine very
powerfully. It had a lot of energy…
“By the name of Sleheyron, I command you to
show yourself and answer to my bidding!” said
the young knight. He heard some large
footsteps and after that, from the dark he
could see the giant face of a black
familiar dragon… Shortly after he
recognized the scar made by him. It
was the same one that killed his
family long ago…The dragon
kicked him with his huge tail
and broke the crystal. It
exploded and the flow of
energy seemed to be absorbed
by the dragon.
“Finally, I can feel the power
flowing through my veins!
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Nobody can defeat me now. All the villages will be on fire! I became unstoppable!” ,
bellowed the dragon and flew out of the cave.
Young Lyonell Dulake fell on his knees on the cave’s floor. He watched helplessly the
dragon as he flew out of the cave.
“No!…It can’t be!…No!...”…
…The dragon now was more terrible, his magic powers let him be as a cloud, to move
as fast as the wind, be as light as a feather and he could become a simple
sheep or a horrible ogre. And, as he was a cloud dragon, he was
the only able to throw fire and rays through his mouth. He
attacked the villages only for pleasure, to hear the
villager’s screams when he appeared.
Our young shoe maker was desperate
because this was the second time he had been
defeated by the dragon. So he decided to come
back to his own village thinking about how to
kill the dragon.
One stormy day, a special customer
got into his shop. This was a wizard in a
disguise of a poor man and he asked to make
some shoes. The young man felt sorrow and he
made them very carefully. The client was so
pleased that he gave a bag of gold coins. The poor man confessed that he was a wizard and he
told the boy the solution to save the city of Krakow from the dragon. He had to follow his
orders strictly. Firstly, he would travel to Toledo to buy a sword and he had to look for a
weird plant in the mountains called “the poisonous Dalia” with which he would make a
potion which would make the dragon sleep forever.
Our young gentleman got to the Mountains and after getting all the items, he had some
coins left with which he paid some hunters to kill a golden eagle to make a flying shoes with
his skin…
The young shoemaker took the challenge to avenge the loss of his family and help the
city.
He began a long journey through the mountains, to Toledo, where he bought a knife.
Hiding in the forests of wild animals, he slept in caves until he found the plant "poisonous
Dahlia", which he used to make the sleeping potion.
The shoemaker now had everything necessary to confront the man-eating dragon.
Back in the old land he could not recognize the city. There was no trace of green fields,
castles, river, industrious peasants. Everything was burnt, and few other people were hiding in
the woods in case the king had been captured in the cave. The young shoemaker started to
weep at the sight of this view and believed that this time he should succeed.
For a few days he was watching the cave to see the dragon's habits and develop a plan. Every
morning before stepping out in search of food the villain harassed the king. He fattened him
because he was too skinny to become his food. After seeing why the king was needed, the
young shoemaker had another idea.
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He set a trap and caught a rabbit, killed it and filled with a decoction of poisonous
herbs. Even small, it would be a chunk for the dragon.
One morning when the sun rose, the dragon took off, and the shoemaker took
advantage of it and came into his lair. Inside he saw everything wrapped in cobwebs. It
looked terrible. The shoemaker took a knife and began to release the captive. Unfortunately,
that very day the dragon returned earlier, it found the intruder inside the cave. The young man
had just cut down the last thread of the spider web. Seeing the terrible beast, a little scared but
still alert, pulled the rabbit and threw it over the dragon’s nose. He grasped the king and with
the flying shoes, made of a killed eagle, they both strolled off from the dragon’s cave. The
dragon went to chase them, but it was so hungry and greedy that it prefered the juicy bunny.
It devoured it in one bite and an hour later it closed its eyes in eternal sleep.
When people heard about the salvation of the king everybody returned to the city and set it up
again. They barricaded the cave and erected a monument in honor of the cobbler - saviour.
He, in turn, opened his workshop, married a beautiful girl and lived
quietly, with his family.
The king was so happy that raised the celebration, which lasted three
days and three nights.
But what they didn’t know was that the dragon wasn’t
really dead. Out of his blood grew a young dragon that grew four
times faster than his father. In one week, he had the power
nobody had seen until then. Fortunately for the citizens, he did
not know about the power that laid inside him.
Something that was more important than his existence
appeared in our shoemaker’s life– a son. This son was lonely
and never understood. His name was Alexander. He spent his
days singing and playing his flute like an angel. And just like
any genius, his music didn’t come from any teacher or master
of the world, but from the chords of his heart. Flowers
bloomed and even the most fearsome became
docile as he sang his beautiful lullabies. In his
world there was no evil, just good and peace.
One day he got lost while he was guarding the goat herd. He ventured near a sealed
cave that he did not know about. While singing, there was a great earthquake and the old
monument that covered the entrance fell. Alexander was fearless and got inside it. Among the
ruins he saw a pair of big sparkling scared eyes.
“Don’t worry! I won’t harm you!” Alexander said in a sweet voice.
The creature raised his head from the rocks and came towards the young boy. At his
sight, Alexander tried to touch him, but the dragon roared and went back. The boy started
playing his flute, when suddenly, he heard a weird voice inside his head. He stopped his
lullaby, and looked around…there was nobody there but him and the creature. Looking into
his eyes, Alexander could see that the fear was gone, its place being taken by kindness. They
could feel a connection.
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The next moment the dragon started making funny sounds. Alexander couldn’t
understand what he wanted to say. He once again started to play his flute and, to his surprise,
realised that he could understand what the dragon said.
“Who are you?” Alexander asked once again.
“I don’t know who I am ! My mind is blank! I’ve been living inside this cave for as
long as I remember! Thank you for setting me free!”
Every day, the boy visited his new friend while he was grazing the goats. One day he
had an idea.
“Why don’t you come with me in the city? We would be closer then!” Alexander said.
The dragon accepted immediately - he got lonely from living inside his small cave.
They flew over the plains and the river and crossed the walls of the city. Barely had they
landed in the street, when people started shouting and running like crazy. They tried to attack
the dragon, so he flew on the roofs. In his mind thousands of images crossed. He then
remembered the fate of his father and remembered that he was to revenge him. He gathered
air in his lungs and…
The sense of compassion in his heart died down, instead there came up rageful
eyebeams and a heart flaming with vengeance. He, on the one hand was keeping on ravaging
the city, on the other hand was thinking about his true friend Alexander. He wavered between
fidelity and vindication. On the one hand, he haunted the annihilation of his father, on the
other hand, he was thinking about the harm his friend, who saved him from the cave he had
been imprisoned for years, did to the people he loved.
The bemused dragon went to Heaven’s Waterfall to think by ending his destructive
harm. The sound of the waterfall made him relax and calmed him down. Relaxed giant fell
asleep after a while.
In the meantime a few people following the dragon took advantage of the dragon’s
sleeping and called for other people. Among the people who took the news there was
Alexander as well. He couldn’t witness blatantly the dragon’s having been caught and killed.
He had to do something because Alexander had seen the innocence inside his eyes. He
thought the things he did was all the screeches of a boy who had lost his father. A short
paragraph came up to his mind from a magic book he had bought as he once was interested
in.
The paragraph said: “The dragons are big animals. The sleep of these big animals is
deep just as themselves. The only way for them to wake up is to sneeze via dust particles
escaped their noses. He thought of saving him by applying this method so that he could save
him. Right after somehow he was going to speak out to the whole city that the dragon wasn’t
as vicious as his father. Meanwhile the whole city gathered. They were walking to the
Heaven’s Waterfall with the screams of revenge. Alexander had to reach the Heaven’s
Waterfall earlier than them. He wore his flying shoes and set off…
Thanks to his shoes, he managed to arrive at the place before the citizens, who
meanwhile were preparing themselves by picking up axes, hayforks, clubs, spears, swords
and other items which would eventually do a lot of harm to the monster. Finally, they lit up
the torches and continued approaching the dragon’s hideout. At the same time, Alexander was
already trying to wake up his friend. None of the methods he tried ended up successfully,
beginning with tickling his nose in order to produce the sneeze , and ending with thrusting
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the pin in his eye. He was helpless, as he fell down on his knees and realized there was
nothing he could do. The worst thing was that he was standing by the dragon, but couldn’t
help the situation. Bitter tears ran to his eyes. He felt other people coming and the fear took
over his mind. Alexander felt the raindrop on his temple. Not only the torturers were coming.
After that, he didn’t precisely realize what was going on around. He saw things like through
the fog; men with weapons approaching the dragon, the arrows swish, screams, fire, the rain
in its apogee, the shadows and shapes and finally the horrifying roar of the dragon. Now, the
only thing Alexander was hearing was this terrifying noise, mixed with people’s screams, full
of rage and the wish of revenge. The last thing he felt was the pair of strong arms, lifting him
up. Then, darkness shrouded the world.
Alexander was captured by the town guards. The dragon was dead, butchered by the
enraged crowd, and the hero was going to be publicly executed for treason. All of the Kraków
citizens gathered in the market by the town hall, where the whole thing was going to happen.
The hero was ready for death, feeling no connection to this world anymore. He was going to
be hanged at noon and nothing changed it, as he was standing at the platform with the gibbet
among the silent crowd. The air was fresh after the last night’s rainstorm. The executioner put
the slipknot on Alexander’s neck and his hand was already on the lever. But he didn’t pull it,
because he noticed everyone was staring at something above the city walls. At first sight, it
was a storm cloud. It was huge. Enormous. It covered the whole sky and the sun, making
everything darker. Lightnings cracked the air and people realized it wasn’t a cloud. It was a
giant hord of creatures. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions, and more and more were coming.
The executioner pulled the lever as the dragons reached the walls. It was quicker than
everyone thought it could be. Smoke, fire, destroyed buildings, screams, beggings and silence
afterwards. It happened fast; everything razed to the ground. Completely everything. There
was nothing left. Nothing except one man, grasped by one of the creatures just in time, before
the hell began and being transported above flames and ashes. When this man woke up, he saw
the dragon who saved him and asked him:
”Why did you spare me?”
The dragon looked deep in the eye of the one who asked the question.
“Because you wanted to save one of our brothers.”
And without any further explanations, the creature left him alone at the hill outside the
city ruins. Alexander was looking at him joining his kinsmen and flying away into the sunset.
The end