The children stood at the edge of the forest. In front of them was a patch of dry grass, brown and dusty. Beyond that was a spreading carpet of vivid flowers.
‘What a wonderful smell,’ breathed Sharon. ‘Look at all the flowers. This must be the way the whole country should be.’
Mark laughed.
‘We were told to follow our noses,’ he said and led the way forward towards the flowers.
‘Are we nearly there?’ began Paul then looked rather shamefaced said, ‘oh, I suppose we are there.’
The flowers were all colours of the rainbow and grew in many different shapes and sizes. There were climbing vines with deeply scented flowers like roses.
‘But without the thorns,’ said Mark thankfully.
Tiny yellow frilled flowers peeped from beneath graceful sprays of pink and white blossom. Other flowers changed colour as Sharon looked at them, moving from purple to green then into pale cream before beginning again at purple.
‘I wonder why there is a grass patch in the middle,’ said Paul. ‘There are flowers everywhere else but that bit is still grass.’
‘I don’t know,’ began Sharon when she shrieked in fright. The green patch was moving. It was not grass at all but a large green dragon. The dragon rose to its feet and looked at them with round golden eyes. Puffs of smoke came from its nostrils and a few sparks fell on the flowers nearby as with a whiffling roar the dragon began lumbering towards them.
‘Run,’ squealed Sharon, but the two boys were already near the edge of the forest.
As Sharon turned to run herself she tripped over her shoelace that had come undone again. She heard the dragon come closer and closer as the ground shook and rumbled beneath its claws. Sharon knew she should get up and run but she was too petrified with fright to move.
Paul began to scream in terror as the dragon towered over Sharon. Mark picked up a fallen branch and started to run to her rescue but he knew with a sick certainty that he would be too late. Sharon rolled over and saw the dragon’s jaws hovering above her. She reached into her pocket and grabbed the first thing she found. It was the bottle of perfume she had bought at the fair. She flung it with all her might at the dragon and buried her head in her hands, hoping it would eat her quickly and not hurt too much.
The bottle hit the ground at the dragon’s feet with a crash. The cork popped out of the glass bottle and the perfume spilt on the ground. As it smelled the perfume, the dragon began to sneeze. He put his head back and opened his mouth and sneezed forty five times without stopping. Mark was forced to stagger back to Paul, as he could not move against the force of the blasts. By the time the dragon had given his last sneeze it was no longer breathing fire.
Sharon lay on the ground trembling, too scared to move, for a dragon even without his fire is still a frightening sight. But to her surprise the dragon looked at her kindly and smiled.
‘Don’t be afraid of me,’ it said. ‘Everyone is always afraid of me.’
Sharon took one look at the rows of sharp white teeth and was not surprised at this.
She wriggled away along the ground as she saw Mark and Paul cautiously creeping towards her.
‘Please stay,’ continued the dragon. ‘I only want to be friendly.’ At this a large tear rolled down his nose to fall with a plop on the ground.
Mark and Paul reached Sharon and the three of them stood together staring at the dragon. By this time the dragon had begun to cry in earnest and his large dragon tears made a spreading puddle on the ground. Sharon could not bear it any longer. She took her clean handkerchief from her pocket and offered it to the dragon.
‘Please don’t cry,’ she said earnestly. ‘We are sorry we were scared but you see, we have never met a dragon before and we thought..’
‘You thought I ate people,’ sniffed the dragon. ‘Well, I don’t. I don’t eat people or animals or anything like that. No one understands me. The only pleasure I get from life is to wander around smelling the flowers and even the flowers don’t like me.’
The dragon took Sharon’s proffered handkerchief and blew its nose with a loud trumpeting sound. It handed the handkerchief back to Sharon, who looked at it rather doubtfully and dropped it on the ground while pretending to put it back in her pocket.
‘Wait a minute,’ said Mark, coming closer to the dragon. ‘Have you been smelling the flowers around here?’
‘Yes, I have.’ The dragon sniffed. ‘But they go all brown and withered and then they are not nice to smell anymore.’ It looked as if it was about to cry again so Paul patted its nose and said,
‘There, there.’
‘That’s why the flowers were scared of my torch,’ said Mark. ‘They thought it was like the dragon’s breath. You must have burned them with your fire,’ he explained to the dragon.
‘It doesn’t matter now,’ said Sharon hastily as more tears started to form in the dragon’s eyes.
Paul and Mark stroked the dragon, which sighed and quivered in delight.
Sharon looked hard at the dragon. It had stopped crying and was looking hopefully at them. There was not a trace of smoke coming from its nostrils. Sharon picked a flower and held it under the dragon’s nose. The dragon sniffed in a rapture of delight then looked sadly at the flower. To its surprise the flower still looked fresh and beautiful.
The dragon sat up so suddenly that Paul, who had been leaning against its head, fell over onto the grass.
‘You’ve cured my fire with your sneeze maker,’ it said happily.
‘Don’t you mind?’ asked Sharon anxiously.
‘My fire is gone,’ said the dragon. This is wonderful. Once a dragon’s fire goes out it can never be started again. That means I can smell the flowers without hurting them. And eat my toast without burning it,’ it added thankfully. ‘I hate the taste of burnt toast.’
The dragon gave a shudder. ‘Now my worries are over and I can smell the flowers whenever I want to.’
The children smiled happily at each other.
‘We can go back to Aylwin and tell him we have solved the mystery,’ said Sharon.
Mark and Paul looked downcast at the thought of the long walk back.
‘It is such a long way’ complained Paul. ‘We haven’t any chocolates left and I’m awfully hungry.’
‘We have to get back somehow,’ said Mark firmly. ‘Come on, the sooner we start the sooner we’ll get there.’
‘Wait a minute,’ interrupted the dragon. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Back to Aylwin the wizard’s house,’ Sharon told it.
The dragon laughed.
‘Why, you don’t have to walk,’ it said with a laugh. ‘You can fly. Hop on my back and I’ll take you.’