Princess Lily & Kelly

This unusual frienship required a little bit of magic

Once upon a time, there lived a princess named Lily. Princess Lily was very pretty, had a fabulous treasure of gold and jewels and lived in an old fortress on a hill overlooking a bay. Princess Lily also had a magic charm and an unusual friend named Kelly. Kelly lived in the woods by the bay. He was extremely big and all different shades of green so he could blend in with the countryside. For you see, Kelly was a dragon. No one in the village had ever seen Kelly because of his colouring— except for Princess Lily as she had the magic charm.

Traditionally, dragons and princesses don’t get along as the dragon usually captures the princess and gobbles her up. It kept the princess population down in those days. But Kelly was different. He was a vegetarian. Kelly’s favourite food was fiddlehead ferns, which flourished all over the woods by the bay.

Princess Lily and Kelly would play for hours, frolicking in the woods and walking on the beach. They’d test the water with a big toe or a claw, then shiver—the water was always cold.

One day, after exploring all of their secret hiding places and lunching on fiddlehead fern salads and peanut butter and jam sandwiches, Kelly and Princess Lily went down to the beach to sunbathe and relax. All of a sudden, a shadow blocked the sunlight. Out of the sky came an old enemy of Kelly’s. A giant bird named Lanark. Kelly used to warn the other animals in the forest of Lanark’s approach, so they could hide and not end up as Lanark’s lunch!

Lanark always left the forest hungry and vowed one day he’d catch Kelly away from the green trees.

Lanark crowed with wicked glee, for there below him, lying belly up on the warm sand was Kelly, pleasantly stuffed from the picnic lunch. Lanark swooped down onto the beach and spread his wings wide as he walked towards Kelly.

Kelly was so shocked to see Lanark after all these centuries that he didn’t move. Then Kelly suddenly disappeared! Princess Lily clasped her magic charm in the palm of her hand. Making a silent wish, she threw the charm at the feet of Lanark. A great puff of smoke spread up and around the giant bird. When the smoke cleared, Lanark had been magically turned into a thousand pound roasted bird on a silver platter, all stuffed, garnished and ready to eat.

Princess Lily sighed with relief as she walked over and picked up the charm. Then she looked around for Kelly, but couldn’t see him anywhere. Princess Lily called Kelly and told him that Lanark was gone forever and that he could come out now.

Kelly opened his eyes and blinked at the Princess. All Princess Lily saw of Kelly were his eyes and an oddly shaped sand dune where one hadn’t been before. Kelly had changed colours! He was now the colour of the sand on the beach.

Princess Lily and Kelly smiled at each other and decided to celebrate. The whole village was invited to the beach for a wonderful party. The main dish was of course, a huge roasted bird dinner with fiddlehead salads.

Princess Lily sat on an unusually shaped sand dune that rumbled now and then. She smiled at the happy people eating and dancing as she absentmindedly patted the sand dune and played with the magic charm around her neck. ■