Murphy was not your typical dragon for many reasons. The most important reason, is that he is made of stone. But at midnight, he comes alive. The second reason why people think he is unusual, is that he loves to talk. His problem is that no one talks to him. But when you are awake at night, the only ones around at night are prickly hedgehogs, owls or mice.
And each one of them is focused on eating and drinking. They avoid Murphy.
“But why are they avoiding me?” he asked Owl.
Owl didn’t hoot with laughter. Instead, he paused and gently said, “Murphy, it is because you tend to spit fire at odd times. If you laugh or hiccup, for example.”
“I don’t laugh much,” Murphy confides to a passing snail who says nothing.
Murphy lowers his head. “I need to find a knight to talk to. Knights do not fear dragons.”
Owl said, “Your search will be tough. There are no Knights here.”
Of course, Murphy misunderstood the owl. He scoffed and said, “Well, there must be a knight somewhere. I will put an advertisement in the Fairytale Chronicles.”
And he did. The advertisement read: Friendly but lonely me searching for a talkative companion. Good pay and conditions.
Murphy decided that food and board were, in his mind, a great reward. “Besides, he will love me after a few minutes.”
A week later, the editor of the paper rang him. “Hi Murphy, can you visit the office. And please try not to set anyone on fire while you are here. You have a bunch of envelopes waiting for collection. I suppose they have something to do with your ad.”
Murphy flew to the newspaper office. He was very good. He held his breath. Just to ensure there were no fire-breathing accidents, collected his post and left. Clutching the letters in his claw, he landed at his back door with a thump. He did not delay. Murphy began preparations for the interviews.
The first to show up for the interview was a strange-looking guy. He seemed to be in disguise. The tall hat, white scarf and long stick made him look like a dancer. Murphy stared at him.
“You are a frog,” Murphy said.
“You are a dragon,” the frog sang and turned around, with his toe tapping a lively beat.
“I am sorry, but I don’t need a singer. Or a dancer,” Murphy giggled. The idea of a singing, dancing frog was too strange. Murphy laughed, sending flames bouncing from his mouth, which frightened the frog. Murphy watched the frog hop away at lightning speed.
The next applicant for the job was a silver bird. He looked rather posh. “You are shiny,” Murphy said.
“Shiny is good,” the bird puffed out his chest as he spoke. A feather floated under Murphy’s nose. It was as hard as steel. He sneezed.
The spark of flame sent the bird flying into the air. He didn’t look back as he flew away.
“Pity, you did not stay. You were shinier than any knight.” Murphy looked around. He was on his own once again.
“Bother, there is no one else to talk to.” Murphy’s sadness was making him hungry.
He left a sign on the fence. “Interviews will resume after a snack.”
On his return, Murphy was delighted to notice the small group waiting in line for him.
“Let us begin. Who will be first?”
“Bzzzzz” was the reply.
Murphy scratched his chin and narrowed his eyes. “I cannot see you. Please take a step forward.”
“I don’t step. I fly. Wait,” a loud, bossy voice squeaked.
Blinking his eyelids to make certain he wasn’t imagining it, Murphy stared at the bright and round, yellow bee hovering at the end of his nose. “You are a bee.”
“Bzzz, bright chap, aren’t you? You are a dragon.”
Unfortunately, this dragon was allergic to bees. Murphy felt the sneeze coming on, and looking towards the clouds, he sneezed loudly and frequently. When he stopped, the bee had left.
This is hopeless, Murphy thought an hour later. He had met and been as polite as he could to a hedgehog, a duck, an extremely long worm who insisted he was a snake, and finally a ladybird.
He sat on the stone and felt sad. What can I do? He wondered aloud.
“You can do anything you feel like doing,” a jolly voice told him.
“Who said that?” Murphy sat and scanned the garden around him. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. There was only a flock of birds on the fence.
“I did. Just give me a minute to get rid of these birds, “ Murphy had no choice, so he waited.
Finally, the strangest-looking being appeared from beneath or behind the birds. First his toes, then his long coat, followed by his beard, his arms and finally his head. Murphy hoped they were all joined together.
They stared at each other for a few minutes.
Murphy smiled, “Mr Gnome, do you know you have two birds sitting on your moustache. Hey, there is another hiding in your beard!”
The gnome chuckled, “I do know.”
“That is okay then. How do you do?” Murphy said. “And who are you?”
“Very well, thank you, I am, Geronimo. And yes, I realise that I have two friends sitting on my beautifully strong moustache. The little one in my beard is Ando. He is shy but needed to see this dragon the world is talking about.”
It was a lot of information. Interesting information, thought Murphy, far better than being told I am a dragon.
“Please tell Ando, I don’t bite. Though I do like a good bag of cheese and onion crisps. And I love jalapeño chillies. But they make me whistle and toot. Fire erupting from my head and my butt is not a good combination.”
“I don’t suppose it is. Geronimo said, while Ando whistled.
“Have you come for the interview?”
“Well, that depends on you and if you found your chatty friend.”
“I haven’t,” Murphy said. He crossed his claws and hoped Geronimo didn’t disappear beneath another pile of birds.
“I didn’t want to push ahead of others. Especially as some of the other creatures were keen to have a go. How did they do?” Geronimo’s voice was cheerful, musical and interesting.
“A disaster, terrible, and not any good at all.” Murphy felt sad as he remembered.
“So, the position is open?” Geronimo was twiddling his mustache rather like a skipping rope moves, the birds were skipping like professionals.
“It is indeed,” Murphy was hopeful, but he didn’t want to push his luck. Geronimo might be the most annoying gnome on earth, but there was only one way to find out.
He decided to take a chance. “When are you available to start?”
“Is now too soon?”
“Not at all. Although we haven’t talked about terms and conditions and most importantly of all, your pay.”
“I will work for bird seed for all of my birds. Does that sound reasonable?”
Murphy couldn’t believe his ears. A week’s chat for a bag of birdseed. With a nod of his head, he said, “Done.”
The arrangement went well for the first week until pay day. When Murphy produced his bag of birdseed, Geronimo shook his head, “I am afraid that that bag is far too small. “
Murphy stared at him. “A large bag for three birds seems a lot.”
Geronimo laughed. “You might be the world’s biggest talker, Murphy, but you didn’t listen to me.”
Murphy scratched his head. Then, with a sigh, he admitted defeat. “Okay, what did you say?”
“I agreed to work for you if you provided bird feed for all my birds,” Geronimo said.
Murphy stared at the hundreds of birds sitting on rocks, trees, hedges and walls. “Oh bother.” He said and put his head beneath his wings to think about this. Murphy liked having Geronimo to talk to. He didn’t want to lose a chatty companion. But he didn’t have much money. Murphy decided after some time that he needed to find money. To do that, he needed to work. And this was a problem. He explained this to Geronimo, who thought about it for a while.
Finally, he said, “You could get a job with the farmers. Leave it to me. I will talk to them first. Just to make certain they don’t run to the hills screaming when they see you. “
After a little debate. And many promises not to set people, animals, homes or barns on fire, Murphy became a worker. His week was broken into three parts.
Murphy spent the first three days working for the local farmers, thrashing their wheat sheaves with his great tail. In payment, he received a large barrel of birdseed. He gave it to Geronimo and his feathered friends on Saturday afternoon. From Thursday to Saturday, Murphy and Geronimo talked and ate. Sunday they declared was everyone’s fun day. Most Sunday’s, the birds of the air entertained both Murphy and Geronimo.