[Artemisia] Fraser the Christmas Dragon

[CeltCrafts at aol.com]

I thought some of you working with the youth of the kingdom  could use this 
in your repertoire.  A link with more stories is at the  end.  It's an overall 
good publication to get e-mailed to you if you are  interested at all in the 
history of Scotland.  Wonderful Holiday Season to  all of you, and thanks for 
your support this year!  -- Kerry "The Bead  Lady"
Fraser, the Christmas  Dragon
----------------------------
This is our children's story this week  from Margo Fallis...

Fraser lived in a huge, but very dark and damp cave,  way up in the 
northeastern part of Scotland. His dark purple scales kept him  warm most of the time, 
but when the snow fell in the heart of winter, he would  often get so cold 
that he would shiver. To make matters worse, Fraser didn't  have any friends. 
None of the other animals in Thistleberry Glen wanted to be  friends with a 
dragon.

Fraser spent most of his days cooking and baking.  This helped keep his cave 
a bit warmer. He was quite a good cook too. He made  the best caramel 
shortbread in the whole glen. On days when he went down to the  river for a drink, if 
he was lucky enough to see a fish or two, he'd catch them  with his sharp 
claws, take them back to the cave, and make fishcakes. He'd add a  little onion 
and mashed potatoes and fry them up to perfection.

On the  23rd of December, Fraser spent the whole day baking Christmas 
sweeties. He made  tablet and fudge, dumplings and cakes, pastries and biscuits. 
"It's almost  Christmas Day. I'll bet some of the other animals in Thistleberry 
Glen would  enjoy a few Christmas sweets," he smiled. He divided them into five 
portions,  wrapped them in red and green striped paper and tied a big golden 
ribbon around  them. As soon as the sun set below the heather-covered hills, 
Fraser put the  packages in a big brown bag and headed into the woods. "This 
will make their  Christmas brighter," Fraser giggled. Even though none of the 
animals ever spoke  to him, he enjoyed being nice to everyone. 

"Aha, there's Carly, the  highland cow," he whispered. She was sleeping. Her 
long, shaggy, reddish-brown  hair hung to the ground and was touching the 
snow. Her eyes were shut and she  was snoring! Fraser, being such a big dragon, 
had to be careful that his sharp  horns didn't bump into the tree branches. He 
had to watch out for his long,  pointed tail too. Sometimes it knocked over 
bushes or bumped into rocks.  Silently he approached. He opened his big brown bag 
and took out one of the  packages. He hung in carefully on Carly's long, 
handlebar horn. He giggled with  joy as he snuck back into the woods. "Hee, hee, 
hee. She'll be surprised when  she wakes up!"

A few minutes later he spotted Siobhan, the highland  sheep. She was standing 
in a meadow filled with wildflowers. Her thick fleecy  wool looked nearly 
black in the evening sky. "I'll set the package on her wool.  It's so thick that 
she'll never even feel it," he chuckled. He crept towards  her, taking her 
package out of his big brown bag. Very carefully, he put it down  on her wool and 
then snuck back into the woods. "Hee, hee, hee. She'll love all  the sweets!"

Rabbie, the raccoon, was snoozing in one of the ancient oak  trees. The 
dragon nearly bumped into a branch with his horns! "Whew, that was  close," he 
frowned. "I'd have woken him up and then it wouldn't have been a  surprise." He 
took Rabbie's package out of his big brown bag and put it in a  hole in the 
trunk of the tree, near Rabbie's paw. "Hee, hee, hee. When he wakes  up, he'll see 
his sweets right away." He tiptoed quietly into the woods,  giggling the 
whole time.

Harry, the hedgehog, was curled up in a ball  under a bush. The sharp claws 
on Fraser's huge feet nearly crunched him as he  walked through the woods. 
"Oops! I almost didn't see Harry sleeping down there."  He bent over and heard 
Harry snoring. "Hee, hee, hee. I'll just set the package  down right here in the 
bush and when he wakes up, he'll see his sweets." Fraser  took the package out 
of his big brown bag, put it down in the bush and then  crept away.

He had one more package in his big brown bag and went walking  through 
Thistleberry Glen, looking for Gillian, the grouse. Gillian was in her  nest, curled 
up. Her brown and black feathers were tucked away nicely under her  body to 
keep her warm. She heard the noise of snapping twigs and opened her  eyes. 
Coming towards her was a huge, black shape. "What's that?" she gulped.  Just then 
she saw that it was Fraser. "Och, no! It's the purple dragon that  lives in 
the cave? Is he coming to eat me? What should I do?" she whimpered  softly. She 
was too afraid to move, incase the dragon saw her. She sat frozen  with fear 
in her nest as Fraser came closer and closer. She saw him take  something out 
of a bag. "What's he doing?" she mumbled. His big hand with sharp  claws moved 
towards her. "He's going to smash me and rip me to shreds with his  claws!" 
she sobbed, but was surprised when Fraser put a lovely package down on  the 
ground next to her nest. He was giggling and tiptoed away. "What was that  all 
about?" she wondered.

She climbed out of her nest and picked up the  package. She took a sniff of 
it. "That smells lovely," she said. Gillian pulled  the ribbon and took the 
wrapping off. "Why, the big dragon has made me some  sweets." She read the tag 
that was attached to the package. 'Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry  Christmas! Here are some 
sweets from your secret friend!' "Well, isn't that nice  of him. Maybe he's not 
such a bad, scary dragon after all.

Fraser crept  back to his cave and curled up in the corner. Water dripped 
from the ceiling and  he shivered all night long. 

The next morning, Gillian flew around  Thistleberry Glen. She saw Carly, 
Siobhan, Rabbie and Harry standing talking.  She flew down and landed next to 
them. "What's going on here?" she  asked.

Carly mooed, "In the middle of the night, someone delivered a  package of 
sweets to each of us. We don't know who it was!"

Gillian  smiled. "I know who it was!"

Siobhan went baa. "Tell us. Who would do  such a nice thing? I've never 
tasted such delicious tablet, shortbread and  pastries before."

"It was Fraser, the big purple dragon that lives in the  cave. I saw him 
myself," Gillian answered.

"Fraser? That clumsy dragon?"  Harry squealed.

"Surely you're mistaken," Rabbie added.

"No, I saw  him. He left me a package too. I think we should do something 
nice for him. I  imagine he must get chilly in that damp cave," the grouse said.

"I've got  a splendid idea," Siobhan said. "Let's use my wool. It's nice and 
thick and  warm, and we'll make him a blanket. You can all knit, can't you?" 
she asked the  others.

They all nodded. They spent the day plucking wool from Siobhan's  back and 
knitting. When they were done, they sewed each strip together. "That's  lovely," 
Carly said, looking at the finished blanket. "It will keep him warm all  
winter long."

Rabbie wrapped it in some beautiful silver and gold paper.  Harry tied a 
golden ribbon around it. "Let's get him a tree too," Harry said.  "I'll make the 
decorations if you'll find the tree."

Carly and Siobhan  found a wee pine tree. Harry and Rabbie hung nuts and 
rowan berries on it.  Gillian used some of her feathers to decorate it. "That's 
lovely," she said as  the finishing touches were added. On Christmas Eve, after 
the sun went down, the  five animals carried the tree and the wrapped blanket 
and set them down outside  of Fraser's cave.

Christmas morning came around. Fraser was feeling  rather sad. His fingers 
were cold and his claws were almost frozen like icicles.  His horns had frost on 
them and he couldn't feel his tail, which had been lying  on the ground. He 
stood up and rubbed his arms and went outside. "What's this?"  he gasped. He 
picked up the package. "It's a Christmas present," he laughed. He  opened it up. 
"Oh, a lovely woolen blanket. Who made this?" he wondered. He  looked at the 
tree. "Rowan berries, nuts and feathers. How pretty! It's the best  Christmas 
tree I've ever had!"

He went back inside and turned on his oven  and started to make himself a 
Christmas meal. As he was chopping the leeks, he  heard a noise coming from the 
entrance to his cave. "Can we come in?" Carly  asked.

Fraser was surprised. He had guests on Christmas Day! "Come in,  all of you. 
I'm about to fix supper. Would you like to stay?" he  asked.

Carly, Siobhan, Rabbie, Harry and Gillian spent the rest of the  day in the 
cave with Fraser, nibbling on his leeks and potatoes, haggis,  sausages, bacon, 
sweets of every sort imaginable, bannocks, raisins and boiled  eggs. "This is 
the best Christmas I've ever had," he sighed, happily. "Thank you  for the 
blanket. There'll be no more cold nights for me now." He noticed that  Siobhan 
didn't have as much wool as usual and smiled at her. "Merry Christmas to  you 
all," he shouted.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Fraser," they  replied.

>From then on, the other animals in Thistleberry Glen stopped by  Fraser's 
cave for tea and caramel shortbread whenever they were nearby and even  invited 
the dragon to their houses, even though he was too big to fit inside. 
You can read more stories at 
_http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/stories/index.htm_ 
(http://es.enewsletterpro.com/t.aspx?S=1&ID=148&NL=2&N=134&SI=5556&URL=http://www.electricscotland.com/kids/stories/index.htm)