The Dragon's Goat

There once lived a great dragon high atop a mountain where no one could reach her. Now she didn’t like being alone, but you must understand that dragon’s do not like to be hunted, challenged, or otherwise harassed by peasants, knights and the like. After all, if you had a dragon living in your kingdom, wouldn’t you try to chase it away? So this dragon lived by itself atop this mountain deep inside a cave overlooking a vast valley below where it hunted deer, cows, sheep and other such things.
Now one thing that should be known about this dragon is that it always had a fiery temper with the breath to match. That isn’t to say that she was a mean dragon. Oh no, this she was not by any means. She simply was ill tempered you see and who wouldn’t be after all the trouble she’d been put through to find some peace and quiet atop her mountain inside her cave? Unfortunately, she was also quite lonely though she’d not admit such a thing willingly. However seeing as nothing and no one could get past her fiery temperament she despaired of ever having much company.
Given all that I’ve told you, just imagine the dragon’s surprise when one day, while she was dozing in the sunny spot at the mouth of her cave, there arrived a goat with great curved horns and a long twirling beard at her doorstep. The dragon thought this rather odd, that a goat, something she was normally inclined to eat, would come to her cave. However as she’d only just eaten she did not rise to chase the unfortunate creature and paid him little mind as he wandered around the cave mouth absently chewing on the sparse mountain grass.
After several minutes of grazing however, the goat seemed to notice her for the first time. The dragon again thought this very strange since, as you can no doubt guess, it is very hard to miss a dragon that is sitting right in front of you while you eat. However she didn’t intend to leave her sunny spot at the mouth of the cave just because of one silly goat. She’d already eaten two whole oxen that morning after all. Besides, she reasoned, the goat would no doubt dart down the mountainside now that he had realized that he had wandered into the lair of a dragon.
This is not what happened however. The goat with the great curved horns and the long twirling beard merely regarded her quietly. He did not appear to mind that she was a fiery tempered dragon in the least. After a moment’s more consideration the goat returned to his grazing and paid her no more mind. Now this was insulting. The dragon felt her pride injured that this goat would dare ignore her on her own doorstep. It was outrageous and she would not stand for it. She stood up and spread her wings, letting out a threatening hiss to show how fierce and mighty she was.
The goat merely looked at her with quiet regard before letting out a bleat that sounded almost like a laugh. The dragon now felt truly indignant. To be laughed at in her own home by a goat, it was unheard of! With a bellow she charged the goat who bleated gleefully and darted out of the reach of her searching jaws. The goat darted over the edge of the mountain and vanished in the rocks below. The dragon, duly satisfied that her pride had been restored, turned back to her sunny spot at the front of her cave. That was when something hit her in the rump. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t everyday that a great dragon is struck in its rump you see so she was very startled.
Turning, she found the goat, his great curved horns lowered bleating at her in challenge. For a moment she simply stood there dumbstruck. Was this goat mad? Did he not understand that she could gobble him up in one bite? Clearly he had taken leave of his senses. However he had just struck her in a most unpleasant place and the dragon couldn’t stand for such an insult to go unanswered. She turned towards the goat who again darted out of the way. This time however she breathed a great gout of flame that blackened the rock and mountain grass to a crisp. As the flames settled she snorted in satisfaction at the blackened patch where the goat had been.
That would teach him she concluded. She was just about to turn around to return to the sunny spot in her cave when up over the lip of the rocks poked the head of the goat. His great curved horns were blackened and his long twirling beard smoked at its tip but otherwise he was unharmed. He clambered back up to face her and bleated at her in annoyance. He seemed to be most indignant that she had lit his beard afire. This was too much for the dragon and she sat there, stumped as to what to do with this strange creature. What manner of goat did not fear a dragon? Now breathing fire is very tiresome for a dragon of any size, and it takes them time to regain their wind after such a breath as she’d taken.
So with her flame temporarily extinguished and not wanting to chase the silly goat off yet again only to have him taunt her, she chose to ignore him. She settled down in the sunny spot at the mouth of her cave and tried to ignore the goat’s triumphant bleating as he pranced around chewing on what remained of the mountain grass around her cave. She reasoned that if she ignored him, perhaps he would lose interest in tormenting her and she’d be rid of him. And so it went for the rest of that day. The goat fed merrily around the dragon’s cave and she did her best to pretend that the strange creature was nowhere to be seen.
That evening the dragon settled back into her cave. She walked around in a circle, padding the warm stone just the way she liked it. She glanced at the opening to her cave and felt a twitch of irritation. The goat was still there. He was now at the mouth of the cave settled very nicely in its center with his great curved horns silhouetted against the starlight. The dragon considered chasing him off, but she was far too sleepy to bother with chasing away the goat. After all, if he stayed there all night she would not have to go looking for breakfast in the morning. So it was that she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
The next morning she woke with a hungry rumble and after stretching out her stiff muscles she glanced at the cave mouth for the goat. To her great surprise and mild annoyance he was not there. She stomped out onto her doorstep and looked around. The goat was nowhere to be seen. The dragon huffed in irritation, now deprived of her anticipated breakfast and rightful vengeance for yesterday's indignity she spread her wings and leapt into the air. Goat or no goat, she was still quite hungry as waking dragons are wont to be.
She returned later that morning having feasted on a herd of deer, her belly quite stuffed and her appetite sated. She looked forwards to resting in the warm spot in front of her cave once again. It was with no small amount of mortification that she saw the very same goat sauntering about the front of her cave as she came in to land. So befuddled was she by the goat's reappearance that she very nearly fell out of the air. As it was, what had been intended to be a graceful landing turned into a near collision with the ground as the dragon stumbled and fumbled for footing on the rocks.
Her day now thoroughly spoiled by her unwanted guest, she bellowed and came running at the goat who nimbly darted up the mountain slope and out of the dragon's reach. She seethed up at it, hissing and spitting angrily as it looked down at her from its perch. She spread her wings, considering leaping up after the obnoxious creature but with her stomach so freshly full of deer was not up to the task of a brisk romp up the mountain side and so she simply glared menacingly at the annoying animal.
After her annoyance had run its course, she again settled down into her favorite sunny spot at the front of her cave and tried to ignore the sounds of the goat meandering around above her. She would have him for supper she promised herself indignantly. Surely he would still be here for supper! However when the time for supper did come, the goat was again oddly absent and the dragon once more had to go in search of less convenient food. She was starting to develop a twitch, and dragons never developed twitches.
After supper, she again returned to find the goat napping above her cave, nestled in a rocky outcropping that made it quite impossible for her to get at him. She snarled in exasperation and stomped into her cave, too irritated to partake of the enjoyment of her sunny spot that afternoon. Later that evening, she glanced out to see the goat sitting in front of her cave, looking up at the night sky. She drew in a long, deep breath, doing her best to calm herself. She resolved to ignore the goat once more, this time entirely. She'd not even think of it as food. It simply would cease to exist!
And so the dragon's life progressed over the next several days. She continued to ignore the goat, even when it bleated at her insistently. Now as we all know, once a dragon sets its mind to ignoring something, it is quite impossible to get it to acknowledge its presence. As a result of this, the goat's presence became less and less annoying as the days went by and the dragon began to see the goat as just another facet of its home. So it was with some dismay that the dragon awoke one morning to find the goat in absence.
That wasn't to say that the dragon had finally awknowledged the goat's presence, far from it, but just as the dragon would have noticed the movement of any of the rocks in her cave, so too did she notice the absence of the goat. A rock had been misplaced, and she was now quite uncomfortable in her home, at least until she knew the reason for the displacement. Still, she was hungry, and so she lifted herself up upon her wings and headed down the mountain to find her morning repast.
It was during her flight that she heard a familiar bleating sound. Only this wasn't the amused bleating she was so accustomed to, no, this was quite a distressed sound. In fact it sounded completely terrified! The dragon growled as she circled around the mountain, searching for the source of the bleating until she found it. The goat was trapped behind an outcropping with three hungry wolves snapping at it. This would never do! Wolves were bad enough, they stole her food, but if anyone was going to eat this goat it would be her!
She dove with a thundering roar that cracked the mountainside. The wolves froze in their tracks and looked up in alarm, yelping in terror and fleeing from the fury of the descending dragon as she alighted amidst the rocks, snarling and snapping as her tail slashed through the air menacingly. After they'd been chased away, the dragon turned her gaze to the trapped goat. It was obviously injured and quite incapable of escaping her now. It looked back at her blandly for a moment before bleating insistently.
The dragon twitched and snapped her jaws in annoyance, the goat was silent, still staring at her expectantly. She huffed and extended her head, opening her jaws and scooping the goat up gently between her teeth before leaping back into the air. She circled the mountain, catching the updrafts until she was above her cave once more. She landed gracefully and plopped the goat down in front of her cave. It limped off to the side of her cave and settled down. She eyed it dubiously for a moment until she was satisfied that the goat was going to stay put before once more taking to the wing to find breakfast.
When she returned with a freshly filled belly, she found the goat waiting for her. She ignored it, settling down in her favorite sunny spot at the mouth of her cave. The goat trotted over and settled next to her, causing her to growl and hiss a little but the goat paid her no heed. And so the pair passed the day, dozing in the warmth of the sun, and that night, they lay awake staring at the blanket of stars dotting the skies. And for the first time in a long time, the dragon was not lonely anymore.