The fourth book in the Cavern series is complete in its draft form and now being edited. You can prebook a copy on Kindle ready for release on 30th June. Meanwhile more short stories for ‘A Vet’s Nightmare’ have been added for more fun. If you purchased this book and want to see more stories I wll email you with the new stories
Peter
A House is Forever not just for Christmas
©Peter L. Barnes 2018
Pauline woke with a start. Someone was creeping into her bedroom. Her heart was thumping in her chest and she could hardly contain her excitement. She was sure that Father Christmas could hear her, despite desperately trying to keep still. Why did she have to have such a squeaky bed, any movement would betray the fact that she was awake. Convinced that if she made any sound, Father Christmas would rush out without leaving her any presents. She controlled her breathing as the shape cautiously crept around the room to the foot of the bed.
Earlier in the month, she had helped her father put up the lights – greens; whites; reds and her personal favourite, blues. Draping them across the small tree in the corner of the cottage, with a special angel on top for her mother. They were only allowed to put up the decorations after 1st December, so that was always when Pauline started counting down to the big day. Her father had taken her to the local toy supermarket where the dazzling and bewildering array of fantastic toys were beyond her imagination and also beyond her father’s wallet. They had bought nothing at the till and Pauline’s eyes started welling up at the lost opportunity. Maybe if they had been to a smaller shop, she could have picked out something affordable that she really wanted.
The door quietly closed behind her welcome intruder, but Pauline waited an age before she felt comfortable in checking the anticipated gifts. Finally, she had waited long enough, her curiosity too demanding to leave well alone. She crawled to the end of her bed and cautiously pulled the stocking onto her blanket, thinking back to the days before Christmas break, when the children in her class had talked about all the presents they would be getting for Christmas, from the latest dolls and their outfits; prams and pushchairs; kitchen sets; fashionable clothes; shoes; typewriters and even sewing machines.
Pauline had kept quiet, in case she revealed that her chances of any meaningful presents was slim. Her father was a mere carpenter, didn’t earn a lot, and since the death of his wife, Pauline’s mother, seemed to be in a state of quiet shock, left without his soul mate and unable to properly console his daughter. Pauline tried her hardest to cope without her mother who had passed away suddenly, last Christmas, the worst present ever.
Pauline felt the lumps and bumps in the stocking. A most wonderful feeling, desperately trying to guess the contents. The apple and orange were too obvious, and disappointing, but then a square box crackling with wrapping paper, held more promise, as did the strangely shaped, unusual oblong. Something soft and squishy, promised maybe the cuddly teddy she had seen in the shop. Maybe her father had snuck back into the shop and selected the one she had coveted.
She daren’t switch her light on, as it was far too early to get up, so she tucked the unopened stocking under the covers, unwilling to let it out of her arms.
Pauline felt something pressing into her side, before realising that daytime had finally arrived and she had turned over onto her wonderful stocking. “Yippee,” she cried. “Time to get up.”
She sat up, opened the curtains and gasped with joy as she watched the snow tumbling out of the sky, turning everything white. “What a perfect Christmas, now for my presents.”
She opened the end of the stocking and extracted the first package, ripping the wrapping paper and tossing it to the floor. “Oh, wine gums,” Not the cuddly bear she had thought. “Maybe the next one would be more exciting,” but she saw it was only chocolate buttons. The oblong present contained only an oblong box. Pauline began to realise that maybe this Christmas would be the same as all her previous years. The apple and orange were placed carefully on her bedside table. “Only one more,” she said, crossing her fingers as she slowly opened the plain cardboard box.
Inside, laid out carefully, were three miniature dolls. One dressed as her father, one of herself and the third, a beautiful depiction of her mother. Tears welled up in her eyes and dribbled down her cheeks. Not only at the memories of her mother, but also at the thought that her father, and his small income, had managed to construct such beautiful present. She knew in her heart that her father played Father Christmas and loved him for the intrigue and pretence.
It was time to go down and thank her father, not only for the presents but the wonderful thought behind them. Miles better than all the expensive, impersonally built toys from far off factories. She dressed in her best outfit, well cleanest at any rate, and walked downstairs, smelling the toast and hopefully a soft-boiled egg for her breakfast.
“Good morning dearest sweetheart,” said her father, giving her a kiss on her forehead. “Happy Christmas.”
“Hello Daddy,” said Pauline, giving him a hug as he leant down to the floor. “Look at the dolls Father Christmas made for me. They look just like us.”
“How wonderful,” said her father “Let’s have breakfast and the see if there’s anything else Father Christmas left under the tree.”
“More presents?”
“Maybe only one, but let’s eat first.”
Pauline had never eaten her egg quicker than today, dipping her soldiers into the egg, spilling bright yellow yolk down the sides of the shell and onto her plate.
“Careful! Don’t waste it.”
“Sorry,” she said, wiping the side with her finger to get the last morsel.
“Ready?”
“Oh yes.”
“Close your eyes,” as he led her into the lounge. “Open them.”
Pauline gave a shriek as she saw huge present by the tree, “For me?” Maybe this would be something she could talk about, as she knelt down and slowly undid the brown paper wrapping. A roof emerged, with all individual tiles marked out, followed by the outside walls and windows. “A doll’s House!”
“Not any doll’s house,” he said.
“No, it’s our House,” she replied. “How wonderful. But it has no insides and no people.”
“Where are your other presents?”
“Oh upstairs.” She said excitement building once again. “I’ll get them.” Pauline rushed up the stairs and collected the box and fruit.
“Right. Now open the front wall of the house, there’s a small catch.”
Pauline fumbled on the catch with her trembling fingers and finally opened the door wide. “But there’s nothing inside.”
Her father brought another rectangular box from behind the tree and handed it to Pauline. She was shivering with delight as she ripped open the package to reveal a perfect Kitchen, just like theirs, complete with another Mum doll, this time in her pinny.
“Right, now push the kitchen into the house.”
Pauline eased the kitchen in and set her mother in front of the oven. “Look Dad she’s cooking our supper.”
“So she is,” as he handed her another box.
Pauline opened this one more carefully as it rattled slightly, inside was a perfect dining room this time with her mother laying the table.
A third box appeared as if by magic, now she had a lounge with her mother sitting in front of the fire, knitting a tiny blue jumper. “Oh Daddy, this is wonderful thank you so much.”
She unwrapped the fourth box to reveal a beautiful model of the main bedroom with her mum doing her hair in front of an exquisite mirror.
“Put that on top of the lounge,” instructed her dad.
Pauline carefully slotted the bedroom into the first-floor section, followed by another room her father passed her, made to look exactly like their bathroom.
“Where’s my bedroom?” queried Pauline.
“That’s the other box you have. I thought we could decorate that together.”
Finally, he produced a tiny garden with mum in her gardening clothes, planting flowers.
“Dad this is the most wonderful Christmas, thank you.”
“We both miss your mother so much and I thought that if we couldn’t have her with us, we could have her in spirit, in this house and we can do all the things together, as if she had never left.”
Pauline hugged her father so tightly to make sure he realised what a wonderful gift he had made for her.
“Now then, how are we going to decorate your room?”
“I’ll get some things but I think mother should be reading me a bedtime story.”
Copywrite Peter l. Barnes April 10th 2020
“Fred, what are you doing?”
“Clearing the garage like we agreed,” said Fred.
“Still. You’ve been doing that for days,” said the voice from the kitchen. “What’s taking so long?”
“Clearing out thirty years of storing my stuff in the garage will probably need more than one day,”
“Hoarding you mean,” came Mabel’s voice, grating on Fred’s ears like a rusty file on sprung steel.
“The same as your sewing boxes and cloth scraps.”
“Whatever, I’ve left your breakfast on the steps.”
Fred took the plate, which in theory, mimicked the delicious breakfasts they’d had in Sydney Harbour. Of course, Mabel always bought the wrong type of avocado, so instead of lovely lumpy green and tasteful delight, what was on the plate was a flat mush of nothing, making the limp toast, more soggy than usual.
Fred gazed around the garage wondering where to start, looking up at the cobwebs where spiders had been self-isolating for decades. I wonder what they get to eat, hopefully the annoying mosquitos or maybe each other. Do spiders get stuck in their friends’ webs, he wondered.
Not wanting to be disturbed again, Fred tried to get the old analogue radio to work, hoping to drown out the sound of his wife’s voice. But the old radio no longer tuned in, probably a cracked ferrite rod unable to pick up signals. Fred had tried the new-fangled digital radios but had never found a station. More attempts to tune into Radio Four only brought more crackling noises, made worse by the worn-out speakers.
Talking of flying insects, one wasp seemed intent on getting into the garage and disturb him, if not sting him. Fred took an old sandal and threw it across the garage, completely missing the offending wasp but luckily hitting the door, slamming it shut, effectively barring its intrusion, as well, thankfully, his wife’s moaning.
“I’ll start with the childrens’ toys,” he said to the pile in the corner.
An old bus, which had been used to help the toddlers walk, now rusted and forlorn sat on the top shelf.
“Maybe somebody would be able to restore that and make it useful again,” said Fred, dusting it down and replacing it on the shelf. “Wow, the old castle I built for the boys, now long gone to warmer climes. That definitely can go to the charity shop, once they reopen.”
A box held old teddies, worn and stained from years of hugs and tea parties, but still with the buttons in their ears. “They could definitely go to the auction room,” declared Fred. The toy car collection, still in their original boxes could bring enough money for a holiday, he didn’t watch ‘Flog It!’ for nothing.
“Gosh is this still here. I thought I’d thrown it out long ago,” said Fred, dragging out a beautiful coffee table. Hand made by himself, as requested by Mable. Crafted wooden legs and struts, varnished instead of French polished, after an attempt to follow YouTube videos, failed to live up to expectation.
A wooden model sailboat, painstakingly put together to try and demonstrate that he did have the patience, not of a saint perhaps, to complete such a complex work. Finished and proudly presented to Mable, but not allowed to be displayed on the mantlepiece, dismissed as a dust trap.
A cot and high chair saved for any grandchildren that might come along but now that his sons and daughter were spread across the globe, unlikely to be needed, but bringing back fond memories of crying and food spread across the kitchen floor and of course, nappies. Well maybe not such fond memories, reflected Fred.
A box in one corner held the treasures of holidays long forgotten, a batik from South Africa; a boomerang from Australia; a flag from America and posters of trips including a memorable poster of him swimming with dolphins, which despite the claims on the poster, did nothing for his wellbeing. Maybe swimming with a mermaid might have been more his style, assuming he was a merman.
One memorable trip was on a cruise ship to the Mediterranean, where Mable had been taken down with a food bug and confined to the medical suite, allowing him to enjoy the pleasures of relaxing by the pool, watching the nubile ladies diving into the water and generally lying about in the sunshine.
He started ticking off all the power tools and separating them into two piles. One for those he used frequently and those he would probably never need. But on reflection he put them all into one pile for ’keep at all costs’. This clearing out was not going well so far. Moving onto all the spare wood he kept from whittling, to offcuts allowed him at last to find things to throw away, although it was still quite a small pile.
A big box in one corner was his old parts for cars and bikes. There were several parts that could definitely thrown out as they applied to vehicles sold many years hence. But getting to the bottom he pulled out a long cable.
“There you are,” he said to the cable. “How did you get in here?”
Now he was talking to inanimate objects, whatever next thought Fred. But this cable was special, it was bought for the bike he was storing for 20 years and after years of searching he had found the cable on the internet but had been distracted when it arrived by Mable struck down by a mysterious bug. Fred was sure she would get these bugs whenever she thought Fred was drifting away and enabled her to demand his full-time care.
He had thrown it into the box in frustration and it had obviously slipped to the bottom, never to be found again, ‘til today. “Why didn’t I clear out the garage earlier.”
He went over to the back of the garage and slowly hauled a tarpaulin off the object in the corner.
“Silver, how are you?” He wheeled out the huge gleaming motorbike out of the corner admiring its gleaming chrome and silver paint job. Still as wonderful today as the first time he had bought it. Actually better, many years of stripping, polishing and painting had turned it into a gleaming monster. The battery was still on trickle charge for which he thanked his foresight, that maybe one day he would get out on it again.
He took the object out of its protecting plastic and opening his tool box and connected the clutch cable from handle bars to the lever, carefully threading it though the channels. A quick pull showed that the cable was still free and capable of allowing him to change gear.
“Now, where’s my box of biking equipment?” he said, searching for his collection of biking gear. Leather and helmet donned and boots pulled tight. He was almost ready. He opened up the door, “Just off to the dump, dear.”
The sun was low on the far horizon, as a whirr of a motor lifted the garage door. Shafts of light swept around the garage as the sunshine reflected off the chrome. A click of the key and a rumble as an engine burbled into life. A clunk, as first gear engaged. The wonderous almost forgotten smell of oil and fumes swirled around the garage and drifted out into the street.
A scream from the kitchen door, as Mable realised what was happening.
“Right,” said Fred. And with a twist and a roar and a shout of “Hi Ho Silver.” And with thoughts of William Tell, Fred and bike disappeared into the fading sunlight.
© Peter L. Barnes March 2020
The Dragon picked bacon bits from between her teeth, with her especially sharpened claw. Breakfast had been perfect. Ten bacon slices crispy; twenty fried eggs, soft but with crackling white; thirty spicy sausages, straight from the farm; fresh vine tomatoes; a pile of wild portobello mushrooms; finished off with a 500-gram raw and bloody steak.
She paid her bill, surprisingly low, and walked down the hill to finish off with a lovely cappuccino at the local Tiffanies Coffee shop. She walked through a field enjoying the sunshine when she came upon a pixie sitting in the middle of the grass munching on clover.
“Pixie Lott, how are you?” asked Priscilla.
“I’m fine,” said Pixie. “Why are you not flying?”
“I can never fly on a big breakfast.”
“I don’t know why I gave you powers, maybe I should take them away.”
“Maybe not,” said Priscilla, belching out a ring of fire all around the pixie. “I know you love trapping people in a pixie ring, now see how you feel.”
Arriving at the edge of the sea, Priscilla found a beautiful mermaid sunning herself on a rock, crunching on an unfortunate lobster, quietly singing to herself.
“How does the lobster feel?”
“Crunchie,” said the Mermaid, licking her lips.
“Not how does it taste, feel?”
“And the pigs you ate this morning?”
“Grateful for a humane death, unlike eating the lobster alive.”
“How would you expect me to cook food under water?” asked the Mermaid.
“Find a hot pool,” said Priscilla blasting a small pool in front of the Mermaid’s feet until it started boiling over.
The mermaid looked down at the small pool where several snails in seaweed were bubbling away.
“Looks tasty,” said the mermaid. “Pity about the rest of the pond life though!”
Priscilla walked further along the seashore checking out the debris piled up amongst the weeds, coming across the White Unicorn resplendent with her rainbow stripes, shining out in the bright morning sunshine.
“Morning Wolfmother,” said Priscilla.
“Morning Priscilla,” said the Unicorn. “Why do you always call me that?”
“Look it up,” said Priscilla. “Anyway, what are you doing?”
“Cleaning up the plastic,” said the White Unicorn, tugging a large sack of plastic fragments along the beach, using her white flowing tail.
“Let me help,” said Priscilla.
“No don’t do that,” as the unicorn saw the dragon taking a deep breath and punching a fire ball at the bag.
Woof went the bag, sending up a cloud of burnt plastic smoke into the sky, blocking out the sunshine.
When the smoke had cleared, the Unicorn stood amidst the wreckage, her tail shrivelled up and her glorious coat blackened.
“Thanks for nothing,” said the Unicorn, as Priscilla strode away.
Walking further along the beach she found a small child looking down at the pebbles and a Fairy godmother asking her what the matter was.
“I’ve dropped my stone,” wailed the child. “How will I find it now?”
“Was it special?”
“Of course,” said the girl. “It was my pet stone; I’d painted it black.”
“I can help,” said the fairy godmother, about to cast a spell to reveal the stone
“So, can I,” said Priscilla, and unleashed a stream of fire, blackening all the stones and inadvertently turning the fairy’s wand into a pile of ash.
“Thanks for nothing dragon,” said the furious godmother.
“But the child now has a choice of loads of stones.”
Priscilla watched a group of gnomes fishing in the incoming waves. The central gnome was sitting on a throne.
“Morning King Cannot.”
“Canute!”
“Whatever,” knowing better to interfere, no way is this going to go well.
Walking back up the beach to her local coffee shop, Priscilla came across a wizard and witch, fighting it out over a young lady who was being transformed from a poorly dressed waif into a beautiful princess and back again.
“She won’t go to the ball said the wicked witch, casting the poor spell once again.
“Oh yes she will,” said the Wizard, determined that the young girl would have her chance.
“What’s this, some kind of magic reality show?” queried Priscilla.
“She needs her chance in life,” said the wizard, making her outfit even more sparkling
“No, she needs to finish her chores in my house,” said the wicked witch, “I’m her stepmother and what I say goes.”
Priscilla stepped into the fray and blew a smoke screen over the warring factions.
This time the wicked witches spell went wrong and Cinders stayed in her lovely gown.
“What have you done?” screamed the hag.
“I’ve swapped your wands,” said Priscilla. “You will only be able to make good wishes in future.”
The witch stormed off in a huff.
“I suppose the opposite is true for me,” said the wizard “But I can grant negative spells instead.”
Cinders swept away in the TV’s stretch limousine.
Priscilla sat outside the coffee shop, sipping her cappuccino.
“What’s the problem Pricilla?” said the Prince, joining her.
“Everything seems to be wrong this morning,” she said. “I can’t do anything right.”
“That explains my ever after fairy tale, turning into divorce.”
“Really, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry I was never suited to cold climates,” said the concerned Prince. “How did this all start?”
“It started after breakfast at that café you recommended.”
“I told you they did a wicked breakfast, so it’s your own fault for trying it.”
Four and a half books on and I found a gap in my original plot (actually never wrote it). I wonder what I was thinking six years ago. What was in the book discovered in an actic?
Brexit
Copywrite Peter Barnett
A long time ago, a seventeenth century blacksmith was working on a long steel pipe for a customer called Lord Brexman. Lord Brexam’s estate was overrun with deer and he needed some economic and effective way to bring them to his table. He was having a party with many guests and the deer were roaming all over the hills, making bringing them down with bows and arrows very haphazard.
Lord Brexham had found a recipe for some exploding black powder which required along with some sulphur, copious amounts of urine and charcoal, both ingredients were abundant at the local blacksmith. Now all he needed was a way to blast a small projectile a long distance.
After long discussions with his blacksmith they agreed a long steel pipe was the way to go. The blacksmith finally had the long straight pipe, open at one end and closed at the other where he drilled a small hole and cavity. Lord Brexham commissioned a carpenter to carve a stock to hold the barrel and it was ready to test.
They wrapped a small amount of the black powder in a small bag and rammed it down the barrel followed by a round lead ball. Lord Brexham feared that the whole device might blow up in his face and asked one of his minions to shoot at a herd of deer which were grazing nearby. A small amount of the flash powder was placed in the cavity and everything was set. The minion lifted up the barrel and the blacksmith placed a glowing rope onto the flash pan. A second later there was an immense bang and the projectile hurtled towards the unsuspecting deer, knocking it down and killing it instantly.
The minion fell over backwards with the force of the explosion but was unhurt.
“Wonderful,” said the Lord. “I shall name this device the ‘Brexit’, after me of course.”
The dinner party with foreign diplomats turned into a bit of a disaster as each wanted their home-grown food represented on the table. The discussion around the fish course was especially heated, as were talks about who had the best tomatoes.
However, the Brexit became extremely successful and soon became the mainstay of weapons to win wars, and lose them of course, but the earliest device became a very collectable item, especially amongst politicians of the modern day.
David was presented one after his desire to preserve the status quo and it reminded him of the English civil war.
One named Theresa showed an interest in them, as it reminded her of the successful wars in Europe and bought one to hang in her bedroom.
One named Jeremy bought one, as an ironic reminder of his perceived horrors of the colonial era.
Whenever the three were seen on the streets of London they paraded their ancient weapons as a reminder of what they stood for and the crowds cheered or jeered depending on their inclinations. Some leaning one way and some another, hurling insults at each other such as leave or remain. Finally, it all came to a head one day as all the minions were given a final choice.
“Call yourself the three brexiteers, you’re useless,” said the electorate, pointing their fingers at them. “You’re fired.”
And so it was, that a mop haired, Boris, was handed the baton.
The Smart Dragon
Copywrite Peter L. Barnes
A slightly Corny story, but then do Dragons get corns?
Trying to keep up with her classmates.
Thank goodness she had been allowed to join the class, although the teasing that she was a ‘bit of a dragon’ in on-line posts, was a bit hard to take. She wasn’t a bit of a dragon; she was a full-blown dragon.
The main reason that Georgiana had been accepted into the school in the first place was because she had been orphaned at an early age, too many Georges and ‘Game of Thrones’ fans having taken their toll.
Seating arrangements had been a bit of a problem, but fortunately as a ‘special needs child’ they had been given a grant for a metal desk, instead of the usual wooden units. Typing wasn’t a problem as she had her own computer and clawboard. The screen saver was just that, a steel shutter that dropped like a guillotine in front of the screen, if there was any hint of a fire.
She used the Dragonet for all her homework, and Tinder to try and connect to other dragons. Who on earth thought that Tinder was a good name for lonely dragons? And anyway, swiping left and right across her smart phone had ruined many a screen, she was thinking of going to court to force manufactures to improve them. Surely, it was against her dragon rights to have to spend so much money on new phones.
The school was having their annual Christmas play this year and the teacher, Mr Johnston, who acted as the producer, had tried to find a part for her, but this was proving very difficult despite Georgiana’s obvious acting skills. Apparently, there wasn’t a dragon in the bible and Mr Johnson really didn’t think her donkey impression was going down well, something about straw being a fire hazard.
“Life isn’t fair,” she said to Mr Johnson.
“Well I’m sorry but I didn’t write the story,” he said. “Maybe next year we’ll do George and the drag… What??” as Georgiana growled at him.
“And there’s no need to do dog impressions either, this is not a ‘dog in the manger’ story.”
“Sorry but I’m a bit frustrated at the moment.”
Georgiana was trying to concentrate on today’s maths class, she never understood the decimal system, having only 8 claws that had made counting so difficult. The practical IT teacher had come up with a solution but she was still trying to come to terms with the extra digits he had made with his 3D printer. It had a tendency to click like an abacus, at the most inappropriate times, much to the annoyance of the rest of the class.
As for school dinners, sticky toffee pudding and ice-cream were the most annoying, with the ice-cream melting and dripping out of the sides of her mouth, making her look like a drooling teenager. As for the pudding itself, her claws were definitely a mess for days afterwards.
Trying to fit into their world, she went to talk to the Girl Guide Leader, Mrs Poole, to see if she could join up.
“Well,” said Mrs. Poole. “Let’s see some of your skills, for instance can you tie some basic knots?” Handing her two lengths of rope.
“Oh, let me try, but I might be all thumbs, or claws in my case.” Georgiana fumbled with the rope but only succeeded them cutting them into smaller pieces.
“Oh dear, what about turning two sticks into a fire.”
Georgiana laid out a small pyramid of kindling, then shaved some wood into small slivers with her sharp claws, before rubbing two sticks together. “Oh look,” said Georgiana, pointing to a flying bird, then surreptitiously breathing a tiny flame into the slivers and getting the fire going. A pleasant smell of burning pine drifted around the hall.
“Well done, that’s lovely,” said the Guide Leader. “Now what about our gardening project?”
“What is that?
“We have a small allotment and need to grow some vegetables.”
“That should be easy,” said Georgiana, showing Mrs Poole her green claws.
“Oh yes I see what you mean, they should be perfect,” said Mrs Poole, not wanting to upset the dragon any further.
“We’ll need to sort out some sort of uniform for you.”
“Why?”
“Well we can hardy sew your badges onto such a scaly skin.”
“You could tattoo them on of course,” said Georgiana.
“You have tattoos?”
“Yes look!” she turned her shoulder.
“Oh! A human!”
“Well you lot have dragons, so I have humans.”
The first weekend away with the girl guides was a great success especially after the heavy rainfall the previous weeks. No dry spot to pitch their tents for miles around, before Georgiana warmed up the grass and evaporated the water in a cloud of steam. Collected firewood defied all stick spinning attempts but with a little help, the campfire was now burning brightly under the huge cooking pot. All her group were awarded with ‘training their dragon’ badges.
Georgiana settled into her new life, finally making some new friends amongst her classmates, although the sleepover was not a success. However, it did mean her friends’ mothers finally bought flame proof nightgowns.
Moving to university became more of a challenge although transport was never a problem. They found a quiet cave near the campus, where it was rumoured that Merlin had found refuge. Now it’s a little-known fact that Dragons tails are normally quite empty as it helps their balance when flying. However, when going into battle, it is standard practise to fill their tails with their gold hoard or certainly part of it. This can then be used to swing around on their opponent and the weight of gold is usually enough to knock them over and even kill them.
But a little know fact is that when their tail is cut off and stored in a deep cave, the flesh will decompose leaving all the gold and jewels to the new owner of the tail. Which is why people who cut the heads off the dragons lose all the accumulated riches. Silly humans. Georgiana had collected many tails over the years and now used them to fill her new cave, which is where the expression ‘lying on a bed of tails’ derives.
Aeronautical engineering became a passion and she was soon designing comfortable and efficient passenger planes. Her own version of the internal combustion engine being far more efficient that the jet engines of old, and of course much more environmentally friendly.
This of course turned her into a ‘D’ list celebrity, along with her success in writing human fantasy stories, so it was not surprising that she was invited to all the TV reality shows. She opted for ‘Strictly come Prancing’ where children were allowed to display their skills with their ponies. The producers finally had to ask her to resign from the show as her tail kept on knocking over the cameras.
After all her hard work and set backs she decided it was time to settle down and it was Tinder that finally came up with her perfect match.