Oh we do like to be beside the seaside....   by "Blubber"

The sun was as hot as toast and the dragon huffed and puffed as he dragged the captured Princess over the sand-dunes in the middle of the desert.

The Princess was crying, but as soon as the tears left her eyes, they dried into salty streaks all the way down her cheeks.

The dragon didn't care, it was time to get back to his cave, stretching deep, deep under the desert.

At last they reached the cool dark cave.  The dragon flopped down, exhausted.  The Princess lay sobbing at his feet.

There they stayed, for a night and a day.

Meanwhile, the King and Queen (whose daughter was the captured Princess) were desperate.  They knew quite well who had taken her, and where he had taken her, but they had no idea how to get her back.

"I heard tell, Your Majesties", whispered Blubber, a small page-boy who usually went quite unnoticed, "that the dragon in question is quite partial to cheese you know!"

"...and,  your point being?" replied the King testily.

"Well, as we all know, dragons like sand and deep dark caves but they cannot STAND being anywhere near the sea." replied Blubber.  "So I thought that if we could tempt him with some cheese and lure him down to the seaside, we would have him in our power, to do with what we wish!"

Their Majesties felt it was worth a try so Blubber set off into the desert, armed with the most enormous lump of cheese you could wish to see.

After a very long time trudging up and down dune, Blubber arrived at the mouth of the cave.

He wafted his enormous lump of cheese up and down and sang cheesy songs in a very loud voice.

"Harrumph!" said the dragon sleepily.  "Harrumph and again I say harrumph (in case you didn't hear me the first time!).  That smells like cheese to me - not so sure about the songs though!"

He poked his great head out of the cave.

At this point Blubber scurried away over the nearest dune, but the wafting trail of cheesy odours stayed behind to tempt the dragon.

The dragon quickly packed up the Princess (no, she was not still sobbing, in fact she had become quite fond of the dragon - well you would wouldn't you if you were spending all your time with one?) and set off in the wake of the odorous wafts.

The little procession made its way back over the dunes to the sea.  Their Majesties were there waiting.

The Princess cried "Hi Mum and Dad - look at me!  I have a new best friend!"

Now, Blubber was about to launch his poisoned arrow (purchased from the Poisoned Arrowmaker especially for this occasion) at the Dragon (who had got hold of the cheese and was chomping away quite happily - not minding being by the sea at all, actually), when he heard what the Princess was saying.

For a moment, he hesitated - after all, the legend called for the dragon to be well and truly slain.  However, being of a soft heart (or rather, ME being of a soft heart - sorry Blubber), he decided to lay down his bow.

The three, Princess, Blubber and Dragon (yes, he has earned himself a capital letter) became the closest of friends, Their Majesties would spend days on end fondly watching them play in the waves at the edge of the ocean and life was, quite frankly, just ticketeboo!

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