Oliver Barber And The Dragon (a Modern Fable / Fairytale)

• Alexis Shegog, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2015

Once upon a time, in a village, there lived a little farmer called Oliver Barber, but most people called him Farmer Brown. One Day, Farmer Brown was out working in his field, when a dragon flew down from the nearby mountains.

Now, the dragon was only looking for some sheep (because he’d eaten all the sheep on the other side of the mountains, and was getting rather pleasantly fat), but when he looked down and saw all those juicy villagers, he knew there was a feast in store. He dived right into the poor village and destroyed many houses with his fiery breath.

All the little villagers were terrified! And right in the midst of the chaos, was poor Farmer Brown’s farm, full of juicy, delicious-looking sheep.

The dragon swooped downwards, right into the middle of the field, scorching all the grass about him. Poor Farmer Brown was so terrified!

“G-g-greetings!” stammered Farmer Brown.

“Greetings, little person,” snarled the Dragon, licking his scaly lips in anticipation of the feast that was about to befall him.

The dragon opened his hungry jaws and it was just at that moment, that a wolf who had been lurking in the background determined that he would not lose his intended meal to a pesky dragon and feeling confident that the farmer was sufficiently distracted, started to chase one of Farmer Brown’s beautiful, award-winning sheep.

Poor Oliver acted on instinct. Without thought he charged at the wolf, a big branch in hand! But lo and behold, Mr Barber missed the wolf... and accidentally hit the dragon instead!

The branch hit the dragon directly in the chest, and the dragon was so shocked and scared that he flew away, far off into the mountains.

Oliver Barber was a hero now, and word soon spread that one little person had defeated one very large beast.

The villagers rebuilt their village and gave Farmer Brown a medal, for showing such bravery.

Not long after he married a beautiful lady and had many children to inherit the farm and tend to the prize winning sheep.

As for the dragon, he was never seen by anyone in that village ever again (I heard that he “branched out” somewhere else), and they all lived “happily ever after”!