"Kushner,.Donn.-.A.Book.DragonUC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

The turtle swayed his head back and forth at the end of his
long neck. "No," he replied ponderously, ' 'I have long since
accepted that my early life in an egg will remain a mystery to
me. I have, if my humble and bumpy companion here will
pardon me" Ч he looked courteously at the toad Ч "a more
important concern: to come to terms with the burden I always
carry, that is, my shell.'' He nodded towards the great orange-
green dome at his back. "I know it protects me from my
enemies; for years, frankly, none has come to this pool who
would even think of attacking me. Perhaps this shell is of no
use to me, here. But, useful or not, we turtles all wear our
shells in honor of the Greatest Turtle of All, of whom you have
surely heard."

He paused weightily. The dragon tried to figure out how
large this Greatest Turtle of All could be. The particular turtle
who was speaking was four times as broad as the lily-pad.
Perhaps a greater one would be half as large as the pool itself.
He could not imagine that so dull a creature could reach a
greater size.

"The Greatest Turtle of All," the turtle continued sol-
emnly, when he judged he had given the dragon enough time
to answer, "contains within her shell our earth, the sun, the

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moon, and the stars. All order is maintained inside that shell:

light, winds, and seasons. Without the shell, everything would
fly apart. And it must be strong indeed, because this Greatest
Turtle is always under attack by a greater beast - a mad
dragon, in fact, meaning no offense to you ^ who is the deadly
enemy of all order. If he should win, if his teeth should crack
the Greatest Turtle's shell, then all our universe will disappear
and return to the dust from which it arose..

"But we think that, one day, the dragon will grow weary
of the battle. Then his own rage and madness will destroy
him. When that happens, all our own shells will fall away, and
we will dance in the sunlight!''

Nonesuch listened to the turtle's outlandish story with
growing anger. He thought of trying his own teeth out on the
shell of this insolent amphibian, but realized that he could
hardly get his mouth around the turtle's shell. Very well, when
he grew larger he could return to the pool. By that time,
however, his wings would be so wide that he could no longer
fly through the beech forest. Besides, even if he returned on