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

duration to loose their arrows. He flew past the marsh from
which he took his name and finally, as if drawn by the hungry
waves, out to sea. Humble fishermen watched, gaping like
fish themselves, while the great shape sailed on, now majestic
in the sun, though sagging at the bottom, now clumsily tilting
to one side or the other, until, with a gurgling splash, it plunged
into the sea and rose no more.

For many years after, the waters of that coast were unlucky.
Fish shunned them. Fishermen had to journey far out into the

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region of fogs and lolling gales for any kind of catch. Mothers
would frighten naughty children with tales of the great dragon
that dwelt beneath the waves, gathering its strength until it
could rise in the air again. Some stories changed the cow-
shaped stone to an anchor to which the beast had been teth-
ered by a brave prince. Such versions gave more dignity to the
dragon than the true story: that he had fallen victim to his own
undiscriminating gluttony.




Nonesuch's father, the son of the Worm ofGrimsby
Bog, perished through his own appetites too, though
more indirectly. He was a medium-sized black dragon
with a high fringe of scales on his head, rather like a
chefs cap. The peasants called him Greedyguts, which was
not quite fair since he was more a gourmet than a glutton.
Somehow, he had become overly fond of human food, the
more ornate and fanciful the better. He would attack wagon-
loads of savory game pies on their way to the castle for the
pre-Lenten feast, and would often turn up his nose afterwards
at the mules. Sometimes he would be seized by a desire for
simpler fare: he would thrust his neck down a merchant's
chimney and pull a sizzling haunch of beef right off the spit, or
suck up whole kettlefuls of succulent soup. On warm, sultry
days, Greedyguts, in search of a lighter repast, would appear
at picnics, his widespread wings hiding the sun like a black
cloud. After the picnickers had fled, aghast, the dragon would
gobble up all the dainties, and sometimes the picnic baskets as
well, but he would always wipe his mouth with the white
ground-cloths before flying away.

He was considered more a nuisance than a disaster, and
people accepted his visits with wry humor. After all, no one

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