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

What would he do?

While thinking of this, Nonesuch flew in great sweeps
above the earth. Below, fearful people pointed to heaven and
crossed themselves. They were sure that, in these evil times, a
flying dragon was a portent of yet more evil days to come.

And Nonesuch looked down on the earth too: on the tiny
huts of the peasants; on the castle, which from this height was
no bigger than his toenail; on the besieging troops which
resembled wood lice. He widened the circle of his flight. He
soared westward, over the great beech forest, unchanged since
his childhood. At one instant a round blue pool winked up at
him, but he thought, proudly, that he was far too big and far
too wise to fly down amid the trees. He flew north. The city of

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Salisbury appeared below; the spire of its cathedral, already
two hundred years old and weathered with time, seemed no
bigger than a scrub pine. As long as he stayed high above the
earth, humans and their works seemed puny enough. But he
could not stay up there forever, looking down on them. He had
to see to his treasure. Thoughtfully, Nonesuch glided back to
his hill and into his cavern.

A glance showed him that the treasure was still undisturbed.
But Nonesuch regarded it with a feeling ofstrangeness. It had
looked familiar and comforting when his grandmother spread
herself over it, so that the pieces of gold made patterns on her
patterned scales. Or when his father or his grandfather had
slept off their feasts in the cavern. They had always seemed
more comfortable if their bellies rested on the treasure heap -
and they scattered the coins about with their sleepy twisting
and writhing so that his grandmother had to sweep them back
with her tail in the morning.

Once, Nonesuch remembered, after she had put the pile
into particularly good order, she told him again, "Always
guard your treasure!" But then, after a time, she had added,
' 'Remember, be as light on your feet as on your wings. A wise
dragon is always poised for departure."

' 'But Grandmother,'' Nonesuch could not help protesting
after he had thought over these words, ' 'how will I guard my
treasure then?"

"That you must decide for yourself," his grandmother
replied haughtily. And then, to preclude any further argu-
ment, "Consistency is a human virtue, of little account to a