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

to rebuild it, and a noble title.




And while all these events, of greater or less impor-
tance in human history, were taking place, None-
such continued to shrink.

For some time he was still the largest creature
in the vicinity. He judged it wiser to keep out of human sight as
much as possible. He flew mostly at night; people seeing his
silhouette against the moon could easily believe he was as
large as ever. No one realized he was growing smaller, except
for children, who whispered about it among themselves; but
who cared what they thought? Nonesuch began to find the
night a more comfortable time to be abroad. He would stay
aloft, or sometimes perch in the highest trees until shortly
before sunrise, when he would fly back to his cavern.

51

One bright moonlit night, he found the contours of the
beech forest over which he was flying strangely familiar. Though
it made him uneasy to do so, he lighted on a tree and waited
until dawn broke. Yes, directly beneath him was the same
round blue pool he had seen in his childhood.

By this time Nonesuch, though much older, was almost
the same size as when he had first visited the pool. He flew
down between the trees. This time, he realized, he was much
more skffled in flying and could zoom between the branches in
an elegant and daring fashion. Even the butterfly would be
impressed to see such flying from a dragon, he thought; though
of course the butterfly was long dead.

He landed by the pool's brim. The hawthorn bush on the
bank had grown; there were two lily-pads where one had been
before. At first there was no other
sign of life on the pool's surface,
except for a line of skating water-
bugs. Then a turtle's head broke
water, a wrinkled head with wise
eyes that peered keenly at the
dragon.

"So," the turtle remarked
after a time, "you've learned
some manners. Now you wait
before you stick your nose in."