"Patricia C. Wrede - Enchanted Forest 1 - Talking to Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wrede Patricia C)

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Talking to Dragons
Patricia C. Wrede
Copyright 1985 by Patricia C. Wrede

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MOTHER TAUGHT ME to be polite to dragons. Particularly
polite, I mean; she taught me to be ordinary polite to every-
one. Well, it makes sense. With all the enchanted Princesses
and disguised wizards and transformed Kings and so on
wandering around, you never know whom you might be
talking to. But dragons are a special case.

Not that I ever actually talked to one until after I left
home. Even around the edge of the Enchanted Forest, drag-
ons aren't exactly common. It's the principle that matters,
though; always be polite to a dragon. It's more difficult
than it sounds; dragon etiquette is incredibly complicated,
and if you make a mistake, the dragon eats you. But I was
well trained.

Dragon etiquette wasn't the only thing Mother taught
me. Reading and writing are unusual skills for a poor boy,
but I learned them. Music, too, and fighting. Don't ask me
where Mother learned to use a sword; she wouldn't tell me.
Until I was thirteen, I didn't even know we had one in the
house. I even learned a little magic. Mother wasn't exactly
pleased, but growing up on the edge of the Enchanted Forest
I had to know some things.

Mother was tall and slender, and very impressive when

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2 Patricia C. Wrede

she wanted to be. Most of the time she wore her hair in
two black braids wound around and around her head, but
when she really wanted to impress someone she let it hang
straight to her feet. A lot of the disguised Princes who
stopped at our cottage on their way into the Enchanted Forest
thought Mother was a sorceress or something. You can't
really blame them. Who else would want to live right at the
edge of a place like that?

Sometimes I thought they were right. Mother always
knew exactly what kind of directions to give them, even if
they didn't tell her what they were looking for. I never saw