by Tala Bar
Finbar the Minstrel was not happy. The day was bleak, and he knew he should have stayed behind in the village where he had been visiting, had the people there been more hospitable and forthcoming. They usually were, in places he visited on his wanderings, welcoming him as a good natured stranger who had come to entertain them with his songs and tales, and teach them something of the ways of the world that he encountered on the road. But not here, in that village whose name he did not even bother to remember. For some reason unknown to him, they were all sour-faced and grumpy, had no patience for him or his lore, and allowed him to sleep the night in a stable, rather than invite him into one of their homes. He rose early, and without any breakfast – which would usually be served to him by a kind hostess – he threw his bag over his shoulder and left without saying goodbye to anyone. The sky was heavy with clouds and he had to wear his coat, but he preferred the hardship of Nature to that of humanity.
Toward noon the rain started falling, first in separate large drops, then in torrents. Tightening his hat on his head and wrapping his coat around his body, the Minstrel peeped around, looking for shelter. There were some low hills at a distance, and he set his steps in that direction, feeling that was better than staying in the open field where he had been walking. It was a longer walk than he had estimated, but at last he reached the foothills. He felt lucky to discover the hills were not as low as seem from the distance, and some cliffs looming above his head meant the possibility of holes or crannies he could use for shelter. Indeed, Finbar's luck changed at that point, when he spotted a dark opening that could be the entrance to a cave. Without hesitation, he hurried toward the place, passed through the opening and found himself inside a spacious cavern; he threw his bag to the ground, removed his drenched coat and hat and shook himself all over like a wet dog.
What he did not notice at first was that the cave was occupied. A deep growl soon put him wise to the fact, and when he turned to look toward the depth of the cave, he encountered a pair of gleaming yellow eyes, that could only belong to some wild animal. Finding himself between the Devil in the shape of a preying animal, and the deep sea of the torrential rain outside, Finbar stood glued to his place, his heart beating hard and his whole body shaking. He never thought himself a hero, but such fear that had taken hold of him now was rare even for him.
A roaring sound came from the entrance of the cave, which acted on the Minstrel like a hard push. His body turned by itself to look at the new danger, his heart now stopped numb and he felt death coming in person to fetch him. An enormous body blocked the cave's opening, a strange silhouette appeared on the background of the day's faint light. The scaly head of the beast hinted at just one thing: a dragon! Even the mysterious beast in the depth of the cave retreated before the giant, leaving Finbar to face his new peril.
“Now, now, Finbar,” a deep, low growl sounded, hinting at an effort to be soft and calm, and suddenly the blood rushed throughout the Minstrel's limbs and his heart returned to action. A talking dragon? He had never seen a dragon in his life, always thought them mythical creatures, which, if ever existed, had vanished from the face of the earth a long time ago. And now, not only one facing him as large as life, but also talking to him like man to man? The impossible had again came upon the Minstrel, to reveal for him another fascinating side of the world.
“Come out, Finbar,” the Dragon said; “I am not going to eat you, I need your help.”
Slowly, hesitatingly, Finbar lifted the bag from the cave's floor and through it over his shoulder, picked up his coat and wrapped it around his body, and went toward the cave's entrance. The dragon moved away, allowing him to come out. The rain, he noticed, had stopped, and the sun peeped out from among the still heavy clouds. The dragon's scales glimmered in the sunlight like gold.
“Are you ready to climb on my back and take off? We have to hurry,” claimed the dragon.
“Take off where? And why? What can I do to help you?” asked the Minstrel with some suspicion.
“I can't tell you much, except that we are going to save a princess,” the dragon replied, a little impatient.
“To save a princess! From what? And do I look to you like a hero who goes about saving people? I am not a hero, you know!”
“No, I don't think you are!” answered the dragon, looking at Finbar rather contemptuously. “I told you I don't know why you've been chosen for the task, but there you are, and I don't see how you can get away from it. So, come on, get on with it.”
Finbar reflected. To ride a dragon! Indeed, that could be quite an experience, and a good subject to tell his audience – if he comes out alive from such a feat! “Why don't you tell me first about that princess, and why is she in need to be saved, won't you?” he pleaded.
“Well, I suppose that's just right, and I don't think too much time will be lost by it,” the dragon agreed, as if relenting his cross attitude. “She'd been a prisoner for such a long time that a few more minutes will not make much difference.”
“A long time? How long? Are you telling me a fairy tale?” Finbar asked, suspicion creeping back into his heart, thinking the whole thing might be a hoax.
“Well...” The dragon was clearly hesitating, then it picked up again and said, “Look, Finbar, first, it's not a hoax, the princess really exists. And second, I'm not sure about the time schedule, but I know she needs saving, so I think you should come, anyway, see?”
“Well, if you put it like that... Just tell me what she needs saving from, and then I'll be sure to climb your back – though I'm not so sure how – and come with you, all right?”
“All right, then. The princess, whose name is Mayka, has been taken prisoner by some highwaymen, a long time ago, as I said, and never heard from since, until just lately, when some of the forest's braver creatures brought word of the place she had been hidden at, and it was decided that an attempt at saving her should take place. Again, why you were chosen for this job I cannot tell, but I was sent to bring you, as the quickest way to do it.”
“Very well, then,” the Minstrel said. “Now, how do I climb your back?”
In the best of story tradition, the dragon bent a leg, on which Finbar stepped and, given a boost, was pushed onto the dragon's back. As he was settling down among the scales, he found his seat extremely uncomfortable, but said nothing, as he had made his decision and was going to bide by it.
II
The flight was uneventful and, having got used to it in a short time, the Minstrel began to enjoy it, particularly the opportunity to look at the earth from above. All these fields and hill, mountains and rivers, which he had been used to see at close quarters, appeared now as a shapely mosaic of forms and colors. Indeed, here was something to tell his audience of his own experience, not what he had heard and read from other sources. At high noon they arrived at their destination, which was a strange meeting place between a wide desert and a thick forest. Finbar thought that such a meeting place must be quite fabulous, as the climate necessary to create a desert would be the opposite to that needed for a forest to grow in.
Peeping down from the dragon's back, the Minstrel could see various shapes of beings scattered on that borderline; it was difficult to determine whether they belonged to the desert or to the forest; in the end he decided that they probably belonged to none of these, but came to that place for the same purpose he was brought there.
The Dragon landed slowly as the creatures pulled back to give it room, right by the side of a great strange shape, which seemed to be attached to a large rock. As Finbar alighted, thanking the Dragon in his best manner, he turned to look in amazement at that shape that was at the center of all the other strange shapes that filled the area. According to his knowledge of old myths, what crouched before him, to his great amusement, was a sphinx! It seemed to be made of the stone it was crouching on, and actually a part of it. It had the shapely head of a woman and rounded bare breasts; the body of a crouching lion with lion's paws underneath it, and a restless tail attached to its backside with the head of a snake at its tip. On its back was a pair of folded eagle's wings. As Finbar approached the crouching figure, the tail rose to the air and the snake's head hissed at him.
With a fluttering heart Finbar came up to the Sphinx. He could see the kindness in its large, brown eyes, and in spite of the hissing snake, the woman's head spoke gently to him in an obviously female voice. “Come on, Finbar,” she said, "you don't need to be afraid of me, you know! I'm always ready to hear some of your songs and tales, which amuse me enormously, though we don't have time for it now, but perhaps later, when all this is over.”
The Minstrel approached the Sphinx and bent his head before her. “Your Highness, I'm so honored to meet you!” He fell silent, not knowing how to go on, how to ask about his intended mission.
“You want to hear all about your mission, I know, and why you were chosen for it,” she said. “Let me first introduce to you some of my company, though they are too many for you to know them all,” she said, then called out, “Children, come and meet Finbar the Minstrel, and learn how we can all help together to save our Princess!”
Some of the strange beings came closer, the others seemed to shy to approach. Finbar thought he should have known most of the ones he saw closely, like the Chimera, who was the Sphinx's relative; Pegasus, the winged horse, (and Finbar wondered why he was not the one sent for him instead of the dragon; there were a pair of Centaurs and a couple of Babylonian demons. He did not recognize Ketzalcoatle, the Aztec winged snake, but he sure knew the figure of Lilit as a beautiful young woman, with her owl's wings and claws.
“I'll tell you the problem now, and why we cannot get at the Princess without your help,” the Sphinx said. “You see, some evil men put her in the midst of that forest, under a heavy guard of vicious beasts, for the purpose of being worshipped as their goddess. Unfortunately, they had not asked the Princess Mayka's permission, or even if she wished to be their goddess, and these things cannot be allowed. We have found all that out only a short time ago, when Mother Bear came back to her own forest after a long trip through her many domains around the world. Bear found the Princess, of whose existence she had had no knowledge, guarded and looked after by a mixed bunch of beastly animals, which it was beyond her power to fight on her own. She then applied to me for help, knowing I had the rule over great many creatures with all kinds of wonderful abilities.”
Finbar listened very attentively to the story, and when the Sphinx paused, he said, “I still don't see what I can do in the matter. You certainly have amassed a bunch of very able creatures who must be able to perform such a feat.”
“Bloodshed,” declared the Sphinx, “has never been the purpose of this rule, and anything which can be achieved without it is always preferable.”
“You want me to help release the Princess from her vicious guard without bloodshed?” asked Finbar, not quite believing such a tale.
“Well, you are a known and able Minstrel, aren't you? I think that qualifies you much more than any heroic creature for the task.”
“A minstrel! You want me to act as a minstrel for this mission?”
“Of course! That's what you do better than anyone else I've heard of.”
Finbar fell silent, absentmindedly watching the creatures around him, who acted agitated, rising on their feet and flapping their wings in the air, as if ready to help if necessary.
“So,” he said at last, clearing his voice and shaking his head, “what should I do as a minstrel, then?”
“You should charm those vicious, beastly animals with calming words and fascinating music, as you do with human beings,” the Sphinx explained, suddenly rising on her lion's feet and stretching her eagle's wings. She was the most magnificent creature Finbar had ever seen, and he actually cowered before her, not quite against his will but quite unintentionally.
“And how do I get close enough to those animals without being devoured myself?” he asked, simply.
“You ride the Dragon, of course; that's why you need him and not any of the other winged creatures. With his fire he can clear the area around the Princess, while you choose your most suitable songs to sing to them from above.”
The plan sounded quite simple, Finbar understood why he and the Dragon had been chosen for it. There was nothing more to discuss, then, and the two of them turned aside to make their plan, then took their rest for the day, so that they would be refreshed in the morning.
III
The day rose bright and clear when the Minstrel rode the Dragon toward the thick forest in order to save the captive Princess. Below them, Mother Bear ran through the thicket to show them where the goal of their quest was situated. After a while she stopped and pointed with her snout at a certain direction, signing to them that she could go no further. To the Minstrel's chagrin, she turned and left, leaving the two above her head to perform their task on their own.
“I think it's up to you, Dragon, to clear some of this dense vegetation, so that we can see what we are doing,” said Finbar, holding himself tight while his mount nodded his enormous head. The Dragon then took a deep breath, almost unsettling the Minstrel, then opened his mouth and a long flame burst out. After sometime of circling around the area and burning trees and undergrowth, an amazing picture appeared before the Minstrel's eyes.
“I think it's enough for now, Dragon,” he said quietly, while gazing at it in wonder. In the middle of the clearing that was created out of the dense forest, a golden throne appeared. On it sat the most beautiful woman the Minstrel had ever seen. She had a lovely face surrounded by golden hair; her shapely body was clad in a long, blue-green dress that fell almost to her small feet, which were encased in silver sandals that were kept off the ground by a footrest. On her head was a silver crown set with flashing red jewels.
Around the throne the beasts were crouching or walking about, but they formed one of the strangest sight Finbar had ever seen. Instead of being separate animals like lions, tigers, wolves and Hyenas, their heads and bodies were mixed together, forming a confusion of these beasts while not one of them had a coherent shape. One thing, though, they had in common: all their mouths opened occasionally to show flashing sharp teeth, and all their claws were drawn, filling the Minstrel's heart with great dread.
The Dragon said, “It's your turn now, Finbar, yours and your songs'.”
Slowly, with a quivering voice, the Minstrel started singing an old lullaby that his mother used to sing when he was very little. Gradually, the beasts stopped their movement about and began to nod, their eyelids fluttered and closed, their bodies dropped to the ground until at last they were all fast asleep.
The Dragon circled once and twice again, to make sure all was quiet down below, then he gradually flew down and landed just in front of the throne. As Finbar alighted, he could not removed his eyes from the Princess, but then he began to notice what he had not done so before. Looking at her beautiful face, he saw that it was completely lifeless. Her brilliant blue eyes, like a pair of aquamarine jewels, did not seem to be noticing anything around her; she saw neither the Minstrel nor the Dragon, who were now standing right before her, nor paid any attention to the sleeping beasts; these eyes gazed at some distance without moving, without changing. There was no smile on the Princess's face, no sadness or anger, or any other expression. The strangest thing Finbar saw was when he looked closely at the golden hair falling down from her head. As it had reached her arms, the hair turned into golden ropes that tied the sitting woman to her place! The ties looked quite fast, and the Minstrel could imagine how hard it would be for her to try and unfasten them, even if she had been awake!
She was indeed a prisoner! Finbar turned to the Dragon, who was standing close beside him. “Now, what do we do?” he whispered his question.
“Now, I think, you should play something to her – to get her to wake up rather than fall asleep,” the Dragon said with the gentlest growl he could produce.
Following that advice, the Minstrel put his hand into his bag and produced a small reed flute of his own making. He put it to his lips, and the sweetest jolly tune flowed around the clearance in the forest. After a while, Finbar saw the golden ropes slacken, getting loose around the Princess's arms, turning back into gleaming hair. The Princess's eyes began to flutter and, as the blood resumed flowing through her veins, her white cheeks assumed a rosy color; her lips swelled and parted in a smile, and the life returned to her brilliant blue eyes. There was some confusion in them at first, as she asked in a soft, sweet voice, “What is going on?”
“Princess Mayka,” Finbar bowed before her, “we have come to rescue you.”
“Rescue? From what? From whom?” The confusion in her eyes grew and passed on to her whole face, her whole body, which shrunk in her sitting position, as if recoiling from some unknown danger, which she had not realized until now.
“You have been kidnapped by those beasts,” he pointed at them.
“But why?”
“They have made you their goddess, didn't you know?”
“Goddess? Me? You must be joking! I think you've got it all wrong. Who am I to be anyone's goddess?”
The Minstrel looked around him in confusion. But there was no one to answer him, as the beasts were fast asleep and the Dragon shook its head in ignorance.
“But, Princess Mayka...” the Minstrel started again, only to be interrupted.
“Mayka? My name is Jinny and I've never been kidnapped?” the Princess cried out.
“There must have been some confusion indeed,” said the Minstrel, ponderously. “Who are you, then?” Because, now that he was beginning to think about the whole matter more clearly, in all his travels he had never heard of any kidnapped princess who was held by beasts...
“I think it was magic,” the Princess whispered, her eyes glued at the Minstrel and his recorder.
“What kind of magic,” he asked, gently, seeing the pain that had crossed the beautiful face, for a moment revealing behind it different kind of features, not so soft, not so enchanting...
“I remember I used to dream... daydreams, you know, not in my sleep... My mother used to scold me for not doing the work properly...” She paused.
“What kind of work?” Finbar asked, glancing at the Dragon, seeking understanding. The Dragon's heavy head swung from side to side, as if not quite understanding human's problems. The Minstrel had no choice but try to find things out by himself.
“What kind of work did your mother ask you to do which you didn't like?” he asked, even more confused.
“You know,” the girl said, “milking the cows, weeding the fields, washing the floors – all the chores done around the house and farm...”
The Minstrel stared, horrified, at the Princess, who, as that moment, began to look to him very far from being royal...
“I used to go about doing those, dreaming, and I think, by some kind of magic, these dreams came true, you know... One day, right in the middle of feeding the chicken, I was all of a sudden sitting on this golden throne, tied by my golden hair, worshipped by some ferocious animals that thought I was their goddess... They wouldn't let me go back home, just bowing and scraping before me as if I was a real Princess... For god's sake! What do you think I thought about that? And then I felt nothing and knew nothing any more, until you woke me up...”
Finbar stared at the girl, who called herself Jinny. Tight before his eyes he saw her change; the enchantment slowly lifted and in the midst of the dense forest they saw a girl sitting on a heap of dry leaves mixed with dirt and surrounded by flowering shrubs that had escaped the Dragon's burning fire. On it sat a simple looking girl, pretty enough with her short brown hair and lively greenish-brown eyes; she was dressed in a light green blouse and a short brown skirt that revealed feet encased in heavy farm boots. As Finbar was looking on in amazement, he noticed that the mixed forms of beasts were turning, one by one, into farm boys who were stirring from sleeping around them.
“Now, Prin – er – Jinny,” the Minstrel opened again, thinking of some hidden significance to that name, “what would you like to do now?”
“I'd like to go back home, and bring those scam back too, if you don't mind. I think I've had enough of this adventure and I wouldn't mind even doing some weeding again...” Her voice was soft and pleasant to his hear, though not exactly majestic.
“Would you like to fly the Dragon home, then?” he asked.
“This is then a real dragon, not a horse pretending to be one, like in my dream?” She was the amazed one now, as Finbar was happy to note.
“He is a real dragon, though I can't explain this to you. But would you know how to find the way to your home village?”
“I'm sure I can point it out to you from the dragon's back, I must be able to recognize our house and farm whenever I see it again.”
“And what about these guardians of yours?” he pointed out the lads, who were waking up rubbing their eyes and looking around them in amazement of their own.
She laughed, and Finbar realized he liked her laughter, which was gay and free and smiling. “They'll have to get back on foot; it will serve them right for kidnapping me, even if it was magic!”
As they were settling on the Dragon's back, Finbar asked Jinny who had created the magic that had brought her to the forest. “Why, I did, of course!” she exclaimed. She said nothing more but looked around for her home, then pointed it out to the Dragon. The Minstrel fell silent for a long time, thinking things out, absorbing the whole story to be made into some songs and tales. It was, indeed one of the most wonderful adventures that had happened to him, and he was not going to let it go without a remembrance.
THE END
Send your comments on this story to the author:
