Chapter One
THE LEGEND OF DRAGON COURT

This is a story, amusing and tragic,
Of battling knights and broken down magic,
Of robbing and thieving, deceit is the word,
Of credits accepted where none were deserved,

Of stolen invention, of spell binding stitches,
Of a crazy coven of wild Wixy Witches,
Of a devious villain and a high castle tower,
Of a brewing of evil and a brooding for power.

Of young Jack Goodfellow, hero inventor,
Taught to fight by Prince Henry, his mentor,
Of the dilemma of poor Princess Sharon,
To marry a villain or pompous old baron.

A thrilling saga, adventure and crime,
A rip-roaring yarn, a ten thousand word rhyme
Of a fairytale castle wrapped up in lies,
Turned into a brand to sell merchandise,

2

Like apparel and trinkets, all with a tag on,
Bearing the crest of Dragala the dragon,
Exploiting the mythical beast’s extinction,
The sign of the dragon, a mark of distinction,

Embellishing goods sold terribly dear,
The birth of exclusive designer gear,
And you will hear at the start of our fable
How Dragala became the first fashion label,

Recalling a legend from days of yore,
Where a dragon incarnate would settle the score
For dragons wiped-out, all butchered by men
Like St George, there was no conservation back then.

A diary confession just waiting for you
To discover the Dragon Code, here’s the first clue:
Seven letters are keys to unlock the riddle
The first becomes last and each side of the middle.

3

So now if you’re ready, imagine the scene,
As thunder rumbles we zoom in between
The arch of a bridge across a raging river,
Cold enough to make a dead man shiver.

And there through the mists as day turns to night,
Built on Dragala’s great dragon nest site,
Which once stood for justice that couldn’t be bought,
Now stands the infamous fort Dragon Court.

Although no attention was normally paid,
In times of trouble plenty had prayed
To the lightning conductor entwining the tower,
Beaten in copper to direct heaven’s power,

In the form of a dragon, with tail in the air
Sculpted Dragala clung, guarding its lair.
But now desperation was ruling the day
And even the King was beginning to pray.

Chapter Two
THE DARKEST HOUR

For Corupta the Evil and his henchmen were back,
Whooping and hooting, about to attack
And only Prince Henry’s small gallant band
With ripped Dragon Colours were making a stand

Out on the causeway that lay in between
The bank and the castle, across the ravine.
With drawbridge chains broken and portcullis stuck,
Prayers needed an answer or magic or luck.

Corupta advanced, came down from the ridge,
Prince Henry retreated onto the drawbridge,
Called out for torches to burn down the causeway,
Archers to cover him, but sad to say,

Dragon Court was not lead by good men and true
But selfish and scheming, good men were too few
And no one would venture out, all too afraid,
And most would do nothing unless they were paid.

5

Shouted Corupta, “I’ve no quarrel with thee,
Stand back brave Henry and your men can go free.”
Retorted Prince Henry, “Take our offer, retreat!
One more step knave, and you’re burger minced meat!”

“We’ll see who goes with the take-away fries!”
Said Corupta, whose army with jeers and cries
Advanced on the causeway, Henry rallied his band,
“Hold On! Hold On!” His commanding voice rang.

Echoing out through the valley below,
Wixy hands joined, rings started to glow
And a stream of power shot up to a cloud
With a crack of thunder, louder than loud.

Releasing bolt lightning in chain reaction,
Hurtling earthward, finding the stanchion,
Holding the causeway, which began to rumble,
Slowly buckle, then lurch, then crumble,

6

Washing the villainous army away,
Tumbling Corupta into the spray,
Swept out of sight, he swam to the bank,
Lucky that only his hopes and plans sank.

Waved a fist, made a curse, swore to repay,
“Each day has its dog, I’ll be top dog some day!”
Repeated in films his last verbal attack,
“I swear it’s a promise, I WILL BE BACK!”

“Thank you,” prayed the King to the dragon on high,
Should’ve thanked his lucky stars or asked why,
Some thought it Dragala, some thought it luck
But nobody thought it was magic that struck.

And nobody thanked Prince Henry of Thane
And his brave knights, of which some were slain,
All good men and true and not one man rotten,
No, now a bit later all that was forgotten.

Chapter Three
TROUBLE AHEAD

Said the King, “I’m afraid the State’s in a state,
We’ve got to do something before its too late.
That war really cost us, I’m not being funny,
We’re all going bust if I don’t get more money.

We’ve nothing to sell that hasn’t been sold
Except rusty old armour from rusty knights bold,
An increase in taxes is not a suggestion,
We’d have a rebellion, it’s out of the question.”

Then up spoke Sir Cedric, “Here is my plan
We’ve got to attract a more fashionable man,
For a few hundred coins, we can sell them the rights
To wear the Dragala crest, call themselves knights

And carry a shield and helmet and lunch box,
With the Mark of the Dragon, even on bed socks.”
So that’s how the King made new fashionable friends
All wearing his crest as the latest of trends,

8

Said Old Prince Henry, “You once had to fight,
Kill a dragon or two to become a knight,
Be faithful, true and good against bad,
In days of old wasn’t the money you had.”

The last straw that made the king’s brother wince
For more cash you could even become a prince,
So Prince Henry left court with his old band of men,
Rode over the hills, left the King in his den

And built his camp on the shores of the lake,
Where they practiced their jousting for it’s own sake
On a big model dragon with gas fired bad breath,
That over and over the knights put to death.

This fabulous joust came from Henry’s request
To young Jack Goodfellow ‘Ideas R Best’,
Whose lathes and drills and hammers and saws
And wajama-call-its that he kept in draws,

9

In a magical mill, imagine the scene,
A water wheel powered inventing machine
That turned as the raging river ran through it,
Nothing Jack couldn’t do if he put his mind to it.

With ideas aplenty and before never ending
Lawyers got wealthy on rich patents pending,
He created a code, which swapped last for first,
Keeping his secrets locked up in reverse.

From a keyboard he made an Enigma Machine,
Changing the letters to type code in clean
Now hitting the keys produced a code maker
And unscrambled messages as a code breaker.

The Dragon Code name was a clue to remind
Him where he put it so that he could find
His library of secrets, when come the day
His memory had faded and hair had turned grey.

10

Now the latest invention Jack had up his sleeve
Was a broom, automatic, for sweeping up leaves.
“See it blows them away,” demonstrated young Jack
But everyone laughed as the wind blew them back.

So he put it aside, built the dragon instead,
’Til a spin-off idea came into his head
And now as we speak our Jack’s on the phone
To those wild Wixy Witches in the down town zone,

“Please tell Wanda that she should drop by
I’ve got a new broomstick for her to try.”
See he had improved his idea of a broom,
Now turbo-jet powered with a loud sonic boom,

Completely professional with sprung landing gear
And brakes and tyres and a seat in the rear
To carry your box-standard witches cat,
That always rhymes because it’s always fat.

Chapter Four
MAGIC

The witches, lead by Wanda Wixy,
Were Crystal, Astral, Lucky and Trixy,
The chemist Spelinda and crazy Wizy,
All cool enough to turn a knight dizzy.

Well pretty soon over the treetops they came,
In leathers and boots, all sort of the same,
One wearing purple, one all in red,
One orange and yellow from toe to head,

One pink, one green all flowing back hair,
Some dark, some auburn, some others were fair,
Screeched to a halt, then called out, “Jack
Bring out the broomstick the Wixys are back!”

If you had been there you’d have heard the rush
Of the intake of air and the sudden hush,
Those Wixys just couldn’t believe their own eyes
At Jack’s great custom made broomstick surprise.

12

Then suddenly with a whoop and a scream
Wanda Wixy kick starts the machine,
With a bang and a roar and a flick of the hair,
In a great cloud of smoke, shoots into the air.

Roars into the distance, glows jet-after-burns,
As bats fly for cover her thunder returns.
She loops in the sky then tries to land
But the brake cable fails, just snaps in her hand...

You have just read the first 1,400 words,
now buy the book with the entire
10,000 word rhyme, solve the riddles,
discover the secret diary, crack the code and
find out who’s behind it all,
you'll never guess ...

US $10.00 UK £5.00

ISBN 978-1-902760-09-4

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© Colin O'Donoghue 2007 All Rights Reserved

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