The Wary Wizard
By Sarah Ashwood
He was an old dragon,
and very clever. He had guarded the way to the castle atop the hill for a very long time. Nobody passed without his approval. He sat perched upon a brown boulder by the wayside, one that overlooked both the trail and the beautiful blue pool next to the trail. The path he defended wound up the hill, beside the pool, past his own rock, further up the hill, over an arched bridge spanning the waterfall emptying into the pool down below, and finally ended at the spire-topped castle itself.
The dragon's scales were green, his underbelly a striped orange, and the spikes on his tails a brilliant silver. He'd a yellow beak in place of a mouth, and two large wings of green and gold adorned his back. All in all, he was a lovely, if fearsome, creature to behold, and most who came this way took one look and fled. Those brave ones who dared try to pass were met with resistance; it was their choice whether or not they bypassed the dragon and made it to the castle.
Sunfire, for that was the dragon's name, had guarded both pool and path more years than he cared to count. He was employed by the lord of the castle, a fearful man who disliked visitors. He'd long ago decided a dragon to keep away all but the hardiest was the very thing needed. Therefore, Sunfire was hired on for the job and had done his work admirably.
Today, Sunfire sat upon his usual boulder, blinking his black eyes lazily, while scanning the area for any sign of intruders. For a long time, nobody and nothing was to be seen. Then, late in the afternoon, as the day drew to a close, he heard the scuffling of footsteps and a figure rounded the bend in his trail.
It was an old man--very old--with white hair, a white mustache, and an exceedingly long white beard. In his hand he clasped a staff of dark wood, taller than he, and this he used to ascend the steep mountain trail.
“Ho, good fellow! Stop there,” ordered Sunfire, as the stranger advanced. “What business have you here upon my road?”
“I am come to visit the master of yon castle,” replied the stranger, smiling pleasantly.
The sight of a dragon seemed not to discomfit him; briefly, Sunfire wondered why.
“And why have you come to visit him?” the dragon wanted to know. “Have you come on mission ill or friendly?
“Oh, friendly, of course,” gave back the stranger, smiling still. “No one in my lifetime have I harmed, and I hardly intend to change now.”
“Be that as it may,” warned Sunfire sternly, shifting a folded wing to allow the old man a glimpse of his silver talons, “I am guardian of this path. You must pass me before you are allowed to see my master.”
“Oh? And what must I do to pass?”
“You must answer a riddle,” explained Sunfire, “one that I put to you. You've one chance to deliver the proper reply. If not, you must go back just as you came.”
“A riddle, friend dragon?” echoed the old man, leaning lightly on his staff. “Well, I am fond of riddles. Ask me what you will.”
“Very well,” acquiesced the great lizard. “But remember, one chance only!”
With that he paused, blinked his ebony eyes two or three times, drew a deep breath, and then put forth this riddle:
“What rules the world and governs the earth,
What also sends famine, fortune, or dearth?
What changes the seasons, but never the past,
What also brings pleasure, but lets no good thing last?
What elevates nobles, princes, and kings,
What encourages all singers, their music to sing?
If this you can answer, if reply you can give,
Then pass me you shall--pass me and live.”
His riddle finished, Sunfire flicked the end of his sinewy tail and waited for the newcomer's response. Still leaning upon his staff, the man--clad in long robes of brown--closed his eyes and appeared to consider the matter.
“Well, friend dragon,” he said at last, opening his faded green eyes to meet the serpent's dark ones. “There are two possible answers to that riddle; which to give, I cannot say.”
To himself, Sunfire grinned nastily. That was the secret of his longtime guardianship. There were indeed two answers to the riddle; whichever a person might guess, he would smile and say their answer was wrong, and that the other was correct. In this way, few managed to get by him. Few, because a select number had been wise enough to give both answers as one. After that, he had to let them pass. But, this having happened only a very limited number of times, he was not overly concerned that this dreary looking stranger should be so witty.
“Now,” the old man went on slowly, “I could offer either answer to this riddle, and you could prove me wrong by saying the other is the accurate one.”
Sunfire was taken aback by this. Perhaps the aged one was wittier than he'd thought.
“Or,” the stranger summed up thoughtfully, “I could ask you a riddle like the one you've given me. Answer my riddle truthfully, and we'll call it a bargain. I will pass you by, and you will do me no harm.”
Affronted, Sunfire drew himself up proudly. “Why should I strike such a bargain? Why should I answer your riddle?”
“Because I know both answers to yours already,” the old man replied with a rather haughty lift of his bushy brows. “I should like to see if you are as clever as me and able to figure out the answer to my riddle.”
Well, this was not to be tolerated! A challenge, was it? Sunfire considered himself a very bright dragon: after all, hadn't only a few ever satisfactorily answered his question?
“I accept your challenge, old man,” he spat, annoyed not a little. “Give me your riddle, and we shall see which of us is the wiser.”
“As you wish,” the stranger agreed. Then, he offered this test:
“One is the master, the other his friend,
One will be ageless,
The other not end.
One lies in shadows--too young and too old,
The other foreseeable,
Its secrets less bold.
One did you mean, or the other as well,
But only one do I mean,
And it you'd best tell.
So tell me friend dragon, please tell me true,
Just what is the name,
Of the last of the two?”
Now it was Sunfire's turn to consider, and consider he did for a very long time. The correct answer, however, he could not decide…and that angered him very much. The solution to this riddle was like his own, or so the elderly one had claimed. Why could he not make it out?
“I give up,” he announced sourly, after a good half-hour was spent in contemplation. “You are a worthy opponent, my friend. For all your dull and dimwitted appearance, you've the cunning of a wizard! Had I known of your shrewdness, I should never have challenged you.”
Grinning proudly, the old man executed a rather clumsy bow. “And you also are as fine an opponent as ever I've matched in a battle of wits. Pray, do not be ashamed of your failure. I will tell you the answer, and afterward impart a valuable lesson to be learned from this event.”
“Which are?”
“First,” said the visitor, “the proper solution to your riddle could be one of two things: either the future or time. For, in a sense, both rule the world, elevate nobles and kings, encourage music and the arts, send pleasure and fortune, but do not allow any good thing to last overlong.
“On the other hand, the answer to my riddle could be only one of these two, and it is not time.”
“The future, then?” cried Sunfire eagerly. “How so? How the future and not time?”
“Because the future can be looked into. Time cannot.”
“How so? Both of their secrets are wreathed in shadows.”
“Not so,” denied the stranger calmly. “Watch, and you will see.”
With that, he flung off the cloak he wore, shouting a strange, magical word. There was a puff of smoke, the ringing of bells, and in an instant the shabby, bent-backed stranger was gone. In his place stood a magnificent wizard dressed in long robes of purple and gold, an indigo cloak, and a tall, pointed hat of light blue and brown. The white of his hair, beard, and mustache gleamed with all the radiance of the moon, and in his hand he clasped a round, pink orb inside which lightning bolts vanished and flashed, vanished and flashed.
“Behold!” he cried, lifting the enchanted orb for the dragon's examination. “My crystal ball, an instrument by which one can look into the future and see what will occur, but which cannot be used to unveil the misty secrets of time.”
“But that is not fair!” Sunfire exclaimed angrily, hopping up and down on his boulder. “I did not know you were a wizard. How dare you visit me in disguise? How dare you trick me like this?”
“Because I am a wise wizard, and wary, too,” that man replied, lowering his crystal ball. “I knew that, had you known I was a wizard, you would likely have let me pass unchallenged. For dragons, as you well know, must always yield to their betters--such as wizards. I did not want your obedience; I wanted to judge your wit.”
“And have you judged it?”
“I have,” the wizard said kindly, “and I find you a very bright dragon--far brighter than most of your kin, who are interested only in gathering and guarding great heaps of treasure.”
Cocking his head to the side, Sunfire peered intently at his companion.
“You claimed there was a lesson, a lesson as well as the answer to your riddle. Tell me, what might it be?”
“Well,” the purple-clad wizard responded gravely, “it is a lesson many ought to learn, a lesson many will never learn, and a lesson that, once learned, is never forgotten. It is also one that our encounter should have taught you. Can you guess what it might be?”
“That to be wary is the way to outsmart an opponent?”
The wizard chuckled softly, shaking his head. “No, though sometimes that is a handy thing to know.
“No, friend dragon, the lesson many need to learn is this: never judge a book by its cover, never decide at first sight, and never form hasty, unchangeable opinions of those you meet. For what may appear to be a common old man, dressed in frumpy robes of brown, may in reality turn out to be a wary wizard in disguise!”
}
~~~~~ <~
}
A genuine “Okie from Muskogee,” Sarah Ashwood is a full-time college student working towards a B.A. in English from American Military University. Her short work and poetry have appeared in a variety of publications while her first book, a volume of poetry titled A Minstrel's Musings, was published by Cyberwizard Productions in April 2009. In 2010, Sarah’s Young Adult fantasy novel, Knight’s Rebirth, will be published by the same. Along with her cousin, Carol Green, Sarah is co-editor of the fantasy ezine, Moon Drenched Fables. For more information, please visit www.sarahashwood.com.
By Sarah Ashwood
He was an old dragon,
and very clever. He had guarded the way to the castle atop the hill for a very long time. Nobody passed without his approval. He sat perched upon a brown boulder by the wayside, one that overlooked both the trail and the beautiful blue pool next to the trail. The path he defended wound up the hill, beside the pool, past his own rock, further up the hill, over an arched bridge spanning the waterfall emptying into the pool down below, and finally ended at the spire-topped castle itself.
The dragon's scales were green, his underbelly a striped orange, and the spikes on his tails a brilliant silver. He'd a yellow beak in place of a mouth, and two large wings of green and gold adorned his back. All in all, he was a lovely, if fearsome, creature to behold, and most who came this way took one look and fled. Those brave ones who dared try to pass were met with resistance; it was their choice whether or not they bypassed the dragon and made it to the castle.
Sunfire, for that was the dragon's name, had guarded both pool and path more years than he cared to count. He was employed by the lord of the castle, a fearful man who disliked visitors. He'd long ago decided a dragon to keep away all but the hardiest was the very thing needed. Therefore, Sunfire was hired on for the job and had done his work admirably.
Today, Sunfire sat upon his usual boulder, blinking his black eyes lazily, while scanning the area for any sign of intruders. For a long time, nobody and nothing was to be seen. Then, late in the afternoon, as the day drew to a close, he heard the scuffling of footsteps and a figure rounded the bend in his trail.
It was an old man--very old--with white hair, a white mustache, and an exceedingly long white beard. In his hand he clasped a staff of dark wood, taller than he, and this he used to ascend the steep mountain trail.
“Ho, good fellow! Stop there,” ordered Sunfire, as the stranger advanced. “What business have you here upon my road?”
“I am come to visit the master of yon castle,” replied the stranger, smiling pleasantly.
The sight of a dragon seemed not to discomfit him; briefly, Sunfire wondered why.
“And why have you come to visit him?” the dragon wanted to know. “Have you come on mission ill or friendly?
“Oh, friendly, of course,” gave back the stranger, smiling still. “No one in my lifetime have I harmed, and I hardly intend to change now.”
“Be that as it may,” warned Sunfire sternly, shifting a folded wing to allow the old man a glimpse of his silver talons, “I am guardian of this path. You must pass me before you are allowed to see my master.”
“Oh? And what must I do to pass?”
“You must answer a riddle,” explained Sunfire, “one that I put to you. You've one chance to deliver the proper reply. If not, you must go back just as you came.”
“A riddle, friend dragon?” echoed the old man, leaning lightly on his staff. “Well, I am fond of riddles. Ask me what you will.”
“Very well,” acquiesced the great lizard. “But remember, one chance only!”
With that he paused, blinked his ebony eyes two or three times, drew a deep breath, and then put forth this riddle:
“What rules the world and governs the earth,
What also sends famine, fortune, or dearth?
What changes the seasons, but never the past,
What also brings pleasure, but lets no good thing last?
What elevates nobles, princes, and kings,
What encourages all singers, their music to sing?
If this you can answer, if reply you can give,
Then pass me you shall--pass me and live.”
His riddle finished, Sunfire flicked the end of his sinewy tail and waited for the newcomer's response. Still leaning upon his staff, the man--clad in long robes of brown--closed his eyes and appeared to consider the matter.
“Well, friend dragon,” he said at last, opening his faded green eyes to meet the serpent's dark ones. “There are two possible answers to that riddle; which to give, I cannot say.”
To himself, Sunfire grinned nastily. That was the secret of his longtime guardianship. There were indeed two answers to the riddle; whichever a person might guess, he would smile and say their answer was wrong, and that the other was correct. In this way, few managed to get by him. Few, because a select number had been wise enough to give both answers as one. After that, he had to let them pass. But, this having happened only a very limited number of times, he was not overly concerned that this dreary looking stranger should be so witty.
“Now,” the old man went on slowly, “I could offer either answer to this riddle, and you could prove me wrong by saying the other is the accurate one.”
Sunfire was taken aback by this. Perhaps the aged one was wittier than he'd thought.
“Or,” the stranger summed up thoughtfully, “I could ask you a riddle like the one you've given me. Answer my riddle truthfully, and we'll call it a bargain. I will pass you by, and you will do me no harm.”
Affronted, Sunfire drew himself up proudly. “Why should I strike such a bargain? Why should I answer your riddle?”
“Because I know both answers to yours already,” the old man replied with a rather haughty lift of his bushy brows. “I should like to see if you are as clever as me and able to figure out the answer to my riddle.”
Well, this was not to be tolerated! A challenge, was it? Sunfire considered himself a very bright dragon: after all, hadn't only a few ever satisfactorily answered his question?
“I accept your challenge, old man,” he spat, annoyed not a little. “Give me your riddle, and we shall see which of us is the wiser.”
“As you wish,” the stranger agreed. Then, he offered this test:
“One is the master, the other his friend,
One will be ageless,
The other not end.
One lies in shadows--too young and too old,
The other foreseeable,
Its secrets less bold.
One did you mean, or the other as well,
But only one do I mean,
And it you'd best tell.
So tell me friend dragon, please tell me true,
Just what is the name,
Of the last of the two?”
Now it was Sunfire's turn to consider, and consider he did for a very long time. The correct answer, however, he could not decide…and that angered him very much. The solution to this riddle was like his own, or so the elderly one had claimed. Why could he not make it out?
“I give up,” he announced sourly, after a good half-hour was spent in contemplation. “You are a worthy opponent, my friend. For all your dull and dimwitted appearance, you've the cunning of a wizard! Had I known of your shrewdness, I should never have challenged you.”
Grinning proudly, the old man executed a rather clumsy bow. “And you also are as fine an opponent as ever I've matched in a battle of wits. Pray, do not be ashamed of your failure. I will tell you the answer, and afterward impart a valuable lesson to be learned from this event.”
“Which are?”
“First,” said the visitor, “the proper solution to your riddle could be one of two things: either the future or time. For, in a sense, both rule the world, elevate nobles and kings, encourage music and the arts, send pleasure and fortune, but do not allow any good thing to last overlong.
“On the other hand, the answer to my riddle could be only one of these two, and it is not time.”
“The future, then?” cried Sunfire eagerly. “How so? How the future and not time?”
“Because the future can be looked into. Time cannot.”
“How so? Both of their secrets are wreathed in shadows.”
“Not so,” denied the stranger calmly. “Watch, and you will see.”
With that, he flung off the cloak he wore, shouting a strange, magical word. There was a puff of smoke, the ringing of bells, and in an instant the shabby, bent-backed stranger was gone. In his place stood a magnificent wizard dressed in long robes of purple and gold, an indigo cloak, and a tall, pointed hat of light blue and brown. The white of his hair, beard, and mustache gleamed with all the radiance of the moon, and in his hand he clasped a round, pink orb inside which lightning bolts vanished and flashed, vanished and flashed.
“Behold!” he cried, lifting the enchanted orb for the dragon's examination. “My crystal ball, an instrument by which one can look into the future and see what will occur, but which cannot be used to unveil the misty secrets of time.”
“But that is not fair!” Sunfire exclaimed angrily, hopping up and down on his boulder. “I did not know you were a wizard. How dare you visit me in disguise? How dare you trick me like this?”
“Because I am a wise wizard, and wary, too,” that man replied, lowering his crystal ball. “I knew that, had you known I was a wizard, you would likely have let me pass unchallenged. For dragons, as you well know, must always yield to their betters--such as wizards. I did not want your obedience; I wanted to judge your wit.”
“And have you judged it?”
“I have,” the wizard said kindly, “and I find you a very bright dragon--far brighter than most of your kin, who are interested only in gathering and guarding great heaps of treasure.”
Cocking his head to the side, Sunfire peered intently at his companion.
“You claimed there was a lesson, a lesson as well as the answer to your riddle. Tell me, what might it be?”
“Well,” the purple-clad wizard responded gravely, “it is a lesson many ought to learn, a lesson many will never learn, and a lesson that, once learned, is never forgotten. It is also one that our encounter should have taught you. Can you guess what it might be?”
“That to be wary is the way to outsmart an opponent?”
The wizard chuckled softly, shaking his head. “No, though sometimes that is a handy thing to know.
“No, friend dragon, the lesson many need to learn is this: never judge a book by its cover, never decide at first sight, and never form hasty, unchangeable opinions of those you meet. For what may appear to be a common old man, dressed in frumpy robes of brown, may in reality turn out to be a wary wizard in disguise!”
}
~~~~~ <~
}
A genuine “Okie from Muskogee,” Sarah Ashwood is a full-time college student working towards a B.A. in English from American Military University. Her short work and poetry have appeared in a variety of publications while her first book, a volume of poetry titled A Minstrel's Musings, was published by Cyberwizard Productions in April 2009. In 2010, Sarah’s Young Adult fantasy novel, Knight’s Rebirth, will be published by the same. Along with her cousin, Carol Green, Sarah is co-editor of the fantasy ezine, Moon Drenched Fables. For more information, please visit www.sarahashwood.com.
