Page 29 - Three of Happiness

All of this talk of overthrowing the Queen stopped the day the Queen announced that she had raised her army and would be leaving for the Black Forest the following Monday. Now all of a sudden there was a lot of concern among the Advisors about her safety. “But your majesty,” they whined, ‘’The dragon is so large and dangerous you might be killed
or worse.”
The Queen just laughed. She turned to them and said, “The only thing worse than being killed, is hiding away in my castle knowing that the dragon is terrorizing my people.” She paused, looked at them and said, “I appreciate your concern but this is something I must do and do now.” With that, she dismissed all of her advisors and began preparations for the following Monday.
Monday came quickly or so it seemed. The army of peasants assembled outside the castle and waited for the Queen. They were armed with shovels, hoes, old rusty swords and clubs. The Queen put on her armor and mounted her horse The peasants cheered as the Queen came out of the castle. Accompanying her, they sang as she rode her horse into the Black Forest.
It was a long, slow march and it took all day to reach the forest. That night as they sat around the camp res, the talk was about the following day. Many of the Queen’s followers were fearful but they all had con dence in the Queen.
The Queen sat alone in her tent and did not allow herself to think about what might go wrong. Instead, she thought about how she would slay the dragon with one stroke of her sword. And she thought of how the peasants would rally around her and together they would slay the dragon.
The next morning, the Queen with her army went to the bottom of the largest hill in the Black Forest. The Queen really quite quite scared. In fact, she could hear her armor rattling as she shook with fear. She looked up the hill and told herself that she must do this and that the worst that could happen is that she would be killed. But if she did not do it she would live a life of unhappiness and that would be even worse.
As she reached the top of the hill, she heard a loud roar. Over the top of the hill charged the Dragon. He was enormous and was breathing re.
The Queen’s heart jumped to her throat. She broke into a sweat even though the day was quite cool. She placed the spurs into the anked of her horse and charged the Dragon. Seeing the rider approach, the Dragon prepared for ba le.
The Dragon had done this o en and knew he would win. It doesn't look good for the Queen
Page 28