Chapter Twenty-Six: Jumping bread and people in a box

I woke up briefly at dawn when the birds started twittering outside, and for a moment or two I had no idea where I was. The smells around me were not familiar, and I was confused until I saw, in the faint light, that Lady M was lying on some blankets next to my bed. Hearing her slow sleeping breath calmed me and I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.Dawn

I am aware that perhaps, dear readers, you are getting the impression that I am a rather weak fellow. After all, an adult dragon such as myself should not need to have someone sleep by his side. Please bear in mind that I had just learned that I was alone in the world. Before Arwel poisoned me I had shared my life with many friends and family members, and I had lived in my own home. I had a purpose in life, a direction, and so much to look forward to. All of that was now gone and I had no idea what was going to happen to me. Surely it is understandable that I would be greatly distressed by my new and most confusing situation. Surely you can understand why I felt comforted by Lady M’s presence and calmed by her obvious concern and sympathy for me. Though the last human I had met had betrayed me, this human had saved me and I trusted her.

When I woke up later I was alone and I smelled coffee! Another familiar smell. My mother loved coffee and she traded with African dragons for the roasted aromatic beans. I must confess that I never cared for the brew, preferring to drink herbal teas.

I got up and groaned as I stretched my limbs and wings. I was covered with bruises that I had not felt the day before. I was pleased to see that the tears in my wings and the cuts and scratches on my body were healing nicely. Stiffly, I left my sleeping room and went into the kitchen. Lord B and Mistress Lili were there.

“Good morning, Gryf. I hope you slept well,” Lord B said. “Would you like some coffee or tea?

“An herbal tea would be most welcome, Lord B,” I said. “Lady M told me that you have many different herbal tea preparations.”

“Yes, we have lots of kinds,” Mistress Lili said. “Come and see.”

Mistress Lili led me to what she called the “mud room.” There were many shelves against the walls in the room where objects and containers of all kinds were stored. On one of the shelves there were some shallow trays that were full of boxes and metal tins that contained herbal teas. I looked at the labels on the containers and did not know what to choose. Then I saw the words Rose Hip Tea and I gave a sigh of relief. At least I knew what this was. My mother used to make rose hip tea and so this was what I chose.

“Would you like some toast or cereal?” Mistress Lili asked.

“Toast?”

“Bread that is toasted, heated, until it is slightly crispy,” Lord B explained.

“Ah, I see. We used to put pieces of bread on long forks and crisped them in the fire,” I said, fondly remembering many winter nights that my siblings and I had spent in front of the fire.

“Talking about fire,” Mistress Lili said, her eyes sparkling with keen excitement. “Can you blow fire, or make fire, or whatever?”

“I can Mistress Lili, but my inner fire has not yet recovered from my long sleep. It is sluggish and not yet hot.”

“So you will be able to blow flames at stuff when it is fixed?” she asked.

“Yes I will,” I said, unable to hold in a smile. It was grand to have a youngling around and this one was amusing and very sweet. “Of course, it is not wise to make fire indoors as the results can be, shall we say, rather destructive.”

“What would you like to eat, Gryf?” Lord B asked.

“Some of crisped bread would be most agreeable, Lord B.”

Mistress Lili put some thin slices of bread into a shiny metal box and she waited. I had no idea what she was doing so I went over to her and watched and waited with her. I could smell the bread being heated but could not understand how it was being done. I looked down into the metal box and saw a red glowing light within it. Then there was a strange sound and the bread popped up. I almost jumped out of my skin.

“By the flame!” I squeaked.

toast  “It’s just the toaster, Gryf. It turns off when the bread is ready,” Mistress Lili said.

“How extraordinary,” I said, taking a deep breath and trying to calm my pounding heart. This world was full of surprising things.

After we had eaten our crisped bread with butter and jam, Mistress Lili took me over to where some… now what is the word I am looking for? Ah, yes. Sofas. That’s it, she took me over to where some sofas were arranged in front of a strange looking rectangular box. The front of the box was shiny and it seemed to be covered with some kind of glass. Mistress Lili invited me to sit down and then she pointed a small black object at the rectangular box. Suddenly a red word appeared on the shiny surface and then images appeared. Moving images. There were people inside the box talking and going about their business. How was such a thing possible?

Mistress Lili told me that the object was called a tele-vision. Someone far away captured the images I was seeing using a thing called a movie camera and then the images traveled down wires to the tele-vision where they appeared on the “screen.” I learned about “programs” and “movies,” and found out that there are many kinds of programs. Some are made up stories, some are about real news, and some provide information.

Mistress Lili found a program for me that was all about forests in faraway places. A man’s voice accompanied the moving pictures and he told us about the climate and animals in these forests. Among other things I saw large colorful parrots flying, a big wild cat called a jag-uar sleeping on the limb of a tree, and a monstrous snake slipping into the water of a river.

Dear friends, I must confess that this tele-vision device is a marvelous thing. I gazed at it in wonder, unable to take my eyes away from the scenes that were appearing in front of me. “I knew, knew, knew that you were going to love it,” Mistress Lili said, a wide grin on her face.

“I certainly find it very interesting,” I said as I looked at the screen and saw a colorful frog hop across a leaf.

Just then Lady M came in. She was once again wearing tight black britches and a brightly colored tunic.

“How was your run, Mama?” Mistress Lili asked.

“Pretty good thanks,” she said. “As I drove through town I saw that the destruction of the Sleeping Dragon statue is causing quite a stir.”

“That is the statue Gryf was inside!” Mistress Lili said.

“People all over town are talking about it. No one can figure out what happened, and the police are investigating. They don’t understand how what was once such a heavy statue could break like that. They also cannot figure out how it came to be hollow when before it was solid.”

“That is so cool,” Mistress Lili said gleefully. “And we are the only ones who know the truth.”

After a pleasant luncheon, Mistress Lili practiced her music and then she and I sat in front of the tele-vision and watched all kinds of programs together. She tried to find things that she felt I would be able to understand, which was not easy. When you have been asleep for almost five hundred years there is a great deal that you know nothing about. People on the tele-vision would use words and mention references that I did not understand. For example, what is “the 60’s,” and who was “President Hoover?” Mistress Lili did manage to find a program that was about the Middle Ages and I enjoyed this very much. At least this program was about something that I understood. I knew a great deal about that time and I was even able to tell Mistress Lili about things that were not mentioned by the tele-vision person.

After this program ended, Lady M asked me if I felt up to learning about “computers.” “But perhaps you have had enough technology for one day,” she said smiling at me.

“If this com-pu-ter machine is like the tele-vision I would be most glad to see what it can do,” I said.

“If anything, computers are even better than television,” Lady M said.

Better? How was that possible?