Vivian French

The Tiara Club: Princess Daisy and the Dazzling Dragon

Our cooking lesson was a DISASTER! Usually I quite enjoy it, because when I'm at home our cook won't let me near the kitchen. She says it's not the place for princesses, and chases me away with a big wooden spoon. Luckily Queen Gloriana thinks we should know how to cook just in case we don't live Happily Ever After. Also she says that some Royal Families are really poor, and can't afford cooks.
  Anyway, I was so busy worrying about the dragon that I didn't listen when Lady Victoria told us what temperature we should set the oven to. My fairy cakes came out TOTALLY black.
  Floreen said loudly, 'Who needs the fire brigade, then?' and she and Perfecta sniggered together.
  'Take no notice of her,' Sophia said. 'Here - you can have some of mine!'
  Katie looked at my baking tray and giggled. 'They look like lumps of coal!' she said. 'Throw them away quickly before Lady V sees them - she'll have a fit!'
  Katie was quite right. They did look like coal, and I couldn't help giggling myself as I looked round for the bin. I couldn't see it, so I dropped my poor little cakes into my school bag just as Lady V tippy-toed over to us. (She wears SUCH high heels!)
  We tried to look innocent as Lady V peered over her glasses at our baking trays.
  'Not QUITE as lovely as I'd hoped,' she said. 'Daisy dear, let me try yours!' She picked up one of my cakes (of course, it was really one of Sophia's) and nibbled at it.
  'Oh NO!' she exclaimed. 'SALT instead of sugar! Oh dear me. I can't give a single one of you any tiara points. WHAT disappointing little cooks you are! I was SO hoping your fairy cakes would be the pride of King Percival's Celebration Party tonight.'
  Floreen sat up at once. You could almost see her ears flapping. 'A PARTY, Lady Victoria?'
  Lady V waved a dismissive hand. 'For King Percival's SPECIAL friends only, Princess Floreen. Lots of fireworks, and dancing in the moonlight in the roof garden of his wonderful crystal tower.' She looked at us sadly. 'I'd planned to present him with a mountain of fairy cakes iced with pearly pink icing.'
  'Please, Lady Victoria - my fairy cakes are LOVELY!' Perfecta called out, and under her breath she muttered, 'and I didn't cheat like scaredy cat Daisy!'
  Lady V shook her head. 'No, Perfecta dear. Yours are a teensy bit undercooked. And please take two MINUS tiara points for calling out so boastfully.'
  Perfecta scowled as Lady V tippy-toed away. Then the bell rang loudly, and we all trooped out into the corridor and headed for lunch.

***

I couldn't eat any of my pizza. I kept thinking I could smell smoke, and it made me twitchy. Emily didn't eat much either.
  'The dragon will be on a chain, won't it?' she asked Alice.
  Alice rubbed her nose. 'I don't know. When my big sister was here she never met a real dragon. King Percival was supposed to bring one in, but she was ill, or having a baby or something, and he brought in a cardboard cut-out one instead. My sis was REALLY fed up!'
  'Oh,' Emily said in a very small voice.
  Knowing Emily was anxious made me feel a bit braver. 'We'll keep together,' I said.
  'Scaredy cats!' hissed Floreen, and Perfecta laughed.
  'We'll ALL stay together,' Sophia said firmly.
  Emily and I held hands tightly as we tiptoed up the stairs towards the tower room. Usually it's my favourite room - it's got a HUGE window that opens on to the Academy roof, and you can see for miles and miles and miles - but this time I went up the stairs REALLY slowly.
  Sophia and Alice were holding hands as well, and even Charlotte and Katie hesitated before they went through the doorway.
  'Oooooh!' I quavered. 'I'm scared, Emily!'
  'Me too,' Emily said, and her voice was shaking. 'But we ARE princesses...'
I swallowed hard. 'Yes,' I said. 'Let's go!'
  And in we went, expecting to see a HUGE dragon with glittering scales and ferocious glaring eyes. I was all ready to run away if it was too dreadful...
...but it wasn't dreadful at all.
  The dragon was totally GORGEOUS!

***

Alice, Katie, Sophia and Charlotte and the rest of the first year princesses were already  making little 'Ooooh!' and 'Aaaah!' noises, and I could SO see why. It was just a baby, with shimmery scales on its fat silver tummy, and the sweetest tiny green wings. It was gazing at us with huge golden eyes, and it truly looked as if the poor little thing was scared of US!
  King Percival was standing behind the little dragon, and he was actually smiling! King P's about a hundred years old, and very fat and whiskery, and normally he frowns a lot...especially when we get things wrong in the classes where he teaches us how to be Polite to Princes (we are SO not good at that!) But this time he was looking really pleased and proud.
  'HA!' he said. 'Jolly little beast, isn't he? Gotta get him trained, of course, but he's doing fine. Want to tickle his ears? Sort of thing you girls like doing, after all. Good introduction to dragons, too. You'll never be afraid of the big ones once you've met a little one.'
  I could see Katie's eyes sparkle. 'Can we really?' she asked. 'He's SO beautiful.'
  King P puffed out his stomach, just as if HE was the proud father. 'Suppose he IS a bit of a stunner,' he said. 'Now, move slowly. Don't want to give him a fright.'
  Katie and Charlotte tiptoed towards the little dragon, and while Katie tickled his ears Charlotte scratched him under his chin. He made a funny little purring noise, and you could SO see he liked it.
  'Good girls!' King P said. 'Glad to see you're not afraid of the little chap. Next!'
  He looked straight at me, but before I could say ANYTHING Perfecta put up her hand.
  'You'll have to excuse Princess Daisy, Your Majesty,' she said in a horrible sneery voice. 'She's PETRIFIED of dragons!'
  'No, I'm NOT!' I said. I was FURIOUS! That little dragon was so cute I was DYING to give him a cuddle. I glared at Perfecta and took a BIG step forward, and at exactly that moment Floreen put out her foot. I tripped, and fell with a HUGE crash.
  The dragon let out a wail and dashed for the window - and before any of us could move he'd smashed through the glass and was scampering about on the flat bit of the roof outside.
  And then the MOST incredibly scary thing happened! There was a HUMUNGOUS ROAR, and a GIANT puff of smoke - and the most enormous dragon you could ever imagine came flying up from somewhere down below. Her scales glittered and shone, and as she turned and twisted in the air her massive leathery wings beat up and down with a THWUMP! THWUMP! sound. Her huge golden eyes were angry, and as we stood totally frozen to the floor a blast of flame shot across the broken window. We could actually hear the glass sizzling as it melted!
  And then King Percival did something INCREDIBLY brave. He ran straight towards the gaping hole where the red hot glass was still dripping, and began blowing and blowing on a silver whistle round his neck...and the dragon stopped in mid-air, and hovered there, staring in at him!
  It was AMAZING!
  'DOWN!' King Percival shouted in a voice like a foghorn. 'BAD dragon. DOWN! AT ONCE! Argent, go down to earth!'
  The enormous dragon blinked, and all of a sudden she didn't look so scary. She circled, and then dropped down and down until she was out of sight. A moment later she was gone, and only the smell of smoke was left hanging in the air. That, and the little dragon crouched outside on the flat roof. He was squeaking miserably as he called for his mother.
  King Percival mopped his forehead as he turned to where we were all standing with our eyes totally popping out of our heads.
  'HA!' he said. 'Everyone all right? Nobody burnt to cinders?'
  I don't think any of us could speak, we were SO surprised by what had happened...but it was strange. Although the dragon had been so gigantic and totally extraordinary, there was something about the way she'd looked at King P that reminded me of the way my dog looked when he knew he'd been naughty. Somehow I didn't feel scared any more. Not at all!

The Tiara Club: Princess Daisy and the Dazzling Dragon © Vivian French, 2005. Published by Orchard Books.