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We asked you to rewrite the story of St George and the Dragon - from the point of view of the dragon.

We picked 4 winners and here are the winning entries. You can see their prizes here.

St George and the Dragon - Another View

By Julianne, 10, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, UK

When you die, some people say that your life flashes before your eyes. It did for me.

I am a dragon and my name is Leaful. My mum raised me by herself because my dad had been killed by humans. She died of old age when I was fourteen. After her death I went to live in the mountains above the village of Miracle. The mountains became my home.

When I was 20, a young girl aged 5, called Emerald, saw me. She was small and had ginger hair, quite pretty. I made friends with her quickly. From then on, she saw me once a week. I felt like a human with a child that I loved dearly.

I suppose it never occurred to me that she was getting older. All I knew was that I was happy. As time went by, she stopped seing me so often – only once a month. Then, it turned to every six weeks --- but I was still happy.

She came up to me one day and told me, happily, that she was getting married to the King of the village of Miracle. I tried to be as happy as I could for her, but I could not. I knew too well that she would not be able to see me so much, and that her future husband would turn against me. I didn’t tell her this, so as not to upset her feelings.

About a year later, I heard wedding bells ringing as I watched from my mountain. I smiled down, I hoped she continue seeing me for now, at least. She had promised me she would show me her first child, and would come to visit me every three or four months. I didn’t know how long that would last for, but I would be happy while it did.

She did show me her baby, a lovely pretty little girl, with dark blonde hair. The baby was called Ruby.

One day the King saw me with Emerald and worried I was harming her. He had not realized that a dragon lived in the mountains. And so it was that he came to be afraid of me, although I had not done anything wrong at all.

A few years passed - about sixteen if I am to be precise. A forest fire began. The woods were set alight, all its lovely little creatures yelping with the fire looking somewhat bright, colourful, yet scarey. Of course, who else could have set it off apart from me, the humans thought. Everyone blamed it on me. They didn’t have a right to though. I hadn’t done it. I knew who had however, but no-one would believe me. It was the King, so that everyone would turn against me, and somehow throw me out.

I lost my temper. I couldn’t take it. They believed the King when he blamed me, even though I was worthy and truthful.

The villagers started to get very scared of me, and decided to sacrifice one human every two days (humans aren’t just mean to me, they are mean to their own kind too).

The people to die were chosen by straws – whoever pulled the shortest straw was sent up to me.

The very first time, a young man came. He was trembling and screaming at the top of his voice. He was saying “How can you do this to me?”.

I slowly walked up to him. He started screaming so much so that he couldn’t scream any more. I looked at him, I pitied him and his awful kind. There was only one human I could trust and that was Emerald. I whispered, as softly as I could, “Go run free, run away from this village and these evil people, but never say what I have done to anyone else”. He ran off as fast as he could, still looking somewhat scared, but happy. The same thing happened to everyone who came. No-one ever knew that I was letting the people go.

Until one day a huge fuss was caused. The Princess Ruby had picked the short straw to be sacrificed.

I walked up to her, she was screaming more than anyone I had ever heard. But before I had a chance to say those words of freedom a man came in the distance. Her face lit up. The man walked right up to me, holding a spear in his hand. I knew what was going to happen. I quickly tried to tell her to run off, but my words came out all funny, I couldn’t speak properly. Ruby looked frightened but she didn’t realize how frightened I was.

I went into a corner so that it would be harder for the man to attack me. He walked up to me holding his spear, then finally he began to fight me. It had never really occurred to me how old I was. When I was younger I used to be quite strong but now I felt weak, lonesome and cowardly.

I heard Ruby shouting out “Kill the beast!”. I began to get very angry after that, and I mean very angry. I decided if I was going to die, I was going to die the honourable way. He began to strike me with his spear. I blew fire out of my mouth, trying to scare him off, but it didn’t work. He hit me again, this time I gave a loud yelp. I stuck one of my claws into his hand, piercing a hole. He screamed. I waited there, not knowing what to do. I turned to the Princess Ruby and for a few seconds only I felt as though she remembered seeing me when she was a baby.

Then the man suddenly hit me hard with his spear. I screamed in pain, and then I saw all my life, slowly passing in front of my eyes. I remembered the happy days spent with my mum and Emerald.

The princess Ruby ran to me and softly whispered “good night” as I closed my eyes to fall asleep forever, and play with my little friend, Emerald.


Through The Dragon's Eye

By Lucy, 14, Nottingham, UK

As I looked out over the barren wasteland that I had begun to see as home and rule as king, all I saw was discarded carcases of human and animal alike. Some of the humans were warriors, knights seeking a name by returning my lifeless body to the hands of barbarians. Others just crossed my path and caught my eye. Most were about to run and tell the champion dragon slayers where my lair was, so they could come and massacre my body as I slept. Cowards, all of them.

Many tried and failed to destroy me and the destruction I wreaked on their towns and villages. I do not do it for fun though. Oh no, I do it for revenge on all of the human race. Why? I am the last one the one and only dragon left in the world - all of the others slain. I am alone and so shall they be - I will destroy them the way they destroyed my kind.

That was when they sent him. George. He was strong, no doubt about that. He came fast and swift across the dry desert lands, his armour shining in the furiously hot sun. He rode his horse heartlessly hard kicking up the harshly dry dirt as he made his way to my lair. He stopped a mere few metres from the entrance and called out to me whilst preparing for the battle that would always have the same outcome - him or me.

He fought hard for many hours; he wasn’t even growing tired. Nor did he falter, not once. He did earn respect that day for he was the strongest knight that had ever come to face me not to mention persistent. We fought long into the night. I had begun to tire of being the last one long before but it was only that night when I felt the pain of loneliness. By the time the last blow came I welcomed it, it came sudden and painless. The knight had claimed his prize won the battle and became a saint. I found that death really is the answer to all.
The End.


The Dragon and St George

By Pippa, 13, Scunthorpe, England

As my eyes blearily opened to the sun shining through my cave entrance, I heard great shouting and commotion. I'd only slept two days, and now they were mad at me again. Honestly, villages today!

"Never appreciate good people when they see them," I mumbled, as I walked slowly out of my cave.

I tried to stifle a yawn as I wandered out onto the cliff-top, where my den was hollowed. As usual, I could see the tiny village way beneath me, and thought to myself, 'they must have been really angry with me this time!'

They all fell silent as I rose upon my back legs, wings spread and front legs hanging by my sides. I knew it would be the same as always, I would try to speak and they would run for their lives, claiming I had nearly eaten them. Just because I thought they had a sheep epidemic, I decided to give them a hand eradicating them. Only they were pets, I soon found out. Who'd want a sheep for a pet, anyway? Anyhow, I decided to stumble out of my cave when I hadn't had a proper weeks sleep to apologise for my mistake.

"Now, I am a reasonable dragon..." But as soon as I said those words, they all dropped everything and ran back home. I rolled my eyes, smacking my tail on the ground. Glad I'm not a human. Tiny, cowardly little things. Except this one. He was stood in of me, sword raised and armour shining. His horse looked at me, motioned towards me and acted dead. Smoke flurried out of my nostrils at this, but the knight now looked quite nervous. He was small compared to me. Well, most humans were. But he was smaller than most, and his sword arm had drooped a bit.

"Err... Mr Dragon..." His voice was quite small, like that of a child's, but he was definitely a grown man. I looked at him, a superior glare in my eye, the sort of look I gave to things before I ate them. That always made them run. He was obviously brave enough, though, or else he wouldn't be standing in front of me now. "I... I was wondering... Would you be interested in a sort of... Bargain with me?" I laughed loudly, the sound booming around the mountains.

"Bargain! Hah! What would you have that I need?" My jaws were opened, threatening him with my hundreds of glistening teeth. My throat was already warming up, ready for the flare. But it never came, as he brought out from behind his back a beautiful gem, glistening in the bright sun. My eyes sparkled. I was obsessed with all riches, but gemstones... I licked my lips, deep in thought, and I eventually swallowed my brewing fire, falling down to his low level. He lifted his visor, grinning, and gave me the gem to hold. It was so... pretty, so... shiny, so... perfect. I took it into my cave, and after a minute or so, came back out again. He motioned me back down, and whispered me his plan.

*******************

Several days after the exchange of promises, he came back in the dead of night, bringing with him a pretty woman. He explained to her the plan also, and she clapped her hands and smiled!

"Oh, George, this is a most splendid idea! You will become famous, and the dragon will be free! How nice!" All three of us smiled, and I dragged out of my cave a huge sample of timber, ready to tie the princess to with rope. He had just finished when dawn broke, and he swiftly rode back home again. Me and the princess began to talk, being quite friendly with each other. She told me she lived in a rich house, with anything she wanted. We were talking about the fine, weather, when George rode back again.

"Sorry about this, Henry old chap, but they insisted I bring back something to prove I did defeat you. They said a horn or a spike would do." I whimpered slightly, not wanting to loose either, really. But, I eventually agreed to give him my tail spike, since I never liked it anyway. A small flick of his sword and it was done. It didn't bleed, as it was just bone, but it had hurt a little bit. Especially since he tried to cut off my whole tail, nearly! At sunset, he rode back down gain with his maiden behind him, celebrating how he had defeated the dragon of the mountains. At night, there was a huge party, and I smiled to myself, cradling the crystal I had been given.

"I'm glad it turned out alright," I muttered to myself. "I didn't have to die, George is now a hero, and he'll get to marry the love of his life. Not bad for a days work, eh?"

I chuckled quietly to myself, grinning at my tactfulness. Dragon tail spikes re-grow, and he said he would defeat any dragon that decided to live up there. So Every so often, I would give him one of my spikes, and his hero status would be renewed. He changed his shield, too, to make our alliance proper. The four white corners represent the four main participants in our friendship. George, me, and the princess. And the sheep. If it wasn't for them, he would never have come up in the first place. And the red is for the blood that was never spilt between us. So when you see the flag of Saint George flying over your head, just think of what really happened on top of that lonely mountain.


St George and the dragon: or ROARRRR!

By Martha, 10, London, UK

Well, before I begin, I'd like to say a few words. I'm a dragon. Yes, roar, I'm going to breath flames and set your head on fire, etc, etc. That is exactly why I'm telling my story. To raise awareness. Us dragons are gentle creatures, slightly short-tempered I accept, but apart from that if you treat us respectfully, we wouldn't hurt a fly (not even a fire-breathing fly).

It all began like this...

I had just returned from my visit to Neptune (delightful place, really) and was on my way back to Dragonsville when a small bit of space junk hit my left wing. I think must of broken my wing, and I started careering offcourse and landed slap-bang in the middle of a british hillside. Well, I was a bit put off by the fact there was a village on the next hill, but I found myself a nice cave and there I stayed. The next day my wing felt much better (we dragons heal quickly) so I decided to check out the village.

But when I got there, people grabbed pitchforks, people ran away in terror, people shouted: "begone, ye vile slavering beast!

Slavering, I thought? Slavering! I do not slaver! So I controlled my temper (or tried to) and settled by blowing fire on the main building and running off to my cave to sulk.

The next day, I tried to get off to a better start with the villagers. But when I got to the village, an odd thing was happening. The villagers had tied a young maiden to a post and were pointing to her. So I thought, 'they're cannibals! They'll kill her!' And so I picked her up ever so gently and took her back to my cave. I placed her in a cage I had made of bamboo and filled it with straw. I gave her half a cow to eat and a bowl of water. I called her Guinevere.

She went to sleep and I went to sleep too. The next day the same thing happened. I took the girl home and put her in the cage. The next week, I had to get a new cage. So you can imagine my surprise when, on a sunny day, I was basking on the hill and a knight in shining (if not slightly rusty) armour came riding up the hill and shook his sword at me.

He said, "I challenge ye to a duel, O noble dragon."

Now, I took a liking to this man when he said noble dragon, so I invited him in. I told him I was really a nice dragon, and he believed me. So I said, in exchange for my life and a passport out of Earth, I would give him free choice of the maidens in my cave. He agreed, and together we made a papeir-mache dragon head dripping red paint, while screaming and roaring to sound convincing. After an hour, George speared the papier-mache head on his sword, I let the girls go, they squashed each other trying to get on the back of George's horse, (but the show must go on)he rode back towards the village. I flew to Dragonsville with my new passport, and here I am.

In fact I heard George got made a saint, so in the end,
THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER!


 

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