Tales of the Tintagel Dragon [Paperback]

Dragons have chosen to become invisible because, for many centuries, only stories of evil dragons were told. But not all dragons are bad. Now Jill Lamede reveals the childhood of a friendly creature, The Tintagel Dragon, and tells his side of the truth.

The Tintagel Dragon was sitting on the roof of the Old Post Office when he saw the woman wearing the crystal pendant. The year was 1979 and the Tintagel Dragon was just 979 years old, little more than a child in dragon years.
He loved sitting up there watching the tourists go by. When the Post Office was first built, more than 600 years ago, it was the tallest building around, which had made it the perfect resting-place for a baby dragon. Now there were other, taller buildings, but he had become used to sitting on the Post Office roof and, over the centuries, his increasing weight had squashed the timbers and tiles into comfortable curves that fitted him perfectly.
It was the woman with the glittering pendant who really started the catastrophe that happened that day, Friday 6th July 1979. The accident was reported on the front page of all the papers next morning, but none of them mentioned the woman, or the dragon.
Now that is not surprising. Grown-ups can’t see dragons and they never believe their children when they say, ‘Look at that dragon sitting on the Old Post Office!’ You see, dragons are distantly related to chameleons, and this gives them the power to change the colour of their skin so that it matches whatever lies behind them. When the Tintagel Dragon sits on the Old Post Office roof, his head, back and wings are all sky blue with little white clouds, while his stomach, legs and feet are marked out in dark grey squares that exactly match the old tiles made of Delabole slate.
He blends in so perfectly that he is almost invisible. Only children’s eyes are sharp enough to be able to see him. Dragon’s eyes, of course, are very sharp indeed.
That is why the Tintagel Dragon was able to see the glittering crystal when the woman was climbing up the steep, dusty track up from the castle beach, long before she reached the street of shops.
He loved glittery things. His cave had a secret chamber that was crammed full bright stones and bits of gold and jewellery that he had collected, but none of them had shone so brightly as this pendant. It bounced as the woman strode briskly up the hill, and, with each bounce, tiny rainbows flashed at the dragon.
Somehow he had to get that pendant. He wanted it more than he had ever wanted anything. He watched eagerly as the woman came closer. She had reached the top of the dusty lane and was walking towards the shops. The dragon was so excited he was almost dancing, his claws clattering on the slates, making the people inside the Old Post Office look up with alarm. They wondered if deathwatch beetle had got into the ancient beams and the roof was about to collapse.