🎧 Bedtime Story Podcast #6
Audio:
Ronald The Rescue Dragon
By Adam Oakley
When Ella used to think about dragons, she never thought they were real.
She didn’t yet realise the full power of her own imagination, and that anything she could imagine, could be real.
“Ella!” her father called one day. “What are you doing? You better not be up there dreaming about dragons again!”
Her father didn’t like her dreaming too much about dragons.
“Dragons aren’t real!” her father would often say to Ella’s mother. “She shouldn’t be thinking about things that aren’t real.”
“How do you know they aren’t real?” Ella’s mother replied one morning. “They could be…”
Despite her father’s complaints, Ella would spend a lot of her time in her own imagination, and she loved it.
Every night when she was in bed, she would meet with one dragon called Earther, a big green dragon who lived in the woods at the bottom of Ella’s garden. He would sing her songs as she drifted off into sleep…
“Ella, Ella, now it’s time
To rest and love your wondrous mind,
To have a sleep so rich and full,
And wake up feeling wonderful.”
On this night, as Ella drifted off into sleep, she was sure she heard Earther whisper something extra to her:
“Say hello to Ronald for me tomorrow.”
Ella thought that maybe she was just imagining things, so she let Earther sing her to sleep, and she felt as if she had giant roots, like those from a tree, coming out of her body and going down deep into the earth, until soon she was asleep, and she was very much at peace.
The next morning, when Ella woke up, she was sure she heard someone in the garden.
“Help! Help!” a deep but panicked voice was calling. “Somebody please help me!”
Ella’s mother and father were still asleep, and as Ella looked out of her window, at the bottom of her garden she could see sticking out between two trees was a long red tail, and the tail was shiny and scaly.
Ella gasped.
“It’s a dragon!” she said to herself. “Dragons are real!”
Ella ran out of her room and ran in to wake up her parents.
“Mum, Dad,” she said. “There’s a dragon outside!”
Her father snorted awake, and then he rolled over.
“Oh, go out and play with it then,” he said, too tired to argue with his daughter so early in the morning. “We will be up soon.”
Ella turned and ran down the stairs.
“Don’t run down the stairs!” her father called after her.
Ella walked through the kitchen, opened the back door and ran down to the bottom of her garden where there were tall trees, and the red rear end of a dragon.
The dragon sniffed as Ella approached.
“Who’s that?” the dragon said. “Have you come to help me?”
“Yes,” Ella said. She looked closer through the trees and could see the dragon’s red face looking afraid, trying to turn towards her.
“I’m stuck!” the dragon said. “Please help me. I had a bad landing and fell between these two trees when I came down to help a fallen squirrel, and now I’m stuck!”
“Don’t worry,” Ella said. “I can help you.”
“How?” the dragon said. “What will you do?”
“I’m not sure,” Ella said. “But I know I can help.”
Ella closed her eyes. She imagined seeing this friendly red dragon freeing itself from between the two trees, and then flying up into the sky, free and happy and safe. Then she had another idea.
“I know,” Ella said. “Why don’t you sing?”
“Sing?” the red dragon said. “No. I am not a good singer. Why should I sing?”
Ella knew from her days and nights of imagining dragons that some dragons had the power to influence the world if they sang. She had seen them singing in her mind.
Some dragons could sing and make water move, other dragons could sing people to sleep…
She wondered if any dragons could make the trees move if they sang to them nicely.
“Sing! Just try it!” Ella said. “Please! It might work!”
“No,” the red dragon said. “Ronald The Rescue Dragon is a rescuer, not a singer! I spend my days looking for creatures to rescue. I have magical healing powers, you know, but I am not built for singing. Now I need rescuing!”
“Your name is Ronald?” Ella said. “My name is Ella. Earther the dragon in the woods told me to say hello to you.”
Ronald the dragon took a sharp breath in.
“How do you know Earther?” he said. “I have not seen him for years!”
“I see him in my mind,” Ella said. “I speak with him. Now please trust me. Sing a song, just a little one, and ask the trees to free you.”
Ronald blew an impatient breath out.
“Fine,” he said, “but only because you are Earther’s friend. Do you promise not to laugh at me if I sing?”
“No,” Ella said. “You shouldn’t care. You shouldn’t care if I laugh or not. You should just sing from your heart.”
“You’re right!” Ronald suddenly said. “Young girl, you are right! It doesn’t matter if you laugh at me!”
And then Ronald began to sing with a voice so strong and powerful, Ella felt the ground beneath her shake.
“Trees, trees, won’t you please,
Separate and move with ease?
My body’s stuck, I want it free,
So please move temporarily!”
Ella saw the two trees gently lean away from Ronald, and Ronald flapped his wings so that he soared into the air, just like Ella had seen in her imagination.
“Thank you, young girl. Thank you for your help. You are powerful, powerful indeed!”
Ella waved up at Ronald.
“You’re welcome!” she said with a smile.
“Now I am free to rescue the other creatures who are stuck or injured. And you have rescued ME!”
As Ronald flew off into the distance, Ella’s father came running out wearing his dressing gown.
“Ella! What was that? I heard singing.”
Ella looked up at the fading figure of Ronald in the sky, disappearing in the distance and looking like a tiny, wide-winged bird.
“Do you see that up there, Dad?” she said. “That’s Ronald The Rescue Dragon.”
*
Later that night when Ella was lying in bed, she closed her eyes and straight away she could see Earther the dragon in the forest, lying on his back, also drifting off to sleep.
He looked at her with eyes that were nearly closed.
“Did you have a nice day?” Earther said.
“Yes,” Ella said. “Yes thanks. I met Ronald. I have a feeling I might see him again. Did you have a nice day?”
“Oh, yes,” Earther said. “Even if my day doesn’t go as I wanted it to, I settle down at night and remind myself that everything is alright, and everything will be okay.”
Ella took a deep breath in and relaxed as she breathed out.
“Goodnight,” Ella said to Earther.
“Goodnight,” Earther said. “See you tomorrow. Have a wonderful sleep.”
And as Ella drifted off into a calming, peaceful sleep, as Earther told her about the roots that were flowing out of her body and connecting her to the Earth, he sang her his usual song:
“Ella, Ella, now it’s time
To rest and love your wondrous mind,
To have a sleep so rich and full,
And wake up feeling wonderful.”
Adam Oakley Books 