Once upon a time there lived a princess called Tabitha. Tabitha lived in a castle on top of a hill (a hillfort one might say), and the moat below was filled with sleeping dragons. Big dragons, small dragons, red, green and gold, with eyes like coal and claws like daggers. The dragons slept 23 hours a day, but one dragon would always have its eyes open, watching the land all around and the castle behind as well. No one could get in or out.
If somehow you managed to get past the dragons, the surrounding woods were home to giants at least 10 foot tall, and all the stories said that they liked to eat small children for breakfast with jam and eggs. Tabitha was told that the dragons and the giants were for her own protection, but she still felt like a prisoner.
Not so far away there lived a young boy, about the same age as Tabitha who lived in a village with his 3 older brothers. His name was Henry. Henry’s older brothers told him they were all going to become knights, and used to practice with wooden sticks every day, but they would only laugh at Henry when he tried to join in.
But they would let him listen to their stories of knights and quests as they sat round the fire at night. One night Eric, the eldest, spoke of a princess imprisoned in a tower high up on a hill, surrounded by giants and dragons. The only way to get past them, Eric said, was to find the magic wings that would let you fly right over the heads of the giants and the dragons, and rescue the princess unharmed.
Of course, Eric said sadly, the wings had been lost hundreds of years ago, and were buried in the earth somewhere never to be found again.
Henry decided he was going to find them, and rescue the princess. He’d seen a castle on a hill, far in the distance when he walked across the countryside. He’d rescue the princess and then he’d be a better knight than any of his brothers.
So Henry borrowed a spade and a trowel and he dug. He dug in the east, and he dug in the west. He dug every day for weeks and weeks, making maps of his progress, carefully marking where he had been and replacing the earth after each long day. And then finally, just as summer was turning to autumn, he found them. Despite the dirt they shone white and gold, and they were beautiful. Henry knew at once he’d found what he was looking for.
Henry went home that night with the wings hidden under his coat, but early the next morning he slipped out without waking anyone and ran to the top of the nearest hill. Putting on the wings Henry jumped off the hill and he could fly! He was flying!
He flew straight across the land, right up to the dark woods, and over the heads of the giants. He flew over sleeping dragons as well, and even though one dragon saw him and woke all the others, they were all so sleepy and so old that they couldn’t unfurl their wings quickly enough. Henry flew straight in through the tower window where the princess was held to rescue her, and out again before the dragons could so much as flap one wing in protest.
Henry carried Tabitha all the way back home where his brothers stared in disbelief, and they couldn’t say no to Henry being a knight after that.
So the boy saved the princess, and they lived happily ever after. And the wings ended up in a museum afterwards, obviously.
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