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Alex continue walking through the forest. The magician's
castle loomed just ahead, its great spires rising up
into the sky. Alex thought, "I'm here at last ! Now I
can ask the magician my question !" Filled with
anticipation, he ran towards the castle with brisk
strides.
However, the farther he ran, the farther away the
castle seemed. When he realized that he was not getting
close, he stopped running and thought for a while.
"This must be one of the challenges that the magician
has posed to stop trespassers in his territory," he
thought. "But I'm not a trespasser. I just want to ask
him a question. Well, I supposed he has no way of
knowing that. so, I'll just have to solve this problem."
He racked his brain for some time. Then an idea
occurred to him.
"If the castle recedes as I move forward, then it
should get nearer as I move backwards !"
Pleased with his deduction, the boy began retracing
his steps. From time to time, he looked backwards to
ensure that there were no obstacles in the way. Sure
enough, as soon as he began walking backwards, the
castle got nearer and nearer. Ina short time, he
stood before the moat that surrounded the magician's
castle. The castle was designed to be easily defensible.
The moat was very wide; so wide that even the strongest
ogre could not jump across it. Nobody could swim in the
moat, since crocodiles and a water dragon lived in its
murky depths. Alex could see the snouts of the
crocodiles and the spines of the dragon projecting above
the water. Therefore, the only way to get across the
moat was to walk on the lowered drawbridge. However,
there was only one problem. The drawbridge was raised !
Alex sat on the bank of the moat, trying to find a
solution to the problem. As he looked around, he saw a
large grappling hook attached to one end of the
drawbridge.
"Hmmm... this must be another one of the magician's
test to weed out inferior questioners," he thought to
himself.
Alex pulled the rope and the hook connected to it,
onto the bank. He took careful aim with the hook and
threw it at the dragon. Immediately, there was a
thrashing and a splashing in the moat as teh dragon
struggled to get a hold of the hook. When he was sure
that the dragon had caught hold of the hook, Alex began
to taunt it.
"Ha! Ha! dragon, you can't catch me ! Nyaah!" he
shouted.
Enraged, the dragon at once began swimming towards
the bank where Alex stood, fully intending to punish him
for his insolence. However, as it did so, it pulled the
hook and hence, the drawbridge, towards Alex. The young
boy smiled covertly to himself. the dragon had fallen
for his trick ! He looked at the dragon and saw that it
was facing some difficulty swimming towards the bank.
Evidently the dragon realized that it arose from the
hook that it was towing. However, dragons were
notoriously stubborn in refusing to let go of something
once they had caught hold of it. And this one was no
exception. The farther the dragon swam, the lower the
drawbridge fell until it lay flat on the bank, spanning
the moat.
Seizing his chance, Alex dashed across the drawbridge
before the dragon realized that it had been tricked. He
ran into the great hall.
"Hello" ? he called out. "Is anybody home ?" |
