A story for GastonsBitches
There once was a dragon called Ralph.
Ralph was a very little dragon by dragon standards and was therefore cast out by his mother because he did not fit the proper dragon aesthetic and she had dreams of touring her children in a musical cabaret.
So it was that little Ralph found himself alone for the first time. Being an orphaned dragon, sadly this would not be the only time he was on his own. Not that other animal didn’t try to take him in, but often it ended badly. He burned the owls’ tree when he got a cold. The squirrels had originally enjoyed the roasted chestnuts until Ralph got a bit too exuberant and turned them into charcoal. He had been too big to live with the big and too slow to play with the dogs.
It looked like Ralph was always going to be alone but then he met the bears.
The bears were big enough and slow enough to play with the little dragon. They lived in a cave he couldn’t burn down and never objected to having their meat well cooked.
Everything was well in Ralph’s life until one day. This was the day that he fell in love.
Ralph had always enjoyed playing around with the bear children, Rocky, River, Boulder, Tree and Berry but one day they were no longer little bears. Instead he found that they had grown up and Berry, Berry had grown up to be a very beautiful bear indeed.
Suddenly Ralph felt very shy around her. He’d want to hide under his wings whenever she walked by. He would hiccup and accidently start fires when they did speak.
Luckily for Ralph, Berry was an awful lot smarter than Ralph and she took the initiative. One day she cuffed him around the horn and told him to stop being a daft dragon and be the bold bear she knew he could be.
That was the night Ralph surprised them both by proposing. It was clear to Ralph the moment her paw had collided with his horn that he’d never want to be with anyone else.
Winter was fast approaching however, a time of year when the bears would hibernate and Ralph would guard the cave, keeping it warm the whole time.
However, Berry could not wait until the Spring and insisted that they be married before the first snow fell.
It was a lovely wedding. Everyone turned up, from the owls to the squirrels, to the mice and the dogs. Everyone that had ever taken in and cared for the little orphan dragon made the effort to attend as Ralph got to marry his true love.
They were married at dawn, not just to take into consideration their nocturnal guests but because Berry liked the symbolising of beginning and new day and their lives together in one.
Her mum cried, her brothers cheered and just as the first flakes of winter floated down, Berry and Ralph began their lives together. Ralph was never alone again and they lived….
Happily every after!
