Peter the Children’s Dragon Written by
Illustrated by
Ursula Drew
Marlene Wright
Ursula Drew Born in Mevagissey, Cornwall but spent most of my life in Devon. I have lived on the edge of Dartmoor for all of my married life and have two sons and two wonderful grandchildren. I woke up one morning with these two stories on my mind so decided to get them down on paper. I asked my dear friend Marlene to illustrate them for me, which I love . Peter has done most of the hard work in ge'ng them into print, for which I thank him for very much.
Marlene Wright Ever since I can remember I have always loved drawing for children. Well not just drawing but pain+ng as well. I love to see children's faces when I ask them if they would like me to draw for them. I love to see there reac+on when we complete the drawing and say to them look what we have created together, your own li-le story.
Also Alex and Friends 2017
Copyright © Ursula Drew, 2017 Ursula Drew has asserted her right under the copyright, designs ant patents act, 1988 to be iden+fied as the author of this work This book is sold subject to the condi+on that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent. First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Priory Publica+ons
To ALEXANDER & CHARLOTTE
ong ago in a cave at the bottom of a mountain, lived a green dragon named Peter. There was a village nearby and each day Peter would go into the village and play with the children. He would give them rides on his back and occasionally he would fly with them, but only if they had been good and their parents said it was all right.
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Peter was quite shy, very softly spoken but he had a strong character. He would walk around the village and talk to everyone in his gentle voice. He was so calm that the village people would forget all their troubles when he was around and would sit and listen as he told them stories of when he was young and lived in a far away land. As time passed, Peter became very well liked by the villagers and especially the children, that each day they would wait for him to come and see them, he got to know everyone by their names and became popular with the grown ups because the children were so well behaved, polite and calm when he was around. Each evening when he returned to his cave to sleep, Peter couldn't wait for the next day to come, and he would have lovely dreams of playing with the children. 1
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One day as he arrived at the village, he noticed that a new family had moved in, he was so surprised to see the new faces that he went up to them in his usual calm manner, but they were taken aback by him, that they ran away. Peter could not understand what he had done and asked what was wrong. He was told by the Mayor. "Not everyone has a dragon for a friend and they were a bit surprised to see you, give them time and they will soon get used to you". Each day when Peter came into the village, he would try very hard to make friends with the children of the new family, but they were jealous of him being so popular, that they decided they would make things disappear in the village and that Peter would be blamed and asked to leave. Things started to disappear, things that had been around for years, like small statues, flags and peoples belongings. No one suspected that it was the new children.
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Rumours started going around that it was Peter who was making these things disappear and he was doing it because he didn't like the new children. Things got so bad , that the Mayor called a meeting of the village council and they discussed what should be done about it. They decided that Peter should be asked to leave and they voted the Mayor to do this. So the next day when Peter came into the village, the Mayor approached him and told him what had been decided and that all the villagers wanted him to leave. Peter told the Mayor that he hadn't done anything wrong, but the Mayor wouldn't listen to him. This made him very sad but he had no choice, so he returned to his cave and decided to leave the next morning early.
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As the sun rose in the sky, with a heavy heart, he left his cave and made his way to the forest nearby and then just kept on walking, he walked all day, he felt so sad that he didn't even want to fly.
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Eventually he came to a clearing in the forest, there sitting on a log was a fairy. "Why are you looking so sad?" She asked "The villagers asked me to leave as things were disappearing and they thought it was me, now I don't have any friends to play with and that makes me feel very sad and lonely" he replied.
"I will be your friend, my name is Daisy, what is yours?" "My name is Peter and I would really like you to be my friend. Where do you live?" He asked. "I live in the forest, if you haven't got anywhere to stay I can show you a small cave deep in the heart of the forest where you can sleep at night and you will be cosy and warm" she said, pointing ahead of them. 7
He was very happy there, Daisy introduced him to all here friends and he enjoyed his life amongst them, but he still missed the children back in the village. As time went by, Daisy could see that Peter was sad as he kept talking about the children, so one day she asked him if he would like to go back to see them to see if they would remember him and see if things had changed, he said he would like that very much. So on a bright sunny day, the two of them walked back through the forest to the village. When they got there, they could see that the children were not at all happy, they were being rather naughty and he was so surprised that things had changed so quickly.
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Nowhere to be seen were the new family, so he decided to tiptoe into the village, as soon as the children saw Peter they came running over to him, they were so pleased to see him that they danced around him and called to everyone, telling them that 9
The Mayor came out to see what all the noise was about, when he saw Peter he went upto him and said how sorry he was for the way that he had been treated and explained that it had been the naughty children of the new family who had done all the bad things, and they had been sent away. "Please come back to us, the children have missed you so much" apologised the Mayor. "Yes of course I would be delighted to come back" replied Peter. All the children laughed and jumped for joy to think that he was coming back to them. He turned around and saw Daisy standing on the edge of the forest, she looked so sad because she knew she was going to loose her new friend, so he went over to her, with he tears in his eyes and said "I have been asked to return to the village, the children need me as much as I need them and I have missed them so much".
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He thanked her for her kindness and that he would always be her friend. "Everyday at sunrise I will come to the edge of the forest to see you and maybe one day you will become friends with the children too " he promised.
He said goodbye to Daisy and returned to where the children were waiting for him. 11
Things settled down quickly now that he was back amongst them and to welcome him back, the villagers gave him a wonderful party with cake and ice cream and everyone enjoyed themselves. As far as I know, he is still living in his cave at the bottom of the mountain and goes into the village to play with the children everyday and is still deeply loved.
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Peter is a friendly dragon and loves playing with children, he gives them rides on his back but when a new family came to live nearby, things started to go missing and Peter was blamed and sent away. He met a fairy called Daisy and spent +me with her, but the love of the children drew him back to the village to see them once again. He was surprised at the welcome he was given and was also asked to come back.
Peter and the Children's Dragon Priory Publica+ons Š2017