Fearless Susan Part 2: Dragons & Magic Ham

♪ Foggy Oak Farm♪♪ Foggy Oak Farm♪♪ Come on down to ♪♪ Foggy Oak Farm! ♪- Hi friends. Welcome to Foggy Oak Fairy Tales. Each week, we'll bring you a new story. Some weeks, we'll share a story based on what's been happening on our real-life Foggy Oak Farm, where we have all sorts of animals and adventures. Other weeks, we'll use our imaginations and create new adventures together. I'm so glad you're here. This week, we have part two of the would-have-been Cinderella who wasn't. Fearless Susan, who set out into the world to learn about fear.

She hasn't felt scared yet, but she has helped a troll with a sword stuck in its foot and gained a new friend in the process. Susan is carrying some special gifts, including a magical ancient ham, that causes anyone who eats part of it to fall into a deep sleep. Why? We don't know! Will it come in handy? Do you think? She's on her way to try and figure out why a formerly friendly dragon is spewing fire and smoke at anyone who tries to come up to its cave on the mountain. Let's rejoin her now. - It didn't take her more than the rest of the day when she came further into sight of the mountain where the dragon made its cave.

Indeed, it was very smokey. The sky was dark from over hanging smoke clouds and she could just barely make out the sight of a large cave on the side of the mountain. I guess that's where I'm headed. Susan said to herself, and moved ahead, feeling nothing but curiosity. Wondering if she could help. Wondering if at any point she would feel something like fear. Susan carefully picked her way up the mountain, resting when she needed to and always fixed on her goal. Carrying her gear, her bag of supplies, her ancient magic ham and her sword.

When she finally arrived near the entrance to the dragon's cave, it had become so dark and smoky that she could barely see her hand when she held it up in front of her face. She could sort of make out the outlines of the mouth of the cave. So Susan crept a bit closer, aware of the danger of being blasted with fire, though not particularly worried about it and called out to the dragon. Hello, dragon, dragon. Can you hear me? What's going on with all the smoke and fire? Susan heard a deep rumbling growl, an intake of breath and barely ducked in time to avoid a gigantic stream of fire coming out of the cave.

When the fire and smoke died down a bit, Susan tried again. Hello, dragon. I'm here to help you if you can tell me what's going on. I'm happy to try to make things better. But again, Susan heard the massive intake of a breath and there was a strong burst of fire and smoke. Susan said to herself,"I don't think whatever is going on with the dragon means that it's able to talk to me right now, but it doesn't seem like it's trying to attack me." Susan then heard a painful sounding bellow coming from the dragon.

That doesn't sound so much like an angry roar as a hurt one. Kind of like the troll. Maybe if I can get the dragon to calm down, then we can figure out what's going on. Susan took her travel pack off her back and looked over what she had available. Nothing in her immediate traveling bag looks like it would be very helpful. And her sword was much too small to do any good, and she didn't want to start a fight if that wasn't the issue, but her eyes drifted to the second sack, carrying the large ancient ham.

Anyone who eats it will go fast asleep. I'm not sure how much of this it will take to put a dragon to sleep. So, guess they better not take any chances. She said to herself,"Hey, dragon, I've got a treat for you." She called into the cave, and then tossed the ham. Instead of an intake of breath, she heard the snap of the dragon's jaws as it ate the tossed ham. Susan waited. She didn't hear much. Things immediately fell much more silent. No more spots of fire or smoke emerged, and then the sound of heavy, deep breathing began coming from the mouth of the cave.

Susan decided that meant it was time to go in. She proceeded into the dark, gaping mouth of the cave. Still not able to see very well due to all of the smoke. She made her way carefully along, feeling her way as she went, until she touched the dragon's head. Peering through the smoke, she saw the giant closed, sleeping eyes of the dragon. Nothing seemed wrong at the front of the dragon, so she kept one hand on the dragon's side and continued further along into the cave. She felt like she walked for a long time.

Clearly it was a pretty big dragon. When she finally came to the dragon's back legs, she suddenly thought she had figured out what was causing all of the roaring fire and smoking. A gigantic boulder had fallen across the dragon's tail and one of its back legs. At such an angle that the dragon was trapped beneath the stone. It did not have enough leverage in the narrow portion of the cave to get the stone off of its legs and tail. The dragon isn't trying to hurt anyone. It's hurt. It needs help, just like the troll did, she thought to herself.

But the boulder was far too big for her to handle alone. Fortunately, Susan had an idea. She reached into her belt and carefully took out her sword, remembering the trolls' instructions. She held it out in front of her and sang to call the troll. "Troll, troll, please answer to my call. Troll, troll, please answer to my call." Susan sang. In almost no time, Susan heard distant rumbling, a fudding noise that told her the troll was running across the land towards her. As the troll began to bound up the mountain, she felt a slight vibration under her feet.

Shortly, she saw through the haze of smoke, a shadow moving into the cave. The troll had come. "Oh, troll, thank you so much for coming. I need some help. This dragon has been trapped under a rock. No one knew how to help the dragon. But it seems like this is the issue. I'm not strong enough to do it by myself, but could you help me get the boulder off? The troll advanced, patting the boulder gently.""Oh, yes, Susan. This is well within my powers of assistance." The troll replied. The troll gently patted Susan on the head, which rocked her back a bit due to the troll's inadvertent strength.

And then the troll placed its arms carefully under the boulder, slowly moving it aside. The dragon was still sound asleep as the troll finished moving the boulder off of it. It was hard to assess, in the dark smokiness of the cave, whether the dragon was going to be all right. So the troll also carefully grabbed the dragon's front legs and moved it out of the cave into the hazy sunlight. When the dragon was out of the cave, it was easier to see that it was a beautiful shining silver. Its tail and back leg were rapidly healing using the dragon's natural healing magic even while it was asleep.

"I think the dragon's going to be okay." Susan said to the troll,"I agree." "Susan, I have to go.""I was in the middle of something, but do give my regards to the dragon when it awakens, and do feel free to call upon me again until we see each other again." The troll called as a ran off into the distance. Susan walked back to the dragon's head and gently stroked above its eye, talking quietly to it. After a couple of hours, the dragon's eye slowly opened. Susan found herself looking into a giant purple eye with a black slitted center.

"Hello!" Susan said to the dragon,"What happened?" the dragon said to Susan, looking at her. "Hi!""Well, I'm Susan. I was walking along the road towards the village of the base of the mountain, and there was a whole group of people who told me they were looking for help. They heard you crying, they saw the fire and smoke, but they hadn't been able to get close to try and see what you needed. So I came to see what was going on, and I noticed you were hurt and needed help once I got close enough. So I called my friend the troll to move you out from under that bolder and bring you out of the cave.

I apologize for putting you to sleep, but I thought that was the safest way to handle things since you seemed to be really hurting, and you couldn't hear me when I was trying to talk to you. I've stayed with you until you woke up to make sure you're okay, and if you are okay, I'll go get the villagers and tell them it's okay to come back and that you're safe now. How are you doing? I feel much better. Thank you very much!" said the dragon. "I appreciate everything you and your friend did for me, and although I see your friends already left, please take two things," in my thanks.

The dragon walked away, briefly, moving deep deep deep into the cave past the area where the bullder had fallen, and came out with an old necklace clutched gently in her teeth. This necklace will make it easier for you to communicate with monsters and beasts alike. That way, as you continue on your journey, you'll be able to talk to all manner of creatures that you come across, and hopefully they'll hear you better than I did when I was hurt. Sometimes it's hard for me to speak in the human language when I'm particularly in pain.

Second, I'll give you one of my scales, so you can call me "should you have need of me." Wash my scale in water and call me, and I'll come to you wherever I may be. Now, instead of walking down and finding all the villagers, why don't I fly you to them? The dragon asked. Susan was very happy to agree, and she climbed carefully onto the dragon's back, using the dragon's leg, as the mounting post, since the dragon was so, so tall, even lying down. Flying, it was no time at all before they found the line of villagers who were out about to separate in different directions to look for help.

Hello down there! Hi! Hi everyone! Look! Everything's better now, you can come home! Susan called down to the assembled people. The dragon carefully landed, and Susan ran up to the villagers. A boulder had fallen on the dragon, and it was hurt. Once my friend and I got the builder off, everything was fine. You don't have to go for help. Everything will be fine. You can all come home now. She explained. The assembled people were surprised, but very happy, and cheered the dragon's return to help. They ran up and padded at a game of hugs, and said they were glad that it was well.

One of the villagers approached Susan with the promised horse, led by its reins. Thank you for what you did for us, last, and thank you for helping our dragon. We're awful glad she's well again, and we can return home. As we promise to you, our fastest and most reliable horse in exchange for your service is helping us. Here she is. The villagers handed the reins of a beautiful gray mayor to Susan. Now, where are you thinking of going since you're on some kind of journey? Well, I don't have any particular destination in mind.

I'm actually hoping to have adventures and learn how to be scared. I haven't been scared or felt fear in my life, and I think I'm still looking for it. Susan explained. If you have any suggestions, I welcome them. Well, I don't think we do. The villagers responded. We've had our fair share of fear and adventure here lately for a lifetime as far as we're concerned. But I'm sure if you ride along, you'll find something. They all said they're goodbyes. Susan mounted her new horse and set off down the road away from the ensemble people.

As they began writing, Susan took out the necklace the dragon had given her and put it on. She began to hear her horse speaking. Well, I wonder if you can hear me now. Susan heard her horse say, "I can hear you. I'm Susan. What's your name?" Susan said to her horse. My name's Saoirse. And I'm right pleased to meet you, Susan. I heard you tell in the villagers that you're looking for adventure and that you're not particularly scared or even at all scared of much of anything at all. Is that really true?

Uh, yeah, I mean, yeah, it is true. I want adventure. I want to learn to be scared. Nothing has done it so far. Susan responded. Well, then I have in mind a place that we can go if you really want adventure and you're really not scared. I suggest we make for the land of the sea queen. I've heard from birds flying by that she's offered part of her kingdom to anyone who can stop a kraken that is attacking all the ships that come into the harbor. Since you've already made friends with a dragon and other animals told me about you adventure with the troll, I think this might be right up your alley.

Hmm, I think that does sound like it would be right up my alley, but can I ask something Saorise? What's a kraken? Susan asked for reading hadn't made her familiar with those. A kraken is a kind of giant squid, really giant now, Susan. I mean, humongous. They enough to take down ships with no problem. And I've heard that this one is particularly large and particularly angry. You still want to do it now you know? She asked. Yes, yes I do. Susan responded and she and Saoirse made their way to the land of the sea queen.

That's it for this week, but stay tuned for part three where Susan and Saoirse learned that scared or not if they want to help the sea queen deal with a kraken, they're going to need some extra help. Remember, your part of the story too, what did you think of this story? What did you imagine when you were listening? We'd love to hear your part of the story. If you and your grown-up want, you can share your thoughts or a picture you drew with our foggy oak podcast family. You might find it easiest to share with us on Facebook at foggy oak farm.

But we have lots of options on our website foggy oak fairytales.com. You can also check out pictures from the farm and learn more about us. Thanks for being part of the story and I hope you'll join us next week. [Music]

Fearless Susan - Part 2: Of Dragons and Hams 🐉 | Fantasy Stories Kids Adventure

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