The Curse of the Speckled Stone

The Curse

That night, John told his sister about his adventure.

"So will you go with me tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

"Fine," she sighed, "Since you want me to so bad." Truthfully, she was interested herself.

The next day, in the early, early morning, John and his sister headed up the mountain together.

Half-way up, they came across the girl who had helped John last time.

"The dragon is sleeping. It's perfectly safe to climb up," she informed them, "But let's not take this path, I know a quicker route."

The trio reached the summit in record time.

"Oh, wow!" gushed John's sister as they came up to the tree, "It's so beautiful!" John scampered up the tree and plucked off the fruits then handed them down to his sister. Meanwhile, the mysterious girl had snuck off. In the distance, a tree broke and an ugly noise that sounded almost like a yawn was heard by the two siblings at the tree.

"John! I think that's the dragon!" his sister half-whispered to him, scared. The strange girl had returned to the tree smiling creepily.

"Oh, no!" she shrieked faking alarm, "Here, both of you hold this stone! It will get rid of the dragon!" By now the dragon had spotted them and was making its way over to them quickly. John and his sister both grabbed the shiny brown, white, and green speckled stone. The dragon stopped. Something strange began to happen. The girl started to chuckle under her breath. The dragon slowly began to look more human and John sister began to look more like a dragon! Surprised, John jumped back still holding the stone. The girl was laughing now. "Have fun passing the curse over to someone else! It took me years! But now, finally, I and my sister are rid of it!" she yelled excitedly and sprinted over to the dragon who looked more like a girl than a dragon. Angry, John ran after her.

"What do you think you're doing! Help me out here!" he screamed and pulled out a hatchet.

"Fine!" she answered as John could easily hit her and she, of course, would not like to be hit. "Here's a tip, give the stone to a pair of siblings and the youngest girl will turn into a dragon and your sister will turn back." The dragon, now fully human then grabbed her sister's arm and pulled her out of John's reach and they ran off together quickly. John thought fast. In a crevice in a nearby wall, two young birds chirped. He knew it would be kind of cruel, but he wanted his sister back! He found the birds nest and placed the stone between the hatchlings. One of them began to grow little scales. John turned to look back at his sister who was turning back into a human. Soon the little bird became a little dragon, which wasn't much of a threat at all but was actually kind of cute.

Then John and his fully human sister climbed back down the mountain with all the fruits they could carry and made it back in time to head over to the fields without being too terribly late. They didn't know what became of the people and creatures they had met on the mountain and they didn't care.

Their mother was healed instantly by the fruit and that's all that mattered to them. John also being an honest young man, he kept his promise to the traveler and three fruits and was paid for them like the traveler said he would.

And so, John, his sister, and his mother all lived as happily as one could live as a serf in middle age Russia for the rest of their lives.