My Old Short Stories

The Odd Knight of the Orange Castle

Once upon a time, far, far away, there was a land of orange made completely out of orange. Even the people were orange slices. The king of the orange castle was the biggest orange of all, as he was a whole orange. His name was King Sweet. He had 99 knights and 1000 servants. Everyone was a slice of orange. Except for Sir Felix, who was the youngest knight. He was the only one in the orange land who wasn't an orange. He was a slice of lemon. All the other knights made fun of him and call him "Sour Socks" but he didn't care. Felix knew he was special and one day he would do big things. Felix didn't know why he was a lemon. Both his parents were oranges. Oh well.

The only person who was nice to him was his best friend, Agrippa. He was the king's number two. He was an orange, but a very loving and caring orange. Agrippa and Felix had a secret place. No one knew about their hiding place, not even King Sweet. The hiding place was under the whole kingdom. They had a maze of tunnels and twenty rooms. They would go there every day – unless there was a public juicing! They loved watching them!

One day, Sir Felix overheard King Sweet ordering the strongest knight to go and sleigh the Chilli-Spitting Apple Dragon. The Apple Dragon is a dangerous beast who will spits chillis into your mouth and melt you. But lemons are actually chilli-proof. He walked over to the king and bowed and said "Your Majesty, I ask you. Why send Sir Juicy when I, as a lemon, am chilli- proof? I ask you with a humble heart, send me." The king thought for a while and said "Ok Sir Felix. You will go to the Chilli Cave in the apple forest and you will sleigh this dragon. If you return alive, then you will be given wealth, power and respect." Sir Juicy interrupted "Your Majesty, with all due respect, why send him? He's not even an orange, he's..." "Shut up! Sir Felix will go. Sir Felix, fail the quest and I will have your juice for my supper" Felix gulped. "Yes your majesty. May I take Agrippa, Your Majesty?" "Very well. Now go."

Felix and Agrippa set off to face the Apple Dragon. To get there they had to pass through the Pipple fruit grove. Every Pipple fruit you bite into, grants one wish. They couldn't resist one each. They each wished for a candy horse to get them there faster. (They used another one each to have weapons but they didn't want to admit it). They arrived at the Apple Forest. Soon they came to the home of the beast... The Chilli Cave.

As they arrived, they heard nothing. Agrippa farted. "Sorry, I do that when I'm nervous!" Suddenly they heard a great big roar. Agrippa took out his lemon shield. They saw a great, big, juicy head pop out. He had a scared look on his face and he said "Please don't hurt me. I know I seem scary but I'm just a harmless dragon. I baked some cookies for you and..." "Hold on Mr. Dragon. You don't want to fight us?" "No."

"I've been waiting a long time for a knight to come and not rush at me so I can explain" "Have you always been a harmless dragon?" "Yes. Except for when I was a tiny dragon. My parents wanted me to be savage so they said if I didn't kill a cute little bunny then they would kill me. I had no choice." "Where are your parents now?" "Dead. I knew your knights would keep coming back for me." "Where are the other knights that our king sent?" "They were trying to kill me. They wouldn't listen. I put them in my dungeon so I could talk to them. They still wouldn't listen." "So..." "They eventually died of old age. I couldn't let them out. I was afraid for my life." They thought for a long while. Then Felix said "Why don't you come with us?" "What?!" The dragon and Agrippa said together. Agrippa whispered to Felix "Felix, we can't bring an Apple Dragon to Orange Land." Felix then said "Who said he's coming to Orange Land?" "What are you suggesting?" "I say we go under Orange Land."

As they were walking back, they asked the dragon "Mr. Dragon, do you have a name?" "Of course. It's John. You never told me your names." "Oh. I'm Felix and this is my best friend Agrippa." "Bless you" Said John. Agrippa growled. "I get that all the time." "Ok John. We live underground. We have to tell the King that we killed you. Is there anything we can give him to convince him that we did?" John thought for a bit then he gave them a necklace. He said "This is the famous Necklace of The Apple Dragon. Trust me it will do the trick." "Ok." They arrived in there underground hiding place. John stayed in their biggest room while Felix and Agrippa went to report to King Sweet.

"Well. Did you finish the job?" bellowed the King. "Yes your Majesty. We brought you it's necklace." There was silence for a moment. Then the King said "Very Good. I misjudged you Sir Felix. You will be given the wealth, power and respect you deserve." There was silence for a while then the king said "So, Where's the dragon?" "Sorry?" "Don't lie to me Sir Felix! Where is the DRAGON?!" "How did you know?!" "I'm the king. I know everything, you idiot. Now I'm going to ask you one more time. WHERE IS THE DRAGON?!" Felix sighed and said "Your Majesty, We didn't kill John..." "Who?" "John. That's his name. He hardly ever killed a soul. He's..." "Shut up! I want to see this dragon" "But..." "Do as I say! Bring the dragon to me!" Felix sighed and said "Yes, Your Majesty." Felix and Agrippa walked off.

Sadly, Felix and Agrippa walked back to their hide-out. "What are we going to do now, Felix?" "I have no idea. We just have to do the only thing we can do." "What?" "Take John to King Sweet and hope that he'll be ok." "Oh." As they walked in, John greeted them at the entrance and he was really excited. "Hey guys. Did it work? Did he fall for it? Am I free?" He kept jumping up and down until he saw Felix and Agrippa's sad faces. Then he stopped jumping and John's smile faded. "Felix. Agrippa. What happened?" Felix sighed and spoke slowly. "John. I'm so sorry but we have to take you to King Sweet. We have no choice..." As Felix spoke, John's face became more scared then sad. "I tried to talk him through it but... I'm so sorry." There was silence for a long time before John said "Ok then. Will–Will you guys come–come with me?" There was so much fear in his voice. "Of course. We will be there the whole time." Then Agrippa spoke slowly and softly. "We should go. Before King Sweet starts to get suspicious." "Ok" Felix said. "O–Ok" John said.

They all walked back to the palace slowly. As they walked into the throne room, knights started to charge at them. John flinched and King Sweet bellowed "Stop! Hold your attack! Step forward DRAGON!" John shuffled forward slowly. "I'm executing you for the murder of Sir Orangey, Sir Seed, Sir Yum Yum, Sir Healthy, Sir..." "Ok Ok, I get the point you thought I murdered a bunch of..." "What did you say!" "I said you thought I..." "Stop right there. Tell me. If you didn't murder my knights, what happened to them?" "I took them to..." "Hold it!" "So that we know you're not lying, take a seat in one of our lie detector chairs and tell us the story." "Let's just say, if I were to lie, how will you know?" "The chair will make a big beeeeeeeeeeeep. Now sit!" John took a seat in the biggest chair and told the story about the knights dying of old age in his dungeon. Not once did the chair beep. "...So you see, it wasn't my fault." The King stood up and said "Tomorrow morning, I will make a public announcement about what happened this afternoon. Until then, I am not to be disturbed." Then he walked off. A big grin crossed Felix and Agrippa's faces. An even bigger smile crossed John's face.

The next morning as the time nears for the public announcement, Felix, Agrippa and John have been asked to sit with the king. A guard started announcing to the crowd. "His most excellent majesty, Ruler of the Orange Land, King Sweet." The whole kingdom cheered until King Sweet raised a hand. Then King Sweet raised a hand and the cheering stopped immediately. "My Loyal subjects, yesterday the unimaginable happened. The Chilli-spitting Apple Dragon told the true story of himself. We tested him and it turns out he is no killer." The crowd gasped "We have made a terrible mistake to misjudge Mr. Dragon here." "John" Felix whispered "Oh, yes, right. We all owe John an apology." Then King Sweet just talked to John for a moment. "John. I am truly sorry about everything. Will you forgive me?" "Of course!" said John. King Sweet smiled then turned back to the crowd and spoke. "For Sir Felix and my number two, Agrippa, I have these medals for courage, bravery and kindness." King Sweet placed the medals around their lemon heads and then turned back to the crowd and said "And for John the Apple Dragon I have a medal for courage, bravery, truthfulness and kindness and I present it to him to say sorry." King Sweet smiled and placed the medal around his apple neck. He turned back to the crowd and said "And so, John will get his own big home, Felix and Agrippa will get wealth, power and respect and we will all live HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!"

THE END