The Bear & Dragon Tales

By Chris Carmines

Enchanting tale of two unusual best friends - a bear cub and dragon imp - suddenly driven to save magic from extinction in their rapidly changing world.  On a quest to seek the aid of a renegade wizard, their solution is as unexpected as it is inspiring.  Will delight grownups as well, and remind us all of the wonder we too often overlook.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WiseChoice Books
• Release date: Nov 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393112181

Book preview

Prologue

This is a story that I was told.  I did not invent it; I did not conjure it.  I am merely its scribe.  It was gifted to me, one day, by my truest friend – a teddy bear who had found me while I was in graduate school.  In honor of him I have presented his story exactly as he presented it to me.  It is a true fairy tale, told often in rhyme, which is his way of speaking.  It is not mine.

THE BEAR & DRAGON TALES

... Told by Little Bear

‘Dragons are not real,’ she said, more to the air than me.  I was once her dearest friend.  That she’d promised me.  Alas, she’d grown up you see.  I’d become old - just fuzz and foam – nothing very dear, I fear. 

She fluffed a pillow to set me there.  Without saying goodbye, I was left to stare.  No longer her favored teddy bear, she did not await my reply.  She shut the door instead.

My eyes could only widen.  It would be impolite to declare, to shout out in fact, that I had known a dragon.  Yes, a real dragon I had known, when I was just a bear cub.

That was long ago, and we’re still friends.  So long ago, that she’d not know, though I recall our story well.  It was a time you see, when teddy bears were grizzly bears and dragons breathed bright fire.

In my time, I’ve gone from hand to hand and watched the world change.  Yet none have seen what I have seen and wish to tell it still.  So sit me in your lap just now and listen while I speak.  I’ll tell you of a time before, before our wonders hid.

I was just a baby cub; they called me Little Bear.  In my wood lived all sorts of folk, some you’ll know and some you’ll not.  With forest elves and water sprites, futterblys, oops, I mean butterflies and flower Faes...

A Fae? you say.  A fairy—many kinds are they.  Some live in flowers, some in trees, some in waterfalls, others dwell in caves.  Most live in a land that people kind cannot find.  That was not always so, as my story will show.  Let me return to what I was to say.

With flower Fae and sky flits, the small wingies some call ‘birds’, ‘bats’, or ‘moths’, with air wisps known as Sylphs and four-leg kind, like me, with unicorns and shiny things – oh, with caterpillars too, ants and bugs and crawly things, with many things did I once live.  I ate a lot and loved the smells.  It was different then than now.

The people had not come, you see.  So all of us, who are special folk, still spoke.  We could be what we are, not what you think you see—that, the fairy glamour caused.

What is fairy glamour?  You no longer know.  Oh, pardon me; it’s become something special indeed.

People folk think glamour is make-believe.  It is not.  Glamour is a trick the Fae folk played to keep us safe.  Read on, please, you’ll see.  I’ll tell you why the fairy glamour came to be.  Yet first I’ll tell you about my dragon friend and me.  We were sort of a special key, for all that would come