Cedric's plan to make the machines disappear

If you are following this blog may I suggest you go to the first episode and follow the story from the beginning

Episode Four (4)

When you talk to the trees they listen to you, and if you are wise you will know they can take messages.

Now the Green Man had discussed the plan that Cedric had decided on and had agreed to contact the magician. The trees were very - very pleased to help as the plan was to help get rid of the loggers from the forest; they had quickly taken the message to the magician. And the dragons were pleased when the magician had agreed. The magician was also worried that too many trees were being cut down, and that it would upset the ecology; and it was certainly upsetting the poor trees.

Sunray the wood sprite sat on the desktop in the magicians study, he was very nervous but the magician was very kind, and he had told his housekeeper to bring some lemonade and some very tiny cupcakes for his visitor. Now the magician carefully mixed some powders that he had taken from the cupboard in the corner of the study, finally he was finished and then looking over his spectacles he said to Sunray. ‘Now you understand you are to sprinkle the powder on the machines. I have explained exactly how much; and you are not to let anyone else have these small packets of powder. Dragons cannot open these small packets of powder and you seem to be a very trusted wood sprite so it will be your task and no one else. Do you understand?

‘Yes sir, just me, no one else. Will you tell the Green Man that, he can explain that to the dragons as they might not understand me; I am only a wood sprite and dragons are very big.’ Sunray was worried that the dragons might not be happy for him to be in charge, and then insist on taking the powders themselves to sprinkle.

‘I have already told the Green Man and he will explain what I have said to the dragons, you need not worry,’ said the magician as he carefully put several packets into Sunrays backpack. ‘There that’s everything packed away, now you must be very careful and go straight back to the Green Man, do you understand?’

‘Yes sir, straight back to the Green Man, may I go now?’ Sunray was in a hurry to go on his way, he liked the magician, but he was very nervous being in the study of such an important man.

‘Yes, be on your way and remember you are in charge of the powders. Off you go now.’ The magician watched the little wood sprite quickly fly off through an open window and then settled down at his desk with a sigh. So it was decided upon – the dragons would lift the machines and take them deep into the forest and place them in one of the very – very deep lakes and they would never be seen again. When lifting them they would make them invisible for a short time so that nobody who might be not sleeping in their beds wouldn’t see them floating off into the air.

Florence listened to Cedric in surprise. ‘You didn’t tell me what you were planning it sounds very dangerous to me! And what does the Green Man and the magician say about your so called plan?’

‘They agree, and that is why Sunray has the powder. He will sprinkle the machines before we lift them, and that will make them invisible, and much lighter than normal. Then with the creepers we will lift them and take them...’ before Cedric could finish Florence very rudely walked out of the cave looking very unconvinced.

‘Typical of Cedric, always thinks up silly ideas and then tells me when it’s too late. Well all I hope is that it works – still we shall find out tonight’

The machine lift is for the next episode.

Cedric visits the logging camp

If you are following this blog may I suggest you go to the first episode and follow the story from the beginning

Episode Three (3)

‘So who’s going with you tonight?’ said Florence. ‘I think it’s a very risky thing to do but it must be looked into; I mean you know how people get all excited if they think they’ve seen a dragon, and if you are going to be flying around their logging camp then they will get very upset!’
‘I’ve decided to take Moonbeam’s father with me, just the one wood sprite will be enough, and Sunray is a very sensible wood sprite. But no other dragons, we want to make sure we are not seen.’ Cedric had definitely decided that even one dragon was one dragon too many, but his wife had decided he must check on the ‘loggers’ so he was going early next morning hoping everybody at the camp would be asleep.

Now a dragon is very big, and even though he was being very careful not to be seen Cedric was very worried. ‘I don’t like sitting on this branch it feels very thin, and if we sit here much longer the loggers will be getting up and see us,’ Cedric said to Sunray. Then he looked carefully at the scene below. ‘Can you see anybody moving in the camp, I think we could go down and have a closer look.’
‘You mean go and look in the camp, and walk around. Do you think that’s a good idea?’ said Sunray.
‘Anything is better than sitting on this branch, you might be very small, but I am very big and heavy and ...’ At that moment the branch gave a very loud noise and Cedric decided that enough was enough and slowly flew down into the camp. The tree he had been sitting in gave a sigh of relief.
Carefully Cedric walked amongst the tents and cabins being careful not to trip over the ropes holding the tents up. ‘What do you think Sunray, there does seem to be a lot of people here; and what do you think all these machines are for. And did you see all those ropes in the big tent?’
‘You mean the big machines at the edge of the clearing? They’re called ‘donkeys’, they use them for pulling the trees along the ground. They have to get them to the trailers to take them out of the forest. That’s why they need all those ropes.’ Sunray had been to look at the camp several times and had listened to the loggers.
‘I thought donkeys were animals ... look at this cabin here, it’s full of very nasty looking things. Cedric reached out and felt the cutting teeth of one of the saws. He was looking inside one of the cabins beside the ‘donkeys’ and just couldn’t resist feeling one of the saws.
‘They are mechanical chain saws, they use them to cut down the trees, and those long ones are for the men to work, using brute force to saw into the trees.’
Cedric looked at his companion in horror. ‘I think it’s time we left I’ve seen enough, and I think I have an idea.’ Quickly he flew back up into the trees, and with Sunray flying beside him they both headed back to the Dragon Cave.

Florence was at the entrance to the cave when they landed. ‘Well are they really going to cut down the forest?’
‘I think so, and they have some very nasty things in their camp. I felt one and it was very sharp. If they are going to use them on our friends the trees, then they must be stopped.’ Cedric looked very - very upset. ‘The Green Man said that they will also upset the ecology and that is not a good thing. And it will certainly upset the trees. Already we could see great big areas of trees cut down. That is just to make their camp, and put all the machines ready for when they really start cutting down the trees.’
At that moment the Green Man came into the clearing in front of the cave entrance. ‘Well have you had a look at the camp, what do you think?’
‘Yes I have, and I have a plan but I need some help, a little bit of magic will be needed, but I am sure the Great Magician might help.’ Cedric was sure his plan would be a good one but it did need a little bit of help from the Magician.

Back at the logging camp several of the loggers stood around in a group. The biggest logger looks at his companions, ‘That’s rubbish there are no such things as monsters, it’s just an odd way the marks in the mud by the tap looks. Somebody must have put a bucket on the ground and that’s the mark it left.’
‘Well I don’t think so,’ said the red faced man who was standing in front of him. ‘Look there are other marks over there.’ He pointed to another of Cedric’s footprints where the ground was soft. ‘I think there are monsters in this forest and we should be on the lookout for them.’
‘Rubbish! You are soft in the head Albin, you should forget your village superstitions, next you will be telling us that there are dragons in these woods.’
‘That’s it – dragons – those are dragon footprints. They must be in this part of the forest.’ Albin was now very upset. ‘I’m certain that they are dragon footprints, look you can see where the talons go deeper into the mud.’
Now everyone was beginning to laugh. ‘Dragons! and gnomes I suppose, you are really being silly.’ And with that the biggest logger walked away followed by the others.

‘You see,’ said Cedric. ‘They need all their machines to drag the trees out of the forest – no machines then they can’t move the trees and that will be that!’
The Green Man looked at Cedric and considered the suggestion, ‘But the machines are very heavy, explain to me again how you intend to take them away and hide them?’
‘Well, we can take them away in the night by lifting them up with ropes. I saw lots of ropes in one of the tents but I think the machines might be too heavy for us. That is where you can help by talking to the Great Magician, he is your friend and could let us have some weight reducing powder so that we can sprinkle it on the machines. We don’t want to make them weightless because we shall drop them in the lake deep in the forest, then they can sink to the bottom.’ Cedric was certain the plan would work because without the machines the work would stop.
‘I wish you wouldn’t keep calling him the Great Magician, his name is Erasmus O’Rourke. Anyway I will send him a message and see if he will help. Now was there anything else before I go back to my den?’

But you will have to wait for the next episode to find out what the magician said.

The 'Loggers' & The Dragon Family

The ‘Loggers’

Florence looked at the three dragons seated on the benches in her cave. Dragons always sat on benches because of their tails, it’s difficult tucking a tail onto a seat.
‘No more today... no more doughnuts, oh that is a shame!’ Marmaduke said. He had eaten far less doughnuts than Cedric and Gerald. He had been thinking about taxes, which was rather silly as dragons don’t pay taxes. Mostly the dragons in this cave just ate doughnuts, which Gerald seemed to do very rapidly even when talking. Talking with his mouth full was very wrong, but he loved doughnuts.
Florence looked at her husband with a worried look. ‘Do you think about nothing else but food and talking nonsense? Now as I said when I came in, listen to what I have to say and then tell me what you intend to do?’ Florence looked at her husband with a worried look.
‘Do, you want me to do something?’ Now Cedric looked worried, the last thing he wanted to do was something he knew nothing about. ‘Do something about what?’
‘The Loggers... you will have to do something about the loggers.’ Florence stopped to give her words more importance.
‘The loggers. What are loggers? Marmaduke looked puzzled, he had never heard of loggers.
Florence continued to explain. ‘The wood sprites are down at the waterfall at this very moment having a meeting – well they were having a meeting, but now they’ve all gone to their homes. The trees are very upset and are also very frightened, you can imagine that if the trees are frightened then certainly something is very, very wrong. They said they can’t thump anyone with their branches because it will be mostly machines and that will do no good.’
‘I wish you would explain my dear,’ said Cedric. ‘I am finding it hard to understand.’
Florence took a deep breath... ‘Loggers are to cut down the trees for their wood, not just a few, but hundreds. It should not be allowed, it will be a massacre of the trees. Not only that if they come into the forest then we shall have them looking into our cave.’
Now the three dragons started to look very, very, very worried. ‘You mean people, people in the forest – looking into our caves; but we can’t have that, people don’t like dragons.’ Gerald was becoming agitated.
‘Well?’ said Florence, ‘just what are you going to do?’
Cedric looked at his friend with a very profound look, well he thought it was a very profound look, but then he didn’t really know what profound meant. ‘I think we should consult the Green Man.’ Now that was the first thing that had made sense so far. The Green Man was the man of the forest, a magical man, who looked a bit like a tree covered in ivy, and he was very green. That was why they called him the Green Man.
‘Yes,’ said Marmaduke and Gerald at the same time. ‘Yes,’ continued Gerald, ‘That would be the most sensible thing to do.’ He thought for a moment then said. ‘Just where are they to do this logging?’
‘About seventy five kilometres to the east, near the small lake.’ Florence gave a tut-tut’ as she spoke, as if Gerald was asking silly questions.
‘Seventy five kilometres, seventy five kilometres, that’s a long way away. How many trees do they intend to cut down?’ said Marmaduke.
Florence, who had been listening to the wood sprites very carefully explained ‘The trees have been listening to the loggers, the trees and wood sprites seem to think that they intend to cut down a least an average of four hundred trees a day at the beginning, then more each day once they really get going.’
‘Now that’s an awful lot of trees, it sounds like thousands of trees to me. I think we should definitely stop this, otherwise we shall have to move, and I’m very happy here.’ Cedric could see that loggers were a menace to the forest. Although he was not certain what it all meant he could understand something dreadful was about to happen.

‘It’s like this,’ the Green Man explained. ‘The people use the wood to make things, like benches. You use the old trees for benches in your cave. Is that a nice thing to do, I mean would you like to be sat on by a dragon?’
‘No, but the trees don’t mind. These are trees that have fallen down, not trees that are still living.’ Cedric had come to see the Green Man by himself. He found his friends always confused things by asking questions and he thought it best to come by alone.
‘Yes, you have a good point of view. However people don’t live in the forest like you and they need a lot more wood than you do.’ The Green Man had been explaining all about the loggers and now he decided that the conversation was nearly at an end. ‘You will have to go and see for yourself, remember this is not just a case of you having to move, the trees are your friends. Also the loss of so many trees could upset the ecology of where we live.’
‘It could?’ said Cedric. ‘Err... what is the ecology?’
‘That you must ask someone else to explain to you, first you must fly over to where they are setting up the logging camp. One of the wood sprites can go with you, but don’t let anyone see you. You know how funny people can be about something they don’t understand, and they will not understand dragons.'

Blog Three -Cedric visits the logging camp

Dragon Cave

Cedric wriggled his toes inside his slippers and then looked nervously at his wife Florence, he always liked to wriggle his toes but Florence had forbidden him doing it inside his slippers as his talons made holes.
‘I was thinking,’ he said.
‘Don’t’, said Florence, ‘Just sit quietly, and stop wriggling your toes.’
Cedric thought for a moment trying to work out how she had seen him wriggling his toes. Then he went back to his more serious thinking. The Green Man had been explaining to him about the economy, and now Cedric was trying to work out why people, humans that is, wanted to put a tax on important things like crystallized fruits, and then use the money to spend on building bigger roads. Surely Cedric thought it would be easier to make fewer cars, and then spend the money saved from not buying more cars on buying important things, like crystallized fruits and doughnuts.
At this point he started thinking about doughnuts and for a little while he concentrated on doughnuts. Which was unusual for a dragon, but not for a dragon like Cedric, he was a dragon who loved doughnuts, all sorts of doughnuts. And also he was not impressed by cars, as he always flew everywhere, and couldn’t get into a car even if he couldn’t fly.
‘Shall we invite Marmaduke and Gerald over this afternoon, just for a chat, about important things that the humans are doing?’ He looked at his wife waiting for an answer.
Turning carefully to face him, dragons always had to turn carefully otherwise their tail would knock things over, she said. ‘I suppose you are thinking about what the Green Man said. I don’t know why you worry about such things. Still if you must then invite them over. I shall take Boop out for a walk in the forest.’
Now Boop, who was a very young dragon, on hearing his name mentioned, look up from where he was playing with his friend a young wood sprite. ‘Can we go to the waterfall?’ Moonbeam said there are some goldfish in the pond just below the fall.’
‘I didn’t,’ said Moonbeam, ‘I said wouldn’t it be nice IF there were goldfish there.’ The wood sprite looked at Boop in an annoyed way. ‘You didn’t understand me as usual.’
‘Be quiet, your fathers thinking,' said Florence. 'And as usual is concerned about the silly things grown up humans are doing. Pity he doesn’t think about eating less doughnuts, and not making holes in his slippers.’ She turned back to the sink where she was making some apple turnovers and carefully peeling the apples.
‘Right that’s decided it, if you’re going out then I shall invite them,’ said Cedric, and he promptly spoke to the tree just outside the entrance to the cave, just to tell him to pass a message to his friends Marmaduke and Gerald.

‘Well I’m not sure that it will make much difference if you send a message to the people who decide on things like taxes,’ Gerald looked at his friend. ‘Can you imagine what they would say; Just had a message from a dragon called Cedric, said we should spend the money we get on taxes on doughnuts, and please to send him some.’ Gerald was pleased to come and talk with his friend, and there was nothing dragons liked doing more than chatting while eating doughnuts but he was not sure Cedric understood that it wouldn’t be wise to let people actually know dragons existed. ‘Remember they don’t believe dragons exist and it’s better that way. ‘Just because some witches and warlocks know about us; and the wood sprites and elves are our friends does not mean humans would be nice to us.’ With that Gerald took another doughnut from the plate and popped it whole into his mouth carefully brushing the sugar that fell on his chest onto the floor.
‘Yesss, maybe your right, anyway I asked the Green Man what he thought and he said he wasn’t going to waste his time writing and who exactly did I wish him to write to?’
‘There that settles it, err are there any more doughnuts in the cupboard, we seem to have eaten all those on the plate,’ Marmaduke having listened to his friends talking had not been paying attention to the number of doughnuts that Gerald had been eating. Gerald had been talking with his mouth full of doughnuts and had consumed more than was polite. But then Florence made exceptionally good doughnuts.
At that moment Florence returned from her walk to the waterfall. ‘I see you have eaten all the doughnuts, and no there are no more in the cupboard, at least none for today. Instead you can listen to what I have to say!’

But what Florence had to say is for the next blog about Cedric and his friends......