The Monster Menagerie

Once upon a time there was a terrific monster hunter named Meghan. Because she was world-famous, everyone called her "Meghan the Magnificent". Little children all over the country played with "Meghan the Magnificent Action Figures" and wore "Meghan the Magnificent Pyjamas". And whenever children were frightened by monsters they called for Meghan to help them.

All sorts of terrifying beasts had been captured by this daring girl. Giant spiders and minotaurs trembled when they heard her name. Baby serpents and little gargoyles who wandered too far from their caves were warned by their mothers to watch out for Meghan.

Meghan the Magnificent had a magic lasso which made monsters itchy. She would walk boldly up to the largest, hairiest beast and fling the lasso over its head (or heads). Then she would lead the frightful creature away, scratching itself desperately.

Meghan brought all the monsters she caught back to her house and kept them in large, gilt cages in her back garden. Because it was so expensive to feed these huge beasts Meghan advertised her monster menagerie as a tourist attraction. She gave tours on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.

As the crowds were led past their cages, the monsters would often sing in their mournful and off-key voices. The sound of their singing was so dreadful that Meghan and her visitors would clap their hands over their ears. But despite the horrible noises, the attraction was very popular and a mob of people was always waiting to see both Meghan and the Monster Menagerie.

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Meghan's mother would come over to feed the monsters and Meghan would travel wherever children were being frightened by horrible creatures. Under the bed, in the closet, in the attic; Meghan the Magnificent always got her beast.

One Tuesday morning Meghan had just finished feeding the monsters their bushels of cornflakes and she went into the house to have a glass of juice. The morning mail came thumping through the letter slot and she scooped it off the rug. "I wonder where I'm needed this week?" she thought to herself. A small green envelope caught her attention. It was addressed in large wobbly letters.

"Dear Megun the Magnisifent 
Come and get the dragon scaring me. I am afraid 
to play in my sandbox cause he pops over the 
gardun wall and makes horible faces and has smoke 
coming out of his nose and Im afraid he will bite me soon. 
-Trevor Jones 54 Sonibod Stret Creston City"

Meghan felt quite excited. Usually dragons stayed far away from humans and this was her first chance to capture one for the Menagerie. She wrote a note for her mother and set off for Chrestoon City.

She reached 54 Sunnybold Street that evening. Trevor's house was a large wooden structure at the edge of the city. It was flanked by a sprawling garden which was surrounded by a high stone wall. Trevor's family gave Meghan a warm welcome. They cooked her a delicious supper and gave her their best bedroom for the night. Trevor asked for her autograph and showed her his collection of "Meghan the Magnificent Trading Cards".

In the morning, Trevor took Meghan round the back garden. It was a lovely wild mixture of fruit trees, flowers, shrubs and tall grass. Meghan saw several plants she did not recognise and asked Trevor to name them.

"I don't know what they are," said the boy. "We only moved here this winter and my parents have been busy fixing up the inside of the house. They haven't planted anything in the garden yet."

"I'm glad," said Meghan. "These overgrown shrubs will be a good hiding place for me. I'll watch the wall for the dragon while you play in your sandbox."

Trevor agreed and he pulled the lid off a large box situated in the shade of the back wall. Meghan crouched behind some thick brambles and prepared her lasso. As soon as that dragon popped its head over the wall, she would capture it with one quick throw.

Twenty minutes passed. Trevor became thoroughly absorbed in his game. Meghan kept her eyes trained on the top of the wall. She was a professional monster hunter and she didn't let her attention waver for one second. Suddenly, a scaly green head with wide golden eyes popped over the edge of the wall. The head was the size of a bathtub. It was the dragon! Trevor screamed, jumped out of the sandbox and ran toward his house. Meghan the Magnificent flung her lasso.

But instead of capturing the dragon, the rope seemed to bounce off its head. The coils of the lasso fell harmlessly at the foot of the wall. The dragon looked straight into Meghan's eyes and ..... he stuck out his tongue! Meghan lost her temper. She quickly gathered up her lasso and made for the wall. Digging her fingertips and toes into the cracks she scrambled up the stones. The dragon's head had retreated but Meghan didn't care. Her reputation was at stake.

As she clambered over the top of the wall, Meghan realised that Trevor's back garden was at the edge of a steep hill. If she had been thinking with a cool head, she would have climbed slowly down the other side of the wall. But Meghan saw the cheeky dragon winking at her from the bottom of the hill and so she leapt from the top of the wall to the bottom of the hill. Crunch! She landed on her feet and felt her left ankle buckle. A wave of pain swept over her and the blood thundered in her ears. Then Meghan the Magnificent fainted.

When Meghan woke up she felt sick and dizzy. She kept her eyes closed and gingerly tried to wiggle her foot. The foot wouldn't move. "How strange," murmured Meghan.

"What's strange?" a loud deep voice boomed in her ear.

Meghan gave a squeak of surprise, opened her eyes and sat up. Still feeling dizzy, it took her a few moments to realise where she was. First she noticed that her ankle was tightly bound with a white cloth. Then she saw that she was surrounded by the strong gold bars of a cage. And outside the bars a large golden eye was watching her... the dragon!

"How dare you!" cried Meghan. "Let me out at once."

"A little taste of your own medicine my dear," remarked the dragon. He blinked his golden eyes slowly at her and wrapped his long scaly tail around the cage. "I've heard of you. 'Meghan the Magnificent' they call you. 'Meghan the Meanie' is what it should be."

"Why?" gasped Meghan. She clenched her fists in anger. "What do you mean? Just wait until I get my lasso. You're going to be one itchy dragon!"

"Your lasso is safe enough. Just make yourself comfortable and I'll see you at lunchtime." The dragon uncurled his tail and walked away.

Meghan was left seething with frustration. Her cage was small and square. There didn't appear to be any door. A wooden bucket sat in one corner and a pile of straw in another. Meghan tried to rise and found that she could put some weight on her bandaged ankle. She hobbled around the cage and looked through the bars. There was nothing much to see, just bare silvery stone. Her cage seemed to be located within a large cave. A reddish light came from the exit the dragon had used.

There was no escape and there was nothing to look forward to except lunchtime. Despite her bravado, Meghan started to worry. Was the dragon planning to have her for lunch? The morning passed very slowly indeed.

Meghan was sitting nervously on the pile of straw when the dragon returned. He carried a mug in his claws. A delicious savoury aroma rose from the steaming mug. He pushed it through the bars of the cage and Meghan surveyed its contents suspiciously.

"What's that? Trevor soup?" she asked spitefully.

"Oh no!" replied the dragon. "It's carrot soup. I'm a vegetarian. Besides, I never meant to frighten that silly boy Trevor. I was trying to slip into his garden to gather the herbs that grow there. The previous owner, Mrs. Burgess was a good friend of mine. She let me help myself to anything in her garden."

Meghan sniffed the soup with some trepidation. It had been a long time since breakfast and the food smelled delicious. She gulped down the contents of the mug. It was hot, creamy and tasty.

"Thank you," she said to the dragon. She pushed the mug back though the bars of the cage, quickly withdrawing her hand in case the dragon wasn't as fond of vegetables as he claimed. "Now, please let me go. I promise to leave this cage without using my lasso. I will even speak to Trevor's parents about your use of their garden."

The dragon smiled. His teeth were frightfully pointed. "Not yet. You must learn your lesson first." He turned and left the cave.

"What lesson?" Meghan shouted after him. "What lesson must I learn?" But she was ignored.

The afternoon was even longer than the morning. She could dimly see the dragon in the next cave taking a nap. No matter how loudly she hollered the dragon did not wake up. To pass the time Meghan said her multiplication tables. She recited all the poems she knew including the nursery rhymes. She pulled the loose threads from her bandage and she tried to make a basket out of some straw. "I'm bored and I'm lonely," she thought.

Later in the evening the dragon returned with a big slice of strawberry pie and a cup of peppermint tea. Once again the food was scrumptious.

"Dragon," Meghan complained, "Please let me go. I'm bored and I'm anxious and I miss my Mom and Dad."

The dragon's golden eyes glittered. "Then you are starting to get the idea," he said. "I'll see you in the morning."

Meghan spent a miserable night curled up on the straw. She was warm and well fed but she had no books, no toys and no friends to play with. She wondered if she would ever see her mother and father again. She wondered if she would ever see the blue sky again, or splash in a stream, or run through the woods.

Meghan had never felt so sad and helpless. A few tears crept from the corners of her eyes. She found herself humming a sorrowful tune under her breath. She was reminded of the songs the monsters would often sing when she brought people through the Monster Menagerie.

Of course! The monsters in the Menagerie felt just as bored, lonely and afraid as she did now. They simply couldn't tell her. The dragon was trying to show her that keeping creatures locked up was wrong. What had he called her? Meghan the Meanie. Well she had been mean and she had also been thoughtless.

When the dragon returned in the morning, he found a contrite Meghan waiting for him.

"I know what lesson you were trying to teach me," she said sorrowfully. "I shouldn't have kept the monsters locked up in cages. They are big and nasty looking and they shouldn't have been hiding under children's beds, but I had no right to take them away from their families."

"Excellent," cried the dragon. "I was hoping you'd learn quickly. Now, have your breakfast and then I'll take you home. We'll have a talk with your monsters and see if we can convince them to stop frightening little children in future."

Meghan ate a tasty meal of oatcakes and honey. The dragon was really an excellent cook. After breakfast, the dragon pulled the bars of the cage apart and allowed Meghan to step out. He handed her the magic lasso.

"I hope that you will rarely need to use it once the monsters promise to behave," he said sternly.

Meghan looked perplexed. "I can't speak to the monsters," she reminded him. "How can I bargain with them? Are you going to teach them English?"

The dragon brought Meghan a blue velvet cape from the next room. "I've made you a little present to show that there are no hard feelings between us," he said. "This cape will allow you to understand and speak the language of all monstrous creatures."

Meghan put the cloak on and was able to thank the dragon for his gift in very elegant dragon-speech. Then the dragon allowed Meghan to climb onto his back and they flew rapidly though the air to Trevor's house. Meghan introduced the dragon to Trevor and his parents and told them the whole story. Trevor's family assured the dragon that he was welcome to take any plants he wanted from their garden, so long as he was careful not to trample on their cat.

Next, the dragon flew Meghan the Magnificent home to the Monster Menagerie. Meghan's mother was just feeding the monsters when the dragon and his rider swooped down and landed on the patio. When the monsters saw the dragon they began singing their sad and horrible tune. This time Meghan could understand the words. The monsters were singing about their homes and loved ones and they were pleading for their freedom.

Meghan ran to unlock the doors of the cages. The dragon asked the monsters to gather round Meghan while she told them her plan (in monster-speech of course). Meghan asked the monsters to promise not to frighten little children ever again. In return Meghan promised to set them all free. An agreement was reached and the monsters ran, hopped and flew out of the Menagerie and home to their families.

After that Meghan the Magnificent had hardly any monster hunting to do. The monsters kept their word and most of their friends and family members also stopped trying to frighten people. When children did send for Meghan, she would still capture the monsters and lead them away but she would let them go as soon as they promised to behave themselves.

With the monsters under control and the Menagerie closed, Meghan had a lot of free time on her hands. She wrote a letter to the dragon and invited him to visit her. He came and taught her how to cook and she taught him how to play cards. When the summer came Meghan and the dragon invented a new sport. And that's how Meghan the Magnificent became the world-champion dragon stunt pilot!