← Sleep Tight Stories - Bedtime Stories for Kids
Sleep Tight Stories - Bedtime Stories for Kids
There Is No Triple Promise 🐉 P.2
00:23:04
A story about a dragon with a hurt wing and the two kids who help it
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Transcript14 lines
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Hello friends. Before we begin, there's a quick ad and then we'll get right to the story. It's the carefree days of summer, but we know it doesn't always feel that way for parents. You've scheduled the camps, booked the vacation, but what about all those other hours in the day? Meet Next Playground the active game system where your body controls the play. Kid safe gaming means no ads in app purchases or mature content, and no online chats or friends you don't really know. Playground comes with five experiences ready to play, add play, pass and unlock over 50 games, many with characters your kids already know and love. They even have an the Last Airbender game centered around the Earth Rumble Tournament Practice rock bending while dinner bubbles in the crock pot to fill those long summer days with active play. Check out nextplayground.com that's nexplayground.com to learn more.
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What exactly do you learn at a school for Royal Magic? Sofia I can't wait to find out. Join Sophia welcome to Charmswell.
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Don't just stand there.
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We've got spells to learn in her most magical adventure ever. My amulet's giving me new powers. Blue Mend. It's a good thing I'm at a school for Royal magic. Sophia the first royal magic now available on Disney Junior and Disney. Learn more@disneyplus.com what's on ready everyone? Follow me.
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All your family favorites are available on Disney.
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I love it.
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Share the stories you grew up with with your kids like Bear and the Big Blue House and Roly Polioli.
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That sounds like fun.
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Then discover new stories together.
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The more the merrier.
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Like Sofia the First Royal Magic Bluey and Spidey and his amazing friends.
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Get ready to Spidey Swing on Disney.
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All of these and more available this month disneyplus.com what's on.
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Hello friends and welcome to Sleep Tight Stories. Lila Fir and Milford cannot believe what they are seeing. Milford has so many questions and is trying to be polite, but Lilifer still elbows him in the ribs to show him that his questions are not the best. Vandor introduces himself and tells them why he is there and they decide there is something that they can do. There is no triple promise. Part 2. The dragon let out something like a sigh which sent a fresh wave of fog curling through the trees. The forest went even murkier for a moment and then slowly settled. Well, most of the time. We'll have to do for now. His voice was low and a little rough, like something that hasn't been used in a while Lillifer wasn't sure if that was just how dragons talked, or if he'd genuinely been sitting here alone long enough for his voice to go rusty. She didn't have much to compare it to. This was her first. First dragon. I have been sitting in this small cave for some time, vander continued, so to meet you is a pleasure I am quite open to. I must also apologize for the berries at the edge of your garden. This part of the forest does not provide much in the way of sustenance, and I'm afraid I ate rather more of them than was polite. You aren't going to eat us, are you? Milford asked. Lilleford jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. What? It's a legitimate question. No, vander said. There was something at the corner of his mouth that might have been the beginning of a smile. You did say you were kind, did you not? Lillifer hoped that was a joke. She was fairly sure it was a joke. She decided to act like it was a joke. Milford had his hand in his pocket, the one with the dirt, which Lillifer thought might be him getting ready, or just being nervous like she was. You really are what I think you are, aren't you? Like an actual I am Vandor, yes. When he said it, the trees seemed to hold still for a moment. Another slow breath came through his nostrils, rolling fog along the ground between their feet. There was something about the way he said his own name, not showing off exactly, just stating a fact that had some weight to it, like he was used to the name meaning something. Lilifer opened her mouth to ask the obvious question, but Vandor was already answering it. I am here because I am injured. I was flying through the upper part of the glade on the downdraft, which is usually quite manageable, when I was distracted by something shiny in the grass below. I turned to look and went off course, clipped the top of a tree and came down badly. My wing got a bit twisted. He shifted slightly and they could see it, then held at a careful angle, not folded right. It will require time to heal. An unfortunate accident, really. Not my first, if I'm being honest, but this one was rather worse than usual. He said all of this in the tone of someone who had rehearsed it, like he had been sitting in the cave, working out how to explain it in a way that didn't sound too embarrassing. Milford's face had gone very red. That was your toy, lillifer said in not quite a whisper. The shiny spinning one that Mum told you to put away about a million times, she said. A hundred times, Milford. I don't know that it was definitely my Milford. He dug his hands into his pockets like he wanted to hide inside with them. Vander either hadn't made the connection or was too well mannered to say so. It was hard to tell with dragons. Lilifer suspected the second one. There was a pause. The fog settled somewhere above them. A branch creaked in the wind. I don't suppose, vander said, and then he stopped. He tried again. The berries at the edge of the path. Are there more of them elsewhere? No, lillifer said. Vander nodded slowly, like this was information he had already suspected but was hoping might be wrong. She ate them, milford said helpfully. All of them. Both times. I was hungry the first time, lillifer said. And you ate the ones I left you? Those were two rotten ones hanging off a dead branch. That wasn't food. That was an insult. They were fine. They were not fine. Vander watched this exchange with what appeared to be polite interest. He had the look of stuff, someone who had been alone for quite a while and found even an argument about rotten berries reasonably entertaining. I have been managing on berries and a small amount of bark, he said when they finished. And some mushrooms, though I am not entirely certain those were the right kind. I've been here for four days, maybe five. It is difficult to tell from inside a cave. That's a long time, lilifer said. The wing makes it difficult to move far, and I did not want to alarm anyone by wandering into the open. That was considerate, lilifer said. Yes, vander agreed, without any particular pride about it. I am generally quite considerate. It is perhaps my most developed quality at present. Milford had been quiet for a moment, which was unusual enough that Lillifer noticed it. Can I ask you something? Milford said. You may. What do you eat normally, when you aren't stuck in a cave? Fruit, mostly. Berries, as you know. Certain roots, seeds, when I can find them. Leaves of the right sort, though the right sort can be difficult to identify, and the wrong sort gives me terrible. He paused. They disagree with me. Milford relaxed slightly. His hand came out of his pocket. Mostly, vander added. Milford's hand went back into his pocket. Mostly fruit, lillifer said carefully. Yes, mostly. And the rest of the time? Vander seemed to consider how to answer this. He looked at the ceiling of his cave, which was just the underside of several large fallen trees, and then he looked back at them. I come from a family with small, certain traditions. At celebrations or after a significant battle There is sometimes. He paused again. Meat. What kind of meat? Millford said. His voice had gone quite small. Large animals generally. Boar, elk, that sort of thing. Very occasionally a whole ox. He looked at them both in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring. Nothing small. There was a silence. We're not that small, milford said. You are quite small. Actually I'm average for my age, Milford, Vander said, and his voice had gone back to that careful formal register, the one that sounded like his name, meaning something. I am not going to eat you. You have been kind enough to come here and talk to me, and I am genuinely grateful for it. I eat fruit. I have always preferred fruit. The battle traditions of my family are, he seemed to search for the right word, not really my area. Milford looked at him for a long moment. What is your area? He said. Vander thought about this honestly. Which seemed to take a little longer than either of them expected at present, he said finally. Mostly sitting in this cave. Lillifer looked around the cave. Then she looked at Milford. Then she looked back at Vandor. We have a garden, she said. Yes. I have observed it from the tree line on the day before the wing. He said this in a way that suggested the days before the wing were a better time. Generally there are apple trees and a vegetable patch that dad doesn't pay enough attention to, so things grow a bit wild in there. And mom has her flowering bushes, but we probably shouldn't touch those. Definitely not those, milford said. There are also some things in the kitchen, but we'd have to be more careful about that. Van Door straightened slightly. Not much. The wing wouldn't allow much, but enough to show that this information was the best news he'd had in five days, maybe more. I would be very grateful, he said, for whatever you are able to manage. And so it began. Lillifer went first back through the rose bushes, while Milford stayed with Vandor and tried to make conversation. This mostly involved Milford asking questions and Vandor answering them in ways that raised further questions that Milford then also asked. By the time Lillifer came back with two apples, a fistful of kale that had gone a bit wild along the fence, and something orange she wasn't entirely sure about, Milford had somehow got onto the subject of Vandor's family. So your dad, Milford was saying. My father, yes. He's a warrior. He has led significant campaigns, yes. And your brothers? My brothers are accomplished in various ways. And you? There was a pause. I am here, vandor said. Lilifer set down the apples and the kale Vandor ate the kale first, which surprised her, then one of the apples in two neat bites. He looked at the orange thing. What is that? I'm not completely sure. It was growing by the fence. Fandor sniffed it carefully. I will try it later, he said, setting it aside with the same courtesy he seemed to apply to everything. Milford went next, which Lillifer hadn't entirely planned on but didn't argue with. He came back with a large bunch of grapes, slightly squashed from being carried in both hands, half a cucumber and a bread roll. Dragons don't eat bread, lillifer said. It was for me, milford said, and ate it while standing there. Their mother called from the yard while Lilifer was on her third trip, arms full of windfall apples from under the big tree by the fence. She froze. Lilifer, have you seen the good colander? Vander went very still. Even his fog seemed to pause. No, mom, lilifer called back in the most ordinary voice she had. Maybe the workshop. A pause, then her mother's footsteps going the other way. Lilifer let out a breath. Milford was grinning. He thought this was the best thing that had ever happened. They went back and forth four more times. Milford ate something on almost every trip and claimed each time it was something that wasn't suitable for dragons, which was sometimes true. Vandor ate steadily and without complaint, which was impressive considering what they brought him. At one point Milford arrived with a single grape and a look of great seriousness. This was the last one, he said. Fandor ate it. There are more, lillifer said. There really aren't, said Milford. By the time the light through the trees had started to go a different colour, Vandor looked better. Not well, exactly. The wing was still wrong, but the hollow look under his eyes had gone and he was sitting more comfortably against the fallen trees. That was very good of you, he said, both of you. We'll come back tomorrow, lilifer said with more. Milford had been quiet for a little while, which still happens sometimes, but less than before. He had his hand in his pocket and he was turning something over in there the way he did when he was thinking. He took out the handful of dirt. It was not very much dirt. Some of it had mixed with the pocket fluff and lost whatever dignity dirt usually has. He held it out toward Vandor on his open palm. It was meant to put out your fire, he said, if you had one. I know you don't, but I thought. I don't know what I thought. Vandor looked at the dirt for a moment. Then he extended one large claw very carefully, and took it. He set it down beside him with the same seriousness he he had given the unknown orange vegetable. Thank you, Milford, he said. I will keep it. Milford put his hands back in his pockets, not quite as deep this time. They left Vandor in the cave with the orange thing still sitting beside him, the dirt beside that, and instructions to stay hidden, which he accepted with the patience of someone who had been doing exactly that for five days already. We'll come back tomorrow, lillifer said again at the gap in the fallen trees. I will be here, vandor said, which, given the wing, was not really a promise so much as a statement of fact, but it felt like a promise. Bring more apples, he added, if it isn't too much trouble. It's no trouble, Lillifer said. Bring less kale, he added, if it isn't too much trouble. They pushed back through the rose bushes into the yard. The thorns caught Milford's sleeve and he pulled free without complaining about it, which was unusual. The yard was exactly as they'd left it. The bee was gone, but there was a different one, or possibly the same one. It was hard to tell. The cottage sat in the late afternoon light, looking like it always did. Their mother's humming came from somewhere inside. The workshop door was open and they could hear their father moving around in there, doing his very important things. Everything was exactly the same. Milford walked beside her without pretending to be a flying ship or tap dancing or doing anything in particular. He just walked. At the back step he stopped and turned around and looked at the rose bushes for a moment. From here they looked like they always looked just rose bushes, just the end of the yard. We're going back tomorrow, he said. It wasn't a question. Yes, lillifer said. I'm going to need more things for my pockets. He went inside. Lillifer stayed on the step a moment longer, looking at the rose bushes, at the gap between them, where the path started, at the shadow just beyond, where the trees closed in. Somewhere past all of that, in a cave, under some fallen trees at the end of the path they weren't supposed to take, a dragon was sitting with a handful of pocket dirt and an unidentified orange vegetable waiting to get better. She went inside too. And that is the end of this story for now. Good night. Sleep tight.