The Story of Merlin and the Dragon

The Story of Merlin and the Dragon

A Story by Derek Thiem
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A story about a magician and a dragon, and an attempt to explain addiction and recovery to my daughter.

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The Story of Merlin and the Dragon


Once upon a time there was a magician named Merlin. Now Merlin was a very magical magician and all of the town of Portlandia liked him. He wore a violet robe adorned with amethysts. He sold his wares in a magic shop on the outskirts of the town, near the forest. Merlin’s was the place to go to when you needed some pixie dust or hogwart root. He had all kinds of teas he made from the leaves and berries of the forest. There was always a bubbling cauldron of magical stew in his shop. He also had shelves full of potions and elixirs. They were meant to cure all manner of maladies and play tricks of various sorts on the other villagers. He could turn a person into a frog, make someone’s nose grow six inches, and make someone have the hiccups for 24 hours.

The problems for Merlin started when he began taking the potions for himself. At first he had a lot of fun. There was a potion that made him levitate and float over the whole town. Another one made sparkling rainbows follow him wherever he went. He took a giggle potion and went around giggling all day and thought everything was very funny. Then one day he took a love potion. Unfortunately, the first thing he saw after taking the love potion was a rat. So he fell in love with the rat. At first the rat didn’t want anything to do with him, but Merlin started to give the rat cheese, and so the rat decided Merlin wasn’t so bad after all. Merlin would pet his rat all the time and feed him cheese while the rat stayed on his shoulder and gave him advice about what to do. They became good friends. Merlin and the rat were a team, but the rat wasn’t giving Merlin very good advice. You see, the rat realized that when Merlin took his potions he was happy and he would give the rat more cheese.

Eventually Merlin spent so much time trying out his potions that he wasn’t there enough to sell his magic to the villagers. They started to get angry and frustrated that they couldn’t get their magic needs from Merlin because him and his rat were off doing something silly. They still liked coming to his shop and talking with him and the rat, but they were never sure when he would be there. Finally, Merlin made a big mistake. He drank a vanishing potion by accident. All of the sudden, poof! He was there but he wasn’t there. No one could see him, and when he talked, no one could hear him. When he tried to turn pages in his spellbook his fingers went right through them. Merlin was at a loss. He didn’t know what to do and he was sad that he couldn’t talk to his villager friends any more. He wandered around for a long time.

One day Merlin got a surprise. He found another person who had vanished. Because they were both vanished they were able to talk to each other. This vanished person told Merlin that he’d heard there was a golden sceptre at the top of a mountain. Whoever held that sceptre would make contact with a very powerful force that could change anything, even making him appear again.

So Merlin set off in search of the sceptre. He climbed many mountains, but couldn’t find it. The rat was still with him and kept him company, but he didn’t give Merlin advice anymore since that’s what got them into this mess in the first place. Finally Merlin started to see signs that he found the right mountain. The trees on the mountain were especially old and grand, and they were the most vibrant green. They found rocks with amethyst crystals that matched the ones on his robe. They started to see a trail where other people had climbed before them.

At last they made it to a great cave. They had to crawl carefully through a lot of darkness before they finally reached the end of the cave. And wouldn’t you know it, there they found the golden sceptre. Merlin grabbed it at once, and this time, his fingers didn’t go through it. He was grasping it tightly. A brilliant beam of light flowed out of the sceptre and lit up the whole cave. There was a voice. “You have found me, now what is it that you wish to change?” said the voice.

“Thank you great spirit of light,” said Merlin. “I have a problem. Though I am a powerful magician, I have done magic upon myself that I can’t undo. You see, I have vanished and I don’t have the antidote to make me appear again. At first it was fun to be able to go wherever I wanted to and no one could see me, but now I miss my friends and I want to appear again. Can you help me?”

“Yes,” said the great spirit of light. “You must take the sceptre with you to always remind you of our meeting here, and if you always remember my voice, you will appear before your people and will never vanish again.”

“Thank you,” said Merlin. “I will always remember your power that is even greater than my magic. I will go and help the people of the village now.”

And so Merlin and his rat left the cave and descended from the mountain top to return to Portlandia and their magic shop. The people of Portlandia were very happy to see Merlin again. They had been very worried that he was gone and wouldn’t come back.

As it happened, Merlin arrived in the nick of time. There was a fire breathing dragon who flew from the Island of Sauvie who was tormenting the villagers of Portlandia. The dragon wanted to take all their gold, and if they didn’t give it up, he would burn the village down with his fiery breath. Only Merlin could save them with his magic and the power of his newfound golden sceptre. The dragon arrived with terrible wind from his wings and he demanded, “Give me all of your gold or else I will burn this town down!”

“No!” cried Merlin. “With the power vested in me by the Great Spirit of Light through this sceptre I command a shield to block the flames of your breath!” And so the dragon roared a horrible roar and shot his best fire from his belly. But when the flames reached Merlin they were turned back by his shield of light. The villagers cheered!

“Merlin stopped the dragon,” they cried. The dragon tried with all his might to defeat Merlin and break his shield, but in the end he could not. He ran out of fire and could only puff out wisps of smoke.

“Let it be that you will return to your island and never bother the people of Portlandia again! Each of us will live in peace,” declared Merlin. And the dragon turned around and flew back to his island, to do what dragons do and not bother the villagers any more.

The people of Portlandia returned to their homes, and Merlin returned to his magic shop. He was grateful that he was able to help the townspeople. Him and his rat were content to run the shop and to provide people potions for fun, only when he knew they would use them wisely. Though he missed the levitation and giggle potions, Merlin decided he wouldn’t experiment with the potions on himself any more. And so the town of Portlandia would remain peaceful and quiet, with only the occasional man getting turned into a frog because he did something bad to the village.

© 2017 Derek Thiem


Author's Note

Derek Thiem
Could be useful for parents trying to explain why they need to go away for drug or alcohol rehabilitation.

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Added on May 21, 2017
Last Updated on May 21, 2017
Tags: Children's literature, father daughter stories, Children's stories, magic, dragons, recovery literature, alcoholism, addiction