A Charming Children's Story With an Adventurous Trio
and a Dragon

chillibreeze writer — Chandana Banerjee

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Madhav was a little boy with two unusual pets: Malai-a white elephant and Chutki – a brown mouse. Malai was a baby elephant with a long trunk that watered Madhav’s vegetable patch and a squiggly tail that swatted flies as the boy ate his simple lunch of pickle and papadam. He lived under Madhav’s bed, where it was dark and cool.

Chutki, on the other hand, was as small as a pea pod with eyes that shone like beads. She feasted on the bits of papadam that Madhav fed her and made herself a cozy home in his shirt pocket. The three of them were the best of friends and were always in search of an adventure. One hot summer afternoon, when they were playing under the shady trees next to the river, they got a whiff of adventure in the air.

There was a hullabaloo in the colony of birds that lived there. For months they had labored on their nests, building it with bits of twigs and grass and lining it with cotton and thread and preparing it with care for the wifey-birds to lay eggs in them. Someone was sneaking in when they were away gathering food and stealing their precious eggs.

Madhav, Malai and Chutki wanted to help. “ Birds, let us help you. We’ll catch the egg-thief for you.” The birds agreed. And so the three friends began making a trap with twigs and leaves that Malai snapped off the trees with his trunk. The birds got them a long piece of string and Chutki got pieces of tasty, spicy papadam to lure the thief into the trap.

Finally after three days of hard work, the trap was ready. The wily thief had been busy even while they were building the trap with one of the birds losing her eggs despite Chutki keeping vigil over the nests. It was like the trespasser was invisible.

So on the 4th morning when the birds were away, Madhav and Malai placed the trap amongst the trees. They hid behind a tree trunk and waited as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Then they heard a twig snap and a “munch…munch…” of the papad, followed by an “Ouchhhh” as someone tripped on the string and the cage closed down. They rushed to the trap but couldn’t find anyone inside—all they heard was the sound of sobbing.

“Whose there? Is it an invisible monster?” cried Madhav.
“O no! I’m Dev the Invisible Dragon,” replied a shaky voice.
“Well we want to see you, ” trumpeted Malai.
“ But what if the elephant spanks me with his trunk?” sobbed Dev.
“I won’t do any such thing,” replied Malai impatiently.
So slowly, a form took shape. It was a chubby green and gold dragon with scales on his back that shone like swords of gold. He was just a little bigger than Malai.

Dev had been flying over the woods with his parents when he wandered away from them and lost his way. Scared, lonely and hungry, he had chanced upon the bird nests. The smooth, white eggs looked like berries to him and he had happily feasted on them.

Now he was very ashamed of his deeds and apologized to the birds.

“Dev, you can live with me since you don’t have a home,” said Madhav after the matter had been sorted out and peace had returned to the colony of birds.

Dev happily agreed and found a cozy place for himself below Madhav’s study table. There he stayed, in Madhav’s home with Chutki and Malai until the four of them got a whiff of another adventure.

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—About our writer: Chandana writes for chillibreeze.

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