Long, long ago, in the days when dragon songs still filled the air, there was a beautiful, golden dragon named Clarissa. Clarissa was young, by dragon standards. At only fifty years old and thirty-five feet long, she was barely big enough to spread her silky golden wings and fly.
Clarissa lived with her family, high in the crags of the Himalayan Mountains, so high that ice and snow covered the ground and few birds could reach it without freezing their feathers. Her mother, Gracely, was a huge white dragon with a big, gentle smile and a lovely voice. When Gracely sang, her beautiful melodies could be heard for hundreds of miles. Her father, Dratani, was an immense bronze-colored dragon. Though he was slightly smaller than Gracely, he was still the strongest dragon in the family.
Her family of strong, brave dragons worked in cooperation with humans. They kept the skies clear of marauding gryphons and basilisks by shooting fire at the intruders, creating exquisite aerial battles that the humans found highly entertaining.
In payment, her two older brothers, Grauf and Howlie, flew down to the green lowlands three times each week, returning with fat cows to feed the dragons that were too old, and, like Clarissa, too young to fly.
Clarissa could sing as well as her mother, but she most admired the flying skills of her brothers, parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. She exercised her wings each day and dreamed of the time when she would be big and strong, so she too could fly all the way down to the lowlands. Until then, since clouds always blanketed the mountain partway up, she imagined what the world below her eyrie looked like.
Clarissa would stretch her long, golden neck as far as she could, gripping the edges of the sharp rocks that rimmed her home cave, trying to peer through the thick clouds. Her dearest wish was to see the lowlands. She asked Howlie about it, but all he said was,“It looks like a lot of green, with tasty cows running all over it.”
She thought a long time about what Howlie said. Especially about the green he said that there was so much of. She knew the colors white, gray, and brown, since they were the colors of the snow, rocks, and dirt of her home. She knew the colors blue and gold, too. Blue for the sky and gold for the shiny sun.
Her family wore colors of silver, gold, white, brown, and bronze, but none were green.
“What is green?” she murmured to herself as she bit into the hind leg of a cow that Grauf had brought for her.
“Ouch!” the cow mooed loudly.
Startled, Clarissa dropped it, blinking her eyes and shaking her head. This had never happened before. The cows that her brothers brought were supposed to be old or sick, and thoroughly dead before being given to anyone to eat.
“Did you say something?” she asked, bending her huge head toward the frightened cow.
“Of course, I did!” the cow retorted.
The brown and white animal huffed as it struggled to stand on three legs. The leg that Clarissa had bitten wouldn’t hold her weight.
“I was enjoying a lovely summer morning, eating my breakfast of grass in my favorite meadow, when this huge brown thing grabbed me and carried me up here!”
“That was my brother, Grauf,” Clarissa said. “He, um catches—cows—for us to eat. But he’s only supposed to get the old, sick ones. And he’s supposed to make sure they aren’t alive by the time they get way up here.”
Clarissa dipped her head, shedding a tear in embarrassment that she’d caused such harm.
“Well, you bring me right back to my meadow!” the cow insisted. “I have calves to feed.”
“What’s a meadow? What is grass? What are calves? How do you feed them?”
“Whoa! Slow down! You certainly must be young to ask so many questions!”
“Well,” Clarissa said after taking a deep breath, “I am young, but I’ve been practicing flying every day. I can take you back to your—um—meadow—if you answer just one question.”
“That’s better!” the cow said, nodding in approval. “What is your question?”
“What is green?”
The cow stared at her, its big, brown eyes blinking in astonishment.
“What do you mean, ‘what is green’? Haven’t you ever seen grass? Or a meadow?”
“If I had, I wouldn’t have asked, now would I?” Clarissa persisted.
“Well,” said the cow, turning to lick her wounded hind leg, “grass and meadows are green.”
“So, you eat green?”
Clarissa was becoming more and more confused.
“I didn’t know you could eat colors.”
“Well, since certainly I can’t trust the other dragons to take me home, since they’d probably just eat me, I’ll have to trust you to do that. Then, I can show you what green is.”
Clarissa took a deep breath, considering the cow’s request. She wasn’t supposed to talk to her food. She wasn’t supposed to fly to the lowlands unattended, especially on her first flight.
But she was supposed to be strong, like the rest of her family. She was supposed to grow big enough to fly to the lowlands and bring back cows for the other dragons to eat. She didn’t want to embarrass her brothers by letting them know that they had accidentally brought back a live, healthy cow.
“If I take you home, my brothers, or other members of my family, could just catch you again tomorrow. Since I—ah—hurt your leg, that is.”
“I don’t think so,” the cow said. “The girl who comes to milk us will tend my leg. And, now that I know what happens when cows disappear, I can warn the others. We can hide under trees and watch the skies, so none of us will be caught again. Not even the old or sick ones.”
“That’s good,” Clarissa said. “Can I tell you a secret?”
She moved her big, golden head so close that the cow’s long eyelashes brushed her cheek. She giggled, then stopped herself, trying to act grown-up and serious. After all, this was a life-or-death decision.
“I suppose,” the cow said, backing up a few steps.
“I really don’t like eating cows, she whispered.
“You don’t?”
The cow was so surprised she blinked her eyes until tears flowed down her face.
“No,” Clarissa said. “I dislike eating cows so much that I’d rather eat rocks. My teeth are strong enough to do that, see?”
She demonstrated, picking up a rock the size of the cow’s head and crushing it to powder.
“But,” she said as she spit out the rock dust, “rocks give me a tummy ache. And they don’t help me grow big and strong so I can fly.”
“Well,” the cow said, swishing her tail, wincing as the motion made her wounded leg hurt. “If you take me home, maybe you’ll find something in the lowlands to eat that isn’t a cow.”
Clarissa thought a little longer, then nodded.
“Okay,” she said. “My family is napping after their morning meal. It’ll be safe to take you home. But remember,” she said as she gently wrapped her jaws around the cow’s middle, “this is the first time I’ve flown off the mountain. It’s also the first time I’ve ever carried a cow.”
“Just be sure not to bite too hard,” the cow called as they rose into the air.
Flying down was easy. The cow wasn’t too heavy and Clarissa found that if she spread her wings and circled, she could gently glide toward the ground. As they passed through the bank of clouds that always surrounded the mountain, Clarissa was so surprised that she almost dropped the cow.
“Wh-what is that?” she mumbled.
“What is what?” the cow said. “And be careful! I felt you slip a moment ago.”
“Sorry,” Clarissa mumbled. “What is that strange color covering everything down there?”
“That,” the cow said, “is grass, and leaves, and trees.”
Clarissa swooped her wings backward and extended her hind legs to land on a huge area of grass. There were other cows grazing there, but when they saw Clarissa, they galloped away. After gently releasing the cow, she said, “So, this is grass.”
She stretched her long neck toward the knee-high stalks and sniffed.
“It smells good.”
“It tastes good, too,” the cow said, bending her head and grabbing a mouthful of grass.
“Is this—green?”
“Yes,” the cow said after she’d swallowed her mouthful. “This is green. The trees and leaves are green, too.”
“So much green! Almost as much as the blue of the sky. And this is what you eat—this green?”
“Of course!” the cow said as she took another mouthful of grass. “It’s practically all we eat. Try some.”
Clarissa opened her mouth as wide as she could and bit off a huge bundle of grass. She tried chewing it but her sharp teeth didn’t work as well as the cow’s flat ones, to crush the stalks. Still, she persisted and after a few minutes, reduced the grass into a ball of spongey stuff that she managed to swallow.
“Well?” the cow asked. “How was it?”
“Well—” Clarissa didn’t want to tell the cow how terrible she thought the grass was.
“I’m glad this grass makes good food for you, but I don’t think this—green stuff—will work to feed a dragon,” she finally said.
Her stomach rumbled so hard, the scales on her belly rippled. The cow heard it and backed away.
“It, um, took more energy to fly down here than I thought,” Clarissa said.
“You haven’t changed your mind, have you?” the cow said, backing up a few more steps and shaking her head. “You won’t—eat me—will you?”
“No,” Clarissa said, sighing. “I still don’t like to eat cows. But if I don’t find something to eat, I won’t have the strength to fly home. If my family comes looking for me, it will be bad for your cow friends, as flying down here is bound to make them hungry, too.”
“Let me think a minute,” the cow said. “There must be something here that you can eat.”
Just then, two smaller creatures that looked like the cow ran over to her and rubbed their little muzzles on her cheeks.
“We’re hungry, Mama!” they cried.
The cow cast a sharp glance at Clarissa, who was too fascinated by what these creatures could be to think of eating them.
“You asked what calves are,” the cow said. “Calves are baby cows. I feed them like this.”
She nudged the calves toward the large bag that hung under her hindquarters.
“Be careful of my sore side!” she chided as one of the calves grabbed onto what looked like a little handle and bumped its head against her side.
“You’re feeding them?” Clarissa cried, her eyes spinning in rainbow colors as she took this in.
“Yes,” the cow said, wincing as one of the calves bumped into her sore side again.
“How do you do that?”
“When I eat grass, it turns into milk. The milk flows from the bag you see there.”
“Could I—” Clarissa started to ask, then blushed as she realized that even if she was small enough to drink like the calves were doing, there was no way one cow could produce enough milk to fill her big tummy.
Her stomach rumbled again, making the calves jump. The soft whiskers around their mouths were coated in white from the rich milk.
“It’s okay, children,” the cow said. “She’s big, but she won’t hurt you.”
Turning to Clarissa, she said, “I have an idea. You are way too big to drink milk from me, but do you think you would like cheese?”
“What is cheese?”
“People take milk and curdle it, then let it sit for a while and it makes cheese. But it would take a lot of cows to make cheese for even one dragon.”
Clarissa leaned toward the cow and bent her head toward her udder. The cow shuddered, but Clarissa reassured her.
“I won’t try to drink the milk, but I want to smell it,” she said.
“There might also be a bit of milk dripping. That often happens after the calves have fed. You could try that.”
Clarissa saw little white dribbles of milk leaking from the udder. She stuck out her long, slender tongue and caught a few drops. She lifted her head and let the milk sit in her mouth, tasting it carefully.
“This is lovely!” she said after she swallowed it. “Does—cheese—taste like this?”
“I don’t know,” the cow said. “I only know that humans make the milk into cheese.”
“Hmm,” Clarissa said, “The humans let my brothers take some cows because my family protects the herd from gryphons and basilisks. Do you think they would let me try some cheese, instead of eating cows?”
“I certainly hope so!” the cow said. “I wish we could make enough cheese for all the dragons, since then no cows would be eaten. But surely, there would be enough to feed one dragon.”
“How would I find out?”
“Your kind speaks many languages, don’t they? I mean, you had no trouble understanding me. All the humans hear when I talk are weird mooing sounds. Anyway, since you understand me, maybe you will understand the humans, and they will understand you. Since your family has worked with them in the past, it shouldn’t seem strange for you to talk with them.”
“I’m willing to try,” Clarissa said. “But, how will I find a human to talk to?”
“Here comes one of the daughters, now, bringing us some oats.”
A teenage girl dressed in a long blue and white dress, wearing a matching bonnet, lugged a heavy-looking bucket across the meadow.
“Um,” Clarissa started, stepping toward the girl.
“Oh!” the girl cried, dropping the bucket. “You startled me!” She stomped a foot and curled her fists against her hips.
“What are you doing here? You dragons are supposed to take your cows early in the morning, instead of scaring honest milkmaids.”
“I’m sorry,” Clarissa said, bowing her long neck so her golden chin brushed the ground. “I was just talking to the cow, over there, and—wait—can you understand me?”
“Yes,” the girl sighed. “Everyone knows that dragons are intelligent creatures, unlike stupid cows.”
“I found your cow to be very intelligent.” Clarissa said.
“You were supposed to eat her. Now I’ll have to doctor that leg. Did you bite her there?”
“I did, but she asked me to stop, so I brought her home instead.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Well, she wasn’t hurt—not before I bit her. And, she wasn’t sick. And I—I don’t really like the taste of cows. Also, she is very smart. I couldn’t eat such an intelligent creature.”
“Well then,” the girl said, “what do you want?”
“She—I mean, the cow—she suggested that I might like cheese instead of eating cows.”
“She did?”
The girl looked over at the cow, who was munching the spilled grain.
“I guess, from her perspective, that was a good solution. And, since you brought her home, she owes you a favor? I’ve heard dragons don’t do anything without receiving something in return.”
“Well, I do want something,” Clarissa said, “But I would have brought her home even if I didn’t. I gave my word. But now, I’m too hungry to fly back to my mountain, since I missed breakfast.”
“Well, come along to the barn then,” the girl said, collecting the empty bucket and walking back across the fields.
Clarissa opened her mouth to ask what a barn was, but instead told the girl about her fascination with green, and how that was why she brought the cow home. They neared a big, gray building with huge doors. Piles of what looked like dried grass were tied together in big blocks.
“Wait here,” the girl said as she entered the barn.
Clarissa’s sharp eyes saw her walk to the farthest corner of the barn, where the air currents flowing toward her felt cool. She emerged with a yellowish lump in a cart with wheels. The lump was almost the size of Clarissa’s head.
“Is that—cheese?” Clarissa asked.
“Yes,” the girl said. “My mothers makes lots and lots of this. Try it.”
Clarissa reached down and took a bite from the lump of cheese.
“Oh!” she said as the pungent flavor filled her mouth. “This is lovely!”
“I’m glad you like it,” the girl said. “Do you think a lump of cheese this big, once a week, would keep you full?”
“We dragons don’t need to eat every day, so, I think so.”
“Good! There is something else that goes well with cheese that you might like. It only grows once a year, but we get so many that often the ones on top go to waste.”
After Clarissa finished the cheese, the girl led her to a huge stand of trees. Their branches were covered in blobs that were green, yellow, or red.
“Those are apples,” the girl said. “The red ones are ripest. Try one. If you like them, you’re welcome to take all the ones from the tops of the trees. If you save them in a cool space they’ll last for a few months too.”
Clarissa reached her long neck high into one of the trees and nipped off a mouthful of apples.
“Oh!” she said as she munched the crunchy fruit, “These are lovely too! What should I do in trade for these?”
“Well, it looks like it wouldn’t be hard for you to pick apples, so if you use your tail or your wings to sweep some to the ground, we could harvest them more easily.”
Clarissa smiled, nodding.
“Oh!” she cried again, her cheeks pinking with embarrassment. “I didn’t ask your name, and you’ve turned out to be such a good friend.”
“My name is Sally.”
“I’m Clarissa. I hope I see you again, Sally!”
Clarissa gathered as many apples as she could hold in her front legs, then spread her huge wings and, with a comfortably full tummy, flew back up the mountain.
“And to think,” she said to herself as she rode the air currents up the mountain, “I wouldn’t have had such a lovely adventure if I hadn’t so very much wanted to know what green was.”
