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CHAPTER 10: 'Dag, Dragonmaster'

DIEGO DAGOBERTO SIPPED FRUIT TEA
and gazed at the branches of the great oak tree
which sat at the mouth of Snatchgrin's den.
He listened with a smile to the song of a wren.
" Beautiful," Dag said. "Don't you agree?"
"Yes, Count Dagoberto, but..."
"Please call me 'Dag,'"
said the dragonmaster, producing a rag.
He wiped the sweat off his brow.
The man continued. "So anyhow, please tell me.
What about this bag?"
The man had dumped out on the ground
a bag a couple children had found
one day when Snatchgrin had flown by.
They said it fell right from the sky,
landing with a clattering sound.
The bag contained a sword & shield
& other things a soldier wields.
Snatchgrin must have thought it treasure
and grabbed it for the people's pleasure,
then dropped it that day in the fields.

But the bag contained another thing,
a notice from a Coastlands king. It read:
'Snatchgrin has killed 2,000 at least.
A fortune in gold if you kill the beast!'
It was signed 'King Ashoga' and sealed with his ring.
"This is outrageous if it is true.
What does this dragon actually do?!"
said the man who'd appeared on Dag's door that day.
Dag secretly wished he'd just go away,
with his questions about people that Snatchgrin had slew.
But the man could not be turned away.
He'd just been elected the other day
Assembly Boss for the island town--
'the Right Honourable Governor Archie Brown.'
And Archie Brown always had his way.
"I needn't tell you, my dear Boss Brown,
how 'Mighty Snatchgrin' has saved this town.
Before we arrived six years ago
life on this island was nothing but woe.
Now, you'd be hard-pressed to find a frown..."

Boss Brown smiled and then he laughed.
"Do you really think that I'm that daft?"
he said as he gazed at the town far below.
He turned to face Dag and felt a breeze blow.
Or rather, a stinking, awful draft.
It came from the opening of the cave,
pouring out like a polluted wave.
Brown wrinkled his nose and spat on the ground.
"How can you stand that stench!" he frowned.
"It smells like a body a week in the grave!"
"It is," said Dag, "an acquired taste.
Now please, Boss Brown, can we make haste?
What do you want? I've things to do.
'Treasure to measure, jewels to view,
the Dragonmaster leaves nothing to waste.'"
"Save your ditties for your interviews
with starry-eyed kids at the Dragon Corps News,"
said Brown, whose face had grown quite mean--
a face the voters had rarely seen.
"You know, Dag, you've got a lot to lose..."

Brown began to point & stroll.
"Your mansion, your horses, the slaves you control."
(in the orchard, were ten of them picking some pears
for Dag's favorite dessert, pear-chocolate eclairs).
"Why, even the Countess's lovely mink stole!"
Said Brown: "All of these riches would soon
disappear, if the townsfolk knew what some of them fear.
That Snatchgrin is no gentle beast,
no 'miracle cure' who has come from the East.'
But a killer of thousands! And not one to cheer!!"
Now Dag's face, too, wasn't looking so nice.
His hard brown eyes looked like dirty ice.
But he kept his cool -- that was Dag's way --
even when Boss Brown had ruined his day.
"Get to the point, Brown! What is your price?"
A big grin came to Boss Brown's face.
It was the grin he'd used to win the race
for island boss -- a hard-fought duel.
The smile had been a useful tool.
He took it with him everyplace.

"A partnership is all I seek.
Say... 100 bronzes every week?
Dag's eyes flared but he kept quite still.
He swallowed down this bitter pill.
Archie Brown had a lot of cheek.

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