Once Upon a Time there lived a flying, Magical, mushroom fearing, water breathing, treasure finding! Knox the Final Dragon!
Knox liked a lot of thing, but mushrooms wasn't one of those things as said before. There is a backstory behind that. But first let's hear about Knox's creation.
When Knox was first created by Trumplsnout the Evil Enchanter. All of his youth, Trumplsnout was taunted for his name. As he grew older, Trumplsnout discovered his ability to do strange things. He could spend a bit of his power into making a simple jasmine flower turn into a monster that ate everything in its path.
Later, when Trumplsnout had this ability in control, he began to use it to gain his revenge. At first it was small things, setting fire to the robes of his childhood bully or making the swords of soldier chase their owners.
But Knox was Trumplsnouts greatest achievement yet. With his power, Trumplsnout put together bits a silver and bronze metals, shaping them into the shape of a dragon. Granted Knox was just a baby dragon, but Trumplsnout knew his dragon would be fierce. Trumplsnout put a piece of his magic into Knox and Knox came to life, just like that.
But what Trumplsnout didn't expect, was that Knox was a baby dragon, down to the core. Which meant that Knox just wanted to play and he couldn't hurt a fly.
No matter how hard Trumplsnout tried, he could not get Knox to hurt even a lightning bug.
Here is where the Mushrooms come in.
You see, when Knox failed to kill he Moon Fairy that Trumplsnout had captured for him to practice on, for the third time, he punished Knox by not feeding the poor baby dragon nothing but Mushrooms.
One day, Knox was out in the court yard of Trumplsnout's castle, when two toads hopped into the yard. Knox looked at these little, brave creatures that had wandered into his prison. Brave, or very stupid.
The first toad looked over at Knox and it let out a long shrill croak, which the Author thinks means "AH! A DRAGON!"
The second toad looked over at the first toad and then at Knox then it reached up a foot and slapped the first toad in the face.
Knox of course found his very funny because he had never seen any other creature, other than the moon fairy that Trumplsnout captured.
Know looked at the gate that the toads came from and whined. The toads looked at him, one slightly more fearful than the other, and then they looked at the gate. Then they understood.
"Croak. Croak croak, croooak" he second toad said.
Knox tilted his head and the toad sighed. It pointed at Knox, then out the gate then made a walking gesture.
At that moment, Trumplsnout walked, saw the toads and Knox and glared at the baby dragon.
"Get Inside" Trumplsnout commanded.
Knox looked at the door with fear, then took a breath.
He turned, unfurled his bronze and silver patched wings and launched off the ground.
Now, Knox was best friends with Hammy the Hamster Baby, a hamster who had been turned into a two year old baby. The two were inseparable and today, they were going treasure hunting.
Now you see, in the Forest of GAH -GAH, like what you exclaim when you stub your toe-, treasure was hidden everywhere from ancient battles, old cultures that have long since died out and roaming travelers that happened to drop something. Knox and Hammy were quite happy to spend their days digging around in the ground.
One down side to treasure hunting on that day, was that it was going to rain. Know could tell because his gears were tightening and his metal was clinking.
“Are you ready to go Knoxy?” Hammy asked
Knox made a series of clicking and clattering noises in the voice of his protest, but Hammy didn’t know the difference so Hammy climbed onto Knox’s back and, even though it was reluctantly, Knox took off into the air.
The air was cool, but it was also humid. There was no wind and there wasn’t a cloud in sight, but Knox knew better.
Making another series of clattering noises, Knox tried to gain Hammy’s attention, but Hammy wasn’t listening.
You see, Hammy the Hamster baby was many things, and scared of heights was one of them. Hammy didn’t really think it through the first time Knox took him for a fly. Everything was happy and Hammy was having a great time…then he looked down.
Needless to say Knox wasn’t allowed to fly high when they went on adventures.
Soon, Knox and Hammy had reached their destination. Luckily today, there weren’t many dangers in the place that they were digging, a little bit of quick sand here, and deadly poisonous snake there, but nothing too major.
It’s the Forest of GAH, there were way more terrifying things in this forest.
Landing on the ground, Hammy jumped off of Knox’s back and kissed the dirt while Knox chased his tail to get to the food bag. It wasn’t a long flight but Knox was hungry anyway.
Knox made annoyed whirring noises, which alerted Hammy from his ground kissing.
“Knoxy, you know we eat after we’ve found the treasure”
Knox huffed and began trotting away.
“Knoxy? Knoxy! Knoxy where are you going?! Don’t leave me here! I love you too much to be abandoned!”
Knox rolled his mechanical eyes and paused his trotting to wait for the toddler, who began running on his stumpy legs to catch up.
“Knoxy you were gone for forever!” Hammy exclaimed as he hugged Knox’s neck.
After walking for a little while, Knox and Hammy stumbled across a tree, but it wasn’t just any tree. It was the grandfather tree. The tree that gave seed to the entire Forest of GAH. The trunk of the tree was as wide as four Hammy’s and taller than anything the Duo had ever seen.
It was rumored that there was a creature that lived in the tree and if you could answer that creature’s riddle, it would give you an unimaginable treasure. Naturally, Knox and Hammy thought that they could answer the riddle. Even though they knew the punishment if they could not.
But there was one problem.
It was raining.
Knox gave Hammy a look that clearly stated “I told you so”, which Hammy ignored.
Knox couldn’t fly if it was raining because the water would rust his inner workings and he would not be able to move, so Hammy was trying to climb the tree like a human would.
Nudging Hammy upwards, Knox gave the little Hamster/Baby a lift up to where he could reach the next branch on the tree.
“Thanks Knoxy” Hammy stated
Knox nodded and jumped onto the branch, then onto another and another. This was easy for Knox. After all the training and punishments with Trumplsnout, Knox became very good at jumping.
Hammy on the other hand, was not. Though you couldn’t blame the poor kid, his arms and legs were just too short to climb with, but he got an A for effort.
So Knox hopped down to Hammy and nudged him up again.
That’s now things went, Knox helping Hammy up branches and Hammy repeating his same thank you over and over.
It took a while mind you, but they did reach the top and Hammy had never felt more accomplished.
Unfortunately that accomplished feeling did not stay because they were joined by the most unexpected of guests.
It was a Squirrel.
Really, Knox was shocked. All the stories that he had heard were ones of a horrible creature that terrified even the strongest of adventurers, left Ogres shaking in their boots and made brave knights scream like a little girl. But it was a Squirrel, a little, nut chewing, cheek filling, eye twinkling Squirrel.
How was that scary?
“Knoxy are you seeing what I’m seeing? Cause I think I might have eaten something bad, I knew I shouldn’t have eaten that berry!-“
But Knox nodded his head, knocking Hammy out of his rant, letting the Hamster baby know that Knox did indeed see the Squirrel.
“Oh good” Hammy stated and then he cleared his squeaky voice “Mister Squirrel? Are you the one who guards this tree?” Hammy asked
“I am indeed Squeaky voiced thing” The Squirrel replied, holding its head high in the air.
“We came for the treasure, give us your riddle we aren’t afraid”
The Squirrel tilted its head “Oh yes my riddle! What was it what was it what was it?” The Squirrel began walking around in circles, tapping its chin like Knox had seen Trumplsnout do so many times before and mumbling to himself.
Hammy looked at Knox with wide, concerned eyes.
“He’s crazy, Knoxy help me!”
Knox shook his head and tapped the Squirrels shoulder.
This gesture seemed to jog the Squirrels memory.
“Oh yes I remember now!
I am Mother and Father, But Never Birth or Nurse. I’m rarely still, but I never wander. What am I?”
Knox sat on his hind legs and thought for a moment. Mother and Father, meaning that it was a parent, but it never birthed or nursed anyone. It is rarely still, but never wanders, meaning it stays in place, but it moving in the place. It would have to be planted in place. Planted. Like a tree.
Knox made several clicking and clattering noises, whirs and whistles, every way to get the attention of the Squirrel, but neither the Squirrel nor Hammy spoke Dragon.
Knox huffed and began knocking on the branch on the tree.
“Branch! Bark? Knocking! Hitting a tree with your tail? Knoxy what are you trying to say?” Hammy exclaimed.
Knox huffed angrily, little puffs of smoke exploding from his nostrils.
He grabbed Hammy with his tail and then pointed with one of his front claws to the tree trunk.
“OH! A Tree!” Hammy said to the Squirrel.
The Squirrel looked up like it was excited.
“Yes! Yes Yes Yes! Very good! You are the first to ever guess it right! Let me get your prize!”
Hammy Squealed as the Squirrel disappeared in the tree again.
“Knoxy we did it! You did it!”
So they began dancing their happy dance along the tree branches.
But that only lasted a few moments, until the Squirrel reappeared with their prize if its paws.
Knox halted his dancing and stared in fear at the prize.
It was a golden Mushroom.
And so, Hammy and Knox lived happily ever after… Without their golden Mushroom.