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Chapter Four

“So, there are different types of dragons?” asked Arnold as they started walking back to where they had left their horses.
“Yes,” said Nancealia, “there are.”
“How can you tell the difference?”
“Well, most of the time the easiest way is to talk to the dragon.”
“I see, but do the two different types have names?”
“There are several different names for the two types, it mainly depends on whom you are talking with.”
“For example?”
“Amongst the dragons, they usually the call the fierce ones who attack and pillage for the fun of it Active as in Active Volcanos, then the others are usually called dormant. Of course the active ones usually call the dormant ones weaklings and there are many variations on that.”
“I see,” said Arnold. “Is Dearth Active or Dormant?”
“I don’t know, If he is Dormant we have a better chance of getting the crowns than if he isn’t. But I don’t know if he is or not. I will find out later.”
“All right, is there anything else about dragons I should know?”
“Yes, The exceptions.”
“Exceptions?”
“Yes,” said Nancealia, it seemed as though she was thinking of something funny and she looked as though she was very near laughing as she said, “Especially the five D club.” then she really did laugh, as did Celticia at the mention of the five D club.
“The five D club?” said both Arnold and Schelsh at the same time.
“Yes,” said Celticia, “The five D club is one of the main exceptions.”
“Though it isn’t really an exception.” said Nancealia.
“What does the Five D club stand for?” asked Arnold.
“Well it stands for D. D. D. D. D. it’s just thats difficult to say and you don’t want to accidently say D. D. D. D or D. D. D. D. D. D.”
“Why not? And what do all of the D’s stand for?”
“Well” said Nancealia, “The four D club is ‘Drunken Dragons Desiring Drink’ and the six D club is ‘Dirty, Dank, Disgusting, Dark, Dreary, Dragons anonymous’. You don’t want to belong to either of those clubs if you wish to be thought respectable.”
“So dragons have clubs.” said Arnold.
“They do, and some of them are quite interesting, Like the PP (Providing for Posterity) club and the SW (Sheep Watchers) club but there aren’t that many clubs and they usually don’t have more than five members apiece, if that. For example the Six D club just has two members, and they’re active dragons who chiefly raid villages to get pigs and they have a giant pig farm and no respectable dragon would go near it, though the four D club frequently does. It only has three members. However the two clubs are usually just grouped together as D.D. when the other dragons refer to them.”
“And what does D.D. mean?” asked Arnold, this discussion of dragons was very fascinating and he was enjoying himself far more than he usually did. “Does it mean “Despicable Dragons”?”
“Quite right! But to get back to the five D club, it’s very unusual. The five D’s stand for “Dormant Dragons Desiring Dire Deeds”. I’ll start their history from the beginning. Originally there were five dragons, and all of their names started with D so that the five D’s have a double meaning. Their names were Drake, Drag (a very popular name among Dragons), Dorco, Dwight, and Demothesisous.”
“Demothesisous!” laughed Arnold, “Dragons have strange names indeed.”
“They do,” said Nancealia, “But Demothesisous is strange even for dragons, His father had been to Greece and thought it would be quite cultural to give his son a Grecian name. But I think he got too much Greek from it for Demothesisous is the senior member and president of the Dormant Dragons Desiring Dire Deeds club, and it was his idea. Any way, the five dragons were talking together one day after Draco had just had a fight with a knight. He was saying that he actually enjoyed the fight and was wishing that he could have more fights more often. Well, all of them discussed it and since they had similar opinions on some things Demothesisous hit upon the idea to put all of their hoards together and take turns guarding it. The knights, who might not be induced by just their small portions of treasure might be quite induced if it was all heaped together. So they take turns over a huge hoard of treasure and have a grand time. I usually donate extra treasure there and I would have been made an honorary member, only my name doesn’t start with D.” Nancealia smiled for a moment before continuing, “They do need a fifth member now, for Drag was killed during a fight with several knights. So currently there are just four dragons, only now they all guard the treasure at the same time.”
They had reached the spot where their horses had been left long before the conversation was over, and now that they could pay attention to other things they mounted their horses and got ready to ride off.