In The Hole

“Yeah right, Imaginational! There are two dragons fighting in the hole!”

“They are. I saw them!”

“Tell us another one!”

The army and police and museum experts had all lost interest in the dark sinkhole which had appeared so mysteriously. They had decided that the hole did not contain archaeological relics or unexploded armaments. It did not pose a threat to national security or signal the arrival of alien beings. They had packed up their cordons and their scientific investigation devices and gone home.

But the band of UFO enthusiasts had not lost interest. They claimed there had been sightings of a tall silver suited creature with coal black curls and large, dark eyes near the hole. They had stayed on, in a convoy of caravans, with radio antennae and Geiger counters.

And the interest in The Hole had not diminished in Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies which perched above the Fog Lake, where characters from Arthurian legend reenacted the stories.

The current Artisan in Residence in Cloudbank Cabin was Little Plump Jo with her five canine writing companions, the Dabrowski Dogs. Jo was blessed with the ability to communicate with animals and fictional characters.

The Dabrowski Dogs were fascinated with The Hole, especially Psycho Motor, who loved digging holes himself, and the little Bedlington Terrier, Imaginational, who liked to speculate about what had caused the hole, how deep it might be, and what could be lurking in its depths.

Everyone tended to dismiss the stories Imaginational told as products of his overactive mind. Little Plump Jo had tried to help Imaginational distinguish between truth and fiction and coached him on how to narrate his tales so that it would be clear if he was stating fact or an imagining. Some of Imaginational’s thoughts had proved to be excellent springboards for Jo’s writing; so, she had created a journal Imaginational Dabrowski’s Book of Imaginal Musings to record them.

Jo emphasised to Imaginational the importance of having a reputation for being truthful and reliable. She told him the story of the boy who wrongly cried ‘wolf’ so many times that when a real wolf came nobody believed him. The wolf ate everyone and the boy was sorry.

“Yes, but if you don’t believe me now, the dragons will come and eat you and then you will be sorry!” yelped Imaginational.

“It is quite feasible that he is telling the truth.” Intellectual Dabrowski, the Border Collie barked. This was a surprise, as Intellectual usually scoffed at Imaginational’s ideas.

“In early Arthurian legends there were tales of the usurper King Vortigern summoning Merlin to consult him about why the foundations of his proposed castle kept crumbling.

Merlin demonstrated to him that the foundations were breaking up because there were two dragons fighting underneath them – a white dragon and a red dragon.

Furthermore the white dragon represented Vortigern and was defeated by the red dragon. That is the story behind the red dragon on the flag of Wales. King Arthur’s surname is Pendragon.”

“We should ask Merlin to look at The Hole” barked Psycho Motor Dabrowski.

“He already has” said Imaginational, building his story.

“There was a tall, grey, Alien with the big dark eyes who said Take me to your Magician.”

“That is not what they say!” Psycho Motor barked. “They say Take me to your Leader.”

“Whose story is this, Psycho? The alien said Take me to your Magician, Emcee Squid.”

“So, what did you do?”

“I said I did not know anyone by that name. The Alien said ‘I know he is here. He is the Magician who says he is a Scientist.’ I took him to meet Merlin.”

“The Alien said ‘I am so honored to meet you. I have read of you. You are the great E Equals! You are Emcee Squid, who single handled raised the great standing stones of Stonehenge.’ Merlin said ‘No, I am Merlin who invented the Sisyphus Rock Pusher which was used in the raising’. 

The Alien looked crestfallen for a moment and then shrugged and said ‘Whatever!

Same - Same! Tomaaato – Tomato! You stole it from the Irish.’

“Merlin said, ‘I did no such thing!”

‘You did!’ said the Alien. ‘There are holes exactly the same size and position as the standing stones of Stonehenge in a part of Wales which was once a part of Ireland. You stole those standing stones from the place where the Giants danced and bathed; and magically transported them over great distances and then stood them up at Stonehenge. You arranged them exactly as they were placed previously. The ring still aligns with the summer solstice sunrise.’

“And what did Merlin do?” asked Little Plump Jo.

“You know Our Merlin! He likes to be thought of as a scientist, not a ‘make things go poof’ Magician. 

He looked in The Hole and muttered about sinkholes being caused by climate change and seismic activity. He said there was nothing to see there.”

“There are just so many holes in your story, Imaginational! Now you have an Alien in your tale as well. If the Alien came out of The Hole, why would Merlin take him to see it and then say there was nothing to see?”

“I don’t know. But I do know that the UFO watchers say there is a tall Alien, with big dark eyes, in a silver suit. Cliff Hanger said he saw it; but nobody else has seen it.”

“Cliff Hanger saw Sir Lancelot,” said Jo. “Apparently, he can see Sir Lancelot because they collided on a climbing rope. He cannot see any of the other Arthurian characters. He thinks Sir Lancelot is an Alien.”

“Anyway,” continued Imaginational, “we know there was a Cockentrice in The Hole and Sir Lancelot killed it and they ate it at the feast.”

“No, they didn’t! What was served at the feast was a cockerel and a boar joined together covered with pastry!”

“Anyway, if there could be a Cockentrice in The Hole, there could be two dragons fighting. And when they come out and eat you, don’t say I didn’t warn you!”