Good evening, children. It's Granny Mcduff, ready with a story.

So make yourselves comfy and I'll begin.

Once upon a time there lived a princess called a Maya.

She was a shy girl who preferred spending time in the palace library,

reading books and imagining worlds of her own making.

She loved magic and witches and fairies. Every day after her studies she would sit in the big chair by the

fire under a blanket to keep warm and she would read until the fire was gone and the candles

had no wick left to burn.

There was one book in particular which seemed to come alive to Amaya.

It was called The Curse of the Seven Dragons.

It was a story about a warrior who fought the dragon witch. An age-old tale, which some say really happened hundreds of years before.

Others say it was a story made up by a great poet who thought in error that he one day saw

a dragon fly. But Amaya didn't care. It was a wonderful story, and she hoped it had happened,

that magic existed and dragons too, and so she went on reading and wondering and imagining.

If she lived in the time of the dragons,

she would not be shy,

but she would become a great warrior,

as fierce as she was nimble,

as watchful as she was quick.

As it was, she could not be shy in real life either.

She was to learn everything a princess should know.

Her lessons kept her quite busy.

...