A troll she was, face coarse and round,

Though kind to all of air and ground.

Her own kin scoffed; her ways were strange.

“Belay your hunt,” she begged in vain.

“The dragon acts by nature true;

He only feasts when meal is due.

 

"I hear his thoughts—his aim’s not vile.

Lay down your spears.  Leave him a while.

His loneliness keeps him afoot.

I’ll go—in him, my trust I’ll put.

A dragon’s heart, though cold and black,

May thaw with care, might gently crack.”

 

Her thoughts, somehow, to dragon came.

He furled his claws, damped down his flame.

Never before had he heard such—

A voice that soothes without a touch.

He could sense her pain; her difference, see.

Their minds so joined.  How could it be?

 

His chest apound, he flew her way. 

Could common trust be his that day?

B'fore tiny feet he stopped and knelt.

She gasped and cried.  Regret he felt,

He frighted her so; he wished he bore

The magic power his father swore.

 

“Sir Dragon, you are magnificent. 

Want you a friend, a shared life spent?”

Her words of love, a haze of blue,

His promised magic, encircled the two.

When cleared the mist, they stared, aghast.

A man and woman, as humans cast.

 

“Though you are not as fair as before,

I think, my dear, our forms match more.”

 

“Yes, you’re mere man.  Too bad,” she sighed.

“But your thoughts are dragon-strong inside.”

 

“We can thus live together, I plead.

We’ll change our forms whene’er there’s need.

Your trusting soul, courage, kindness, too.

These I’ll cherish,” he said.  “Can you?”

“Yes, in my heart your love I’ll keep. 

Beauty is only fur and scale deep.”