Tarlac the Dragon-Slayer

Level: B1

Directions: Read the story and study the age expressions.

Tarlac was born in the fantastical realm of Draconia at a time of myth and mystery when magic was openly practised and dragons freely roamed the land. As a newborn baby, he was huge and always hungry. He started talking when still in the cradle, learned to read and write when he was only eight months old, and wrestled giant deadly snakes as a toddler. At the age of five, he met Burdock, a middle-aged war-master who taught Tarlac how to use swords, maces, axes and bows and arrows and how to ride a battle-horse. So Tarlac, while still a child, entered a major tournament and beat thirty-year-olds at all the events. He killed his first dragon when children of his age played childish games.

Surprisingly bright for his age, Tarlac could write beautiful poetry and skilfully play the Celtic harp, the lute and the pan flute when he was a teenager. He travelled around the country and slew many dragons in his youth. On one of his quests, he met a fairly elderly wizard who offered to teach him sorcery. “When I was your age, everybody begged to learn a bit of magic, but nowadays the younger generation do not seem to care much,” said the old man. “I understand that at your age wizardry seems useless. You are strong and tend to think that you have it all. But people of my generation can tell you that strength and youth are unfaithful friends. I'm getting on a bit now, well, I'm over the hill in fact, and I can teach and train you if you are willing to learn. Then, when you get to my age, you can pass the knowledge onto someone else.” Tarlac agreed and was apprenticed to the wizard for two years before he returned to his home town.

In his early twenties, Tarlac met and fell in love with Shauna, the widowed queen of Draconia. The beautiful queen who was on the wrong side of forty - forty seven years of age actually - but did not look her age of course, returned Tarlac’s love passionately, and they soon got married, and people of all ages attended their magnificent wedding. Even if some thought the queen was too old for Tarlac, the age difference was never a problem. Shauna appointed Tarlac Court Dragon-Slayer, and they lived to a ripe old age.