Before the parade started, the boys bought a tin horn at one temple stall and then moved on to a booth where a little man was seated at a funny machine with pedals that worked an air pump. He was blowing up balloons as fast as he could.
The balloon man was a sort of wizard. He would pick up a limp piece of rubber, stick a tube inside it, and work the pedals fast with his feet. The limp rubber would swell and grow, sometimes into a big round balloon—or more magical still, into an animal, an elephant or a goat or a badger, coming to life before their very eyes.
Tatsu hoped the boys would buy one of these creatures, so strangely real, but they had just enough coppers to pay for the orange balloon. Zenji tied it to Tatsu's brown yarn tail.
They led the parade. The orange balloon bobbed merrily along, lifting Tatsu's tail in the breeze.
Sometimes Jiro blew the tin horn, and the toot came out of Tatsu's mouth almost as if Tatsu were blowing it himself.
Tatsu wanted to breathe out fire like the dragon the boys talked about, but all he could do was breathe out Jiro's regular boy breath through his purple whiskers.
All along the city streets there were crowds of men and women and boys and girls watching the parade. When the people saw Tatsu, they would laugh and call out, "Look at that dragon! He's a funny one!"
Tatsu didn't think a dragon ought to be funny. He gnashed his strong teeth and tried to look fierce. But really he seemed more worried than fierce. He kept remembering what the boys had said about his dragon ancestors.
Could he rescue anybody? Tatsu wondered. If he didn't look like a dragon, was he really a dragon at all?
Maybe these splendid ancestors of his would have tossed their heads in the air at the sight of Tatsu's yellow painted scales on common green cloth.
Maybe they'd have laughed at him like the people watching the parade.
Tatsu was full of questions, but he couldn't ask the boys about things because he hadn't any voice.
After the parade was over, the boys took Tatsu home.
"We might as well leave him here," said Jiro as they went into the house. "He can't run away."
They untied the orange balloon from Tatsu's brown yarn tail and left the dragon and the balloon and the tin horn lying under the monkey-puzzle tree in the garden.
Tatsu did wish he had a voice so he could talk things over with the orange balloon. The balloon looked limp and tired, but maybe he would know how Tatsu could learn to get around without wings or legs—or how he could start out and have proper dragon adventures like the ancestors the boys told about.
Perhaps his wishing did some good. At any rate, as it began to grow dark, things began to happen. The wizard balloon man, who had been helping the balloon animals come to life all day, picked up his pump with the pedals and started home.
On his way he passed the house where Jiro and Zenji lived, and spied the tired orange balloon lying beside Tatsu and the tin horn under the monkey-puzzle tree.
"Mah! That will never do," said the wizard balloon man. "That balloon is suffering from loss of air. I'll go in and blow him up so he'll be fresh and perky again."
It took him only a moment to pump the orange balloon full of air once more—so he floated jauntily around the courtyard.
Then the wizard took a good look at Tatsu. Here was a creature with possibilities, much more fun to bring to life than a mere rubber badger or a fish. He couldn't just blow up the dragon because of the slits underneath left for Jiro's and Zenji's legs to go through.
He reached down into the pocket of his long kimono sleeve and took out a thread and needle. Neatly he sewed up the slits in the green and yellow cloth. There wasn't even a crack for a puff of air to go through. Then he poked a long tube in through Tatsu's mouth.
Clack, clack, went the pedals of the pump, and the dragon was all blown up like a long twisted balloon.
"Now if I were you, I wouldn't float like a balloon," said the wizard. "That's not just the thing for a dragon. Dragons slither. Let me see you try.
Considering that Tatsu had never been around by himself before, it is surprising how quick he was at slithering. He forgot about how tired he had been and slithered all over the garden and back to the wizard.
"You'll need a voice, too," said the wizard. "I believe this will do."
He picked up the tin horn and jammed it firmly down Tatsu's throat.
Tatsu could hardly believe it! He could slither and now he had a voice. He was impatient to be off" looking for an adventure, but he remembered his manners.
"Thank you very much for your kindness," he said to the balloon man, tooting with his tin horn voice for the first time.
"You're welcome," said the wizard balloon man. "Oh, there's one thing you must remember. If you intend to go on slithering all over the place, you'll have to beware of water and fire. Keep out of moats and wishing wells! If you get yourself wet, you'll be all limp and soggy, and you'll have to be blown up over again. And look out for fire or you'll burn to a charred rag."
"I'll be careful," promised Tatsu.
He stood up on his dragon tail and bowed low to say good-bye to the orange balloon and the kind wizard.
He twitched his purple whiskers as he slithered to the garden gate, slipped over the top, and down on the other side—then started up the road looking for an adventure.
Tatsu Becomes a Hero
Tatsu's tail swished gaily as he came to a gray stone castle on a hill with bright lights shining from every window. This, he felt, was the sort of place where a dragon might expect things to happen.
Around the castle was a deep moat.
"How do I get across the moat?" Tatsu wondered. "I suppose I'll have to swim."
But he suddenly remembered the balloon man's warning: "Keep out of moats and wishing wells!"
How could he keep out of this moat and still get up to the brightly lighted castle and have an adventure?
He couldn't jump across the moat. It was too wide.
Tatsu slithered slowly around the near bank of the moat. He was thinking so hard that he almost stumbled over the approach to the drawbridge before he saw it.
"I found that just by the skin of my whiskers!" he thought. His narrow escape from tumbling into the moat gave him a decidedly queer feeling inside his middle bamboo hoop. "Lucky for me the drawbridge is down!"
He slithered over the bridge and up to the castle.
Maybe Tatsu didn't look like a dragon, but he could think like a dragon. He knew that there should be a princess in every castle. He wasn't surprised to see a lovely maiden walking in the garden. She wore a blue and gold kimono and a butterfly-sash with gold flowers embroidered on it. Instead of being a princess, however, she was the daughter of a Dai-myo—but it amounted to the same thing.
Tatsu hoped he wouldn't scare the maiden with his big sharp teeth and his tin-horn voice.
He stood up on the end of his tail, since he hadn't any legs, and bowed very low.
"Greetings, dragon," called the maiden politely. "My name is Kiku. What's your name?"
"My name's Tatsu."
He bowed for the second time, lower than ever. Kiku gave a sharp warning.
"Be careful, Tatsu! You almost knocked the head off one of those yellow lilies."
Tatsu