Njall the Dragon

Njall the dragon (small, bipedal dragon made of variegated yarn) against a white marble background

Njall the Dragon is made from 100% cotton yarn, unless requested otherwise. Other color palates available upon request. Please allow a month of production time. Because Njall the Dragon is hand-made, expedited production time is not possible, although we don’t expect it to take a full four weeks.

Ordering process

To skip the story and order your Granny, email me at dressedlilies@gmail.com, and we’ll get all the details sorted out! 🙂

(If you’re like me, you’re not here for the product but the pattern. Well, my dears, this Crafty Granny Storage Caddy pattern is from Zhaya Designs on Ravelry. Have fun and happy making!)

Contact me

Delroy’s grandmother had always been a bit out of touch. Maybe he shouldn’t have expected that to change on his eighteenth birthday, but this still seemed a bit too much.

He forces his hand to move and lift the stuffed dragon out of the giftbag. “Thanks, Gran,” he smiles winningly, as though he hadn’t given up the last of his stuffed animals years ago.

“You’re very welcome, my dear. I know you love dragons. It comes with a story, you know.”

“Oh, does it?” he puts it back in the box, and puts the bag on the floor, feigning interest. Really, he just wants to get to the cake. The problem? He’s aware of how rude it’d be to show that.

“Yes, dear. It’s an heirloom. Passed down through five generations.”

Njall the dragon (small, bipedal dragon made of variegated yarn) in a gift bag with tissue paper

“…it lasted that long?” He glances down at the box, mildly impressed at such craftsmanship.

“That’s how they made things, back then–so they’d hold up. They didn’t want to constantly be repairing things, did they?” The smile she gives him is batty, “of course, that’s not to say it didn’t have to be repaired a few times, but it’s still the same dragon.”

Delroy decides not to debate the ship of Theseus with his grandmother. She may not last.

“His name is Njall the dragon. Legend goes that, every night you say good night to it, it’ll give you just the dreams you need–whether for comfort, courage, or learning. And that, in times of trouble, the dragon will come alive and defend the one who grants him sanctuary.

“Now, I know how that sounds–” Delroy wonders if she actually does, “–but it’s never once failed me.”

Delroy tries to squash his twinge of disappointment. He finally had something with some history behind it–a legend, even–and it was something that ridiculous.

“Oh. I see. I’ll have to try that, then.” He tries to make up for his words with a grin, wondering how long one should play along to avoid being rude. On the one hand, it’s his grandmother. On the other, he’s suddenly very glad none of his friends are here. “Thank you, Gran. I appreciate the heirloom.” He just wishes it didn’t look so… infantile.

She beams at him, and Delroy finally feels free to move on to his next present, and then cake.

Delroy thought he’d managed to handle the dragon situation decently, but his grandmother has other plans. She turns to him once everyone else has gone and asks, “are you going to put Njall the dragon away, now?”

“What?” escapes his lips before he realizes what she’s referring to. “Oh, yeah. I, er, wasn’t going to leave everyone here, to do that. Once everyone is gone, you know.”

“You don’t have to wait for me,” she waves a hand through the air, “I’d love to see where you put him. He likes a high shelf, you know.”

…is his grandmother too attached to the dragon to be giving it away, he finally thinks to wonder. 

But how is he supposed to ask if she wants it back without being completely rude?

“Um… I didn’t, but I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good. Let’s go,” she grins, starting toward his room, leaving Delroy no choice but to grab the small, bipedal dragon and follow. At least she’d said to put it on a shelf. How he would’ve gotten out of putting it on his bed… he had no idea.

Delroy clears a shelf and awkwardly pats the dragon on the head. “There you are, Njall. Hope you like it, here,” he says, for the sake of his grandmother. And to break the deafening silence.

“Njall the dragon.”

“Er… what?”

“His name is Njall the dragon–you only called him Njall.”

Delroy hesitates, but it’s not worth it to argue, so he just repeats himself, making the correction. His grandmother beams. He expects her to look backward, as they leave. Or show some sign of attachment, but there’s nothing. And she never brings it up, again.

That doesn’t make it easy for Delroy to forget the dragon, though. Every time he enters his room, he feels its plastic eyes on him.

Njall the dragon (small, bipedal dragon made of variegated yarn) on a windowsill with a fence behind him

Although, that’s patently insane. Power of suggestion.

He successfully ignores the little dragon for several weeks.

That habit breaks the night of the day his girlfriend broke up with him in the middle of the cafeteria. The same day a few of his rougher classmates made their displeasure over a disagreement known. It wasn’t anything a bit of peroxide, band-aids, and maybe a cookie wouldn’t help, but he finds himself grateful his parents are out on a date, tonight. It’d be an awkward explanation if nothing else. He could use the time alone.

For the sake of the rougher classmates, he’s also relieved his front door locks.

Not well enough, though. Something creaks in the middle of the night. Something that definitely doesn’t sound like his parents’ footsteps. And it’s not accompanied by their giddy whispers like he normally hears after one of their evenings out.

His hand wraps around the commemorative, autographed bat above his bed. He desperately hopes he doesn’t have to use it, but it’s a longer-range weapon than his fists.

plate of cookies on a counter with a package of band-aids and a bottle of peroxide behind it.

Footsteps on the stairs.

He cocks the bat back as the doorknob turns.

He doesn’t even get the chance to swing the bat, let alone hit anything. The door opens and something whizzes through the air. There’s a grunt and a loud curse.

Delroy suddenly realizes the flaw in his plan. His room is too dark to see anything going on. He wouldn’t have known what to swing at.

“What’s the matter?” Someone wants to know, followed by a muffled “get’d’ff! get’d’ff!”

Delroy hurries to his window, pulling back the blackout curtains just in time for one of the intruders to shout at his fellows to, “get out! Get out!”

Delroy turns back to the scuffle just as something small flies through the air and thuds into the opposite wall. The footsteps hastily flee through the house, and Delroy gets the chance to survey the damage. Except, he doesn’t, as his eyes fly wide open, and he can feel a cold sweat on his brow.

It takes a moment of labored breathing to notice the little dragon standing at the edge of his blankets, shaking out its wings and head. “Wow. That was a bad one.” The words float through his mind, making him blink a few more times. 

He stares at the figure for a long moment, unable to help remembering what his grandmother had told him. Finally, he finds his voice again.

“What… what do you mean?”

The dragon looks up at him. “Francine didn’t tell you about me? She said she would.”

His shock at the words running through his head nearly cancels out the shock of the fact that the words are running through his mind. Almost. “Francine? Do you mean… Gran?“

It shrugs. Once again, words make their way through his head. “I suppose. Older woman. Silver hair, sharp as an obsidian sword?”

“Ob–that doesn’t sound like Gran. I– her hair is silver, but she… she’s not exactly sharp. Rather out of touch, actually. You know what I mean?”

He’s talking to a stuffed animal. He hasn’t done that in years. And they’ve certainly never replied.

“You might be surprised. Sometimes the people that are seen to be out of touch are the most lucid there are.”

Delroy gives him a skeptical look, and Njall the dragon just shrugs.

“Let me start over. Njall the dragon, at your service.” He holds out his arm, “I’m guessing you need an explanation? Most people do, the first time.”

“That… would be nice.”

Njall shakes his arm, “don’t I get a handshake?”

“Oh. Um…” Delroy sits up and shakes the little arm with thumb and forefinger.

“Very pleased to meet you, sir,” the dragon states solemnly.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but, um… how are you… talking? You’re yarn.”

Njall the dragon bristles. “I’m a dragon. The yarn is temporary. We were changed for our own safety.”

“Five generations of temporary?”

“More. That’d be the magic at work. Most of us didn’t believe we’d stay lucid and animated, even after Dacei vouched for the wizard.”

It’s late. That’s why he’s hallucinating. That’s the only logical explanation. “Oh, I see. Okay. Well, I should go back to sleep – school in the morning, so–“

“You don’t believe me.”

Delroy debates lying, but finally shrugs. “It just feels… a bit fantastical.”

“What, the dragon part, yarn part, or the fact that I just pulled you out of a dream about intruders in your house?”

“…yes. All of it.”

Njall the dragon nods. “That’s what trips most people up. Well, the dragon part is fairly straightforward. Sixth day of creation, Garden of Eden, the big flood, the knights, blah blah blah.

“The yarn part was Merlin’s doing. I wasn’t going to choose it originally–I was fully ready to take his other option of staying fully dragon. But then I saw the island he proposed we live on. Don’t get me wrong–it was impressive, how many different ecosystems it had to support us all, but it was going to end up being too small for comfort. Which was when he offered us a compromise–to be defenders of those that would grant us sanctuary. There were several of us that took him up on the offer, but not enough to go around. So, congratulations–you’re one of the lucky few.”

“…I see,” Delroy says slowly. Which is basically a lie, “you… defend against dreams?”

“Yep! That and the odd bout of depression.” He frowns down at his arms, “I’m not so good at that one, but I’m able to help a bit, anyway.”

“You… how exactly do you… do that?”

“With magic.”

“Magic,” Delroy repeats skeptically.

Njall the dragon crosses his arms. “You are talking to a dragon stuffed animal and you’re going to tell me magic isn’t involved?”

White-haired, bearded, smiling man wearing a squat hat looking into the camera with a blurred forest background behind him

“Er… no?” Delroy shakes his head, trying to grasp any other part of this situation, “and that’s what led you to trust… Merlin?”

“Well, not blindly,” Njall allows, “he gave us the magic first–so we could see he meant it. It didn’t exactly make up for stripping away our natural defenses, but it was something.”

“Merlin did,” Delroy says slowly, “King Arthur, knights of the round table, Morgan le Fey, Guenevere, and Sir Lancelot? That Merlin?”

Njall the dragon’s head tilts in thought. “I don’t remember anything about a ‘Lancelot,’ or Morgan having to do with the Fae, but Arthur and Guenevere ring a bell. What about Eadburga?”

Delroy closes an eye, thinking hard. “I don’t think so? Who’s that?”

“Ran The Yarn Dragon alehouse. Might also be called The Little Cauldron. Significant misnomer, to hear Dacei talk.”

“Um… no. Can’t say that any of that rings a bell.

“Did Gran know all this?”

Njall the dragon nods. “She was well acquainted with my work. Largely after her husband died.” The words in Delroy’s mind take on a note of sadness, “that’s usually when I get the most work. After the loss of something like that.”

Delroy nods slightly, unable to really imagine it.

Silence falls over the two for a long moment. “Any other questions?” Njall the dragon asks after a moment.

“Was any of it real?”

“The intruders? No. Merlin may have been off his rocker, but he was decently smart. It all happened only in your brain – just like any dream. But you never saw me, got it?”

“Er… right.” He opens his mouth to ask another question, but the sound of the fridge door opening and closing cuts him off. Must be his sister – finally ready for bed. Takes her long enough.

“Go on to bed, now,” Njall the dragon allows, “it’s not like I’m going anywhere, for now.”

“‘For now?'”

“There’ll come a time that it’s right to pass me on,” the dragon sounds like it’s smiling, “a blessing is only a blessing so long as it keeps moving. But that time won’t come for a while. Bed, now.”

Delroy returns Njall the dragon to his shelf and climbs into bed just as his sister’s footfalls start to climb the stairs.

Looking for more extinct excitement? Try one of these:

Looking for more NSF principals? Try one of these:

Baby Bear BundleBeaded Necklaces
Processing...