Long, long ago at the town of Silene in Libya there ruled a king who had a beautiful daughter named Sabra. He had a prosperous kingdom by a lake, devoted and loyal subjects, and everything that a king could wish for. But one day something dreadful happened that ruined it all and drowned the entire kingdom in terror. A terrible dragon entered the kingdom and made its home in the lake. It was the most dreadful monster you can imagine and was as blood-thirsty as it was cruel. It pushed itself right through the town gate and devoured all the cattle it could find. It breathed fire wherever it went, so things turned to ashes and crumbled down as dust. Trees died and flowers dried up and the grass turned to charcoal whenever the dragon appeared. "Shut the gates!" ordered the king. "Don't let the dreadful creature come in." The gates were shut but the dragon appeared and knocked against the wall which started shaking. The people were shaking in fear, too. "Please do something. Don't let the dragon kill us," they begged the king. "Go back to the lake," the king said to the dragon. "We will keep two sheep for you just outside the gate every day. You can eat those. But don't come inside our gates!"
The dragon went away and slithered into the lake. But everyone knew that he would break the wall if he did not find food and kill the people inside. The people lived in a nightmare ever since. They knew that their supply of animals would run out some day. What would they do then? And what would the dragon do? The dreaded moment arrived before long. There were no more animals left inside the gates to offer the dragon! "We have to offer the dragon human beings," said the king sadly, "there is no help for it. It is the only way to survive." "But whom should we sacrifice?" the people asked in fear. "I must be absolutely fair," said the king. "We shall make out a list with the names of everyone in the kingdom and take a lot each day. The name that comes up in the lot will be the person to face the dragon. What do you say?" "It is quite fair," said the people. "Under the circumstances, it's the only thing to do.
"So the people were more terrorized than ever, living in constant fear of being the next victim. The dragon soon found that eating human beings was even better than eating animals. So it started appearing earlier and earlier each day, almost before it was dawn. Then one day something terrible happened. The day's lot brought up the name of Princess Sabra. "How could you allow them to include her name in the list?" cried the queen. "She is a princess, the princess of this land! I can't let her die. "I had to include every name," said the king in a sad voice, "Both yours and mine are there too. Perhaps I could go instead of Sabra." "No, father," said Sabra in a firm voice. "I shall face the dragon tomorrow since my name has come up. We have to be fair to our people." "Yes, my child," said the king wiping his tears, "Oh, if only the dragon had never come! How happy we all were before it arrived to wreck our happiness." "And if only someone was brave and strong enough to kill it!" said Sabra. "It's no use wishing for the impossible," said the queen trying not to break down.
