"Clovers! Clovers! Clovers!" sighed Lucky the Dragon. 

     He hated those clovers.  The heat from his fiery breath made those clovers grow into forests and mutate.  The closer he got to his cave, the more four-leaf clovers he saw.  They even carpeted the floor of his cave.

     He had tried digging them up, but they always grew back.  His friends had called him Lucky because of all those four-leaf nuisances.  Some lucky dragon he was!  He couldn't even find a piece of gold.  He was the only dragon without a treasure hoard--just a hoard of useless clover.

     Lucky nibbled on a few clover leaves , as he settled down for a nap in the mouth of his cave.  He looked into the clover forest that had grown up around his cave.  No, he didn't feel lucky at all.

      Just as he was falling asleep, Lucky was disturbed by thrashing in the forest.  Sounds of barking dogs and shouting people filled the air.

     "Dreadful people!"  Didn't they realize they were near a dragon's lair?

     Out of the forest ran a leprechaun.  The leprechaun stumbled on a clover stem, spilling a chest full of gold at Lucky's feet.

     "Protect me!" shouted the leprechaun.  "The humans want my gold!"  He quickly shoveled all the gold back into the chest. 

     "It is not my problem," said Lucky, knowing how untrustrworthy leprechauns were.

     "Why not?" said the leprechaun.  "Didn't they disturb your nap?  Maybe they'll want you instead."

     "I'm not afraid of them."

     "Then protect me, and I'll give you whatever you want."  The leprechaun leaned closer to Lucky and whispered, "Let me hide this treasure in your cave and I'll give you some gold."  The leprechaun stood back.  "Better decide, though.  They're getting closer."

     Lucky's ears perked up.  The other dragons would stop laughing at him if he had a hoard of gold rather than just this clover field.

     "How can I trust you--a leprechaun?" Lucky asked.

     "I'm not like most leprechauns," he said, pretending to be offended.  "I'll just hide the gold inside the clover patch in your cave and stand out here.  Surely you can see that I can't get the gold without your permission."

     Lucky looked in the cave and then at the leprechaun.  Surely, there was a trick in all this that Lucky was overlooking.

     "Very well."

     When the humans and their dogs came out of the forest, Lucky roared and blew flames at them, just singeing the hair on their heads.  The humans screamed; their dogs howled.  Soon they were running away just as quickly as they had come.

     "You see that?"  Lucky turned towards the leprechaun, but he couldn't find him.  He had forgotten the first rule about leprechauns:  don't take your eyes off one, or he'll vanish with your gold!

      Behind him someone grumbled.

     "You tricked me, Dragon!" the leprechaun said, shaking his head.  "You knew that clover patch was overgrown with four-leaf clovers!"  The leprechaun smiled.  "Outsmarted by a dragon! Who'd know that a dragon would know that four-leaf clovers bind a leprechaun's word.  The gold's yours."  Shaking his head, the leprechaun vanished.

     Lucky smiled.  Now he had a hoard of treasure like the other dragons.  Those disgusting clovers were lucky after all!

©   The Dragon Lord, 2002