I read about J.K Rowling’s Ukrainian Ironbelly from Fantastic Beasts carrying off a ship and have written my own story about the event.
In 1799, a ship was about to sail out to the Black Sea. The harbourmaster called to the captain, “Keep land in sight and be back by noon. Fish well: we must send food to Kyiv.”
“Understood, Sir,” replied the captain.
“Go, go, go!” shouted the harbourmaster as the ship’s sails were lifted.
***
At 12:15 the ship hadn’t returned, and the skipper of the cargo vessel heading up the Dnipro River was complaining. The ship should be back, I’ll go find them, thought the harbourmaster. Suddenly, he heard screams, “Harbourmaster! I saw something!”
“What?”
“A beast scooped a ship out of the sea,” said the boy.
“A beast? Where? What did it look like?”
“I was walking along the beach when I saw a dragon-like creature with metallic-grey scales, deep-red eyes and long talons grab the ship.”
The harbourmaster called for the hero, Arc the Beast Tamer. Upon Arc’s arrival, the harbourmaster told Arc what the boy had seen.
“Sounds like an ironbelly,” stated Arc.
“An ironbelly?”
“The largest species of dragon. They only live here in Ukraine on grassland islands south of the mainland. It may live on the island close to Lazurnyy.
“Take my sailing boat,” said the harbourmaster.
Arc set sail and soon arrived on the island. Suddenly, he heard roaring and the ground began to shake. He looked round and saw it. The dragon’s eyes were narrowed with rage as smoke came out of its nostrils in warning.
Arc bravely stepped forward.The ironbelly raised its foot right above Arc. He ran as fast as he could, narrowly escaping the devastating stomp that shook the ground. The dragon slowly lowered its towering head and stared at the hero with blood-red eyes. Arc got ready to duck: the dragon was preparing to unleash scorching flames. Arc dodged quickly, but the grassland succumbed to the inferno. Each time Arc dodged, he slowly approached the ironbelly which kept breathing fire.
As soon as he got close enough, Arc stretched out his arm and stroked the dragon’s head. The ironbelly became calm. “Ironbelly, if you help put out the fire and promise never to carry off ships or people, I will ask the harbourmaster to give you one fish for every three the fisherman catch.”
The dragon knelt down and bowed its head. Arc realised the dragon was not just agreeing to the deal, but gesturing for him to get on its back. He climbed up the metallic-grey scales and sat down on the dragon’s neck. The ironbelly walked up to the shore and grabbed the end of Arc’s boat in its mouth. The dragon lowered the boat into the water and carried it back to the fire. Then it emptied the boat. The ironbelly repeated this process until only steam remained.
The dragon placed the boat back in the water and Arc sailed to the harbour. The harbourmaster was waiting as Arc climbed out of the boat. The hero told the harbourmaster about the deal he had made with the dragon.
“I will never break the promise,” said the harbourmaster.
“I’ll come back every now and then to check on the ironbelly.”
Many years later, the ironbelly received two fish for every five caught and helped deliver fish to Kyiv. When Arc came to build the Beast Academy on the dragon’s island, the ironbelly gathered wood on the mainland and carried it back. The ironbelly became a good friend to the locals and was named Zalizo, the Ukrainian word for iron.
