The Snail and the Dragon

By 5th Grade Students at Regnart Elementary
February, 2011

The dragon guarded her cave.

Gary, the snail, was watching the dragon.  He knew that the dragon guarded the dreaded snail toaster.

The dragon was itsy-bitsy tiny, smaller than an ant.  However, since the snail was small too, he could see that the dragon was green with purple stripes and yellow wings.  For such a small dragon, she still looked quite fat. Gary thought she would feel squishy and slimy to the touch.

The dragon made really annoying squeaks every three seconds.  The noise was making Gary crazy.  And it sounded as if Einstein was screaming from within the cave, a high-pitched wail that made the snail think someone was dying.

The dragon had a beautiful aroma.  She smelled just like the loveliest of farts.  Oh, the perfume!

The dragon was eating the largest cheeseburger Gary had ever seen.  There had to be at least fifty raw onions on the bun.  That cheeseburger smelled disgusting-like dead snails.  It was so gross it almost overwhelmed the wonderful fart aroma.  Gary had a feeling the cheeseburger would taste just like rotten hippo meat-something he despised.

Gary was on a mission.  It was his goal in life to dye everything pink.  He loved pink.  Even the dreaded snail toaster had to be pink!  Plus, Gary had another dream.  He was determined to find the right toaster that would bring him into another dimension via its toasting abilities.  He had tried many toasters in the past but all he’d gotten were a lot of injuries.  He had hope that the other dimension would be another time in the past.  He believed the toaster could be a time-travel device.  And he had always wanted to go back to the time when Native Americans owned the Americas.

Gary noticed that the dragon was now eating the fifty onions.  She seemed to be very distracted as if it were her favorite part.  Gary took the opportunity to sneak into the cave.

Inside, Gary saw the toaster.  It was huge, it was neon yellow and it had toasting slots on top.  Then, he saw an even tinier dragon!  It was on the toaster and then it disappeared inside the toaster.  The toaster worked automatically because it immediately lit up.

Gary slithered to the toaster and pressed the button.  He then slithered up and looked inside and found a fried dragon.  Gary looked around the cave and found another toaster.  This one was tiny.  Gary suspected that the larger toaster would not make a good time- travel machine.  He decided to investigate the tiny one.

He slithered to it, but as he neared it, the dragon from outside arrived.  He had finally realized that Gary was here.

All of a sudden, a large turtle teleported into the cave.  The turtle looked very intimidating.  Gary had the notion that the turtle must love to eat rock stars.  Then, the turtle, made eye-contact.  The turtle walked toward him.  Did the turtle think he was a rock star?  Did the turtle want to eat him?

No, Gary decided the turtle wanted to give him a big hug.

Suddenly, the turtle turned into a dorito.

“Oh no!” thought Gary!  He decided to hug the dorito anyway.  He got red dust all over himself.  He wished it was pink–then he would be pink!

Gary heard the famous Dora map song and in a lickety-split Dora was there.  Amazing!  Finally his chance had arrived.  She was big enough for his plan to succeed.  He stared deep into Dora’s eyes.  He stared.  Then Dora exploded and rained pink throughout the cave.  The cave was drenched with pink.

Gary laughed ,”Mwa-ha-ha!”  The toasters, the dragons, him, the dorito–everything was a beautiful shade of pink.

Gary had used up a lot of energy staring into Dora’s eyes.  Now he was starving.  That pink, fart-perfumed dragon looked tastier than anything he had ever eaten.  He slugged his way over and tried to suck the dragon in.  But, as soon as he tried to eat the dragon, she turned huge, as big as at least half the size of Regnart classroom 14.  Gary used to go to school in that room.

Gary landed on top of the dragon, but the dragon moved and Gary fell to the ground.  Gary slithered up the monstrous but still beautiful dragon until he could rest on the dragon’s snout and stare deep into the dragon’s eyes.  If he managed to blow up this dragon, he could blanket the universe with pink.   Gary stared and stared and stared, but the dragon didn’t blow up.  Now Gary worried that the dragon had even more powerful magic.

Gary jumped to the ground and stared and stared and stared at the ceiling.  A large boulder broke from the ceiling and crashed on the dragon’s head.  The dragon collapsed.  Gary fell back in surprise.  As he tumbled, he fell into the tiny toaster and it lit up.  Suddenly, he popped into Bob the Builder’s world.

The first thing he saw was a series of magical buildings.  He decided to stare at them and see what happened.  He stared, and the buildings exploded, but the world turned green and then he popped into Barney’s world.

The first thing he saw in Barney’s world was Barney.  He stared down Barney hoping to explode everything pink, but instead it exploded black including him.  Then Barney reappeared with his normal coloring and Gary thought that was amusing so he gave Barney a hug.

Suddenly, everyone in Barney’s world turned into Native Americans, making Gary supremely happy.  Now another wish had come true.  But now he wanted them all to be pink, so he stared and stared until everything exploded.

Suddenly, he landed in a world of cheeseburgers and they actually looked tasty and smelled good.  He decided to eat one.

Then Gary awoke.  It was all a dream.  He slithered downstairs and what did he see–but a bunch of angry cartoon characters–very very angry…

The “Cliffhanger” End.

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