By 5th Grade Students at Garden Gate Elementary
November 2015
The dragon guarded her cave. A goblin watched. His name was Juniper. He had heard about this dragon and what she guarded. As legend had it, she guarded a portal into a fairy-tale world. He was determined to go through the portal and conquer that land.
Juniper was rather tiny and this snake-like dragon with thin wings was gigantic, at least as big as a human classroom. She sat all coiled and forbidding, and she was purple with green spots. She also was covered in spikes, like one of those tenrecs that Juniper had seen in a rainforest. As far as Juniper was concerned, that was one fat snake dragon.
With the dragon being so coiled and fat, Juniper was really befuddled by how to sneak past the dragon and into the cave. He imagined that the dragon’s spikes would be quite sharp, but he had very tough claws. He didn’t think the spikes would do serious damage. They might hurt the way a porcupine’s quills might hurt.
When the goblin sniffed the air he smelled a horrible stench. Yuck, that dragon smelled strongly of icky flower. Pee-uuu! Flowers were so clean smelling. He preferred the wonderful perfume of garbage.
The dragon was snoring like a pig. Snort snort snort. Juniper thought the dragon must be asleep because it was his impression that he also snored like a pig when he was asleep.
Juniper heard something else. It was loud and whooshy and hurricane-like, and the sound seemed to come from the cave.
Suddenly Juniper noticed that despite the snoring, the dragon was also munching on something. It looked as if she was snacking, while she slept. On princesses!
He caught glimpses of golden hair and crowns and pretty ball dresses. Juniper’s food of choice was spaceships. However, he thought princesses might also be yummy because they might taste sour, which he loved.
It was time, time for him to act and get into that cave. He knew himself to be fierce – a warrior. He would fight that dragon and win. He planned to leap on the dragon and rip out her eyes and disembowel her!
He jumped onto the dragon. And then he screeched like a girl goblin – they had powerful lungs which all goblins envied. His feet were burning up! The dragon’s skin was boiling hot.
He fell off and ran as best he could away from the dragon. He was not going to try that again. But he also refused to give up. He grabbed a large rock and threw it near the snake-dragon, but away from the cave entrance. The snake-dragon who was definitely awake now, looked toward the rock which gave Juniper a chance to sneak into the cave.
It was pitch dark. He could not see a thing, and he knew that it could take days for his eyes to adjust. He would have to find the portal blindly. He began to walk slowly forward. He ran into something hard. He thought it might be a rock.
Yawning, he explored the rock. It wa huge. He felt so tired. Fighting that dragon had taken everything out of him. Was there just a little time for a tiny nap? He crawled onto the rock. It was flat on top. He loved the hard surface for sleeping. He laid down on his back. There was something rectangular and soft that he used as a pillow. He immediately fell asleep.
Slowly, he woke up. It was very bright out and there was a castle in the distance. Huh. Hadn’t he been in a dark cave? He looked down and gasped. He was lying on an enormous dragon. The dragon had a silver body, a gold head, large see-through purple wings, and he was very hard to the touch. He must have mistaken this dragon for a rock, and the dragon must not have realized that he carried a goblin. Juniper was pretty sure that this dragon had entered the fairytale world via the portal.
Hooray, he thought. This was the best thing ever. He was so happy.Now he needed a plan to conquer this world.
He jumped off the dragon. Fortunately, the dragon appeared to be asleep. He began to explore. He went to the castle, but to get inside he had to cross a huge lava pit. He was very brave so he started to walk across. Again, he shrieked like one of those powerful female goblins, and he launched toward the castle. His feet, once again, were burned raw.
Fortunately, he made it into the castle. The first thing he saw was a giant throne floating in clouds. It was embroidered in gold.
Aha! he thought. I will take that throne and by taking it I may conquer this land.
Since it was floating, he started to push it toward the exit. Suddenly he tripped and the throne slid across the room directly into a portal that had just appeared. The throne disappeared and so did the portal.
“Oh no!” he cried.
Now what? He remembered there was a legend about a wand hidden in a treasure room, but there were many traps. Still he was brave.
He made it through the traps and captured the wand. He ran out of the castle but he tripped again and the wand flew out of his hands and into the lava pit. Without thought, he dived in after it…
The “Cliffhanger” End.
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