By 4th Grade Students at Mission San Jose Elementary
November 2017
The dragon guarded her cave. Leo the leopard watched. He’d heard of this dragon, but he’d never actually seen her before. He wondered what the dragon guarded.
Leo was a snow leopard–all white with black spots. This dragon was way more colorful. She was red, white, and blue. She was huge, at least five times bigger than Leo. Leo had never seen such huge wings before. They were also red, white, and blue. Instead of a horn, this dragon had a tall spike sticking out of the top of her head.
The dragon’s skin looked like nothing Leo had seen before–like an alien from another world. Leo thought the skin might feel slimy. The dragon smelled hot and cold to Leo-somewhat smoky. The smell surprised Leo. It made his fur bristle and stick out. He didn’t like the smell.
The dragon was buzzing really loud. The buzzing hurt Leo’s ears. He thought the dragon might be angry.
The dragon was eating what appeared to be barbecued squirrel. Yum. Leo loved to eat squirrels. They tasted chewy delicious, but he did think it was weird to cook the squirrel. He would have gone with raw.
Leo just had to know what the dragon was hiding. He had a plan. First he went and hunted down a squirrel. Then he dropped it near enough for the dragon to smell. After that, he laid down and waited.
Soon, the dragon went after the squirrel.
Leo snuck towards the cave, but suddenly the dragon went after him. She must be smarter than Leo realized. She had figured out his plan.
Turning on the speed he raced around to the backside of the cave, and hid in some bushes. He hoped he would not be caught, but all of a sudden he heard the loudest buzzing ever.
Then the dragon loomed over him. Something hard hit his head, and all went blank.
When he woke up he had a feeling that he was now in the cave. The dragon must have dragged him inside. Leo felt dizzy and nauseous. He saw light emanating from, of all things, a unicorn and her sparkling horn. Huh was he imagining things? He decided the unicorn had to be real.
He was definitely in the dragon’s cave. In fact, the dragon hovered over him. In the faraway distance he saw a treasure through a large crack.
He saw weeds nearby and leapt. Quickly, he grabbed them and tied the dragon up. Then he ran for the treasure. He scrabbled with his claws, and broke through the crack.
Whoa! There was an amazing treasure. A gold-rimmed spear made of dragon scales. It looked ancient and very sharp. He wanted it badly.
He went to get it, but suddenly there was a lean dragon in his path. The dragon didn’t have a spike, but it did have a crest on its head and down its back.
The dragon captured Leo, and brought Leo to the other dragon. Leo needed to convince the dragons to let him go.
“What a nice cave you have,” he said. “I’ve never seen a dragon cave. Would you be so kind as to let me touch your treasure and crystal? Then I can go home and tell my leopard friends all about it.”
“Ha,” said the lean dragon.
“Yeah,” said the other dragon. “I don’t think so! We’re going to eat you instead.”
Leo did not like that idea. He had another plan.
“Hey,” he yelled. “Look! It’s a barbecued squirrel.”
Both dragons looked.
Leo turned on his leopard speed and ran like the wind all the way home.
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