By 3rd Grade Students at Bubb Elementary
March 2021
The dragon guarded her cave.
A boy watched. He was seven years old and his name was Steven. He had heard of this Dragon before, but he didn’t know her name. Steven knew that the dragon guarded a cave full of gems! And he wanted them really badly.
The dragon was sturdy and big as a boulder, which was very intimidating. Steven fought fear. The dragon’s body was black and brown and her wings were quite big and very gray. She had spikes running down her tail. She looked as if she would feel like rocks to the touch–hard and strong. He imagined that she might fight with that tail full of spikes.
The dragon smelled like flowers, which to Steven always reminded him of ice cream—so sweet.
She roared. And Steven had the distinct impression that she was roaring at him. That she was telling him not to come any closer. He had been there for a long time watching this roaring dragon. Now he was hungry. He pulled out his hamburger and began to eat it. He loved hamburgers. They were so meaty and delicious.
Steven had a plan. He would wait till the dragon fell asleep. He figured around midnight, he would be able to sneak around the snoring dragon and get to those magnificent gems.
But at midnight, the dragon was still awake. And she still roared. Steven snuck a fair distance away and called his friends, Tom, Jerry and Ben. He asked them for help. At first, they all were more than willing to help. Then they asked him for more details, and Steven told them about the dragon.
“Yikes,” said Ben. “Oh-no!” said Tom.
“I don’t think we can help you,” said Jerry.
And they hung up.
Darn it, thought Steven. But he quickly had a new plan. He would dig underneath the dragon. Fortunately, he had stored a shovel nearby. He ran and retrieved it. He began to dig. And dig. And dig. And dig. And dig. And dig. And dig.
He never got to the cave. He began to think that a seven-year-old would never be able to dig far enough to make it into the cave. He needed a Plan C.
He called his friends again. “I really, really need your help. Please do something. I need you to distract the dragon.”
“Fine!” said Ben.
“We will distract her,” said Tom.
“But you owe us,” said Jerry.
They distracted her… so well, that she began to chase them. And while she chased them, Steven snuck into the cave.
There were so many gems! Piles and piles.
He saw a garbage bag being carried by the wind. It flew straight into his face. Well, that was lucky, he thought. He started to shove gems into the garbage bag, but soon it was full and there were still gems to be had.
He grabbed his backpack and stuffed it with gems too.
Steven heard the dragon thundering back.
Uh-oh! He ran. No, he sprinted. As fast as he could. Gems fell out of the garbage bag as he sprinted. He sprinted right past the dragon and kept running and running.
He noticed that the garbage bag wanted to float—even though it was weighed down by so many gems. It must be magical! He let go of it and it began to float ahead of him. He jumped onto it and let it sweep him away from the dragon.
“PLEASE STOP!” yelled the dragon. “Those are my precious gems. I desperately need them!”
Steven had never thought about it that it might be wrong to steal the gems, but it was clear that the dragon was very distressed. He couldn’t take the gems from her. He jumped off the gem garbage bag.
“I’ll give them back,” he yelled, and he settled the garbage bag in front of him. It still wanted to float, but this time, it floated toward the dragon.
“Thank you,” said the dragon. “My name is Flame and I will forever be in your debt!”
“No problem,” said Steven.
She rushed back to the cave with her precious gems.
Steven went home to his village. Probably, he should have given her back the gems in his backpack too, but he decided that he had done enough of a good deed for one day. He and the villagers stored the few dragon gems that he brought home in the Village Treasury.
And they all lived happily (even the dragon who was very fierce but not the best at counting gems) ever after.
The End.
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