By 4th Grade Students at Huff Elementary
May 2012
The dragon guarded her cave. 16-year-old Jacob watched. Jacob was searching for his missing sister. He hoped Anna had not run into this dragon.
The dragon was very scary, twenty feet long, with huge feathery wings that reminded him of an angel. She had three layers of dark green scales covering her entire body like armor. Her claws were enormous and looked deadly, possibly even poisonous. Her underbelly was covered with what looked like real and very sharp diamonds. Jacob thought that touching her would be like touching rough rocks.
Jacob had to hold his breath against the dragon’s horrible stench. He couldn’t begin to describe it. He’d never smelled anything as gross as this. He was reminded of the smell of mold, but this was way worse.
The dragon was sniffing the ground and constantly grunting. The grunting wasn’t loud, but it was steady. What was the dragon doing? She looked as if she was searching for something or someone, like a dog on the hunt. The dragon was also chewing on what appeared to be a raw chicken leg. Jacob liked cooked chicken legs, but the idea of eating a raw one made him feel a little sick to his stomach. He thought it might taste a lot like a cooked one, but it would be hard and stringy, and possibly harder to chew. It looked gross.
Suddenly, the dragon got excited. Her sniffing and grunting grew louder. Jacob thought she had picked up a scent and knew this to be true when she raised her head and made eye contact. She had seen him!
The dragon slowly moved toward him. As she did, the cave opening was revealed. Inside, there was a body. It was his sister! She was lying on the floor. She was crying. Now that the dragon had stopped making all of that noise, Jacob could hear is sister sobbing.
The dragon lunged forward. Jacob scrambled back. The dragon was going to attack!
Jacob pressed his special force-field-enabled shirt and a dome of protection surrounded him. The dragon crashed into it and shot backward. Jacob pulled out his curved, glowing laser sword. It glowed a light orange. He ran forward, protection dome intact. When he reached the dragon, he used the broad side of the blade to smack the dragon.
The dragon weaved around, clearly disoriented. Just then, five lions roared into the area. In addition, three pythons slithered up. Jacob didn’t have any idea what was going on, but he didn’t like this new development one bit.
The dragon jumped up, clearly excited by all the animals that had arrived. She dove for the lions and grabbed two as if they were jellybeans, popping one in her mouth. While she was distracted, Jacob ran into the cave.
“Anna,” he whispered, “I am here to save you. He hugged her.
“Help,” Anna said. ”The dragon wants to kill me!”
Jacob couldn’t use the force field with both of them. “We will have to run,” he said.
They ran. But Anna had a serious limp. Jacob worried they would not get away, especially when the dragon stopped eating her second lion and followed them. The dragon swooped and grabbed Anna. She poured something like a potion over her. Jacob watched in horror. Then the dragon put Anna down.
“Oh my gosh! I am healed,” Anna said.
“Wow,” Jacob said. “The dragon healed you. Maybe she isn’t evil.”
Anna said, “Yes, but we can’t know for sure. We need to be cautious.”
Suddenly, their dad teleported in.
“Dad!” Jacob yelled. “What are you doing here?”
Their dad yelled back, “What are YOU doing here?! I am here for science. I am teleporting.”
Then, their mom arrived, also via teleport. “What the heck?” Jacob’s mom said. “Why are there lions and pythons, and even a dragon?”
Jacob saw his parents exchange confused looks, but he still didn’t trust the dragon. “I think we should run,” he yelled.
He and Anna ran. Their parents each grabbed one of their kids, and they all teleported away. When they arrived at home, they ate dinner. As a joke, Jacob put a teleport device on his sister’s chair.
When she sat, she activated the device, and they teleported back to the dragon and the other wild animals. Oops…
The “Cliffhanger” End.
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