By 4th Grade Students at Cadwallader Elementary
April 2013
The dragon guarded his cave. Fred, the ten-year-old boy, watched. Why was the dragon here? At his special cave. Fred realized it had been a very long time—nearly three years—since he had visited. But this was where he liked to go when he wanted to be completely alone. And now this dragon was ruining things by guarding it.
The dragon was large, at least as big as one of the walls in his classroom at school. The dragon was a dull black with black spikes all over. His skin was sort of scaly and rubbery like a crocodile’s. He thought the skin would be hot to the touch. The dragon didn’t seem to have his own smell; instead he just seemed to smell like the cave. Fred liked that odor–it was earthy and felt right for a cave.
As Fred peeked around the tree he hid behind, he thought the dragon had not yet seen him. The dragon was being very quiet and wasn’t acting as if he thought he was being watched. While he lay there, the dragon ate a heap of apples—all green. Fred wrinkled his nose in disgust. He did not like the sour taste of apples.
Fred wanted to distract the dragon and even get him to go away. His first idea was to throw a stick away from the cave in the hope that the dragon, like a dog, would fetch it.
It worked! When he threw the stick, the dragon lumbered over to it, leaving the cave entrance unguarded. Fred ran for the cave as fast as he could and dived inside.
The cave was very dark. Fred gave himself a few minutes to adjust his eyes. The first things he saw were the rocks he remembered from when he was seven. But now he realized they were diamonds! Then he saw bones everywhere. The dragon had been eating inside the cave. He could not tell what kinds of animals the dragon ate, but there were a lot of them.
Yikes! What if they were human? What had he done? Was he trapped? His heart raced. He needed to escape, but the dragon was still outside.
Fred started to search the cave for another way out. He found a tunnel and started to follow it. As he ran through the tunnel he saw shiny stuff on the ground. He picked up a nugget and realized it was gold! There was a trail of gold. He couldn’t resist picking up nuggets as he ran and shoving them into his pockets.
Up ahead, he saw a stream of light. He ran faster. It was an opening. His pockets full of gold, he reached the small hole. He managed to squeeze through it out of the cave.
He felt blinded by the sun. He managed to shade his eyes and look around. He could see the cave entrance to his left, but he couldn’t see the dragon. Uh oh! Where was the dragon?
He spun around and looked all over. He looked to the sky. The dragon was nowhere to be found. Strangely, that made him sad. He had been terrified in the cave, but now he realized he had overreacted. Of course, the dragon wasn’t eating humans. That was just silly.
He decided to search for the dragon. Maybe they could be friends. He walked toward the forest where he had hidden and watched the dragon. When he walked into the forest, he heard a ton of birds. The forest had a lot of sunlight streaming through the trees. It was actually hot there. He didn’t see the dragon. He retraced his steps back to the cave. When he peeked inside the cave, he found the dragon.
He stepped inside the cave and said, “Hi. My name is Fred.” Fred realized the dragon had been taking a nap. His words woke him. He snorted and started and stared at Fred without saying a word. Fred understood that he was just sleepy. Fred wondered if the dragon could talk. Finally, the dragon’s tail began to thump over and over just like a dog’s happy tail wagged.
Fred asked the dragon, “Do you understand what I’m saying?” The dragon nodded. Fred asked, “What is your name?”
Then a really cool thing happened. Fred heard, in his mind, telepathically, the dragon say, “Seeth. My name is Seeth.”
Fred thought this could be the beginning of a really cool friendship.
To Be Continued…
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