By 6th Grade Students at Ramblewood Elementary
February 2014
The dragon guarded his cave. Alex, the mime, watched. Alex wondered what was in the cave.
The dragon was huge, at least fifty feet tall. He was dark green and dark red. Alex shrunk down–mime style–and placed his hands facing out in front of him as if to show fear. He especially didn’t like the dragon’s very sharp claws. The dragon had gotten a pedicure recently. His nails were blue with his dragon face painted on them. He had long wings that reminded Alex of the length of the fluorescent lights from his old elementary school. His teeth were very sharp and pointy. His scales were quite thick and Alex knew from experience that they were as rough as sandpaper. The end of his tail was covered in spikes that were as sharp as knives and it was shaped like a hammer.
The dragon smelled like smoke which made the mime wonder if he breathed fire. Alex didn’t like the smell. It made him think that something was overcooked. The dragon howled like a wolf in pain. Alex wondered if the dragon had seen him and, if so, was he going to try to kill him? He could also hear the high-pitched screech of bats coming from the cave. In between howls, the dragon was eating from the carcass of a wolf. Yuck! Alex thought that raw wolf would taste disgusting, likely as bad as liver.
All of a sudden, the dragon went from eating and howling to collapsing into a great big heap. When he started to loudly snore, Alex realized he was asleep. He decided to explore the cave. He snuck past the dragon. As he did, he saw that one of the dragon’s scales was missing. It looked as if it had been blasted off. He had seen that before. One of the villagers nearby had managed to use a crossbow on another dragon with similar results long ago.
He got to the cave entrance, but it was completely blocked by the sleeping dragon. Darn. He ran back to his bag and reached for his trusty shovel. Then he raced around to the backside of the cave. There he began to dig a tunnel into the cave. It went fast. As a mime, he had developed very strong arms. When he was finished he threw down his shovel and crawled into the cave.
It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the pitch black. When they adjusted, he was horrified to see human bones strewn all over. In fact, he stepped on one. He cowered and covered his eyes. After a moment, he forced himself to be brave and continue. He saw a torch nearby on the wall. He grabbed it and moved further into the cave.
Next he saw armor and weapons all over the ground. Much of the armor still had the skeletal remains of humans inside. Again he reacted by covering his eyes. Finally he moved forward. He stepped on one of the armored skeletons. It rolled and clanked into another skeleton. The noise seemed unusually loud in the echoing cave.
Did he wake up the dragon?
He paused and watched for some sign. Suddenly, the dragon’s head appeared inside the cave. His body followed. The dragon had stretched himself to fit through the hole. He quickly ducked down behind a mound of armor. The dragon’s ice cream cone horn lit up so that it shined very brightly. It hurt Alex’s eyes. He thought that meant the dragon was angry.
A sword fell from the cave ceiling onto the dragon’s back. It was the shiniest sword ever. It was bright gold. Alex didn’t think the dragon knew it was on his back. Suddenly, the dragon froze and stared exactly where Alex hid. He thought maybe the dragon had seen the armor move. The dragon ran for Alex, but he slid away and raced to another part of the cave. This happened for awhile—the dragon lunging and Alex sliding away at the last minute. Finally the dragon faked right then grabbed left and Alex was caught.
The dragon raised him up with his sharp claw and stared into his eyes. Alex looked away. The sword on the dragon’s back caught his eye. He could tell that the sword had cut the dragon, but that was impossible because normal swords couldn’t cut a dragon. Unless…. Could this be? Was this the legendary sword that could kill a dragon? Could it be the Dragonslayer?
To Be Continued…
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