By 5th Grade Students at Garden Gate Elementary
November 2014
The dragon guarded his cave. Marco, the dolphin, watched. He knew that the dragon guarded a huge pile of gold and diamonds. He really wanted that treasure.
The dragon was a very long one, much longer than Marco. He was a dark green and his backbone was spiky, like a thorn bush. He looked angry and protective with his guarded position and downturned snout. He wouldn’t leave the front of the cave except to eat, in which case he went inside the cave. Why did he do that? Was there a lot of yummy food?
The dragon had two arms and two legs and three very sharp claws on each hand and foot. Also, he had very sharp teeth! He had swirly neon red eyes.
Once about five years ago, Marco had tried to steal the treasure. However, the dragon had almost caught him. Marco had barely managed to swim away. As he brushed past the dragon, he had touched the scales, and they had burned him. He still carried a scar. The dragon’s skin was too hot to touch.
The dragon stank of rubber, sulfur, and ashes. Marco thought it was because he breathed fire. He really didn’t like that odor.
Periodically, the dragon let out a loud roar. The roar made Marco curious, He was pretty sure the dragon had seen him as he hid in the water near the cave. Every time the dragon paced across the cave entrance, it shook the water enough to send sonar waves at Marco, which was very irritating. Marco wished he would stop moving.
Just then the dragon disappeared into the cave. When he came back out, he was eating a small animal, one that Marco did not recognize. It looked too salty for Marco’s taste.
Marco decided that this was the perfect time to make his move, while the dragon was distracted by food. He dove deep into the water, grabbing a shell with his teeth. He filled the shell with sand. Then he leapt out of the water right in front of the dragon and blew the sand in his eyes. The dragon roared and was blinded.
Using his anamorphic super power, Marco transformed into a bat and flew into the cave. Immediately, he felt lost. With his bat senses, he saw thousands of tiny bugs. He also sensed something that he thought might be the treasure, but a cave wall stood in his path.
Still blinded, the dragon roared and roared and breathed fire so much that rocks began to fall inside the cave. The dragon stomped into the cave. All that vibration affected Marco’s ability to hear. He thought the dragon might no longer be blinded.
He barely managed to make out the sound of gushing water. Oh no! The gold and diamonds must be underwater. He went to use his anamorphic powers to turn back into a dolphin, but nothing happened! Was it because he was still on land and therefore couldn’t become a dolphin, who could only survive in water?
All of a sudden, he saw a doorway. He flew through. On the other side, he found a room full of potions. He drank the first one he could, and poof, became a human. When he stood up on his new legs, he saw a bunch of humans cowering in the corner, trembling. He also saw a knife on the table. He grabbed it and ran back to where the treasure was.
The dragon saw him with his knife, and he looked scared. He turned pale and ran.
Marco stared at the pool of water with all the treasure. Now what? He didn’t think he could swim as a human. Suddenly, he heard a huge amount of roaring, and saw the dragon come back with five more dragons! Noooo!
Marco ran back into the potion room. He motioned to the men in the corner.
“Help me find an invisibility potion,” he yelled.
They began to search, but there was no such potion. Suddenly, he felt a burning sensation inside his body, so bad that he fell to the ground crippled! Then he turned back into a dolphin. He flopped around on the ground till he made it to a shallow pool of water. But he was far from the river. He really wanted to get back.
He called to the humans. “Draw a map that shows the river coming to me. That will magically change this cave so I am saved.”
The men frantically drew. Suddenly with a loud crack, the cave blew away from him, as did all the water. He was left stranded on land and in the open. Boy, were those men lousy artists!
He concentrated hard and focused on his anamorphic powers. Poof, he was a bat again. He flew to where the cave was. Now the diamonds and gold were still deep in the water.
He morphed into a dolphin, dove deep, grabbed a diamond in his mouth, jumped high in the air, changed into the bat, flew out of the cave, dropped the diamond and went back for more. Dolphin then bat, dolphin then bat. Soon he had a large pile of treasure!
Finally, he changed for the last time from dolphin to bat. He thought he had all the treasure. Then six dragons popped up in front of him. Oh no!
They breathed fire. Using his echolocation he darted here and there, dodging the flames. He was getting tired. It was past his bedtime. He kept trying to evade the dragons. But he was very scared. What was he going to do now?
The “Cliffhanger” Ending.
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