By 4th Grade Students at Bubb Elementary
May 2023
The Dragon guarded her cave. Hercules watched. He suspected there was treasure in the cave, but he didn’t know anything more. Well, he did know one thing…
This dragon was his arch rival.
The dragon was bigger than the biggest boulder that Hercules had ever imagined trying to carry or climb. And she was a dull, intimidating black. She also had very sharp teeth and five straight horns that poked out of the top of her head.
Hercules knew all too well how sharp the dragon’s teeth were. He’d been bitten by her before. But her skin was soft, smooth as smooth could be.
The reason Hercules thought she guarded treasure was her stink. She stank like metal. And that happened when she was around a lot of treasure.
The dragon didn’t seem to have noticed Hercules, probably because he currently hid behind a large rock. She wasn’t roaring at him. Instead she made the kind of noises any big dragon would make when they shifted around. She stomped. She snuffled. Hercules thought she might be suffering from allergies because periodically she sneezed. And that was super gross because snot went everywhere.
One noise worried Hercules–a bubbling sound coming from the cave. He’d heard that sound before. It was the same one that often came with lava. He sure hoped there wasn’t lava in the cave.
The dragon threw a large hunk of fish into her mouth and started chewing very loudly. Hercules wasn’t a fan of raw fish. He thought it would taste slimy and gross.
Hercules didn’t care about the fish, though. What he cared about was going into the cave and leaving something there to help him to retrieve the treasure. Fortunately, he had brought a time travel machine with him. And now he would enact his plan. First, he would travel to the cave far into the future, beyond the lifespan of a dragon, then he would use a rope to climb down into the cave ninja style, and he would leave behind a bomb near the entrance of the cave. He would return to the present and use his remote control to blow up the dragon and the entrance to the cave.
He time-traveled to the future, left the bomb, time-traveled back and hit the remote control to blow things up. But nothing happened!
Uh-oh.
Hercules thought through his plan. What had gone wrong? He hit his head in disgust. Of course, the bomb wouldn’t be there now. It would only be there in the future because he’d traveled there to deposit it. Darn it. He was smarter than that. He felt like a fool.
This time would be different. He time-traveled wayyyy into the future. A million years into the future. Because he believed there would be teleportation technology that he could grab. And sure enough, he found a teleportation device right away. He time-traveled back to the present and teleported into the cave. Woo-hoo! It worked!
But the cave was too dark. He time-traveled again into the future and grabbed a powerful flashlight. Then he time-traveled back to the cave.
His flashlight revealed so much treasure, a pile that went right up to the ceiling, filled with shiny objects, gold, jewels, silver, and so much more.
But that was nothing compared to what else Hercules saw.
A ginormous chicken!! The size of a Greek temple!
Well, Hercules had to do something about the chicken. So he time-traveled to the distant past, when dinosaurs roamed. And he brought back a spinosaurus, one as big as an ampitheatre. For sure, the spinosaurus and the chicken would fight. Hercules thought chickens were likely descendents of dinosaurs. It was just a guess, but he was an excellent guesser.
But the chicken didn’t appear to be fazed at all by the dino. In fact, she leapt straight at him. She jumped on him and squashed him, making him into her nest. Hercules had no idea how the chicken managed to do what she did. It seemed impossible. She must have the strongest, toughest rump ever.
Meanwhile, the dragon lumbered in, clearly confused by all the noise.
Uh-oh, Hercules was in trouble.
But he was brave, strong, and smart. Nothing could stop him.
Before Hercules could make a move, the spinosaurus did. Clearly, he didn’t appreciate being squashed like a bug. He flung out his sail and started pelting the chicken with Taco Bell beans, which confused Hercules because he didn’t even know what Taco Bell was. The beans were super-sized and were the size of a large rock.
Then the spinosaurus fought really dirty and used Hercules’ time-travel device to go buy some McDonald’s chicken nuggets. When he returned he pelted the chicken with them. He thought he was being hilarious. The chicken was confused. She stuck one in her mouth. But she thought the crust was disgusting and she spit it out before taking a bite.
Suddenly something incredibly huge fell from the sky. It went straight through the roof of the cave and landed with a giant splatter on the treasure, throwing shiny objects every which way.
It was a duck. A very large duck, twice the size of the chicken. Hercules had seen this duck before. His name was Duckster. And Duckster had a special magical power. He could turn things into other things. He quacked at the treasure and suddenly it was one single, very large cheerio.
Hercules was soooo hungry. He ran for the cheerio, but everyone else did too. He still got there first and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed quickly.
The dragon roared with anger. “How dare you turn my treasure into a cheerio,” she roared at the duck. And then she turned on Hercules. “I could have changed my treasure back. But now you’ve eaten it. The only way I can turn it back now is if I rip it out of your stomach.”
She lunged for Hercules.
Hercules leapt away.
She lunged again.
Hercules was in the worst spot of his life. He wasn’t sure he would survive. But he was determined to enjoy the adventure. “You can’t get the treasure unless you catch me. And you’ll never catch me.”
The only way the dragon would get the gold was if she found him. And Hercules knew he could hide from her forever.
He grabbed the teleporter and…
Dun. Dun. Dun! To be continued!
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