Homeward Bound

• Siyuan Qiu, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2022

Seizing the moment, Princess Amber clutched the potion from the highest shelf of the secret room they accidentally found out in the castle, she looked around, making sure nobody could see her and passed it carefully into the palm of her elder sister Princess Ruby’s hand. “Ruby, do it now.” Amber whispered. Ruby slowly poured one drop onto the little dull, grey dragon statue. One drop and no more, Rudy said to herself. They knew how powerful it would be.

Slowly, the statue started glowing, turning into a green emerald colour, and finally became alive! It was still palm sized with cute obsidian- black wings. “We did it!” Both girls hoorayed. They were buzzing with excitement. “I’ll name it Dragle.” Amber declared. “Amber, we should get back to our room, it’s way past our bedtime.” Ruby whispered, pulling her towards their bedroom. “OK, but how are we supposed to hide the dragon?” Amber asked. “We’ll just hide it in our room, it’s not that big yet.” Ruby replied while stepping towards the dragon, quietly lifting the dragon, but it was not cooperative, it kept struggling to move. “Keep it still.” Amber whispered. “I can’t” Ruby replied. Suddenly, it ran off her hands and sprinted away out of the room. “Dragle come back!” Amber cried. The alarm started blaring when Dragle pasted the gate, the girls, holding their hands over their ears sprinted after Dragle. They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, their pink hair flowing in the wind, like graceful butterflies.

When Dragle finally stopped, they found themselves in the endless forest. Cold wind blew, causing them to shiver. Huffing and puffing, the girls caught their breath. “Look!” Amber cried, pointing at Dragle, “He’s going to that cave, let’s follow him.” “It looks okay, there’s no sign of anybody living there and it’s big enough to fit everyone. Amber, we should stay there for the night. I’ll get some sticks really quick to make a fire.” Ruby said, as she stepped out of the cave. “Sure, I’ll keep an eye on Dragle.” Amber said, holding Dragle in her arms. After a while, Ruby returned with the sticks, quivering and drenched, she placed the sticks on the ground, then started to rubbed two of the sticks to each other. They tried and tried for ages, and just when they were about to give up, Dragle sneezed and blasted a blast of fire upon the sticks, sooner, the cave became warm. “How does he do that?” Ruby asked, but Amber was fast asleep, so was Dragle.

They woke up early in the morning and found out that Dragle had grew a lot over the night! He was way too big to fit in the cave! While they were still in shock, Dragle bent down suddenly. “I think he wants us to ride him.” Amber said as she hopped onto Dragle’s back, Ruby followed. “Home, we go!” The girls cried, as they flew away back home.