The Dragon Stone

• Sonja Tomanovits, Grade 3, Canberra Montessori School
• Poetry
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

Once, in a small African village, there lived an 8 year old girl called Amari. She lived in a small hut with her mother called Nia and her father called Kofi.
One day she was fishing in a large river when something purple and yellow caught her eye. It was laying in the rocks a few metres away. It was wet and slimy and covered with seaweed, but it was very beautiful. Amari picked it up and ran home.
Amari went to bed immediately after dinner and brought her stone with her. When she was safely in her room with the door locked, there was a large cracking sound. She looked straight down at her stone. It was cracked right down the middle. Amari was about to pick it up again but there was another loud crack and the stone split open. Amari screamed as a tiny dragon leapt out and flew around the room. Amari glanced back down at the dragon. He (or she) was chasing after Fiddle-Sticks, Amari’s cat. Fiddle-Sticks screeched and climbed out of the window. The dragon tried to follow the cat but Amari shut the window with a bang. The dragon started crashing against the window. Just then, it started to rain. “What should I call you?” thought Amari. Thunder rolled across the sky. “That’s it!” said Armari excitedly. “I’ll call you Storm.”
The next day, Amari took Storm to the beach. Then, when Amari was looking for sea-shells, she looked over her shoulder because she heard Storm whine unhappily. Storm fell to the ground with a thud. “Storm!” screamed Amari. But suddenly, he started growing bigger. Then, quite quickly, he stopped.
“He’s big enough to ride!” exclaimed Amari. She jumped on his back and rode him around for a while. Then suddenly, someone appeared out of the mist. He looked angry. Amari stepped back. “Give me that dragon!” he said. “Or I shall take you as my servant?” He grabbed Amari’s arm. “Help!” screamed Amari. But nobody could hear her - except for Storm. He charged towards the man. The man let go of Amari’s arm and yelled. Storm leapt towards Amari to protect her but the man was too quick. He lured Storm away with rubies and emeralds. Storm could not resist following them and abandoned Amari. “How did you do that?” she gasped. “Dragons are attracted to precious stones,” he said. “And now, the dragon is mine.” Amari cried in terror and Storm reared back onto his hind legs. He whipped his head around and stared at Amari. “Why isn’t it working?” yelled the man, who took a step back. Then he turned around and ran.
Amari went home and told her mother everything that had happened. Her mother said that of course they could keep Storm, and they had lots of other adventures that we will not talk about, because that is another story.