Gelran's Winter

• Ronan Martin, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2015

Snow sprinkled across the glorious mountain of Centlenetry, as evening came. The thick icy glacier had glowing patterns shining and reflecting on Gelran, the mountain dragon. Mountain dragons are an endangered species and Gelran is the last of his kind. He was probably the only dragon on the mountain. His tail was gently wrapped around an unusually large rock. Gelran was half starved because all food sources were peacefully hibernating. Unfortunately mountain dragons cannot hibernate. A monstrous blizzard was raging across the mountain. Hungry and frustrated Gelran tried to think up an idea of finding a small chunk of meat or maybe even a bone that he could gnaw marrow off. He couldn’t go to Cetran. The rueful people would stick a stake through him as if he was a piece of tasty meat. He wouldn’t dare go any further than the mountain. The blizzard was closing in and since loss of food, Gelran couldn’t even think. A huge chunk of ice slammed down on top of him and it split into two solid pieces. Gelran howled in pain. He droned a peaceful song to calm himself down. Gelran was getting pelted by huge chunks of snow. Soon he could barely see his claw if he held it in front of himself. Although something in the distance stood out, one black dot trudging in the snow. It looked very random to all the other whiteness around it. Gelran was so starving he could eat anything. He dashed towards the dot, put his wings out and flew into the air. Suddenly a terrible thing happened. A jagged and sharp piece of ice plummeted down and struck Gelran’s wing. A gigantic hole tore through it. He stalled and crashed into the snow. Ice flew everywhere. When the powder cleared, Gelran was in front of an armed and dangerous man. The man took out a cross bow and aimed it straight at Gelran. He pulled the trigger. The arrow came out of its position and zoomed at him. A dire thought washed over the dragon. Then out of nowhere, great tongues of flames blew everywhere. The flames struck the arrow and set it flying away. The man’s flesh and bones perished and cooked. Gelran turned and stared with horrified eyes and was so surprised to see another mountain dragon in front of him. It stalked towards the burnt man and picked him up. The dragon placed the man in front of Gelran. Gelran picked him up in his mouth and ripped him in half. The other dragon clawed at Gelran’s wing and slowly mended it. Gelran was no longer starving. Shortly after this, the storm cleared. Winter was over and spring came. All the animals were back out and from then on both dragons hunted together. They tackled a boar to the rough ground and wolfed it down. Gelran grinned as the sweet taste of blood once again rushed down his throat.