Nepomuk The Lost Dragon

• Kai Pietrass-Wong, Grade 4, Cooma North Public School
• Short Story
• 2019

Excellence Award in the 'Just Keep Writing 2019' competition

All was silent in the park. A crow was perched up in a tree squawking at a Chihuahua in a yard at 54 Bayside Street. A sudden movement stirred the frayed, uncut grass. “Hello?” it called. “Is anybody there?” And from the grass emerged a purple, extremely sooty dragon named Nepomuk. The dragon’s eyes scanned the park. Calling it a “park” was not a fitting word since there were mountains of litter everywhere you looked. The grass was frayed, the trees were minimized to stumps and the flowers were shriveled to a cinder. The Chihuahua halted its barking and retreated to its kennel in fright when Nepomuk emerged. All was silent when he called up to the crow “Which way out of the city?” The crow called back down “Walk 100 miles west then you will see a fish and chips shop with a chip float on the top. Understand?” “Yes?” replied Nepomuk. “Then fly four miles east and voila.” BRILLIANT. Nepomuk ran down the street and took off up into the air. “Maybe we will meet again” sighed the crow.
Over stone buildings Nepomuk flew but he never came to the chip float because… HE WAS FLYING THE WRONG WAY!!! But what he did see was floating litter, the reek of dead fish, stone buildings and smoke billowing out of factory chimneys. The smoke stank so he decided to take a closer look for Nepomuk was always curious. It was a newspaper factory and they were printing this on it: ‘UFO. Big Reward. Call Government.’ The picture on it looked very familiar. Then the thought struck him, he was the UFO. He knew he was running out of time. If someone reported Nepomuk there’s no doubt they’ll catch him and he wouldn’t survive in captivity.
55 minutes later he came to a sign that said: ‘Food From The Sea’. It pointed back the way he’d come so he turned around and flew back the other way over the newspaper factory that was still printing the UFO story and back to the litter yard. The crow once again was squawking at the Chihuahua taking no notice of Nepomuk. So he took shelter in a hollow plastic tube. He used to play games in the green fields with his friends and parents, pranks like pouring water on his head. But those times were past. His family had been run over by a steam roller, he was the only survivor. He remembered the happy days until he fell asleep.
When Nepomuk woke up he was surprised to find he was up in the air. Blades circled overhead. He was in some sort of machine two people were flying. “It’s alive!!!” Screamed one. “Ahhhhh” squealed the other. The men were so startled that they lost control. The machine lurched forward and began to plummet downwards. Nepomuk realised he had something no human has, wings. He stretched his wings and flew away with the summer wind blowing in his face. Wait, summer wind? Nepomuk realised he was FREE of the city!
The End