Baby Dragon

• Heidi Taylor, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2020

There once was a baby dragon named Hope. She lived in a cave in outback Australia. Hope always dreamed of travelling the world and healing sick creatures like her mother, who had a disease called breast cancer.

One day her father asked Hope to go find food for her sick mother. Hope said to her father “ I'm very sorry, Dad, but I don't know how to fly”. That night they had no food but Hope practised every day to learn how to fly, while her father searched for food.

One special evening she stepped out of the cave, she took sudden deep breaths and jumped off the cliff, she put her head down and raised her wings, she braced for impact but she didn’t feel like she had been bruised or badly hurt. But she did feel like the soft air was gently blowing on her scaly skin. She opened her eyes and - there - SHE WAS FLYING. She called out to her parents “Mum and Dad, look at me, I’m flying! Do you see me?” “Oh wow, darling, that's amazing! Have you practised landing? Because if you know how to fly, the next step is to land,”said her mother.

Hope was about to land when strong winds came and blew her far, far away to another strange cave,but it wasn’t the one she lived in. She was so worried but she did think it would be good to see if the cave had a dragon that could help her. She stepped inside and said in a rather small voice “Hello?” No one replied.

Hope walked inside like she knew what would happen. Suddenly something caught her eye. A big dragon looked at Hope from head to toe and said “who are you? Are you here because you want to learn how to heal dragons?” “Oh, sorry about this. While I was showing my mum that I can fly the wind caught me and took me here” The dragon replied saying “the wind took you here for a reason so you will be able to heal other dragons like your mother.” “Oh, if that's the case then I would love to learn from you.

Weeks went by and Hope was nearly ready to be a dragon healer. Back at Hope’s home her mum and dad got letters from Hope every day saying how she was getting so close to being able to heal her mother. After her 34th lesson with the dragon healer he asked Hope to come to his room, and he said with a rather happy voice “Hope, you are now ready to heal. I am giving you this robe, which represents healing. Thank you for staying and learning with me, I wish you luck on your quest.” Hope hugged the dragon healer, stood on the edge of the cave and flew.

Hope returned home and healed her mother. From this day on Hope is now a dragon healer healing sick dragons.