Dragon Dilemma

• Talia Courte, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2020

DRAGON DILEMMA
Charlotte stared out the window into the dark woods beyond. Small animals ran from shadow to shadow, making the forest floor look as if it were moving. A small, flickering light appeared in the gloom and then disappeared. Charlotte sat up quickly and stared out the window, eyes flitting around, searching desperately for another sign of the light. There! The little light flickered once more, lighting up a tiny patch of the leaf littered forest floor. “What is that light,” Charlotte thought, “I’ll go and investigate.” She slipped from bed and whistled quietly at Jumper, her little Yorkshire terrier.
“Jumper, I’m going to drop you out of the window. Stay there, promise?” Charlotte carefully picked him up and leaned out the window, lightly dropping him the last few centimetres to the ground. Next, she scrambled out of the window and successfully landed on her head, tumbling over to lay flat on her back.
“That wasn’t really my best escape attempt.” She muttered quietly. Standing up, in her peripheral vision she caught sight of that strange flickering flame. Now Charlotte didn’t take care to be silent and ran crunching through the dead leaves on the ground, Jumper running beside her, tail wagging. Seeing a massive oak, Charlotte ran to its comforting shelter and peeked curiously around the corner. Jumper popped his head around, but craned his neck a bit too much, and promptly tumbled head over heels with a muffled yelp of surprise. Smothering a giggle, Charlotte walked out to help him up. She heard a high pitched squeak and looked down in surprise. There, just by her bare foot, was a dragon. It was small, barely four inches high and a light green in colour. She couldn’t believe her eyes! Charlotte crouched and lay in front of the dragon and asked,
“Are you real?”
“Well of course I am real! Am I standing in front of a GIANT?” the Dragon squeaked in an extremely high pitched voice.
“Oh man, I gotta go tell mom and dad, they’ll be thrilled! We’ll get rich! Can you believe what a jackpot we’ve struck, Jumper?” Said Charlotte as she walked up and down with her hands on her head. ”Nuh uh!” the Dragon shrilly said. He let out an ear splitting whistle and there was a rustling in the bushes. Suddenly a dozen or so other dragons emerged from the bushes, all a variety of greens, blues and crimson reds. They held spears. Charlotte hesitated.
“We can negotiate. We can bring you food and stuff, and promise not to tell. As long as you don’t spear us.” She smiled weakly as she asked.
“Good deal. Let’s shake on it and we won’t spear you and your hound of horrors.” the Dragon said. Charlotte and Jumper looked at each other, Charlotte nodded, and they ran ve-e-e-e-e-ery fast back to the window, jumped through it and back to bed.