The Little Dragon

• Zainab Loraichi, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2021

KABOOM! Fire balls being catapulted, dragons destroying houses, what could be worse? I was tucked up in bed wishing it was all a dream, but nothing could be as real as this. CRASH! That's when something dreadful happened. "Hey Penelope!" shouted my best friend, Olivia. "Hi Olivia" I replied. "What's popping?" She looked at me with a worried face. "I feel bad if I say this, but I was just curious about how your parents passed away" she answered. "Oh-" I said, my eyes starting to well up with tears. "They were murdered by one of those vicious dragons, it crashed and burned down my old house, I was the only survivor" I said with courage. But even though I tried to be brave and tell her, a waterfall of tears was flowing from my eyes. "I'm so sorry'' she said while she hugged me tight. "It’s ok, it’s not your fault.” Then I went to the forest, where I go when I’m sad. I was walking deeper, admiring the gorgeous flowers on the way, when I saw something that made me stop. Tiny white scales were scattered on the floor. My mouth was open in shock. A terrible thought crossed my mind. Could the dragons be back!? "No, no Penelope, you’re going crazy" a voice in my head said. I decided to investigate to stop the voices in my head. I followed the trail of scales and figured I was right. Right in front of me was a little, blue and white dragon all curled up in a ball. It had been injured. One side of me wanted to help it and the other side didn't mostly because of my parents. But then I realised it’s like humans. Not all humans are the same so maybe this dragon was nice. So, I got my scarf and wrapped it around the poor thing. It had blood all over its wing. It was fighting for its life. I took care of it for the last couple of days, not returning to my village. People would be worried sick for me, but I had to take care of the cute little dragon. After several days of treatment, the dragon's wing was looking better. It started walking out of the cave that I was taking care of it in, so I started following it. It was taking small steps while limping. That poor thing. I wish I could do something to help it. But I couldn't think of anything. I should’ve listened to my dad when he said that I should come to his job to learn how to heal people. The dragon was leading me to a wide area that had freshly chopped grass. It started digging. ‘That’s weird’ I thought. Then, it hit something that sounded like metal. I moved it away from the brown dirt and dusted it. It was a sword. Then the people started to flood in. They wanted war and that’s what they got.