Wynfer And The Diamond Dragon

• Luca Cornell-McGleenan, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2022

A hooded figure walks across a rock pathway leading to a small cottage. Under the oak door, he slips a note with the seal of a small diamond dragon. He skulks away into the deep forest leading to the mountain.

Wynfer wakes to a blazing ray of sun on his face. He pulls himself out of bed towards the door leading to the kitchen. He helps himself to his morning cup of tea. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots a strange note resting on his mat, so he scuttles towards it. Wynfer opens the note, his eyes fall to the bottom of the page. It is signed, The Messenger.

***

Wynfer’s legs ache, his eyes water and his backpack heaves him down. He has been walking for five hours straight and has headed toward the towering peak to the destination spot that was mentioned in the letter. He senses something behind him but there is nothing there.
After many days of pain and hunger he reaches something that draws his attention. He comes, across a massive rock column. This is it, he thinks, the place that was mentioned in the letter.

In the evening, a disturbing fog settles in. Wynfer is still searching for the mysterious Messenger at the meeting place. He suddenly smells something like wood burning on an open fireplace and he hears a deafening roar. Wynfer turns around and realises he is face to face with the diamond dragon. Wynfer had heard many stories before about the dragon but had never seen one in person. He quickly pulls a sword out of his pack and struggles to slash the fierce beast. The diamond dragon comes back at Wynfer and scrapes him with his front claws. Wynfer falls into a tree with a loud THUMP, and a gash of blood on his right leg appears. Out of the fog he notices a slingshot with dried blood on it so he picks it up off the rocky ground and loads it with a couple of stones. He flings them at the diamond dragon’s scales and surprisingly, some fall off like cans raining down in a can toss game.

The dragon runs, wounded by the jagged stones, leaving behind three shimmery diamond scales. Like the diamond scales in the note, Wynfer repeats.

***

A hooded figure walks out of the mist and realises that Wynfer only holds three diamond scales, and the dragon is nowhere.

“You were meant to make me rich!” yells the disappointed Messenger.

“What do you mean?” questions Wynfer.

“You were meant to kill it! I wanted the scales from the dragon. They are rare and expensive,” he says.

Wynfer realises he has been tricked but had not been the only one. The slingshot had been used before.

“But you said in the note the dragon would attack the village.”

“I fooled you, didn’t you realise that already?” the Messenger snickers.

Wynfer is filled with anger. He pulls his sword out ready to fight…