Dragon's Friend by Jamie Larsen
Deep within a forest there was an old church, but this church was no longer used for worship, for it had been declared a dragon’s den. This dragon wasn’t huge like most dragons were, she was about the size of a cow, she was a peaceful dragon too. But the villagers did not think dragons were peaceful at all, in fact, as far as they were concerned, a dragon is a dragon no matter how big they were. Dragons were always burning down villages and stealing riches from the poor villagers, is what many would tell you. This is wrong because if the villagers slowed down and got the facts right, they would find that most dragons are nice and don’t wish to wreak havoc on every village they see.
Now this little dragon, she was a soft pink color and her name was Pearl. Loved living in the old church, she also loved gathering odd little trinkets rather than gold and other riches. Pearl would venture out somedays and wander her forest, staying close to home of course. One day when Pearl was curled up in her favorite window, sunning herself, she heard voices and footsteps. She froze, afraid to move, knowing all too well what happens dragons and humans come together. After a few moments that seemed like an eternity, she carefully moved her head little by little to scan the yard below.
She could see anyone yet, but she definitely could hear them. Pearl figured the maybe if she couldn’t see them then maybe they couldn’t see her yet either. So slowly she slides from her perch in the window, thinking of the best place to hide in her little church until these humans left. The best place to hide was underneath the statue of an angel, but it was full of her favorite trinkets. So, she went to the next best place and found she had gotten too big to hide there, realizing the last time she hid there she was still a baby.
Suddenly Pearl heard the voices from earlier, they were at the front door! She had to think fast, looking around desperately she saw a table covered in cloth by a statue of an angel. She dove for it, sliding under the cloth just in time, as the door opened.
“Hello?” a delicate voice spoke “Hello, is anybody here?” the voice was met with silence and floating dust. The human decided to enter further into the old church along with three others. From underneath the table Pearl could only see their feet, but she could tell that there were three men and one woman.
“Well, it seems this place has been abandoned.” A gruff male voice said. “Yeah, I wonder why?” the delicate voice responded. “Who cares why, there’s supposed to be a dragon here, so kill it and collect the reward money.” Another male voice said. Pearl didn’t like the sound of that, she had heard rumors of bounty being put on dragons, but figured she was safe being this deep in the forest, guess she was wrong.
The humans moved out of the corridor, presumably to start searching for Pearl, hopefully she would have a chance to sneak out and hide in a nearby cave. But that thought was dashed from her mind as quick as she had thought it, for one of the male humans come back and closed and bolted the door. There was no chance of escape now, some dragons could use their claws like humans and open things, but that was never Pearl’s strong suit. She tried and tried before one day she decided to give it up altogether.
“Let’s split up you two go that way and me and the girl will go the other way.” The gruff voice earlier said gesturing to his companions “Now hang one why do you always get the girl when we split up?” one of the other males asked, clearly annoyed. “Because I’m the leader of this group so what I say goes.” The Gruff one shot back. “Do we have to do this argument again? It’s getting old.” The girl said with a heavy sigh. “It’s not like you can trust either of these two, darling, what if they did something to you?” Gruff said. “Like what!?” the two males shouted.
“How about this, I have a stick here, I break it into four pieces but one of them is smaller. Now we each draw a stick and whoever gets the small one goes with me, okay?” the girl said quickly diffusing the tension “Fine.” They all agreed and drew sticks Gruff and one of the other males went together and the girl with the third male, who was quiet and timid.
They searched all day finding no sign of Pearl, she had stayed where she was, not daring to move a muscle. When night fell the humans decided to stay in the church, even though as Gruff put it; it was too risky. But the others voted to stay where it was warm with soft beds. Around midnight Pearl finally decided to sneak out of her hiding place. She crept to the room she slept in only to find the girl had taken it for the night. As Pearl was turning to go back out, she knocked a vase over with her tail, it landed with a loud crash, waking the girl. Pearl froze waiting for the girl to scream for the others, but it never came instead the girl whispered; “don’t be afraid I’m not going to hurt you.” “Why not?” Pearl asked “Well, for one I’m not in it for the bounty and for two you’re pink! Even in the dark I can tell and I love pink!” “So, you’re not afraid of me?” Pearl asked, still whispering “No, not all, I have always wanted to meet a dragon and become friends with them, so, would you like to be friends?” “Yes, I would love that.”
