A Dragon Sized Surprise

“Tick-tock!” Katie sat up in her bed, eyes wide. She had the most peculiar dream about a dragon…the same one she had all the time…oh well. She shook her shoulders, reminding herself it was morning. She looked around her room, Katie’s bedroom was filled with half-finished paintings and rickety old easels. She loved to paint, but never had inspiration. She stood up, out of bed, and looked in the mirror. Katie had shoulder-length dark brown hair with lavender highlights. She pulled on a gray T-shirt, jeans, brushed her hair out, and decided that was enough. Katie didn’t really care how she looked, though her most defining feature was definitely her bright purple eyes. She had never met anyone else with purple eyes and everyone always thought they were “freaky.” Personally, she loved them. They made her unique.

           “Here goes another very boring day. Like every day.” She remarked under her breath after she said goodbye to her parents and ran out of the door to their apartment. She had ten minutes to walk to school, though she wasn’t in a hurry. So, Katie took her time, slowly walking down the busy sidewalk. She lived in a big city for her parents jobs, though she could never quite remember the name of it. Most people said Katie was absent minded, though she didn’t think so. She just preferred to pay attention to the small details, and less the bigger picture.

She glanced at her watch, noticing she still had plenty of time so she stopped in a local bakery to buy a croissant. It was only when she walked outside of the store, unwrapping her breakfast, she noticed something was odd. There was a weird static noise buzzing in her ears. Katie glanced around but she didn’t see anything different so she kept walking. After taking a few bites of the (extremely dry) croissant, Katie heard the noise again. No one around her seemed to, but this time it was blaring loud. Katie ducked into a nearby alley to hopefully get out of signal from the noise. She was horrified when she realized it was coming from right beside her.

           “Thunk.” She dropped her croissant on the dirty city ground. She couldn’t believe her eyes. A giant, 10-foot-long dragon was standing in front of her holding a strange device in front of what looked like a map. The noise was coming from the device.

“Wha…” Was all Katie could get out of her mouth. She had so many questions. Why was there a loud noise? What was on the map? Why had her croissant been so dry? Why was there a dragon in an alley in a big city? That was probably the most important question. Slowly, the dragon looked up from the map. Katie’s jaw dropped as she got a better look at the dragon; it was bright teal. From its long snout to its pointed tail, it was neon teal. But the thing about the dragon that shocked her the most was that it had bright, purple eyes. Just like her.

           “Why do you have purple eyes?” Katie blurted. The dragon stared at her as his device powered down.

           “Who are you?” The dragon asked, in a crisp accent.

           “My name is Katie. Now answer my question.”

           “You can understand me.” The dragon remarked quietly, mostly to himself.

           “Yes. Now. Why are you here?” Katie asked growing impatient with the dragon, who was now muttering to himself, staring at his map.

           “Can you read this?” The dragon asked quietly, holding up the map. Katie looked at it. It was titled “Map to Mythic Cure-all.” Though there were symbols she didn’t know she could read all of the words.

           “Yeah, I can read the words. The title says ‘Map to Mythic Cure-all.’” Katie explained. If a dragon’s jaw could drop, this dragon’s would have.

           “You can read English?” The dragon asked, sounding amazed. He stared at the map again.

           “Yes! Now will you PLEASE explain to me, why is there a dragon in this big city hiding in an alley?!” Katie cried.

           The dragon was silent for a moment. “You answered the call.” He said quietly. “You answered the call.” He repeated, louder. “I have been searching for so long for someone that can read in English. I can speak human languages, understand them, but I can’t read them. You can. I need your help, Katie. It could very well be for the sake of my species existence.” The dragon pleaded.

“What is in it for me?” Katie asked.

“From the paintbrush tucked behind your ear and the stains on your shirt, I can assume you are an artist. You can paint anything on our journey. Just please come with me? Please help me?” The dragons large, purple eyes looked so sad. Katie sighed, realizing she had already missed the start of school. Oh well, this would be way more exciting than school!

           “Ok I’ll help.” She agreed. The dragon smiled-if dragons could smile.

           “Perfect. We need to get out of here, I’m assuming your world doesn’t generally have dragons.” The dragon started levitating in the air, spinning around faster and faster. Katie stared, astonished. He was almost flying!

           Suddenly the winds turned into a small tornado under the dragon. As soon as it was created the tornado exploded, creating a small, smoky-gray hole in the brick building beside them. The dragon floated back down beside Katie.

           “Follow me.” The dragon stated, floating into the hole. He disappeared! Katie looked around the alley, assuming it was a trick. It wasn’t. She took a deep breath, and crawled into the hole.

           Katie was falling. That’s all she knew as she glanced around. The world was dark green with streaks of yellow around her. She tried to look down and quickly realized the ground (if that’s what that was) was closer than she thought. She shut her eyes as she hit the ground and rolled. When Katie opened her eyes, she couldn’t believe what she saw. The dragon was standing above her, his teal skin a sharp contrast compared to the dark green sky. Wait. A dark green sky?!

           “Welcome to Emberfold!” The dragon announced. “I’m sorry you had a uh rough entry.” Rough entry was understating it. She fell from the sky! Katie stood up brushing herself off, surprised she hadn’t broken any bones. From a vertical angle she had a better view of where they were. The sky, as she already discovered, was dark green. But as she looked closer she realized the yellow streaks were dragons. Katie and the dragon were standing in front of a large river, that was made of dark orange streaks. It seemed as though they were standing in a valley, surrounded by mountains. Far off in the distance was the silhouette of a city. The grass under her feet was a royal blue color, it was almost like the sky and ground had switched compared to what It was on Earth. Things were weird here on…what did the dragon say? Emberfold?

           “What is Emberfold?” Katie asked.

           “It’s where we are! The land of the dragons.” The dragon seemed to pause for dramatic effect. “I recognized a symbol on that map, this river. It seems like we have to cross it.” The river looked far too long and deep to wade, and it looked strangely like fire.

           “Is…is that river made out of fire?” Katie quietly asked. The dragon laughed.

           “Definitely not. Water here is orange, unlike your Earth where it’s clear.” The dragon explained.

           Katie nodded. That made sense because everything else here was a strange color. Katie’s eyes widened as she realized something. “I never asked what your name was!” She blurted.

           “Don’t worry about it. My name does not translate into English. Just please call me Dragon.” Dragon explained. Katie nodded again.

           “Let’s cross this river.” Dragon pointed his taloned-tail up at the sky. Suddenly a small tornado appeared just like before, but this time the tornado stayed intact and it rushed to the river. The water seemed to slowly rise into the air as it swept into the tornado. Before Katie could blink, all the water in the river was floating in the sky as small water particles.     

           “Whoa.” She breathed. Dragon floated across the now dry plain, so Katie followed him. As her body touched the small water particles she got wet like she would if it had been raining, but not nearly as wet as she would have if they had been swimming in the water.

In no time, they had crossed the river. Dragon dropped his tail to the ground, and the tornado disappeared making all of the water particles fall back down into the river. The unlikely duo was now standing in front of a large mountain. Dragon handed Katie the map, and she analyzed it.

           “It says to climb the mountain to a cave at the top. The artifact is hidden in the cave.” Katie explained. The dragon nodded and floated over to the mountain. Thankfully, there was already a worn path to follow, that wasn’t too rocky. Weirdly, unlike everything else the mountain was gray just like stone on Earth. Katie tried not to think about it too much, this place was confusing.

Over an hour later, they weren’t even halfway up the mountain. Katie was getting tired; the terrain had turned very rocky and she was climbing with her hands and knees. Abruptly, the land plateaued.

“Can we please stop…for a break…to breathe.” Katie rasped. She had not prepared to climb a mountain this morning. Dragon sat on a nearby rock while Katie was keeling over.

           “We should almost be there; will you check the map?” Dragon asked.

Katie pulled out the map and read it, “It says turn right at the plateau, continue up until reaching the cave.” The map was the weirdest map Katie had even seen. It showed a symbol that was the river, but then it was all words.

           “Katie we need to go right now.” Katie glanced up, and Dragon looked horrified. He was staring right behind her…she slowly turned around and could not believe her eyes. A giant, black and purple dragon was coming right at them. And looked furious. “Katie duck!” Dragon cried. Katie tucked into a ball on the ground. The other dragon landed right in front of Dragon.

           “You have purple eyes too.” He murmured. “How did you find a human?” He roared. Dragon looked scared.

“I went to Earth.” He mumbled.

           “You WHAT?!” The other dragon screamed. Dragon looked like a scared little kid.

“Who are you?” Katie asked. The other dragon turned to her.

           “I can’t let you climb this mountain and get to what is at the top.” The other dragon proclaimed. He blew a cloud of breath into Dragon’s face and flew off. The blast knocked Dragon backwards, and a talon fell off of his tail. Suddenly, the air filled with purple bubbles and smoke.

           “What is happening?” Katie asked.

“It’s poison! Cover your ears now!” Dragon cried. Katie was confused about the cover-your-ears part, but she trusted Dragon. She thrust her hands in front of her ears, until the smoke dissipated.

“What just happened?” Katie pondered.

           “That…that was my brother. Katie I have a long story to explain.” Katie sat down on the ground in front of him. “Katie, I’m the King of Emberfold. I’ve ruled for many, many centuries. The dragon you just met was my little brother, Paluire. He wants to be king, so he started a terrible virus. It has taken over my kingdom and killed many of my citizens. Whatever is at the top of this mountain is supposed to be the antidote to all viruses. I need to get whatever it is to save my people.” Dragon explained.

           “Wow. You must be a really good leader then. Wait but what was that purple smoke?” Katie replied.

           “He’s a poison dragon. Just like I’m an air dragon, we all have powers. Ironically, all dragons can fly except air dragons.” Dragon laughed. “In this world, poison only effects your ears.” That explained the cover-your-ears confusion.

           “We need to get to the top of that mountain. Fast.” Katie summarized.    

The two continued climbing in silence, until they reached the top of the mountain. The cave was just above Katie’s head.

           “I can’t reach it.” Katie sighed. Dragon flipped his tail up into the wind and a small tornado appeared, whisking Katie into the air. She giggled as she was carried up to the top of the cave. Dragon slowly appeared next to her. “I thought you couldn’t fly!” She teased.

           “I can’t fly, but I can control the winds.” Dragon explained. It still sounded like flying to Katie. “Here we are.” Dragon breathed. The two continued into the dark cave for a few footsteps before they reached the pedestal.

           Katie reread the map, “Once you reach the cave, say the magic phrase.” Dragon looked calm. “What’s the magic phrase?”

“A word that holds a lot of power in our world.” Dragon quietly uttered a word in the dragon language that sounded interestingly like Grilled Cheese.

The pedestal opened up and bright white lights flashed around the cave. The pedestal slowly opened like a case revealing…

           “Seriously.” Katie’s jaw dropped. Dragon looked like he won the lottery.

           “This is it! The antidote!” Dragon rushed over to the-

“Is that a grilled cheese sandwich?” Katie asked, with no emotion in her voice.

“What is that?” Dragon asked, but he wasn’t paying attention.

“I came all of this way to find a ‘magical antidote’ and it turns out to be a grilled cheese sandwich?! This whole journey! We almost died! For a common sandwich!” Katie ranted.

           “What do you mean common sandwich?” Dragon asked, inspecting the grilled cheese.

           “They have these everywhere on Earth! I ate one last week!” Katie yelled.

“Really? I’ve never heard of it. Even though it may be common on Earth, I’m glad I found it. Katie, you just helped me save my kingdom. Emberfold thanks you, a thousand-fold.” Dragon gave her a dragon-hug. “I cannot express my thanks to you.” Katie smiled.

           “No problem Dragon, I was happy to help. I was going to paint the artifact, but since I know what grilled cheese looks like, may I paint you?” Katie asked.

           Dragon smiled. “Of course. But we need to get you back to your home. I’ll miss you Katie.” Dragon tipped his tail into the sky, the tornado appeared, and another portal was created. Dragon slipped through the portal and Katie followed him. When she got her first look around at the same alley they left in, Katie smiled. As much fun as it had been to explore the world of dragons, she had to admit she missed her home.

           “Katie.” Dragon whispered. “Take this.” He held out the talon that had fallen off his tail during the fight with Paluire. “Anytime you want to come back, just toss this into the air. Be careful. Goodbye Katie.” She hugged him goodbye.

           “Take care of your people!” She cried after him as he disappeared back through the portal. The portal vanished into the brick building. Katie looked around, finally aware of everything around her. The alley she was in was fairly small, and the croissant was still on the ground. She smiled, that felt like several days ago even though it could have only been a couple of hours. Katie placed her talon in her pocket and walked to school, extremely late. Though she knew she learned a much more important lesson that day then she would have in school.

One week later

Katie was sitting on the front step of her New York apartment building. She was eating a grilled cheese sandwich, laughing to herself. A week ago, she would’ve just thought it was a random sandwich, but it was much more than that. It was something that could save an entire group of dragons! Katie missed Dragon and she wouldn’t trade her time spent in Emberfold for anything. She was much less absent minded now, after remembering every detail enough to paint a large mural of Emberfold and Dragon. Katie took a bite of her grilled cheese sandwich, laughing to herself, thinking “Who knew?”