Nadine
decided to take the shortcut through the woods on the way home.
For the first time since she started fourth grade she’d gotten
100% on a spelling test and she could hardly wait to show it to her
mother. Stepping from the
bright, warm sun of the meadow into the deep, cool shadows of the
closely growing oak trees made it hard for her to see clearly.
She walked slower, knowing from experience her eyes would adjust
in a moment. She saw
something on the path ahead of her.
Was it an animal? It
heard her coming and disappeared quickly into the underbrush, leaving
something in the path. Nadine hurried forward to see what it left. It was an egg, a large shiny egg.
Nadine knew
all about eggs. She lived
on a farm and saw chickens and ducks hatch eggs every year.
Last year her older sister hatched an egg with a hot water bottle
and a light bulb. Nadine
begged her parents to give her an egg to hatch, but they always said no.
She held the warm egg close.
It was too big to have fallen from a nearby tree.
Probably a dog had stolen it to eat and then ran away when it
heard her coming. Her
parents would have to let her try and save this orphaned egg.
Mother looked at Nadine when
she erupted into the house. One of Nadine’s ponytails had come loose, and
her dark hair was tangled. She was holding out a spelling test in one hand
while she tried to hold a large egg against her neck with the other. She
had begun talking excitedly as soon as the door was opened and she was
talking too fast for Mother to understand.
“Quit down a moment, Nadine.
Take a few deep breaths while I look at your spelling, then tell me about
the egg.”
Nadine obediently took the deep
breaths, and waited, though she felt like she would burst if she didn’t get
help for this poor egg soon. Mother was very proud of the spelling test,
and put it on the refrigerator for Daddy to see. Then she sat down and held
out her hand for Nadine to give her the egg. Nadine handed her the egg and
let the story gush out.
“There was this
egg-sucking dog or something who stole the egg from it’s mother and I scared
it away and rescued the egg and you will let me hatch it like Judy hatched
hers last year won’t you and I promise I’ll be careful and take good care of
it. You will let me save this poor little orphaned egg, won’t you. We
can’t just let it die!”
Mother looked at Nadine for a few moments. “We’ll do our best
honey. But it might die
anyway.”
“It won’t
die, Mother. You’ll see.
I kept it warm all the way home.”
******
Nadine took
good care of the egg and 4 weeks later it hatched.
Instead of a bird, a black lizard with a long slender neck and
two strange lumps on it’s back crept out of the egg.
"Oh, what a pretty baby lizard." said Nadine's Mother.
“OOOh!” exclaimed Nadine.
“A baby dragon.” She
picked it up and cuddled it against her cheek.
It looked adoringly into her eyes for a moment and then struggled
until she let it crawl around her neck.
Within a few moments it was sleeping coiled around her neck like
a living necklace.
Nadine was almost afraid to move for fear of waking up her
precious pet. Was it a boy or girl?
Thinking of those shiny little eyes, she decided it must be a
boy. She’d name him Drake
after Sir Francis Drake in her history book. But what could she feed it?
Grown up dragons ate cows and people.
That wouldn’t make Drake popular on the farm.
But he wouldn’t grow up for a long time. Right now he needed something tiny to eat – like a mouse.
Daddy had a box-trap
in the barn that usually had a few live mice.
Normally Daddy gave the mice to the cats. Today
she would give the mice to Drake. He
woke up as soon as he heard the squeaking of the mice.
He sniffed the box excitedly wriggling his whole body in
anticipation. As soon as
she opened it he pounced. He
swallowed a mouse in one gulp and coiled around Nadine’s neck and went
back to sleep. He slept the
rest of the day, waking up close to sunset to eat another mouse.
Since Drake
didn’t want to leave her neck, Mother thought it would be okay for
Nadine to take him to school the next day for show and tell. He was full from his breakfast mouse, and didn’t want to
wake up at school. He took
a bleary look at the students, then went back to sleep.
After
school was different, Drake wanted to play.
At first Nadine didn’t know he was awake.
Something kept hitting her ponytail or pulling it as she walked
home. No one was near, and
she moved far away from the trees, thinking she was catching it on tree
branches. Then she saw
Drake’s paw move and realized he was playing with her hair.
He played with her hair all the way home from school.
She took him into the barn to
feed him. He heard something moving in the straw and climbed down her leg
and jumped off before she could stop him. He disappeared quickly in the
straw.
Nadine panicked. Would he run
away? Would he get lost? Would a cat catch him? She dug furiously in the
straw, sobbing as she called out his name. Daddy heard her and came to see
what was wrong. He pointed to the piles of straw and hay everywhere in the
barn. There were too many places a small lizard-like creature could hide.
It was impossible to search them all.
Nadine sank down into the
straw, weeping because her pet was gone. Suddenly Drake’s head popped
out of the straw. She was relieved and happy to see him. He ran over to her,
rubbing against her the way a cat does. She could see his belly
bulging. He’d caught his own mouse. He climbed to Nadine’s neck and
curled up to sleep.
************************************
Drake made it clear that
Nadine’s neck was home. He wouldn’t let anyone else hold him more than a
few minutes. He allowed her parents to transfer him to his hot water bottle
and lamp at night, but he wouldn’t leave Nadine during the day except for
hunting. He enjoyed playing in Nadine’s shower, but he thought bubble baths
were more fun. He played hide and seek in the bubbles, or tossed bubbles
around. He slept during school hours and most of the evenings. He was
still very young and needed lots of sleep.
School ended and summer
vacation came. Nadine played with Drake all day long. He was growing and
spending more time awake. He started standing on her shoulder with his
front feet on top of her head, watching everything she did. Nadine took
Drake to all her favorite places. Drake played hide-and-seek with her in
the meadow of flowers. He curled up on her chest while she read and he
looked at the pictures in her books. He enjoyed playing in the apple tree
Nadine liked to climb. They explored every corner of the barn. Nadine was
afraid he’d chase the chicks, so she kept him away from the chicken yard.
Nadine loved being mother to a dragon.
Drake loved it when Nadine went
bike riding. He perched in her basket with his nose pointed forward in the
wind like the hood ornament on a car. The first time she took him to the
local swimming hole, Drake was ecstatic. He stood on her shoulder and she
could feel him tensing up as he watched the fish darting about. Finally he
could resist no longer. He didn’t even bother to climb down from Nadine’s
shoulder. He leaped straight into the shimmering water. A few minutes
later he surfaced with a fish in his mouth. He swallowed it whole the way
he swallowed mice.
***********************************
Drake was growing fast. By
July he was too large to ride Nadine’s shoulder or curl around her neck. The
bumps on his back were growing into fan shaped objects that looked like baby
wings to Nadine. He was catching rats instead of mice. Drake no longer
needed Nadine to carry him around. He could run as well as any dog, and
kept up with her everywhere she went
Being the mother of a young
dragon was starting to cause Nadine problems. Ever since Drake chased a
neighbor’s cat, Nadine had to keep him on a long leash. She realized
Drake would see all cats and small dogs as potential meals. She knew he
would try eating her friend’s pets if she took him with her to visit
them. Since Drake insisted on going everywhere with her, that meant
Nadine couldn’t visit her friends. She couldn’t go to Bobby Weaver’s
birthday party or Amy Patrick’s Bar-B-Q. Even if she could leave the
farm without Drake, he was too big to be left alone at home. There were
too many animals on the farm small enough for him to eat. Nadine made
sure he had plenty to eat now, but once school started she would have to
be gone all day. Drake was too big to take to school. And he kept
getting bigger.
Nadine’s parents were beginning
to see that Drake would soon be big enough to eat their stock. They started
talking to Nadine about putting Drake in a zoo. Nadine begged and cried and
even threw a tantrum. Nothing would change her parent’s minds. She could
keep him this summer, but at hibernation time he would have to be sent to a
zoo. The thought of putting him in a cage was unthinkable to Nadine. But
who would help her. No one would want an animal running around loose that
was big enough to eat people. What if he started to breathe fire?
************************************
She finally decided the only
one who could help her was Drake’s real mother. She took Drake into the
woods where she’d found his egg, and started to search. She knew she
wouldn’t find his mother the first day. Since no one had ever seen a dragon
before, she was sure the dragons lived far back in the unexplored part of
the woods.
Drake loved their trips in the
woods. He turned everything into a game. He would hide from her, and
suddenly jump on her when she passed. He’d climb trees and throw down
fruit, nuts or leaves. He’d race in circles around her when there was a
clearing large enough, then stop, look back over his shoulder and give her a
charming smile that would make her laugh. He explored every hole under
every rock, disappearing for a while to suddenly appear in front of her
giving his curious sounding warble that meant he was happy. Nadine took
Drake out to the woods every day.
****************************************
It was almost time
for the county fair, and Nadine still hadn’t found Drake’s mother. Time was
running out. Nadine didn’t know what else she could do. She was getting up
at four a. m. and eating breakfast with Daddy before he milked the cows.
Then she’d do her chores before the sun came up. Drake usually spent chore
time in the barn hunting mice and rats. Her parents had to admit Drake was
the best rat-catcher they’d ever had. After doing her chores, Nadine took
Drake to the woods to search for his mother.
Today they were exploring an
area of the woods with a tall, steep hill. There were lots of huge boulders
to get around. Drake ran off to play.
Nadine had been
climbing two hours when she realized Drake wasn’t keeping up. It had been
at least 15 minutes since he’d popped up to play some kind of trick on her.
“Drake? Drake!!” Nadine
shouted and whistled. She heard his answering chirp, but he sounded muffled
and far away. She moved toward the sound and called again. He answered
again, but it still seemed muffled. She moved around a large boulder and
saw a large cave in the hill. “Drake!!” He chirped again, and the sound
was definitely coming from the cave. Wishing she’d thought to bring a
flashlight, Nadine stepped into the cave. She didn’t dare go in very far
without light, but she needed to get Drake out.
To her surprise, the short dark
passageway opened into a large well-lit cavern. Drake was there, sniffing
at a depression in the sand and giving a strange croon. When she reached
the depression she saw eggshells, just like the shell Drake hatched from.
She’d found his mother’s nest site.
She sat down to rest and
think. She wondered how big the cave was. Was Drake’s mother deep
underground? She’d have to come back tomorrow with flashlights, rope and
string. She watched Drake sniffing around a pile of what looked like
manure. At least he wasn't rolling in it like a dog would. She wrinkled
her nose at the thought.
Suddenly Drake stood on his
hind legs and gave a strange rumble deep in his throat. He began low and
the noise kept increasing in intensity until Nadine thought her teeth would
shake out. She grabbed Drake and tried to stop him. He just kept making
that rumbling noise, so she left the cave to escape the worst of it. After
ten minutes, Drake came out of the cave, curled up next to her and took a
nap. She waited to see if anything answered Drake’s call.
She didn’t have long to wait.
Soon a huge dragon landed by the cave entrance. Drake jumped up and ran
over to greet her. It was obvious to Nadine this was Drake’s mother.
*****************************
After a few moments, the dragon
put her huge head over to look Nadine in the eye. “How can I thank you for
saving my son’s life?”
Nadine was shocked. “You
speak?”
“All dragon’s speak.”
“But Drake doesn’t.” Said
Nadine.
“Drake is a baby. He must
learn.”
“How did you lose Drake?”
Nadine asked the mother dragon.
“An evil elf stole his egg. I
don’t know how you found it, but I am very grateful you’ve taken such good
care of him.”
“Mrs. Dragon, I really love
Drake, but I can’t keep him. That’s why I’ve been looking for you.”
“Drake must grow up with his
own kind. As a baby he is a great danger to you and your kind. He must
come home with me. What reward do you want for saving my son?”
“I never wanted a reward. I
just wanted Drake to be safe.”
“Then climb aboard little
girl. I want to fly with you.”
Drake climbed up on his
mother’s broad shoulders and Nadine cautiously followed. She discovered she
could sit quite comfortably between the shoulder ridges, and there were skin
flaps she could hang onto.
“Hang on tight,” said the
mother dragon. Then she leaped into the air and flew off.
Nadine had never enjoyed a ride
as much as she enjoyed flying on the dragon. It was better than the best
rides at the fair. They skimmed over the trees and climbed to go over tall
mountains. After flying for about a half an hour the dragon landed in a
valley. She gave a call, and almost a hundred other dragons came out.
“Smell this human on my back. Smell carefully. And smell the dragonchild
with her.”
Nadine held very still as each
of the gigantic heads came close to her and sniffed. Finally each dragon
had a chance to smell her. Then the mother dragon rumbled at Drake, and he
dismounted. The mother walked into a cave and opened a chest, taking out
something very small.
“I have made you part of our
family. Each dragon here is now your friend. I also declare you to be a
dragon friend. Here is a small horn. Keep it safe. If ever you need help,
blow this and a dragon will come. And if you ever wish to see Drake, you
will be brought here to visit him. Now, hand on tight and I will take you
home.”
************************************
When Nadine got home, she told
her parents she had found Drake’s mother and left him with her. Her
parents weren’t sure they were comfortable with the idea of Drake loose in
the local woods. But when Drake didn’t return and no one reported any
animals dead or missing, her parents relaxed.
Nadine was able to go to the
county fair after all, and she was able to return to school knowing Drake
was safe from the zoo. She was able to visit her friends again. And Nadine
was able to go to the next Bar-b-q Amy Patrick gave.
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