Drako

An original story, inspired by a large dragon skull I found at Value Village.

Discovery

The whole kingdom had been rocked by a rare, late autumn storm. For three days and nights the kingdom was subjected to fierce unrelenting winds, pelting rain, and the constant roar of thunder as the flashing lightning lit up the skies like fireworks. When the wind and rain finally died down, the King sent out his knights to survey the damage.

Winston and Matias were sent to the seashore to see what effects the storm had had on the coastline, where they came across something totally unexpected....

"What is that?" asked Winston as he hovered above it.

"It looks like the skull of a dragon."

"It must have been one giant dragon!"

"It probably was. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to run into that one when it was still alive."

Matias got down to take a closer look....

"I wonder how it got here."

"It was probably washed up in the storm."

"Or, maybe it's been buried here all along, and the heavy waves during the storm uncovered it."

"Anyways, I think we need to go and report it."

An Expert Opinion

Winston was very curious about the dragon skull on the beach, and wanted to know more. So he went to get Willie and the Wizard. He figured if anyone would know something about it, it might be one of them.

"That is one huge skull!"

"Do you know anything about what it might have belonged to?"

"Well, it's clearly a dragon. A mighty huge dragon!"

"There's legends of dragons this size that lived thousands of years ago. They were called 'Drako' and were as fierce and dangerous as they were big. This skull is likely from one of them."

"But, there's none of them around now, at least as far as I know," commented Winston. "So what happened to them?"

"Well, according to legend, they became extinct following some kind of major natural disaster."

"And dragons were a lot smaller after that." added Willie.

"But there aren't any of those around now either." continued Winston. "For the longest time I thought I was the only dragon. Until I met Saphira, neither of us had ever met another dragon."

'That's true." said Willie, "People were terrified of dragons, so knights were sent out to slay them."

"And eventually they succeeded." added the Wizard, "And there were no more dragons."

"But, where did I come from then?"

Winston's Story

If dragons had all been slain into extinction, then Winston wondered how it was that he came to be.

"Well," answered Willie, "The knights may have thought that they had slain all the dragons, and in some regards they had, but there were still dragon eggs hidden about. And dragon eggs can continue to be viable, even after as long as a hundred years."

"One day, the Lady Miho, came across what at first appeared to be an unusual egg-shaped rock."

"But being a Fairy Queen and a powerful sorceress, with a great respect and curiosity for all things magical,"

"..she recognized it for what it was....a dragon egg. So she took it home with her, and put it in a nice warm spot beside the fire."

"She had no idea if the dragon inside was still alive, but it might be, so she was determined to make every effort to ensure that it might have every opportunity to actually hatch."

"She patiently watched the egg, and would turn it several times daily."

"Time passed slowly."

"But then, one day her patience paid off, and the egg hatched."

"It was an adorable baby dragon."

"She named you Winston."

'She was like a mother to you, and raised you to be the wonderful dragon we all know and love today."

Saphira's Story

"So I wasn't all that wrong," said Winston, "When I thought I was the only dragon. But what about Saphira?"

"Well, as you can guess.." said the Wizard. " Her story is a little different."

"Yes," continued Willie, "Her egg was discovered far away, beyond the northern mountains, in the realm of the Elves,"

"It was Daisy," she continued, "She was the one who found the egg."

"Her husband and a town elder said it was just a rock."

"But I think they were just a little afraid, and wanted to discourage her. After all, dragons didn't exactly have the best reputation, and the last thing they needed was for some fearsome beast to be running amok in their kingdom."

"But Daisy ignored them, and took the egg home."

"Thinking it should be treated just like any other egg, she put it near the fire to keep warm, and turned it over several times each day. The other elves made fun of her, but Daisy had a feeling that is was truly a dragon egg, and therefore very special, so she quietly kept vigil over it."

"And she was right. One day the egg hatched."

"It was a cute little baby dragon girl."

"Daisy and her Mother named her Saphira."

"When Daisy's husband came home, she introduced him to baby Saphira."

"Daisy hoped that her husband would let her keep the baby dragon and let her raise it."

"He was a little apprehensive, but then realized what an advantage it would be to his small army to have a real live dragon amongst its ranks. So he agreed to let her keep the dragon."

"So now you know," said Willie, ",why you and Saphira were the only two dragons we knew of...until the two of you had some little ones of your own. Although I guess it's always possible that there are more eggs still to be discovered somewhere."

"Anyways, I think we need to go report this to the King. I'm sure he'd be very interested to see it for himself."