Image by Aztlek via Flickr

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Dominic Drake.

Drake was a very brave boy.

And was not afraid of anything.

Especially, not afraid of dragons.

Yes.  Dominic Drake liked dragons.

One day, Dominic was sitting under a his favorite tree, at the top of a hill.

He was reading a book about dragons.

His horse, Hurricane, was eating an apple nearby.

It was a nice day.

Soon, Dominic Drake fell asleep.

All of a sudden, Dominic woke up.

It was windy.

And even though it was the middle of the day, on a hot day, it was now cool and dark under the apple tree.

A mysterious “WHOOSH… WHOOSH… WHOOSH” sound came from above.

“Is it about to rain?”,  Dominic Drake wondered.

He walked out from under the tree.

The sky was clear and blue.

There were no rain clouds in sight.

“WHOOSH… WHOOSH… WHOOSH”

Just then, he heard what people were yelling at him, from the bottom of the hill.

DRAAAAA-GOOOOOOOON!!!

DRAAAAA-GOOOOOOOON!!!

“Me?  I’m not a Dragon.  My name is Dominic Drake.”

“WHOOSH… WHOOSH… WHOOSH”

“LOOK UP, YOUNG DOMINIC DRAKE!”, they yelled.  “LOOK UP!!”

“WHOOSH… WHOOSH… WHOOSH”

Dominic Drake looked up.

And saw

the BIGGEST

MEANEST

SCARIEST

SCALIEST

HUNGRIEST

DRAGON

IN THE WORLD!

The Dragon’s teeth were each as big as a CAR!

The Dragon’s head was as big as a HOUSE!

The Dragon’s wings were as big as a bookstore! (Or, a library.)

And the Dragon was looking

right

at

Dominic Drake.

Dominic’s mouth was hanging wide open.

His mouth hung open for so long, that Dominic Drake began to drool.

He drooled on his shoes.

He drooled on his clothes.

He wiped with his hand.

It got on his nose.

Then Dominic Drake yelled…

“DRAAAAA-GOOOOOOOON!!!”

The dragons breath was hot and smelly.

Like hot dog water.

Or Saturday socks after soccer.

“Leave us alone, Dragon!” Dominic yelled.

He stuck his chest out to scare the dragon.

The Dragon was not scared.

In fact, before Dominic Drake could react, the Dragon SNATCHED Hurricane the Horse with its two Dragon feet.

And flew up into the sky!

HURRICANE!!!!!!

Now, Drake was scared.

But he would not let anyone take his horse.

So he took a deep breath.

He knew that he must do the thing that he most feared to do.

Dominic took another deep breath.

Hurricane was his best friend.

And Hurricane was scared.

Dominic Drake had to do something.

Dominic Drake took a third breath.

His hands were shaking.

His feet were quaking.

His teeth were rattling.

But Dominic was battling… the Dragon!

Dominic Drake leapt up as the Dragon flew by, and grabbed the Dragon’s tail.

The Dragon’s tail was as long as a long snake.

Looking back at Dominic Drake’s tiny body , the Dragon gave a scary Dragon laugh.

Flipping its tail, the Dragon flew STRAIGHT UP into the sky.

“NEEEIGH!”, said Hurricane the Horse.

Hurricane was terrified.

“HEEEEELP!!”, said Dominic.

Dominic Drake was scared.

The Dragon was flying off to Dragon mountain.

Where the most frightening of Dragons lived.

Just then, Dominic remembered that dragons were ticklish.

If he could just tickle the dragon under his wings…

Maybe the Dragon would let them go.

Dominic climbed the dragon’s scaly tail, and bumpy back.

Dominic crawled in-between the huge, huge, humongous Dragon wings.

Dominic  started to tickle under the Dragon’s left wing.

And at first, nothing happened.

It wasn’t working.

Dominic Drake was still scared.

But he was brave.

He did not quit.

Dominic pulled out a feather from his cap.

He tickled again, under the right wing.

This time, the Dragon laughed.

A tiny, Dragon laugh.

Drake tickled some more.

And the Dragon laughed harder.

When Drake tickled the third time, the Dragon laughed so hard, that fire came out of his nose.

WHOOSH!

“Dragon, put us down RIGHT NOW.  Otherwise, I will tell Hurricane the Horse to tickle your toes!”

The Dragon, kept flying.

“Tickle, Toronado, Tickle!!”

Hurricane the Horse started to tickle the Dragon’s toes.

More fire came out of the dragon’s nose.

The Dragon laughed so hard, that he had a tummy ache.

Slowly, slowly, the dragon flew back to the ground.

Dominic Drake was still scared.

But he was very brave.

Dominic Drake told the Dragon:

“Dragon – leave my friends alone, okay?  You can play with us, but stop scaring everybody, okay?”

“I WASN’T TRYING TO”, said the Dragon.

The Dragon started to cry.  A big Dragon cry.

Flaming snot came out of his nose.  It burned the grass.

“I JUST NEEDED SOME FRIENDS TO PLAY WITH!”, said Dragon.

“Oh”, said Dominic.

“Neigh”, said Hurricane.

“Well, next time, why don’t you just ask?“, asked Dominic.

“UM, I DIDN’T THINK OF THAT”, said the Dragon.

“Would you like to come and play with us tomorrow, Dragon?  We’ll be playing soccer, and playing puzzles.”

“YES, PLEASE!’, said the Dragon, clapping his wings in excitement.

“Okay. We’ll see you tomorrow, Dragon.”

“THANKS, GUYS!”, said Dragon.

“By the way.  My name’s Demetrius.”

“Bye, Demetrius!  See you tomorrow!”, said Dominic Drake.

“Bye, Dominic Drake. Bye, Hurricane Horse.” Demetrius Dragon flew off.

Slowly, everyone came out of their houses to see if Dominic and Hurricane were all right.

“Are you all right?”, asked everyone.

“Yes, Hurricane and I are fine.  We were scared, but the dragon is actually nice.  He just wanted to be friends.”

“YAAAAY!!!!”, said the villagers.

Everyone was happy.

Later, they made Dominic Drake a knight.

That means, he was very brave.

Dominic Drake and Demetrius Dragon became very good friends.

Demetrius Dragon didn’t scare people anymore.

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