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DRAGONB  9' The orphan and the queen of the dragons

Once upon a time a long time ago in a land far, far away, there
was a knock on the door of an orphanage. When the owner of the
orphanage opened the door, noone was there. But when she looked
down, she saw a basket with a rolled-up blanket in it. When she
unrolled the blanket, there was a newborn baby in it. In the
folds of the blanket was a note written on a small scrap of
paper. It read: "her name is Blanca". There was a string tied
around the baby's neck. Attached to the string was a small key.
That was all the owner found in the basket. So, she took the
baby in and raised it with the other orphans.

After a while she discovered why the baby was given the name
BLANCA. Blanca means WHITE. And when the baby's hair grew, it
was pure white.

Occasionally, the string around Blanca's neck wore out and the
key fell off. Every time it did, someone asked, "What's the key
for? What does it open?" But Blanca couldn't tell them anything
except that it was with her when she came to the orphanage.

Blanca was a very athletic girl. She could play games and sports
as well as any of the boys in the orphanage. There was no tree
she couldn't climb, no boy she couldn't beat up. But she was a
kind girl. She only beat up boys when they were beating up boys
and girls who were smaller. The kids in the orphanage called her
Blanca the Protector. This made her the favorite of the owner of
the orphanage, who put Blanca in charge of the orphanage
whenever she had to leave it.

Blanca was also a very adventurous girl. Often, after the other
children in the orphanage were fast asleep, she would climb out
the window, climb up the tree near the wall, and jump over the
wall to explore the surrounding land.

One night she found a monastery in the hills. When she found
that the monks in the monastery were all fast asleep, she
explored some more until she found the library and lit a candle.
She found the maps and studied them to plan future explorations.
She discovered a map showing hundreds of snow-capped mountains
not far from the village. The date written on the map said that
the map was made in July, the hottest time of the year, yet
there was still snow in the mountains.

"This is definitely a place for me to explore!" she said to
herself. Then, while she was rolling up the map to put it away,
she noticed that one of the snow covered mountains was called
"Monteblanca".

"Monteblanca!" she exclaimed quietly to herself, "My name is
Blanca. What does MONTE mean?"

She looked up the word MONTEBLANCA in other books and discovered
that MONTEBLANCA means WHITE MOUNTAIN. It was called white
mountain because it had the most snow of all the mountains in
the area.

"This is definitely where I will explore first!" she said to
herself.

For the next several days, Blanca saved food from her meals to
pack for the trip to Monteblanca. She planned her trip to begin
during the full moon so that she could travel at night.

But on the day of the full moon, Blanca heard that a circus was
in town. So, after everyone was asleep, she jumped the wall to
wander through the rows of tents at the circus. She lifted the
flaps of several tents to peak under. Then she came to the tent
of the gypsy sooth sayer.

Although the gypsy's back was turned, she said, "Come in, child.
I've been expecting you."

"Me?!" exclaimed Blanca, "You were expecting me?!"

"Yes, child. I have a message for you." said the gypsy.

"Me?!" exclaimed Blanca, "You have a message for me?!"

"Yes, child." said the gypsy, "Listen carefully. The one who can
control the dragons will control all the kings of the earth. And
the one who controls the kings will bring peace to all the
earth."

Blanca replied, "I... I don't know what that means."

"You will, my child, you will." replied the gypsy, "Go now. Your
horse is waiting."

Blanca slid back under the tent flap saying, "My horse? I don't
have a horse. She must be talking about someone else."

But when she stood up and turned around, she saw a big beautiful
white horse running at full gallop in circles in the main tent.
A beautiful woman in a colorful outfit ran across the circle and
jumped up onto the horse's back. A moment later, the woman was
standing up and doing back-flips on the back of the horse.
Blanca said to herself, "Maybe the gypsy was talking about that
horse!"

So, she waited until the crowds left the circus and the circus
performers were asleep. Then she untied the woman's horse and
led it out to the open field and she rode the horse at full
gallop in the moonlight. She rode the horse easily. She had
never even ridden a horse before but she was already an expert.

So, while the horse was still at full gallop, she pushed herself
up to a standing position and rode the horse just like the lady
from the circus! Then, she quietly returned the horse and tied
it where she found it.

"That was fun!" said Blanca to herself.

By now the moon was full and it was high in the sky. It was time
for Blanca to leave for Monteblanca. She returned to the
orphanage. She put the food she'd saved onto the blanket and
rolled it up and tied it over her shoulder.

She climbed up the tree to the top of the wall and jumped down.
But instead of landing on the ground, she landed on the back of
the big white horse from the circus. And he took off at full
gallop.

"That's odd!" said Blanca to the horse, "Where did you come
from?!"

Then she noticed the direction the horse was galloping. It was
going toward the mountains.

"How did you know where I was going, boy?!" she exclaimed to the
horse as she patted him on the neck.

After several hours of riding, Blanca grew tired. But the horse
galloped as fast as when it started. Blanca laid forward onto
the horse's neck and hugged it while she fell asleep.

She was awakened when the horse came to a stop. Blanca looked
around. There in the moonlight she could see the mountain that
she remembered from the maps in the monastery.

"Monteblanca!" she exclaimed as she slid down from the horse's
back.

As soon as her feet hit the ground, the horse turned and
galloped away.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you going?!" she shouted.

But the horse was not coming back.

"Perhaps it's just as well." said Blanca, "This mountain is too
steep for a horse to climb anyway."

Blanca used her tree climbing skills to climb the mountain. But,
when she finally got to the top as the sun was rising, the snow
and the cold air caused her to shiver.

"What have I done?!" exclaimed Blanca as she rubbed her arms to
warm herself, "I've climbed this mountain only to freeze to
death!"

Suddenly, fire came down from the sky like rain! Blanca looked
up to see where it was coming from. It was a dragon flying at
top speed toward her. Blanca began running, but she didn't run
three steps before the snow under her feet collapsed and she
fell into a hole. She landed in one of two large golden chairs
with red velvet cushions.

"These look like the thrones of a king and queen!" exclaimed
Blanca. She was inside of what looked like a castle. She was in
a large room with flags and pictures on the wall.

"I must be in the throne room!" she exclaimed.

She went around the room looking at the flags and pictures.

"This was once a big and powerful kingdom!" she exclaimed.

Then she came to a painting of the king and queen sitting on the
thrones. Next to the picture was a small mirror. When she looked
into the mirror, Blanca saw that her own beautiful white skin
and white hair were exactly the same as that of the queen in the
painting.

"I must be a princess!" she exclaimed.

When she went back to the thrones, to take her rightful place,
she noticed a long golden box on the floor between the thrones.
There was a carving of a dragon on the cover of the box and
there was a word carved into the box. The word was BLANCA.

"That's me!" exclaimed Blanca.

She pulled the box out from between the thrones and tried to
open it but it wouldn't open. Then she noticed that there was a
keyhole in one side of the box.

"The key!" she exclaimed as she removed the string from around
her neck. She inserted the key into the key hole.

"It fits!" exclaimed Blanca.

She turned the key and it turned with a click. When she opened
the box, she gasped, "It's... it's a sword! But it's not like
any sword I've ever seen before!"

Indeed the sword was not made of steel or bronze or brass like
other swords. This sword looked like it was made of ice.

"That's odd!" exclaimed Blanca, "It's warm in here! How can this
ice be frozen?!"

She touched the blade of the sword.

"That's odd!" exclaimed Blanca, "It's not cold! It looks like
ice, but it's not ice! I wonder what it's made of!"

She wrapped her hand around the handle and lifted the sword out
of the case.

"It's so light!" exclaimed Blanca, "It's as light as a feather!"

Suddenly, the blade of the sword began to glow like the sun.
Cold water began to drip on Blanca's head from the ceiling
above.

"That's odd!" exclaimed Michaela, "The sword seems to be melting
the snow on the roof."

She went back outside to see if the snow was melting. As she
walked, the snow beneath the sword melted. Soon, all the snow
around the castle was melted.

Just then fire rained down from above again. But instead of
running for cover, Blanca raised the crystal sword overhead.
Immediately, the dragon stopped breathing fire. It landed next
to her and bowed down before her.

Just then Blanca remembered the words of the gypsy: "The person
who can control the dragons will control all the kings of the
earth."

Blanca was that person. Within two weeks, Blanca and the dragons
conquered all the kings who were at war against one another. And
all the kingdoms lived in peace ever after.

©2008 Bob Snook. Conditions for use:
This story is free. Pay no fees or royalties.
Do not sell this story or rewrite it.
You may reproduce and distribute this story freely,
but all copies must contain this copyright statement.
http://www.bobsnook.org/kid  email: bob@bobsnook.org

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