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DRAGONC  8' How the fire-breathing dragon myths got started

Once upon a time a long time ago in a land far, far away, a girl
named Michaela lived on a farm way out in the country. They
lived so far in the country that they didn't even have a village
close enough to go to church.

One morning, Michaela woke up as usual before dawn, got dressed
and went out to the hen house to collect eggs and feed the
chickens. Then she began to pull weeds in the vegetable garden.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a fox sneaking
toward the hen house.

"Not my chickens!" she said to herself.

And before she knew what she had done, with only one hop, she
jumped all the way from the vegetable garden to the hen house in
one leap, pouncing on the fox and picking him up by the fur on
the back of its neck. It was then that she noticed that the
snarling fox was as big as she was and he was very angry.

But, again, before she knew what she had done, she threw the fox
as easily as she could throw a pebble. The fox flew over the
tops of the tallest trees in the woods and landed so far away
that she couldn't hear it land.

"I must be dreaming!" she said to herself, "I can't run faster
than a fox! I can't pick up a fox with one hand! I can't throw a
pebble that far! How did I throw a fox over the tallest tree?!"

"Michaela, time for breakfast." shouted her mother.

Michaela thought for a moment, then said to herself, "No. How
could I be dreaming? I can't dream while I'm standing in a
vegetable garden pulling weeds."

But she decided not to tell her parents about her adventure
until she figured out how she did it.

"Good morning, Mother. Good morning, Father." she said as she
sat down at the table.

But they didn't answer. They looked worried. They nodded their
heads at one another and shifted their eyes at one another.

"What's wrong?" asked Michaela, thinking maybe they had seen
what she just did to that fox.

"We have something to tell you." said her mother.

"Did I do something wrong?" asked Michaela.

"We wanted to tell you before. But we didn't know how to tell
you." said her father.

"Tell me what?" asked Michaela.

"Today is your sixteenth birthday." said her mother.

"Well, that's good news, isn't it?" asked Michaela, "Why do you
look so worried?"

Her father explained, "Sixteen years ago today, we adopted you."

"Oh!" exclaimed Michaela, "So, I'm not your real daughter?!"

"No," replied her mother, "You were a special baby."

"Special?" asked Michaela, "What does that mean?"

After breakfast Michaela's parents walked with her over the
nearby hill explaining, "Sixteen years ago, just after dark, we
saw this streak of like falling from the sky. We thought it was
a shooting star or a comet. But we heard it crash over there."

Her father pointed to the valley beyond the hill, saying "The
egg shaped thing crashed there on the far end of the valley but
it was going so fast that it dug into the ground all the way to
this end of the valley."

"Egg shaped?" asked Michaela, "What was it?"

They took Michaela to a hiding spot behind some rocks nearby,
then lifted off a tree branch. There underneath was what looked
like a metal egg about as tall as Michaela. Her dad pushed a
button on the side of the egg. The egg hissed softly, then let
out a low woosh. Then the egg split in half. There was a small
mattress and a pink blanket inside.

"We found you in there." said her mother, "Sixteen years ago."

"You mean, I came from the stars?" asked Michaela.

"Yes," replied her dad, according to the message we got
yesterday, you're from the Andromeda Galaxy, wherever that is."

"Message? You got a message about me yesterday?" asked Michaela,
"I didn't see anyone delivering a message yesterday."

"It came last night after you went to sleep." explained her dad.
"We saw another shooting star."

They took Michaela over another hill to the place where a second
metal egg landed. Again, there was a long trench where the egg
crashed and plowed up the ground when it slowed down.

"What did the message say?" asked Michaela.

Again, her father uncovered the egg in its hiding place and
pushed the button. Again, there was a hiss and a low woosh as
the egg split open. Inside were large black bag with a handle on
it, another smaller black bag and a hand-written note:

Michaela read, "Dear Princess Reenah..."

She turned to her parents and exclaimed, "You mean I'm a
princess?!"

"Apparently." replied her mother.

Michaela continued reading, "You are now of age to take your
rightful place on the throne of our kingdom. But we are still at
war with a nearby planet. This war is why we sent you to the
Milky Way galaxy to protect you. But it is quite likely that the
enemy, knowing that you are now of age, will hunt you down and
try to kill you as they did when you were born. Therefore, it is
essential that you put on this suit of armor...."

"Suit of armor?" asked Michaela.

Her mother pulled a silver one-piece body suit from the smaller
black bag and held it up to Michaela's body. "Well, it looks
like it will fit you perfectly. But it doesn't feel at all like
armor." she said.

"You'd better put on the armor right away!" said her dad.

"Why?" asked Princess Reenah.

"We saw another shooting star this morning just before you woke
up." replied her dad. "It might be the soldiers from that other
galaxy who want kill you."

Sure enough while Princess Reenah was changing into her
tight-fitting body suit, she heard the loud wooshes and floomps
of huge flying machines coming over the hill. Her mother helped
her put the gloves, booties and hood on, while her dad pulled
the big black bag out of the egg. He unzipped the bag quickly
and pushed the button inside. Without warning, a gadget inside
unfolded and expanded into a flying machine similar to those of
the enemy soldiers flying toward them. All the machines had
mouths and tails like alligators, necks like giraffes, legs like
elephants and huge wings like birds.

Now covered by full body armor, Princess Reenah jumped onto the
back of the flying machine between its wings, shouting,
"Quickly, run and hide!"

Her mother and father jumped behind some rocks as the first of
the enemy flying machines began to breathe fire from their
alligator mouths. The fires touched Princess Reenah, but the
armor protected her. There were two joy-sticks between her legs,
which she quickly learn how to operate. Within seconds, her
machine was flapping its wings and flying through the air.

At first, she merely flew away from the enemy flying machines,
but after she learned how to use the controls, she began to go
after the enemy soldiers. One by one, she flew at them from
above, then pushed the button to release the fire. One by one
the enemy flying machines caught fire and crashed.

But the last machine had an expert driver. He wouldn't let her
fly above him. So, she couldn't burn his machine like all the
others.

Finally, she remembered how she caught the fox in the chicken
yard. She flew her machine along side of the enemy machine, then
she leaped through the air more than twice as far as she'd ever
jumped before. She landed on the back of the enemy's flying
machine behind the driver. She grabbed him by the back of his
neck, lifted him up and threw him as far as she could.

But by now, her own flying machine had crashed and burned. And
now, the enemy's flying machine was flying right toward the
ground. At the last moment, she used her powerful legs to jump
off. She landed on her feet, but she was going so fast that she
fell and rolled end over end. But her body armor protected her
from harm.

She went back to her mother and father and kissed them goodbye.
She must now take her rightful place on the throne way out in
the Andromeda Galaxy.

She got into the big metal egg and pushed a few buttons, the egg
closed with a woosh and a hiss. Then off she flew into the sky
with a woosh. She looked back down at the ground to see all
twelve of the enemy flying machines and her own were completely
destroyed. But several farmers had seen the flying machines and
told their friends that they had seen fire breathing dragons.
And that's how the myths about fire-breathing dragons got
started.

©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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