Sparky the Baby Green Dragon

tried to work out if she would catch Sparky before he reached Maria.

  “If I’m running at 5 miles an hour and Sparky is running at 4 miles an hour and Maria is standing still…hmm I should overtake Sparky…. hmmm” She tried to reason. “It’s no good. I can’t do sums and run at the same time,” she conceded.

  Meanwhile, Christina was indeed catching up to Sparky; she was almost at his tail. “Perhaps I should stamp on his tail,” She thought.

  She tried but kept missing. It’s difficult to stamp on a dragons tail while you’re running. You try it! Suddenly, a lot of things seemed to happen at once. Costa appeared out of nowhere, just behind Maria, carrying his giant water gun. He brought it up to eye level, took aim, and squirted a jet of water right into Sparky’s face. Sparky stopped dead in his tracks. It all happened so quickly that Christina didn’t have time to think or react. She ran headlong into the back of Sparky. It was like several cars crashing together. With the force of Christina hitting him in the back, Sparky slid into Maria with Christina still on his back. He knocked Maria sideways into Costas and they tumbled over. Costa’s water gun went flying and so did the little dog that Maria was holding. As they sprawled on the ground Sparky landed on top of them with Christina still attached to his back.

  Poor Costa, one minute he was shooting green dragons with his water gun, and the next thing he knew he had Maria, Sparky and Christina piled on top of him.

  “Wish my dad was here.” He thought. “He’d be strong enough to get this little lot off of me.”

  “Well call him,” said Sparky.

  Costas was shocked. Then Christina whispered. “The dragon can hear your thoughts Costas, so don’t think!”

  “Don’t be silly Christina” said Costa. “Dragons can’t hear thoughts, nobody can hear thoughts.”

  But Costa was not certain. He had tried to sound confident, but inside he was a little scared.

  “Can he really hear my thoughts?” He wondered.

  “You are a silly human boy,” said Sparky. “Of course dragons can hear thoughts.”

  “If you can hear my thoughts,” shouted Costas. “You know that my leg hurts. So get off me right now!”

  When Christina heard this she started to feel sorry for her brother. She realized that as she was the one on top of the pile, it was up to her to do something. After all it should be easy for her to get off Sparky’s back. How she could get Sparky off her brother was another problem altogether.

  She furrowed her forehead and closed her eyes in a great effort to think what to do. For Christina this was a monumental effort. Then suddenly she stopped thinking about what to do and wondered about Sparky. Why was he not commenting on her thoughts? Why was he not commenting on Maria or Costa’s thoughts either? He was simply squirming around and trying to flap his silly wings. She opened her eyes and glanced quickly at Maria and Costa. They both had their eyes closed. She closed her eyes again.

  “Why isn’t Sparky hearing our thoughts?” She wondered. Then it came to her. He can’t hear our thoughts when our eyes are closed. She decided to test her theory out.

  Keeping her eyes closed she thought. “Sparky, do you have any other names?”

  Not a sound from Sparky. This time she opened her eyes and thought the same thought.

  “Yes, Sparky Junior the third,” said Sparky.

  Christina smiled for the first time in quite a few minutes. She closed her eyes and began to think of ways to get Sparky to move. Suddenly she had a thought. Two thoughts in one day were exceptional for Christina. “Sparky?” She said, keeping her eyes wide open.

  “What!” shouted Sparky.

  “Have you ever flown at all?” questioned Christina.

  “I can’t fly. I already told you that,” said Sparky. “I can’t fly, I can’t shoot fire from my mouth, I can’t do anything like an ordinary dragon, and I’ve lost my parents,” moaned Sparky. “Wait a minute! I did fly once by accident.”

  “How did that happen?” said Christina. “What were you doing at the time?”

  “I was sleeping in my father’s favorite hammock, which was hung between two tall trees. It was quite high, at least 15 meters from the ground,” added Sparky.

  “And?” asked Christina. “Did you fly up to the hammock?”

  “No, my father took me up to it.”

  “Did you fly off the hammock then?”

  “Sort of - I must have rocked the hammock too much in my sleep, and fell off. Next thing I knew I was falling to the ground at great speed. I was so scared, I squeezed my eyes tight shut and suddenly I was flying. When I opened my eyes I was near to the ground and landed on my feet unharmed. That’s the only time I’ve ever managed to fly,” sighed Sparky.

  Christina smiled. “That’s it!” she cried.

  “Great,” said Costa, “You two go ahead and chat, while my leg withers away from the pain and the weight of you all on top of me.”

  “Wait a minute Costa,” shouted Maria. “Christina has thought of something.”

  “About time,” moaned Costa, “I hope her thoughts did not hurt her too much,” sniggered Costa.

  “Shut up Costa and listen,” shouted Christina.

  “Sparky!” said Christina. “I have an idea. Why don’t you close your eyes and try to fly.”

  “Ha, ha, ha” laughed Sparky. “That’s a crazy idea!”

  “Just try pleeeeeease.” begged Christina.

  “Okay,” said Sparky in a resigned voice. “I’ll try.” With that Sparky closed his eyes and flapped his little wings. Nothing happened for a minute, and then Sparky began to rise up like a helicopter, then he dipped his wings, and flew a few feet, before landing softly on the ground.

  “There you are,” cried Christina. “You CAN fly! And thank you for remembering I was on your back and for not flying very high.”

  Costa and Maria picked themselves up and stood and stared at Sparky.

  “Bravo Sparky,” cried Costa and Maria in unison. “Well done Christina, you do have the ability to think now and again”.

  “Grrrrrrrr,” thought Christina. “They are always teasing me. What are you going to do now Sparky?” She asked.

  “I don’t know.” said Sparky.

  “Would you like to come home with us and have something to eat?” offered Christina.

  “Thank you, I would like that a lot.” said Sparky, beaming a toothy smile.

  “What do you like to eat?” asked Costa.

  “Most things,” answered Sparky, “I love rats and mice, and my mother does a really delicious bat soup.”

  The children stopped in their tracks. Christina looked at Costa and grimaced. Maria just stared at Sparky.

  “Yuk,” thought Christina.

  “Hmm,” said Costa sarcastically, “I don’t think spaghetti is going to go down so well.”

  “What’s wrong?” Said Sparky, “Don’t you like meat?”

  “Yes we do”, said Maria, “but not that sort of meat.”

  “Wait.” Cried Sparky suddenly, and he started running towards the olive tree where Christina had first seen him. “I’ve forgotten my travel bag.”

  Moments later Sparky emerged into view with small green travel bag hanging of his shoulder.

  “You don’t wear clothes,” said Costa, “so what do you need a travel bag for?”

  “There are other things I need,” said Sparky, as he opened the bag. “Look!”

  They looked. Then they looked again and then they looked at each other. In the bag were two items. A large brush like object and a large bottle filled with a clear liquid and labeled ‘Dragon Gas Toothpaste.”

  Costa spoke first. “What’s this?” He asked, pointing at the brush like object.

  “It’s my toothbrush,” answered Sparky.

  “And this?” asked Maria, pointing at the bottle of Dragon Gas Toothpaste.

  “I don’t know,” said Sparky. “My mum packed my bag but I haven’t used it yet.”

  “Oh let’s go,” suggested Costa. He was looking at
Christina as he said it because he noticed that she was getting an idea. She was thinking hard, he could tell because her eyes were shut tight. He figured that three thoughts in one day would be too much for her. So it was better that they continued towards their home.

  “Don’t tell me you’re getting an idea,” laughed Costa. “Four ideas in one day has got to be a record,” he smirked.

  “Okay smarty pants,” said Christina. “Yes I have an idea, listen! Sparky can’t breathe fire right?”

  “Right,” agreed Costa.

  “Well why does his toothpaste, which he has never used before, have the word ‘gas’ in the title?”

  “Yes!” shouted Costa. “Bravo Christina, at last you have an idea that might work,” he teased.

  Christina put her hand into Sparky’s bag and pulled out the bottle and the brush. She unscrewed the cap and handed it and the brush to Sparky saying. “Clean your teeth Sparky and then face away from us and try to breathe fir.”

  “Oh alright,” said Sparky in a resigned voice. “You know I can’t breathe fire so how is cleaning my teeth supposed to help?”

  “Just do it,” Christina said smiling.

  Sparky poured some of the liquid from the bottle onto the brush and brushed his teeth, then after a few minutes of vigorous cleaning he put the brush down, turned away from his friends, opened his mouth and……….nothing.

  “Try again,” urged Christina.

  Sparky tried again then suddenly a clicking noise emanated from his throat and Christina, Costas and Maria stared at Sparky as a small flame appeared at the end of his nostrils.

  “I can breathe fire!” yelled Sparky jumping up and down on his webbed feet.

  The three friends high fived each other and