Story Contest 2016 #2 Results » Second Prize Winner - Sub-junior Category
“One day, Child, One day...” by Yamini, is the Second Prize winning story in the sub-junior category of the second biannual Short Story Contest 2016.
One day, Child, One day...
“Peter! Get down this minute before you hurt yourself.”
“But mum, it’s not real. It’s just a dragon made of wood. It can’t fly or breathe fire or do anything magical. Look, even the teeth are wooden.”
“Peter, take your hand out of that mouth and get over here at once.”
Yes Peter, do as your mother tells you. What’s wrong with children nowadays? They clamber all over me, tugging at my wings, putting their grimy fingers in my mouth. It’s all too much. Wouldn’t have happened when I was in my prime. Oh no, they wouldn’t have dared. The only thing going in my mouth back then would have been him. No wonder my teeth are blunt. It’s been ages since I have had a decent child to crunch on.
Of course it is all the fault of that Dragons Guild used to be worth belonging to once upon a time. Then it got bogged down by rules and regulations, health and safety, risk assessments. First they stopped us from breathing fire. Next came those ludicrous rules making the fighting with knights next to impossible. Then, if things weren’t bad enough, they banned the eating of children.
The final straw was when some bright shark on the committee thought it best that all remaining dragons become ornamental.
Before we knew what was happening, the guild’s chief wizard was out turning us all into stone or wood. That’s how I found myself here, a tourist attraction, standing peering out across the bay. Oh what I’d give to have my wings back and fly off over those mountain tops.
Now what’s this child doing? Surely he is not trying to …..? He is, you know. The little bugger’s trying to knock out one of my teeth with a stone. Probably wants it to show his friends. Cheeky little sod.
“Peter! Put that stone down, you are going to hurt yourself. Get down now and I will buy you an ice cream.”
As peter dropped the stone and started to clamber down, he could have sworn he heard the dragon whispering his name and saying, “One day, child, one day……”
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