Dragon Keys

An original story by Holden Marcuss

Hello, my name is Ryder. I'm on a ship that sails back and forth along Zimmerman's islands. It's hard work, but I like it.

Captain said, "Ryder get up here."

 "Yes sir." I said.

"We have a problem," the captain said.

"What is it?" I said.

"We have a storm."

At the top of the mast, someone said, "land hoy."

"Captain, we're so close, should we keep going?" I asked.

"Yes."

"But we're heading straight for the storm."

The waves got bigger and the sky got darker. And then it started raining. There were flashes of lightning and many of the crew members got scared.

 "Sir, we're going to sink if we continue." Said one of the crew members.

 "No, we're not," the captain said.

Suddenly, CRASH pieces of wood flew everywhere. There was a hole in the side of the ship! We were going to sink.

"Or maybe we are." he said, "Abandon ship!"

 Everyone ran to the side and jumped as far as they could. The water was freezing cold and the waves were huge. I couldn't swim so I started sinking and then I blacked out. I don't remember anything. I just woke up suddenly on a beach. I had no idea where I was. I was very tired, and it was hard to get up. Suddenly, a dragon popped out of the sky. I was terrified, and I ran away. There was a forest near the beach away from the water, and I ran to it. I was just in the woods when I fell because I was so tired.

 "Where am I and why do dragons live here?" I said.

 I didn't get an answer, because as soon as I said that, I fell asleep. I woke up thinking “where I am?” and then I remembered the day before. I was suddenly struck by a wave of hunger and went in search of some food. I found a field with some blueberries in it and ate them all. I wasn't hungry anymore. But I was very thirsty. I went looking for some water. I searched for a lake and found a giant volcano, but eventually I found a lake. I drank a little and then spat it out. It looked disgusting. I decided to walk around to see if some of it was clean. As I walked around, I suddenly realized that there were dragons in the water. I finally found a part that was clean and drank from it. After I had drunk, a dragon jumped out of the water towards me. I yelled and ran away. I ran as fast as I could until I was tired and had to sit on a rock. I had to figure out where I was and how to defend myself against the Dragons.

 "This place is crazy. There are dragons," I said. "Dragons are only in stories and not in real life."

 I needed some shelter, so I slowly got up and looked for sticks. I found a lot of them at the end of the day. I stuck some of them in the ground to make a fence. Then I made a pyramid with the others. I was so tired as soon as I lay down on the floor that I fell asleep.

 I woke up and went back to the lake to get a drink. I was afraid to go to the lake, but I had to because I was thirsty. I went to the place where it was clean and drank from it.

I was still hungry. I picked up a stick and sharpened it as much as I could. Ifound a pig and killed it. I tried to light a fire. After a few failed attempts I finally got one going and cooked the pig. I ate a quarter of the pig and put the rest in my hiding place.

 I decided to explore the island more. So I picked up a stick and started walking towards the volcano. I tried to mark my path. I wasn't the best, but it worked. I started climbing the volcano. After a long time of hiking, I finally reached the top. I looked around and realized I was on an archipelago with twenty islands in it. They were close together. I could swim to the nearest one.

I turned to look at the other side of the island and realized that there was a dragon behind me. It was just a baby. It had an eggshell on its head, but it was still a little scary. But I tried to get the egg off its head by poking it with my stick. When I got out, the baby dragon just stared at me. After a few minutes of staring back, it jumped on me. I ran away screaming, but it looked like I was his mother, so it followed me. I quickly got tired, and it caught up with me. It didn't attack me. I was still a little scared.

ThenI realized it would be good to have a dragon. It wouldn't attack me because it thought I was his mother. And maybe once it was old enough, it could fly. So I stepped towards it carefully. It ran towards me. It landed on top of me, and we fell to the ground.

 I really didn't want to play with the dragon, but he didn't have parents. Also, it was cute. So I walked with the dragon to my hiding place. It was getting late, but I didn't know how to feed the dragon. So I went looking for some more meat and the dragon went with me. I found a rabbit and attacked it, but it got away. I looked behind me and realized that the dragon had half a cow. I was surprised it was able to catch it. After the dragon caught the cow, we went back to my shelter. I ate some of my pig. The dragon ate the cow, and then we went to sleep.

When I woke up, the dragon was gone. I waited a few minutes, and it came back with a pig and a rabbit. The dragon needed constant attention. I was barely able to make one bucket with some sticks and some sap so I could store water. I went to the lake and filled it up. When I returned, the dragon was gone again. I followed a trampled path and found the dragon. I realized it had just gone a walk. I went hunting, and I got a rabbit for myself and ate it for lunch. The dragon ate another cow.

Then the dragon and I went back up the volcano to look at the other side of the island. I forgot to do it yesterday because of the dragon. But when we got up there, the dragon went to the highest point and tried to flap her wings. I didn't understand what she was doing until she jumped off the cliff. She tried to flap her wings as much as possible, and she could just get back on the ledge. She couldn't fly, but I thought she could fly soon. I looked at the other side of the archipelago and realized that there was a large lake and a rocky plain on the other side of the island. We went back down the volcano and ate.

The following months were the same: playing lots of games with the dragon, hunting and exploring the island. The dragon grew large and was finally able to fly. I called her Bob the Bobface.

I was flying on Bob hunting one morning, but then I saw something that looked like a ship in the distance. We landed on the shore and found out it really was a ship. I saw crew running around on deck and realized the ship was not in good condition. I waited for them to come ashore. It took a long time, but they finally did it. They saw me and asked what I was doing here. Then they saw the dragon and were surprised. Then they attacked it. We both ran. They didn't chase us because they were too afraid to chase the dragon.

We ran back to the camp, and I said, "It's too dangerous girl, we have to hide you."

 I took her up the volcano and gave her some cows. Then I walked back to my camp alone. It was weird to be alone after all these days with my dragon. After lunch I went looking for the ship. I found the ship in the same place as before, but everyone was inside. I listened carefully to their conversation. There were fifty people. They looked for the island on the map of the ocean, but it is not on any map. Once they gave up, they started talking about the Dragons. They said they would kill all the Dragons. They also said their blood could heal anything. They talked about killing the Dragons and taking their scales and blood. They would get rich once they were back on the mainland.

"We need to find the human being so we can learn more about the island. We will say we saved them from the Dragons," one of them said.

 They sent a couple of guys to look for me. So I fled back to my camp. They didn't have that many weapons, only a few axes. But they were more armed than I was and could probably kill a few of the Dragons. I had some hunting spears, but they weren't metal like the axes. They were just made of stone and some sticks. I knew I needed something else, so I got a stick found some rope and made a bow. I stole the string from the ship. I just managed to get out before they saw me. I made some smaller spears and used them as arrows. “I need a better view of people,” I thought. So I gathered my food and weapons and went up the volcano. I saw them just as they went into the woods. A few minutes later I heard a roar. I ran down the mountain as fast as I could with my bow.

I found a horse, and at first it didn't let me get on his back. But then I picked up an apple and gave it to him, and then he liked me, and let me get on. I drove to where I heard the roar and found a dragon injured. There were no people around, but I heard some voices. I followed it and found that two people were injured and one was gone. There were now only forty-nine people. They continued to attack the Dragons, but they never managed to kill one. I tried to defend the Dragons, but it didn't help much. Without the Dragons’ hard scales and sharp claws I would have been dead. In the end, they left because they couldn't kill the dragons and they were down to twenty-five people. I never left the island again. I stayed and lived with the Dragons.

The end