@mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2059: dragon’s egg

Image by René Schué from Pixabay

“So, with our cousins sending us all this stuff, and y'all already having all your real mountain gear, I'm really hoping we can get up into the mountains and see if there are any nests for dragons.”

This was nine-year-old George Ludlow talking to his best friend nine-year-old Milton Trent next door.

“Sounds like a plan,” Milton said, “although my dad's relatives have lived up in these mountains since the 1860s and nobody has a story about seeing any dragons.”

“Well, it's like mountain lions are hard to find – if you know you are an endangered species, you kinda gotta stay out of sight,” George said. “Dragons have been endangered ever since a guy with my name had to kill one to save some princess and was called a saint for doing it.”

“Oh yeah – St. George and the dragon,” Milton said. “This is what I don't understand, George, about that whole story – first of all, I know Vanna, Velma, and Gracie. Any dragon who kidnapped them would probably need me to rescue him!”

“Yeah, same with Eleanor, Edwina, and Amanda over here. I mean, with Edwina alone, making that dragon redecorate to stay fashionable with the seasons – Amanda working on making sure all the dragons have cookies and fruit – Eleanor papier-macheing the thing down overnight – yeah, no. Six reasons why smart dragons stay in hiding between your house and mine, right there!”

“But that's not even the main thing,” Milton said. “How does killing an animal make you a saint? I mean, I haven't read the whole Bible, but, huh?”

“This is a question for Andrew,” George said, and went and got Andrew his ten-year-old brother, who brought out their grandfather's Bible.

“You've actually read all of it, Andy, so, how does killing dragons get you saved?” George said.

Andrew frowned.

“It doesn't,” he said, “but see, this isn't the right book for that.”

He went back and brought out his and Eleanor's books of Norse and Greek mythology.

“We sat down with Papa and discussed this – see, in European systems of religion, you basically became a saint for heroic deeds, and so our ancestors got confused.”

“Oh,” George and Milton said.

“That explains why a lot of species are endangered,” George said.

“Including a lot of humans,” Andrew added, “because if you don't have a real dragon to fight, you gotta make some stuff up to get your heroic deeds done.”

“I'm so glad my people are from Africa – that sounds like way too much work to get to Heaven from Europe when Jesus paid it all,” Milton said.

“Yeah, we and Papa figured that out too,” Andrew said, and came back with his grandfather's Bible and hymnbook. “It's just important not to get confused, so you gotta know the difference.”

“You know,” Milton said, “for the safety of local dragons, I think we had better not try to find any, because confused people are going to try to become saints the wrong way.”

“Yep,” George and Andrew said.

“Now wait a minute!” five-year-old Lil' Robert said as he walked into the conversation. “Y'all aren't going to get us a dragon's egg to scramble for breakfast? I'm already hungry thinking about it.”

Andrew reached out and put his arm around his baby brother.

“You love birds, right, and you know how birds love their chicks, right?”

“Right!”

“So, imagine us going and getting some mother dragon's egg out from under her, how she would feel.”

“Oop – no, never mind!” Lil' Robert said.

“There's a bigger problem,” Milton said. “Dragons shoot fire – we go and try that, and she'll be serving roasted Robert, Milton, George, and Andy to her bigger chicks for dinner.”

“Um … no!” Lil' Robert said. “I eat the food – I'm not gonna be the food!”

“And that's another reason to leave the local dragons alone,” Andrew said. “Meanwhile, Grandma is doing a good experiment with chickpea flour this week … the best scrambled eggs over rice without an unhappy mother chicken or mother dragon you have ever eaten.”

“Let me get that recipe for my folks, because y'all know Dad will barbecue anything,” Milton said … and the local mother dragons all breathed a sigh of relief, knowing their nests in the Blue Ridge of Virginia would be safe as the boys' imaginations moved on.