2018 Writing Scrapbook

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Note: This was a Christmas present for my brother, Ryan.

She flapped her wings and ascended into the heavens. The scales on her back flashed a crimson red coloring as they shone in the early morning sun. Nobody would stop her from seeking her treasure today. Not the others, not her family, not her friends, not any interloper along the way! Today she would strike gold!

It had begun a mere three days ago. A peddler had stumbled across the dragon camp, a scrawny two-legged thing speaking in the tongues of the pink folks. She had considered simply writing it off as prey and devouring it, but it began to scream at her for mercy.

"Dragon! Dragon! Please don't eat me! I have a map!"

She stopped. "A map of what?"

"A map to find gold and silver and anything you can imagine! Riches to your heart's desire!"

A hiss. "Give me the map and I will spare you," she snatched it from his satchel the moment that he fumbled for it.

Looking over the puny scrap of paper, she allowed for the peddler to escape. Disappointment flooded her mind, until the next day, when a dragon mumbled something in its sleep. "The skull cave, just beyond the mountains..."

She had looked back onto the map to find a skull cave that was indeed located on the piece of paper. So she'd set out on her journey late the next day without telling a single soul. Flying all day, she soared over the landscape, pointing her nose to the sky and breathing in a whiff of fresh air.

As the stars returned from the land below, she reached a familiar-looking white cave. As she approached it, she noticed that it was merely the rock streaked with flecks of lighter stone, not a stark white pigment itself. She stayed the night in there before continuing on to the next item on the map.

She trekked past it, and then past the next checkpoint. The days grew longer, the nights colder. She was tired. Ever so tired. She stopped at a dragon camp to regenerate, a nomad of the land, but didn't expect what she found there. There was another female, young, her age, and she sat off to the side, away from the others.

She walked over to her and the two began to talk. "What's your name?" she'd been asked.

"Lara. What's yours?"

"Regina."

They talked and talked and talked until the sun returned and they had become good friends who couldn't part ways. "I cannot leave you, Regina. Not like how I left my family."

"How long has it been since you've seen them, Lara?"

"Two months. I've been searching for gold for two months."

"Do you think that perhaps meeting me has taught you something?"

"And what could that be?"

"That perhaps there are more important things in this life than seeking riches? That you are unhappy on this journey?"

She frowned. "I suppose you're right, Regina."

"Let's go home. Take me with you. We will be together. But go see your family. Go be happy."