The Dragon Who Couldn't Breathe Fire

ONCE UPON A TIME, long long ago in a land far away, there lived a family of dragons. It was a large family: There were moms and dads, aunts and uncles, cousins and children. They all lived happily together on a part of an island that was never visited by humans. The place where the dragons lived was very rocky and there were lots of caves. When the tide came in you couldn't even see there were caves there, so nobody came to bother the dragon family.

The children all went to school to be taught the basics of dragon life ... breathing fire, making your eyes flash red, and shedding huge green scales -- which is what dragons do once a year. There were also classes for arithmetic and spelling, but the books kept getting burned up when the dragons practiced breathing fire. A couple of times the school had burned down completely when young Dizzy Dragon had a bout of hiccups and couldn't control his fire breathing properly. You should have seen everyone running this way and that trying to get out of the way of Dizzy's fire. The teacher, Elvira Dragon, said she thought Dizzy burned down the school deliberately, but thats because Dizzy hiccuped while teacher was trying to get him to stop and singed the teacher's eyebrows.

All the children learned how to be dragons very quickly, too quickly for some parents because the dragons often got into mischief breathing fire and scaring the older adults by jumping out at them and making their eyes flash red. Only one dragon in Elvira Dragon's class couldn't breathe fire ... young Doobie Dragon. No matter how hard Doobie tried he just couldn't make the fire that was so easy for the other young dragons. Nor could he make his eys flash red, or get his scales to fall off like the others. His classmates teased him all the time and this made Doobie very unhappy. He so longed to be like all his friends.

Because of the other dragons teasing, Doobie had taken to walking home alone from school, and taking a different route so he wouldn't be bothered. Although his parents had told him never to leave the safety of the caves, Doobie has started walking home along the beach where none of his friends ever went. Sometimes he would sit on a rock and gaze out to sea and wonder why he alone was the only dragon in the whole family who couldn't breathe fire.

One day Doobie was walking home from school when he heard the sound of a beautiful voice singing. He peeked around the corner, and there sitting on a rock was a beautiful little girl. Doobie didn't know too much about humans, but he had seen pictures in the newspaper his dad brought home. This girl looked like a human, but Doobie could see instead of legs she had the tail of a fish! Doobie thought the girl was sooooooo pretty, and her voice was so very beautiful that he decided to talk to her. He came out from behind the rocks and started to walk over to where she was sitting. The girl was startled when she saw him and immediately slipped into the water and disappered.

"Oh please come back" cried Doobie "I just wanted to tell you how beautiful you sing, and how pretty you are. I won't hurt you. Look, I can't even breathe fire." And with that Doobie coughed and snorted and no fire came out of his mouth or his nostrils. There was a splash in the water and the girl appeared. "I never heard of a dragon who couldn't breathe fire", she said. "Don't you go to school?". "Oh yes I do" said Doobie sadly. "I try and I try and I just can't do it. I am so unhappy."

And with that he sat down on the sand and a big tear ran down his green cheek. The girl pulled herself up out of the water and sat on the rock again. Doobie could see she wasn't an adult but a child like himself. "Do you go to school?" he said. "Oh yes". the girl replied." I go to mermaid school. Don't you see my tail? I am a mermaid, which is half fish and half human. I study brushing my hair and sitting on rocks and singing. Also we study swimming underwater and holding our breath for a long time".

Doobie looked at the girl's tail. He still thought she was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and the fact she had a tail didn't bother him at all. The girl splashed her silvery tail in the water and laughed as some of the seawater sprayed Doobie. Doobie laughed too, and they both knew they would quickly become the best of friends.

Every day after that Doobie would hurry home from school along the beach to meet his new friend. They told each other lots of secrets and played games, and Melissa -- that was the mermaid's name -- told Doobie that she sometimes had to be careful because there were humans who fished with nets and sometimes they caught the mermaids by mistake. She told Doobie that when a mermaid was caught nobody ever saw them again, and she thought that the fishermen probably sold them to carnivals where they had to live in tanks of water and were fed on rotten herring. Doobie often worried about his friend after that, and if she was late he would pace up and down the beach and get very agitated until she appeared and splashed him with water with a flick of her beautiful tail.

That Friday Doobie raced along the beach after school. He had made an "A" in arithmetic due to Melissas tutoring him, and he wanted to share the news with her and thank her for her help and friendship. He stood near the rock where Melissa usually sat and gazed out at the ocean. "Melissa!" he shouted. "Melissa, I got an A!" He closed his eyes like he usually did expecting to be splashed with water as his friend appeared. He was so excited he couldn't wait to show her his paper.

There was no sound. His friend did not appear. Doobie paced anxiously. "Melissa, where are you?", he shouted. The sea remained calm and undisturbed, and the only sound was the waves on the rocks. Doobie sat on Melissa's rock and stared at the ocean for a long time before he accepted that she wasn't going to come. Maybe she had other things to do that day, and just couldn't come, but usually she left a message in stones or seaweed for him on the sand near her rock if that happened. Doobie searched in vain for a message in the sand. He found nothing but a small crab under a rock who raised his claws angrily at Doobie for disturbing him, and scuttled away along the beach.

Then for no reason at all Doobie felt a sense of dread. He knew Melissa would come if she could, or would have left a message. Something must be terribly wrong. What could he do? Maybe he could dive in the water and see if maybe she had gotten trapped somewhere. No, he decided, he couldn't do that. He didn't know how to hold his breath in water for a long time like Melissa. He should try and get help. Melissa had told him that her cousin sometimes visited the beach a bit further down. Maybe she could help find Melissa, Doobie thought. Doobie raced along the beach. As he ran Doobie became more and more agitated. What if Melissa's cousin didn't know where she was either? What could he do?

Suddenly Doobie stopped dead in his tracks. He heard voices. Human voices! He hid behind a clump of rocks and peeked out. A small boat was pulled up on the sand, and in the distance Doobie could see a larger boat at anchor in the bay. Fishing boats Doobie decided. Better go around them if he could. He was just about to go a different route when he say a flash of light off something silvery where the fishermen were gathered around.

"What are we gonna do with it", he heard one of the fishermen say. "Take it back to port and sell it of course", another voice said. Doobie inched forward, trying to see what they were talking about. Laying on the sand, entangled in a fishing net lay his friend Melissa! Doobie looked at his friend and then at the fishermen, and he suddenly felt very, very angry. He felt his face flush and his skin tingle and his eyes start to change color.

With a mighty roar Doobie rushed out from behind the rocks and ran towards the fishermen. He snorted and felt smoke curl out of his nostrils ... his eyes started to flash red and green. And with a giant breath fire roared out of his mouth and curled around him in great flames. He was a fearsone sight as he rushed down the beach towards where Melissa lay trapped in the net.

The fishermen ran towards their boat, falling over one another in the sand and splashing into the water to get away from Doobie's fearsome flames. They completely forgot about Melissa. As he ran Doobie pounded his chest with his fists and hurled more fire after them. He was so angry he almost followed them into the water as they scrambled into their boat and rowed off. But one look at Melissa still tangled in the net and he realised that he must attend to her first. He picked Melissa up in his arms and retreated back down the beach to where he and Melissa usually met. He laid her in the shallow water and untangled her from the net, and let the seawater revive her. He gently dabbed water on her face and hands.

She opened her eyes and smiled at him. " Doobie ... You breathed fire," she whispered. Doobie grinned "Yes, I did didn't I? And it came in useful too." Melissa splashed water on him with her beautiful tail, and Doobie laughed. He snorted and a small firey flame came out of his mouth. "I can do it, Melissa!" he shouted. "I can breath fire!"

They both sat and talked for a long while until it was time for Doobie to go home and Melissa to return to her family under the sea. After that Doobie and Melissa met every day. Doobie became one of the best fire breathing dragons in his class. Melissa told all her family how brave Doobie had been in saving her and she gave him a special necklace of sea shells which Doobie wears to this day. They remain special friends and still live on the island in a time long long ago and far far away.