It was the first century. The dragons lay quietly in their caves. It was midnight and was pitch black and soundless. The only sound that could be heard was of crickets chirping. Suddenly, there was a blue ray of light across the whole of The Valley of the Dragons. Many woke up and gave petrified calls. The mother dragons clutched their children tight towards themselves. Soon, in ten minutes or so, the light disappeared. The dragons heaved a sigh of relief. But…






‘Redflame! Silverscale!’






The two baby dragons, Redflame and Silverscale were nowhere to be found. Their parents mourned and cried. Other dragons searched for them, but in vain.






‘This was just like ninety years ago,’ said the oldest of all dragons. ‘A blue ray of light of this kind flashed across our whole valley for a while and a few dragons disappeared. They came back, many days later. I was just a little dragon, by then…’







Meanwhile, in the twenty-first century…broad roads, hooting of cars, people walking, talking, etc., salesmen shouting out to the people for buying their stuff…







Redflame and Silverscale landed on the ground. Everyone looked at them with wide eyes.






One child cried: ‘Mommy, I want that big toy!’ Hearing her, every child started asking for those ‘big toys’. Redflame and Silverscale were horror-struck. Where were they? What kind of creatures were those, walking on two feet and shouting?
What kind of skin did they have? Some had yellow, some had green, some had a mixture of colors…oh, the two of them were confused! And scared as well.






They were almost as big as a piano. As they blinked their eyes and looked around, one kid said, ‘ Oh, look! They’re real!’ As soon as he said this, all the parents looked carefully at them. As they noticed them blinking, turning around and breathing, they grabbed their children and ran away, screaming. Every person in the street did so. The two small dragons got even more scared, but stayed where they were. They didn’t dare to move.






As everyone entered their houses and closed every window and door and there was no sign of any person or vehicle in the street, the two of them got up. Just then, a little orphan girl came towards them.






‘Hello, dragons,’ she said sweetly.






Redflame and Silverscale looked a little scared. Then, as they realized that the little girl was harmless, they said, ‘Hello.’






‘What kind of creatures are you?’ asked Silverscale.






‘Human beings,’ said the girl.






‘What are human beings?’ asked Redflame.






‘We’re very matured creatures,’ said the girl. ‘My name is Marilyn Crew. I’m an orphan and I don’t have anybody. I live in an orphanage. It is a house where orphans live. Some days later, a rich English lady is going to come and adopt me. I’ve heard that my parents were very rich. I don’t know who they were, as my father died before my birth and my mother died when I was one. She had a heart attack.’ By saying that, she started weeping.




‘Don’t cry,’ said Silverscale. Then, the two dragons introduced themselves.




‘The first century?!’ gasped Marilyn. ‘And you know what? This is the twenty-first century!’




‘Why do you have skins of many colors?’ asked Redflame. ‘I see you have a blue and black skin.’




‘Skin?’ said Marilyn. ‘No, this is not our skin. These are dresses. This is a blue top and a black skirt. It’s also called apparel.’




‘ App-apparel?’ said the two dragons, together.




‘Yes, we wear it above our skin,’ said Marilyn.




‘Why?’




‘To hide our skins.’




‘Why?’




‘I don’t know…’said Marilyn. Then, she showed her hand to them. ‘This is the color of skins.’





Marilyn and the two dragons became good friends. Marilyn got her two huge blankets and put it over Redflame and Silverscale, as they wanted to wear dresses. As everyone saw that the two dragons were not harmful, they let their kids go and meet them. They had so much fun, together!




On the other hand, as the news had spread about the harmless dragons, some evil scientists thought of an evil plan. They wanted to take away all their scales to create a big evil dragon that could be sent to the first century, via their time machine, to destroy all the dragons.










The scientists travelled over to the kids and saw them playing with the two dragons. They tried to act as kind as possible. ‘Hello, children,’ said one of the four of them, Robertson. ‘You know what? I have a very good place where you can hang around with your dragon friends.’




‘Really?’ asked one kid boy.




‘Of course!’ said another, Stine. ‘Come with us, you children.’





So, thinking that the men were not lying, the kids followed them to the place where the scientists led them.





‘But this is a laboratory!’ said Marilyn. Every kid started protesting about it.





‘Kids, kids!’ said the third, Herbert. ‘You are…TRAPPED!’ The four scientists laughed, triumphantly.





‘Now all we have to do is push the kids into a room, make the dragons unconscious, take away their scales and erect a new evil dragon with it!’ said the fourth, Ford.




‘No, no, no!’ cried Marilyn. ‘You can’t do this!’




‘Mommy!’




‘I want to go home!’





‘Ford, take them away!’ ordered Robertson.



‘Aye, aye!’ said Ford.



Just then, the two dragons breathed fire. But they were small. The fire was just enough to melt a small wax thing. But the scientists got a bit scared. The kids looked glad.



But that didn’t discourage them to invent the evil dragon. The children, even though they protested and struggled, were locked inside a room. And then, the dragons were taken to the topmost floor. They were locked inside a glass room.



The scientists took out an injection that would make the dragons unconscious. The dragons made various noises, but the scientists didn’t care. Their feet were tied in chains. They tried to break free, but in vain. Robertson paced forward with the injection. As he was about to pierce it through Silverscale’s eye (Their eyes were their weakest parts. The injection couldn’t have gone through their body, as it was hard and covered with scales.), she noticed what was written on the injection: ‘It will be damaged if lightning hits it.’(Yes, dragons could read.) Silverscale got an idea. She screamed, ‘Oooooohhhhhhh! Oooooohhhhhh!’ Just then, the scientists heard thunder. Robertson looked at his friends. The four of them looked worried and troubled.



Just then, lightning struck the laboratory. The injection was ruined and Robertson was hurt. And the two dragons made the chains melt, by their fire-breathing, even if it was too little. They broke free.



‘Free the kids,’ said Redflame. ‘We have the power to call all the powerful dragons from the first century.’



‘Ford,’ said Stine, and motioned him to go and free the kids. Ford did so, now that he felt afraid of the two small dragons. Now that everyone was free, the kids went home and Marilyn went to her orphanage. She told the police about it and the four scientists were arrested.



Now, Marilyn asked, ‘Silverscale, what had happened?’



‘You know,’ said Silverscale. ‘Dragons are of many types. And their types give them their abilities. My family was of the thunder type. Every time we shriek, there would be thunder. So, as one of the scientists was about to pierce the injection though my eye, I saw what was written on the injection. It said that it would be damaged if it got stuck by lightning. So, I shrieked and there was thunder and lightning, which struck the top floor and damaged the injection and hurt Robertson. And you know, all dragons can endure thunder and lightning, no matter what type of dragon they are.’



‘Wow, Silverscale!’ exclaimed Marilyn. ‘And what type of a dragon are you, Redflame?’



‘Fire,’ said Redflame. ‘If I shriek, everything will be up on fire. But, I’m too small to do it, as every elder dragon said.’



‘Let’s take a picture,’ said Marilyn and she took a picture with her very precious camera, which she always carried with her. Just then, there was a blue light, similar to the one that had appeared in The Valley of the Dragons. And in the blink of an eye, Redflame and Silverscale vanished. Marilyn was confused. What had just happened?




And the next day, the English lady came with her husband to take Marilyn away with them. Marilyn had, along with her suitcase, a little envelope. As they arrived in London, in the area of Hither Green, where the big and beautiful house was, Marilyn was led to her room. There was beautiful furniture and big windows that let in a lot of sunshine and the windows had a very good view of the huge garden, around the house, too. Then, after looking around and marveling, she opened the envelope and took out the photo of her, Silverscale and Redflame, which she had taken the previous day. She pasted it on the wall with glue. This picture would remind her of some very good creatures, that are only found in fairy tales, who had been her very good friends.