At one time I wanted to try my hand at writing children’s stories. This one was written for a friend’s son who was afraid of the dark.

Ryker

One day not so long ago lived a small dragon named Cedric. His scales were a shiny orange and he was the smallest dragon in his family. His home was not like the other dragons. Most dragons lived on the tops of the mountains. His mother and father chose a cave beside a lake of lava.

Even his cousin Ari liked his cave better than her own. She lived with her parents on the other side of the valley in an ice cave.  Ari would come over and stay at his cave just so she could be warm and play with him.  They would splash in the lava all day if his daddy would let them.

When he wasn’t playing in the lava, Ari and Cedric would play hide and seek with the other dragons. He liked hiding best. But recently the other dragons were finding him too fast. When Ari had found him for the third time, “maybe it’s time to find a new hiding place, I’m getting too big for this old shell,” Cedric thought out loud.

Cedric dragged his feet over to the rock Ari had been standing and counting against. He tucked his head up under his wing and said, “One, two.” He didn’t like this game any more. It was dark under his wing. “Three, four, um six.”

He couldn’t remember what came next. All he could think about was how dark it was. He looked up to see if Ari was close so she could tell him what number was next.  

“Cedric’s not playing fair,” Molly, a green dragon yelled from her hiding place behind a big bush. “He’s peeking.”

“Am not,” Cedric yelled back.

“Are too,” Molly argued.

“Fine then, I don’t want to play anymore,” Cedric yelled as he stomped away. He could hear Ari calling for him to come back and play, but he didn’t want to tell her he had forgotten the numbers again and besides the other dragons would laugh at him.

He didn’t need his friends or Ari, he could go play in the lava. He would have more fun than they would anyway.

As Cedric walked to the lake he started counting, “One, two, three.” He thought really hard and said, “four, five, six.” He did it. He wanted to run back and tell Ari what he did, but then he thought about the other dragons. They would still make fun of him.

By the time he got to the lake Cedric almost didn’t feel like splashing around. Which was a good thing since his father was standing there talking to some human.

The older dragon looked at his son and could tell something was wrong. “Excuse me Merlin. Cedric, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” the little dragon said.

“Then why aren’t you playing hide and seek with your friends?” his father asked.

The little dragon hung his head. “I don’t want to play with them.”

“You love hiding so what happened?”

“My hiding place is too little. They keep finding me and then I have to seek everyone,” Cedric answered with a small hiccup.

Merlin, even though he was just a human, listened amused to the father and son talking. “And what is wrong with seeking, young one?”

“Nothing.”

The two adults exchanged a glance before looking back at the small dragon. “Cedric!”

“Yes, Daddy!”

“Why don’t you want to find the other dragons? Can you not find their hiding places?”

“No, they’re not that good at hiding. I just can’t remember the numbers. And they said I wasn’t playing fair. I only wanted to ask Ari what comes next.”

Merlin looked at the little dragon thoughtfully. “Young one, you know how to count. I taught you your numbers.”

Cedric was about to cry. Everyone was mad at him. “I do. See one…two… three.., but when it’s dark, I can’t remember them.”

His father smiled as only a dragon can. He remembered when he was young and he too was afraid of the dark. He would teach the boy a trick that his grandmother had taught him. “Cedric, I can tell you how to remember your numbers.”

Cedric looked at his father happy again. He really wanted to play with the other dragons.

“Open your mouth and let a little of the flame come out. No matter where you are, it won’t be dark anymore.”

Cedric tucked his head up under his wing and opened his mouth a little bit. As the fire came out, he saw that it wasn’t dark anymore. “One…two …three… four…five, I did it.”

Cedric was so happy he flew back to where the other dragons were and asked to play with them again.