Never take a baby dragon to a reggae concert

There weren't always dragons in the Valley deep in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. Tonight up at the Marijuana Resort Lodge many bands were in competition for first prize of a loan of a baby dragon. They had come from far and wide just to jam with Ocean the baby dragon.

The bands were at their best tonight, the drumbeats echoed throughout the valley, the guitars strummed in time to the rhythm of the night, people yelled the words to the well known songs, hands raised high, waists swaying, feet jumping, keeping time to their own beat, bodies swayed this way, that way, back and forth, the music exhilarating and addictive. The night taking on an otherworldly life of it's own. Smoke from the weed spiraled up to the heavens like snakes writhing in ecstasy. Everyone soared high, high with intoxication and anticipation of the promise of dragon fire.

They had no idea that danger could be lurking in the sky.

Baby dragon coasted low above the crowd, dipping and floating. Hands were reaching up to touch her and claim her as their prize. She loved the attention. Baby, she was past baby stage now, but she was still my baby, she had been bad, she had found the margarita marijuana cocktails and slurped downed a couple of glasses before I got to her.

Where did this baby dragon come from. And how did she become the prize? Well long story short and the beginning of my problems..........

Over in Africa, Adisa the female dragon ate my cousin Chika, despite being told on numerous occasions by the dragon king to stop eating the people.

I am Arjana, by the way, and with the help of my brother Baako and his warriors, we stole Adisa's dragon egg. We figured that if we stole her egg, she would chase us and we could get her away from the valley. Well, as plans usually go, everything backfired and now she just wanted to kill us.

We enlisted the help of the Iakopa and Zanthe, the two powerful sister witches. They were mad, all we had done was stir up more trouble. Before Adisa could do much harm though, they used magic to capture and lock her in a fortress.

"Stealing a dragon's egg is one of the worst things you can do to a dragon, if she catches you she will obliviate you".

"Well what do you call eating people. Adisa is bad, she must pay".

"Hmmm, mused Xanthe, let's get you a Bengkung belly bind from Etsy". The belly bind was special delivered in two days, it was custom made, wrapped below the belly and over the shoulder. Just like that I was pregnant with a dragon's egg. In this way the egg was secured to my belly for warmth.

"What I want to know Xanthe, is how you know so much about Etsy and Bengkung wraps". Xanthe grinned widely, turning to Iakopa.

"Humans are very resourceful, did you know that they fake pregnancies"?

Iakopa shook her head in dismay. "Why would they do that"?

"Who knows"! Xanthe answered, with a shrug of her shoulders.

"We are sending you far away, we are helping because we are tired of Adisa and those dragons who make life miserable for the rest of us. I don't know how long I can detain her, so I'm sending you as far away as possible".

"Send me to the Blue Mountains in Jamaica, my uncle rented me a cabana there".

Iakopa googled Blue mountain, Marijuana Lodge, longitude 78, latitude 56, and hocus pocus, mumbled spell and zap. Here we are in the Blue mountains in the Caribbean.

I was pregnant for three whole days. At nights I would bundle up the egg in a warm corner of the cabin. On the third night after I arrived the egg hatched. I was in a panic. What was I supposed to do with a baby dragon. I just had not thought this thing through. None of us had.

At first Ocean just toddled around in the cabin, knocking everything over. She made delightful dragon sounds which had people looking at me funny, I hope they think that I have a really annoying cat. Feeding her was a challenge. I blended fish in milk which she seemed to love. Whenever I sneaked her out at night she liked to nibble on the vegetation, which was really weird for a dragon.

Ocean was a beautiful little dragon, the green of her upper body merged into the light pink of the underbelly, she had pink and green wings and green eyes flecked with black, a cute pink and green tail, and little horn looking mounds jutting out of the top of her head. Her little impish face was a dead giveaway for the trouble that she got into. After a month, she was strong and active. Ocean learned to fly in four weeks. She was a fast learner and I managed to hide her for exactly six weeks before we got discovered despite my best efforts.

I never recognized the plants that Ocean seemed fascinated with eating. I did not know that it was the very plant that I should have kept her away from.

I guess she was attracted to the colorful floral arrangement. They grew everywhere.

Known as Ganjika, Bhanga, Cannabis, Canamo, Hamppu, Kunnabu, Pakalolo, depending on the language, so many names and so many more.

I now felt that I needed to monitor her very closely.

"Weren't you pregnant when you got here"? One very inquisitive woman had asked me. I had hurriedly walked away.

"Darn Etsy, I should have gotten a fake baby too". I mumbled.

Ocean escaped out an open window tonight while I was napping, it was still too early for bedtime. She got into the kitchen, found the Cannabis products, downed two glasses of spiced cocktail, nibbled some cookies and fell over in a daze.

They got her. Dragons do exist they advertised, come to the Concert on the Blue Mountains, many bands will compete for the prize of a loan of a baby dragon. Tickets on sale, please reserve in time, we expect to sell out quickly. Imagine the bands playing and a dragon breathing fire. Add weed to the whole bundle and it was a done deal.

They sold out in one day, quicker it would have been if the website hadn't crashed.

I tried to get my dragon back. They asked me for proof, papers of legal ownership. I found the inquisitive woman and she told them that I came there pregnant. That didn't help. They thought that I was a freak and a liar. I showed them my Etsy band, explained it was the egg that was tied to my belly.

They were keeping my dragon.

The night of the competition arrived. The lovely green of the countryside was dotted with many varieties of flowers, berries and trees. The undulating hills, small valleys and waterfalls were an added attraction as far as the eyes could see. A cool breeze was blowing across the landscape, it was a perfect night for fun and frolic.

The concert was in full swing, everybody high and buzzed and having the time of their lives. The hillsides were jampacked with people, how they got here so fast is a mystery to me. Ocean was a rare anomaly, a welcomed deviation from the norm. People made it happen, they came from everywhere. Plus, as I mentioned before, who didn't want to attend a concert at a weed retreat with a dragon thrown in for good measure.

Things were about to take a bad turn. The sky above the mountains had suddenly become very unfriendly.

The noise of the band drowned out the thunderous sounds of the wings. Fire scorched the air above the crowd. The band played on. People started to run. The band members paused, looked to where people were pointing, they dropped their instruments and dived off the stage just as fire rained down on the electrical wiring, sparks flew everywhere.

Terrified and a little woozy, Ocean flew into my arms. I grabbed her and ran.

Adisa and her friends had found us. Damned be people and their zeal for advertising. Unless the witches were here, or a miracle happened, we were all doomed.

Someone grabbed the P.A. system. "Head for the valley below, do not go into the cabins, they will probably burn first. Those are huge dragons people, breathing real fire. Hide behind the rocks if you can"! "This is so cool"!

So cool, did he just say death by fire was gonna be cool?

Weapons were not allowed upon the hills, but there were lots of stones and large rocks if we got desperate.

Of course that's when everyone whipped out their phones. Forget safety, let's get pictures of the dragons trying to cook us alive.

The Army soldiers, who had training barracks up in the mountains , roared in with Helicopters and started blasting away at the dragons. Pandemonium ensued, Adisa was relentless, I saw her spitting fire at the planes, the jungle, just everywhere. She was obviously hell bent on destruction. A mother's wrath was relentless when it came to her child.

Somehow Ocean wriggled out of my arms and flew upwards shrieking in terror. Adisa heard the sound somehow. She turned in midflight, looking towards Ocean. In doing so, she collided with a chopper coming in to her right and both her and the chopper started to fall.

Thankfully the commotion scared Ocean into returning to the protection of the rocks.

Another helicopter, bearing the news media logo, came thundering in, with reporter and photographer hanging out the door. Great, just what we need. More fodder for dragon fire.

I just hope that Xanthe and Iakopa got my text messages, I just could not reach them when I called. In the midst of the danger I still managed to smile at the thought of texting modern day witches.

Just then, the phone pinged. "We are coming, hang tight"!

Still, how would this nightmare end? Would lives be lost this night"?

N.A.