Oriana

Oriana

One two three… go! I was on my pet squirrel in a flash and we went straight up the tree. The sound of Snookie’s claws digging into the bark of the massive red tree was my favorite sound. The sound of the tree limbs cracking on each leap, the wind in my face, and the smell of pine and cedar trees today were very pungent. It rained yesterday, the smells were vivid. The drops of rain from the leaves dropping on my head made this daily race against my best friend even harder. I looked over my shoulder looking at Suzanette on her pet monkey as they were getting closer to me. I looked past her to make sure Oriana was watching us. She loved coming into the woods with us, while giggling the whole time Suzanette and I raced. She was not in her usual hole in the trunk of the tree. I stopped Snookie with the reigns around her neck to take a look. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end when I saw the tail!

No.. I screamed, she was gone. “Snookie did you see it?” I screamed panicked. She nodded her head in response. “Go, girl go!” I yelled!

“What’s wrong” Susanette said.

“The dragon, the yellow dragon has Oriana, that way I pointed.”

Snookie jumped from tree to tree in the direction I saw it fly away with her. Snookies skin stretched as we flew from tree to tree. Suzanette and her monkey Addicus right beside me.

Screaming and crying, I kept calling Oriana’s name. We went further into the forest when we heard the rushing water. We were so close to Rushing River, the forbidden place of Zya’s small village. We were forbidden to cross the river because the lands were bare and no trees to help us travel.

We stood on the edge of the cliff, looking in every direction to get a glimpse of the yellow dragon. I fell to my knees and wept!

Giggling, the little toddler was enjoying the ride from the big yellow dragon. She managed to wiggle from the tallins and crawled on the back. She looked around and loved the fast moving creature underneath her, and the blurred vision ahead of her. When they stopped, she fell off of the back of the big creature and saw little babies snapping at her.

She ran to the first dragon baby in a straw like basket on top of the trees. She squealed birdy, and hugged the baby dragon. She preceded to hug all of the babies, and giggled.

The small creatures stopped trying to peck at her and rubbed their tiny furry heads on hers. The six babies looked at their mom and squaked. The yellow dragon squaked even louder when the shadow cascaded over them, making it very dark. Once perched on the side of the nest, the sun was bright again and Oriana covered her eyes. When she looked at both of the dragons, she smiled at them.

The two dragons looked at each other. The male stretched it’s neck over to smell the toddler. It did not look like his babies, but they surrounded her to protect her. The male regurgitated the meal he had for his babies and watched them peck at it. The toddler walked over to the meal, looked at her new friends and started to eat. The dragons looked at the stranger in the nest, looked at each other, and the big arodecent dragon flapped its wings. With the gust of wind so hard, Arianna’s legs dangled off the side of the nest. She started to cry.

The mother dragon gently stretched it’s neck over to reach for the toddler. The babies flapped their wings and squaked very loudly, thinking their mother was going to eat their new friend. Instead, the mother dragon gently picked up the toddler and placed her in the middle of the nest. The baby birds ran towards her to cuddle her and make her warm.

Out of breath panting, Niobe burst threw the door screaming “mom, dad!”with Suzanette right at her heals.

“Mom, Oriana, she..she’s gone!” I screamed, looking at my mom.

“What do you mean, gone?” She was looking past me searching for my sister.

“Mom, the yellow dragon took her past Rushing River. We tried to chase them to catch up, but we couldn’t.” I fell to my knees crying.

“George!”, my mom screamed now crying. My dad crashed through the door almost braking it. I looked up from the floor, looked in his eyes and the tears were now flooding my face. We told my dad everything.

He told Suzanette to go home and get her parents to meet at rushing River. He ran out of the house to saddle up his and my moms alicorn unicorns. They were the only alicorns in Zya’s village. When my mom and dad whisper the secret word, they disappear with them on thier backs. Once they whisper it again, they all become visible again. Once saddled up, he blew a conch three times. All around our wooded area you could hear conches from miles away. This was our towns alarm. Three blows meant for everyone to meet at rushing River. I jumped on Snookie and followed my parents. All I kept seeing was my sister in the tallons of the yellow dragon. Once we arrived, most of the towns people were there with their animals. They were arriving from every direction.

Once there, my dad was on his alicorn hovering over everyone to tell them the news of Oriana. He said “let’s set out a search in the trees, and on the land starting from the big twisted cedar.” He said to the towns people that he and my mom were going under cover to search beyond the River. The towns people panicked. Some gasped, and some had tears in their eyes. He said it may take them days and asked if I could stay with Suzanette’s parents. They looked at me, smiled and nodded.

“We have no time to wait.” he said looking at me, and then at the villagers. Then, both of my parents disappeared.

Oriana was getting bigger, and so were the baby dragons. The babies wings flapped more and more each day. The mother dragon let out a squak and one baby dragon jumped up to the edge of the nest, flapped it’s wings and aqwardly flew to another tree. One by one, each dragon did the same. Oriana was the last in the nest. She flapped her arms as fast as she could. She squaked, and stepped out into the air. She dropped fast, hitting a few branches when the mother dragon took off to catch her in her talons.

Oriana stopped crying when the dragon flew over to the babies. Everyday, the same thing would happen. After a few weeks Oriana would crawl to the mother dragon and hop on her back while the other taught the babies how to fly, hunt, and soar in the clear skies.

Oriana learned what each squak ment from the dragons and learned to communicate with them. She learned how to hunt, how to eat without a beak, and learned how to swing from the trees when she wasn’t on the mothers back. She loved to swim and catch fish for her new family. The baby dragons tried to learn to swim but couldn’t. They all lived together for many years.

Every time I walk by my sisters room I feel horrible. I sometimes sneak in there and lay on Orianas small bed and hug her favourite stuffie, a llama. Suzanette and I have never raced at the crooked cedar tree since she went missing. My mom is always so sad, I wish I could take her pain away. After weeks of searching for my sister, the village had a water ceremony for my sister. All of the villagers made a small raft with flowers and set them free down the river on a September day.

Suzanette and I race everyday after school to the edge of Rushing River to see if we can see the yellow dragon. I sometimes wonder if it was even yellow, and if it was a dragon. One time, I went to rushing river in the middle of the night when my parents were out just so I could scream at the waterfalls.

It felt so good to let it out. I then saw the most beautiful irradecent dragon I have ever seen. It was enormous, soaring over the water. I heard giggling, squaking and splashing down below.

I ran as fast as I could down the side of the high cliff to see if it could be my sister. Could it be?

When I got into the water I saw her, she had long blonde hair, her eyes peercing green with a fish in her mouth. I started to run towards her, calling her name. She reached out, made a noise and the yellow dragon picked her up. She sat on the yellow dragons back looking back at me, then made another noise. Six big beautiful dragons flew beside her flying across the other side of the river towards the full moon.

I never saw her again, but I’ll never forget what I saw. Many people thought I had lost my mind that night, but I hold dear to my heart that I did see her and the yellow dragon.