The Dragon Detective

It is a great misconception that dragons are vicious creatures. They are, to be sure, but only to those who deserve it. To the kindly and the young they are nothing but courteous, loving, and amiable.

This is why it is no great surprise that when a little girl wandered into the Dragon’s Wood, all alone and quite upset, the dragon that lived there could not stay still. Overcome with terrible concern for the girl’s wellbeing, the gentle giant immediately inquired into the child’s safety.

“What are you doing here?” he growled menacingly from the shadows.

“Um, excuse me,” said the little girl quite calmly, “but, are you the dragon detective?”

As if in response to the title, the mighty dragon immediately shrank down to palm size and flitted into the little girls open hand.

“Aye, that I am,” he proclaimed, in a much higher and kinder voice, a voice much less classically dragony. “Donohue Dragon, Detective Dependable at your services. Now, what can I do for you, little miss?”

“It’s my Dolly, you see,” the child explained sweetly. “She’s gone missing and I don’t know where to find her.”

“Never fear, Dear,” the tiny dragon detective puffed out his proud chest, “Old Donny Donohue will find little Miss Dolly for you, quick as a flash thanks to my good ol’ dragon dash, and it won’t cost you a spot of cash!”

And with that, the Dragon Detective flew away with a mighty swish of his orangey tail that was as scaly as a fish.

“Dolly, Dolly, Dolly,” Detective Donny Donohue Dragon chanted to himself over and over again as he swooped around and about the countryside. “There’s Dolly!” he declared with a mighty screech. He descended down upon the raggedy old doll in the reeds and caught it up in his claws. “Gotcha!”

Unfortunately though, that dolly was not the Dolly.

“Not to worry,” Detective Donny Donohue Dragon declared, “I’ll find her for you in a hurry.”

But, just to be safe, Donny Donohue made sure to get the little girl back home safely to her mother first, before heading out on his next investigation. It didn’t take long.

“Aha!” Donny Donohue returned to the little girl with a proud smile on his pointy toothed face. “Here’s your Dolly!” he proclaimed, producing a rusty old toy train.

“That’s not Dolly,” the little girl informed the tiny Dragon Detective for the second time, feeling quite morose and helpless now. It was quarter past bedtime and without Dolly, the poor little child wasn’t sure how she was going to get to sleep.

“Drats!” Donny Donohue spat, a sparkle of fire shooting out of his mouth before he remembered himself. It was never polite to use such language around ladies. His own mother had raised him better than that. “My apologies, little Miss. You get some rest, I will return in the morning with your Dolly.”

Morning came and went, Donny Donohue came and went, but none of the blankets, puppies, or trinkets he brought was the little girl’s Dolly. As it turns out, dragons are not very good detectives.

They are however very proud and very determined. So, Detective Donny Donohue Dragon continued his investigations well well past their prime. For you see, on top of dragons being dreadful detectives – the little girl had actually found her Dolly. The little soft sheepy toy had gotten stuck between the mattress and the wall and had been found by the little girl’s mother on that first night right after Donny Donohue had disappeared with the toy train.

The girl and her mother had had every intention of telling Donny Donohue the Dragon Detective Dependable about the good news, but he never hung around long enough to hear it. He would simply swoop in, drop whatever toy or trinket he’d found, declare, “Here’s your Dolly!” stay just long enough to hear, “that’s not Dolly,” before swooping off again, shouting, “don’t worry, I’ll be back in a hurry!”

Weeks and months passed, the pile outside of the little girls’ home grew and grew, until she had a veritable dragon’s hoard of miscellaneous junk in her own backyard.

“Here’s your Doll -,” Donny Donohue swooped down with a shiny red wagon clutched in his claws.

“This is Dolly!” the little girl’s mother finally managed to shout, capturing the flying menace’s attention before he could zoom off again. Donny Donohue blinked heavily in surprise, turned back to his normal ginormous size, and plopped down heavily upon all of the treasures with a massive crunch.

“You found Dolly?” Detective Donny Donohue Dragon bulged his eyes out in disbelief at the discovery.

“Yes, we did,” the mother laughed weakly, pressing a relieved hand to her pale forehead, “quite a while ago, actually.”

“Oh,” Donohue Dragon hung his giant spiky head, a little sadly as he brushed absently at the many shiny trinkets beneath him.

“We,” the child’s mother stepped closer and placed her hand upon the end of Donohue’s big spiky tail, “We want to thank you so much for all of your hard detective work.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble,” Donohue rumbled quietly, waving a massive claw dismissively. Donny Donohue might not have been a very good detective, but he had been very good at being a detective.

“You know,” the little girl’s mother said suddenly, struck with a brilliant idea, “I hear there are a lot of people around town who are missing things. Why, the neighbor just down the street at the end of the road there told me only this morning that her son is missing his new red wagon. I bet they need a dragon detective.”

Donny Donohue poked a single claw against some shiny red tin, an exciting idea dawning on his face.

“Say,” he proclaimed, eyes shining with investigative fire, “you don’t suppose this is the red wagon he’s looking for?”

“Why, it might be!” the little girl’s mother gasped. “Why don’t you run it over to them and check?”

“Righto!” he cheered loudly, shrinking back down to the size of a beagle and zooming off with the wagon hanging between his toes.

It was the neighbors’ wagon!

And the little girls’ mother was right – there were lots of people in the town who were missing stuff and all of them desperate for the help of a dependable Dragon Detective!

THE END.