There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. They only started appearing in the last month or so. It seemed as though the more people who disappeared because of moving or dyeing , the more dinosaurs appeared. I hadn’t really paid much attention because we were in the middle of a pandemic and our whole world was turned upside down. Going to school was different because we stayed at home and got our lessons from our teachers on video calls. We ordered our food from the grocery store and had it delivered instead of going into the store to get it. Our friends couldn't come over because we didn't want to spread the disease that was going around. As the restrictions were started to be lifted I began seeing more and more of them. They didn't really bother anybody. The only complaints people had about them was that they are eating food out of our gardens and sitting in the tops of trees at night and singing at the top of their voices. But because of the nuisance they were becoming, the authorities put out a contest on social media. Anyone willing to capture one of these dragons and take a picture standing next to one of these dragons would win the new Sony Play system 5! I had been wanting one of these game systems for forever!

Pictures people had posted on Social media didn't look like any dragons I had ever seen before. So, I called my friend Kevin and asked him to come over so we could make some plans to go down into the valley and check out these dragons. I had read all about dragons so I figured I would be able to identify what kind they were if I could just get close enough to them.

Kevin came over and we made our plan. We drew pictures of familiar dragons and wrote down characteristics they had. We figured we could identify them this way. We packed binoculars, cameras, notebooks, pencils, sleeping bags, jackets, food and fresh vegetables to use as bait because we knew they liked fresh fruit and vegetables. We didn’t tell our parents where we were going or what we going to do because they would just spaz out and tell us we couldn’t go. We did tell my younger brother, George where we were going, just in case we didn't come back.

We rode our bikes down into the valley. The valley is not like any other valley either. There are a variety of geographic features there that these dragons seem to like. The Pine Trees are extremely tall and have very thick branches with pine cones that tasted like honey. The lake water was warm and full of fish and plants to eat. The valley's fertile soil produced the biggest and best vegetables anywhere around. We decided to hang out in the section of woods next to the dragon’s lair. We spread out our sleeping bags and set up our makeshift camp. We waited for the rest of the day but there was no action and not a dragon to be seen anywhere.

I was getting hungry so I took out my ham and cheese sandwich and began eating it. Then, out of nowhere, came what appeared to be a hand over my head that reached for my sandwich and took it. Just like that! It was gone! I quickly turned around to see who or what had taken my sandwich.. But no one was there. My skin began to prickle and the hair on the back of my neck stood straight out as I thought of what could possibly have taken my sandwich. Kevin didn't see anything because he was reaching for his own food so he couldn't even help me. We took out our binoculars and stared through them until our eyes hurt to see if we could catch a glimpse of what it could possibly be. Nothing... absolutely nothing... Even though I was a little anxious now I was still hungry so I took out another ham and cheese sandwich. This time, the unidentified creature was a little bolder. Above our heads, on the thick pine tree limb, a long arm reached down again. This time it took both of our sandwiches!

Kevin grabbed his binoculars and actually got a glimpse of this mysterious creature. I grabbed my camera and snapped a picture before it floated from tree limb to tree limb back into the tree filled woods. It looked somewhat like a dragon, but it looked different from anything we had even seen before. It reminded me a little bit of the dragon from the Shrek movie with its big head and eyes that dawned long purple eyelashes and big brown bushy eyebrows. The eyes were bright and shiny as if to be used as headlights to light their way through the darkness. The dragon's skin was more like velvety moss and it made me want to touch it. The arms seemed almost human-like in that they were long and had hand-like features at the end of them. Their feet were shaped in such a way as to let them latch onto the limbs of the trees so they wouldn't fall as they floated from one limb to the next. The dragons were about the size of a baby tyrannosaurus rex but light as a feather . Their weight didn't seem to hold them back from floating among the trees.

Then the dragon was gone. We watched for a little while, hoping it would come back , but it didn't. Kevin was starting to get antsy so we decided to get closer to the dragon's lair to see if we could get a better look. Slowly and quietly we crawled on our hands and knees closer up to the lair. As luck would have it, we were able to look through a hole in the lair and observe the dragons. What we saw totally shocked us! How could this be? What were we really seeing? Was it real? Or a figment of our imagination? I quickly pulled out my camera and made sure the flash was off so they wouldn't see us or get scared off by a flashing light. There, inside the lair was a family of dragons sitting at a table eating. They looked almost human. They were watching a tv show called "NCIS in Dragon Valley". They were talking to each other in their own dragon like language that seemed very similar to English. Everything inside the lair was made of pine branches and green moss. They were eating the freshest tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini I had ever seen! The mannerisms were almost human-like. We watched a little while longer and decided we better leave before they saw us. We went back to our little site and crawled into our sleeping bags and fell sound asleep.

It didn't seem like we had been asleep for very long when we heard this beautiful music coming from the dragon's lair. We were very curious so we snuck back down to see what was going on. We watched as the dragons floated out of the lair and into the many beautiful gardens in the valley. They picked the freshest vegetables and put them in their pouches. These pouches looked like kangaroo pouches on their front of their bodies. They went from garden to garden collecting the vegetables they wanted. Then they did something quite odd. They left a brand new Sony game system on the steps of the person's house they took the vegetables from. How did they know the person wanted a game system? Where did they get the game system from? Then I thought.. hey! I want a game system!! Should I plant a garden so I can get one?!! Kevin and I instantly looked at each other. I could tell we were thinking the same thing. We quietly ran back to our site so we could talk about what we saw.

Some questions came to mind. Where did the game systems come from? Were the dragons making them? Who lived in the houses where they left them? We knew we couldn't go home until we figured this out. Besides, we had to capture one and get a picture with one of them if we intended to win one from the contest. Maybe we could find a baby one. That would surely be easier to capture than one of these adult ones.

We needed a plan. How could we get close enough? We decided to create a costume that looked like the dragon. We used what we could find in the woods, pine needles, moss from the trees, vines to tie everything together, and other things like that. We just had to figure out how we were going to appear like we were floating. We used the vines hanging from the trees to float from tree to tree.

Once we were dressed like the dragons we made our way down to the lair. We made our way into the lair. The dragons were startled at first and grabbed their megaphone and started yelling a warning that there were intruders in the lair! After a few minutes of total chaos and confusion the dragons stopped and stared at us. Seeing that we meant them no harm they started walking towards us. I found it very curious that they only walked on two legs- just like humans. They sniffed at us with their long snouts and licked us with their sandpaper like tongues and then picked us up off the lair floor and sat us on their pine tree sofa. They stood across the room just staring at us. After what seemed like forever, one of them spoke to us.

"Who are you and why have you come here?" Kevin and I froze. We weren't prepared to talk to them at all. Kevin came up with a story about us hiking in the woods and coming up on the lair by accident. Kevin said, "We were just curious, that's all." The dragons didn't believe us but decided to let us stay anyway. They put fresh fruit and vegetables on the table and invited us to eat with them. We were a little afraid that we would be on the menu as well but decided to accept their invitation. We didn't want to wear out our welcome so we made an excuse to leave and took off as fast as we could.

We had to find out where the game systems were coming from so we decided to hide out and follow the dragons when they left the lair. The dragons seemed to do all of their work at night under the cover of the darkness so it was not easy to follow them. Down in the valley, next to the warm lake was another huge lair concealed by trees and brush. We followed the dragons inside. Inside was the most modern game system factory ever! At each station was a dragon who was assigned to complete a specific part of the system. Once one part was complete it was passed on to the next dragon who added another important part to the system. At the other end of the factory was where the completed system was boxed and sealed up and prepared to be delivered that night. Their hands were big yet worked on the delicate mechanisms within the game without difficulty at all. They all worked together like a well oiled machine. It was amazing to watch. We got caught up in all the action and didn't realize we were being watched. Have you ever felt like someone was staring at you only to realize they really were? That's exactly what happened.

The dragons all stopped what they were doing. They all began singing a song that we didn't know that alarmed the guards in the factory. We were whisked away immediately into a luxurious room with only the best of everything anyone could ever want. Comfortable sofas to sit on. Soft, inviting music played all around. Fresh fruits and vegetables were laid out on the table for us to eat. Flat screen 52 inch screen tvs were mounted on the walls with all of our favorite shows playing. The biggest and best thing was the new Sony game system that was set up for us to play. We were totally confused by this because we expected to be in big trouble for trespassing. No one came in for the longest time. We had time to eat and watch tv and play the new game system.

All of a sudden I began to feel differently. Kevin looked at me and I looked at him. We both saw something that startled both of us. We ran to find a mirror.. but there wasn't one to be found.....