Benjamin the Poor Dragon

A Story by FTomlinson

This is the story of a dragon called Benjamin whose life takes many twists and turns. The original story that was written by the child is included in italics at the bottom.

Once upon a time, in a far off and mystical land, lived a kind but poor dragon named Benjamin. Benjamin was ferocious in appearance, deep red with massive sharp teeth and claws, but gentle in his heart. All Benjamin desire was a friend, but all the towns folk were terrified of him! He lived alone, secluded on a rocky island, away from everyone who would do him harm. He was safe but he was lonely.

One day, he grew tired of his solitude, and he made for the village nearby. It was a horrible place, full of small-minded people who thought that a dragon had to be bad. The buildings were run down and the sky was perpetually filled with smoke from the tall chimneys that were always alight.

Gliding through the night air, as fast as lightning, Benjamin thought of how he might approach the villagers to show he only came in friendship. Landing carelessly, he stumbled on the hard thick concrete ground. The village was silent; there was no one there. Benjamin explored the village, thinking as he walked. He thought about his home and whether he would want to give it up for a life in this dark, dirty city. He decided that he wouldn’t. With one final glance at his surroundings, he pushed off and spread his wings, soaring into the sky. Flying away from the village as fast as he could, he started towards his island. Changing his mind mid flight, Benjamin instead decided to fly to his beautiful house in New York.

It was some days later when, sitting on his sizable sofa, reading the newspaper, he saw an advertisement for another island. Benjamin collected islands. In addition to his rocky island, he had a number of others that he let out as holiday retreats - it was a very lucrative business. The one advertised caught Benjamin’s eye - he didn’t have one in Japan yet - and he began to do some mental calculations in his head to work out if he had sufficient money to buy it. After making the decision, it only took an hour for the purchase to go through.

Happy with his new island, Benjamin set off for the beautiful Kimodo island. When he arrived, he looked around in awe. The island was surrounded by crystal clear water, full of all kinds of tropical fish. The sandy white beaches stretched into the distance and were the only part of the island that wasn’t covered in thick dense forest. Of course Benjamin hadn’t had a chance to build a holiday resort on the island yet, so he searched for somewhere that he could stay. Luckily, he managed to find a cave on the east side that would shelter him from the weather, but the darkness made it quite frightening.

The next day, Benjamin surveyed the island to see what his plan going forward should be. Just as he was flying around, a magical water dragon appeared. She was smaller than Benjamin, with blue scales and ivory horns. She introduced herself as Mya and she wanted to help Benjamin with building his resort. With one mighty breath, she blew down the entire forest so that they could create something from scratch.

For the next few months, Benjamin and Mya remained on the island, working and building and perfecting the island for when visitors came. As they worked, they became close and decided that they made excellent partners. Everyday they played nicely and realised they were perfect for each other and so of course, they had to get married.

The launch party for their new resort was held on a sunny weekend and their first visitors were four pirates. They looked as fierce as Benjamin, with ragged hair and gold earrings. They came from a nearby island (where they had just buried all their treasure) which was unusual as it had the most peculiar trees - they were tiny!

At nightfall, the dragons returned to their dark, spooky cave. They had had such a long evening the night before that they slept for fourteen hours without stirring. During the night, they dreamed of magic and castles and beautiful flowers. Suddenly, there was a gigantic crash from outside their cave and they woke to discover that a colossal rock had tumbled down from the mountain top and landed in front of their cave entrance. They were stuck!

Although they were scared, Benjamin was strong and Mya had magical powers. They combined their powers in order to break the big, fat rock and then finally, they were free. They flew off out of the cave and lived happily ever after. Benjamin was no longer alone.

Once upon a time there was a kind, poor dragon and then it flied as fast as lightning to the horrible village. He stumbled on the hard, thick concrete ground. Then the dragon, called Benjamin, walked around the village and he thought do I like it or not? But he didn’t like it at all. He flied away from the village as quickly as he could go. He went back to his beautiful house in New York. He heard on the news that another island was there. An hour later he got to the beautiful Kimodo island and it was scary. Then a Water Dragon, called Mya, came along and blowed the whole forest back to how it was. Benjamin and Mya stayed on the island as they were boyfriend and girlfriend. They were playing nicely and then they were going to get married. The four pirates came from America and went to a different island. It was split in half and they went on both islands and found tiny trees. The dragons went back to their dark, spooky cave for fourteen hours and the dragons had a lot of nice dreams. A rock flied down in front of the entrance of the cave. They used all their powers to break the big fat rock and then they were free.