Free Tiny Dragons 1: The Sky Dragons by Bernard Schaffer Page B

right now."
    "Oh," Alana said.  The dragon's sad tone made her have to think very hard of something nice to say about it, and she decided to say, "It must be interesting to live with other dragons."
    At that moment, the porch door to Alana's house slid open and her mother called out, "Alana?  Where are you?"
    "Oh no," the dragon whispered.  He flattened himself against the ground and started to shiver.   
    "What's wrong?" Alana said.  "My mother won't hurt you."
    "She can't see me!" the dragon said.  "You have to hide me!"
    Alana could hear her mother coming down the porch steps as she called for her again.  "Alana?  Are you hiding?"
    Mrs. O'Neil was only a few feet away from the shed, and Alana had to think quickly.  She ran out from the tall grass and leaped in front of her mother and shouted, "Boo!" 
    M rs. O'Neil laughed and said, "You got me!  All right, it's getting late.  Now I need you to come inside and take your bath before bed."
    Bath time? Alana thought with dread.  Baths were the only known thing in the whole world that were worse than broccoli, but as she glanced over her shoulder she saw that the dragon was slowly backing away in the tall grass, trying to make his escape.  Alana took a deep breath and said, "Sounds good, Mommy."
    "It does?" Mrs. O'Neil said with a crooked smile.  She playfully put her hand to Alana's forehead and said, "Are you feeling all right?"
    Alana nodded and said, "I left my soccer ball back there.  I'll go get it and come right in."  She ran behind the shed and waited until Mrs. O'Neil was safely back up on the porch before she whispered, "Mr. Dragon?"
    "Over here," the dragon whispered back.  "And my name's Star.  I'm a Sky Dragon."
    Alana looked back to see her mother standing in the yard waiting for her.  "Are there other kinds of dragons?"
    "Sure.  There's water dragons, fire dragons, earth dragons.  Gold dragons.  There's even black dragons but no one's seen them for a hundred years."
    "Wow," Alana said, looking at him.  His skin was black, and covered in light blue shapes that decorated his back and trunk, and she said, "But aren't you a black dragon?"
    Star laughed with embarrassment and said, "Me?  Of course not.  I'm black with blue squiggles.  Anyway, real black dragons can do things no other dragon can do, and I'm just normal."
    "Alana?  Let's go," her mother called from the porch.
    "Shoot," Alana said.  "I have to go take a bath.  Will you be here tomorrow?"
    Star looked up at her for a moment, quietly wondering whether or not it was safe to trust the small human child, but then his snout wrinkled up into a smile and he said, " I'll try."
    Just before she left, Alana wrapped her arms around the dragon's short neck and hugged him tightly.  "I'll see you tomorrow!" she said.   
     

Chapter 2: The Sorcerer and His Assistant
     
    Alana barely slept that night, and when she did, she dreamed of a thousand dragons filling the sky, all of them offering to swoop down and pick her up and carry her wherever she wanted to go.  The dreams were so real that when she woke up, she looked around her room and was surprised to be there instead of sitting on the peak of some distant mountain, or circling high above the oceans of another continent.
    "Alana, it's time to get up and go to school," her mother said , flicking the light on in the hallway outside of her bedroom. 
    Alana loved school, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and it seemed unthinkable to go to anywhere else when there was something as fantastic as a dragon in her back yard.  "Mommy?" Alana called out in her weakest voice.  "I don't think I can go to school today."
    " Are you sick?" her mother said.  She came into the bedroom with a look of concern as she looked down at her little girl.  Alana's mother had fine, chestnut hair that she always wore pulled back in a long ponytail.  She was tall and graceful and always sat like a lady and did not need to be reminded to wash