Day 1354: 5 Minute Freewrite CONTINUATION: Tuesday - Prompt: dragon scale

"Gold Bubbles," original fractal art by Deeann D. Mathews

gold bubbles.png

The good thing about both the Trent and the Ludlow kids: they were remarkably self-contained, enjoying their own company and making up their own projects. They respected the boundaries of their households and were generally content, but that didn't mean that even while never leaving those boundaries, even under adult supervision, that they couldn't hand the adults a doozy of a situation …

“Yep, that's gotta be dragon scales – hey, Velma, can you photograph these and send them to Eleanor's phone so the Ludlows can see them?”

All ten children soon agreed: Gracie Trent had found what had to be a set of dragon scales, because they all were so even although of different sizes, and yet tattered like old fallen feathers would be.

“The local species must be a golden type of dragon,” Andrew Ludlow said after his cousin Eleanor had shown him and the rest the picture. “Must be a beautiful beast.”

Vanna Trent was out supervising her siblings on their quest that day, and came over to see what they were looking at and photographing, and then froze, because she could see what they didn't.

“Wow, that's quite a find, Gracie – I think Dad had better see this, so let's go back to the house.”

“Okay – hey, Eleanor, we're going to have Dad check it out too.”

Sgt. Trent started when he saw what his daughter had found.

“Yeah, Dad, it is kinda interesting – bet you didn't know we were moving to somewhere that had golden dragons, huh?”

Sgt. Trent went and sat down, collected himself, and then went to his bedroom for a moment. His young adult children noticed that he had put on his army pistol; his younger children noticed that he had gotten his real camera out.

“Take me to where y'all found these,” he said, and they did, and he photographed the area and noticed some things his children had not.”

Back to the house: Sgt. Trent had to tell his elder children and younger children the same thing in an age-appropriate way.

“So, Gracie: those dragon scales you found are gold, in an interesting crystalline structure. The problem is that if we keep these, some greedy person hunting for gold may try to hunt the dragon down, so I need to take these to the authorities so they can find the dragon and whoever else may be hunting it first.”

Gracie considered this, and then nodded.

“Yep – we wouldn't want any dragons or people getting hurt. Milton, I know you thought we might cure Covid with these, but we can't have other creatures and humans getting hurt.”

“Yep,” he said. “It would be like somebody plucking out Goldie's fur – there are a lot of bad people in the world.”

Captain R.E. Ludlow called just then with what he knew once Eleanor had shown him the pictures: a group of very specialized thieves had dropped a bag of specialized loot on their escape route to the Blue Ridge and over into Tennessee. The police had recovered all but that one bag.

Gracie had found some spilled gold, and Sgt. Trent had spotted the bag, still with most of its loot in it.

Sgt. Trent informed the authorities, and by the end of the day, everything was back where it was supposed to be.

The Trent little children and Ludlow grandchildren were quite happy.

“What a day!” Andrew said to Milton on the phone. “We start out looking for a dragon scale and Gracie ended up finding real treasure and getting it returned to its castle!”

“This whole place is just magic,” Milton said. “Can't wait until tomorrow!”

“Yeah, I know, if only we didn't have to go to bed, but, Grandpa ain't having that.”

“Yeah, Pops over here ain't having that either.”

“Oh, well, if we go to sleep fast, tomorrow will be here soon!”

“Yep, that's the good part – well, see you tomorrow, Andrew!”

“Good night, Milton – see you tomorrow!”

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myjob (70) 3 years ago

I hope the kids get a reward for their find. Good story.

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deeanndmathews (77) 3 years ago

That's coming tomorrow...

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owasco (71) 3 years ago

Excellent story!!!!!

This reminds me of a time when I and at least two of my siblings (I am the eldest) and a couple of neighborhood kids, whose parents were having cocktails with my parents at one or the others house, announced we were going out to catch lions and tigers and bears. I can still remember the faces our collective parents made. I also remember the shock on all their faces when we returned with a couple of show rabbits that had somehow gotten loose.

Thanks for the memory. Really love that story of yours.

I KNEW somebody somewhere had done this ... thank you for reading and glad you enjoyed those memories!

wrestlingdesires (71) 3 years ago

Did you get to keep them? All that's missing is a bear on a leash!

lol they sound like a handful! I wonder what they will get involved with next?

Come and see!