Once upon a time, there was a mother dragon with a daughter named Luna. Luna is twelve years old with a big heart, and blue scales, and stars on her back. She has a long tail with a star on the end that glows in the dark. Luna lived in a cave, and there was a mountain to her west.

One day, when Luna was taking a stroll up the mountain, she found a big cave. When she stepped inside, there was a big clock. In fact, it was a grandfather clock. When she touched it, her hand went in, and then she stepped inside, and there was a whole new world. There were apple trees, blueberry trees, and other berry trees. There were thousands of mountains and a big stream. There was a spring area where spring animals roamed. There was an autumn area where autumn animals roamed, and there was a winter area where winter animals roamed. There was a summer area where summer animals roamed. But her favorite part was the summer part with the hawk and the sound it made. It sounded like Mozart playing the piano. And it came down, down to her and asked what her name was.

Luna said, “My name is Luna.”

Luna asked,  “What is your name?”

The hawk said, “My name is Chrissa.”

Luna went over to the spring area. There was a little monarch butterfly and it said, “Welcome to the spring area!”

There was also another butterfly beside Luna that said, “Come help!”

Its name was Rose. The dragon followed her to the butterfly home.

Rose said to Luna, “Can you go get that vine, and can you also get a pinecone? Then can you get the glue out of the pinecone and attach it to the top of the vine, some on the bottom, and attach the vine in the two places so the nest will hold?”

Luna did it. And then when she did that Rose said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”  And it gave her a rose that she really liked. It was a red rose, and she put it in her bag that she brought along with her.

Then they went to the winter area. There was a polar bear that said, “You must come help!” Then the polar bear led them to a penguin that was under a branch.

The other penguin said, “You really, really must help because you must be so strong with that tail of yours. You can lift up the branch!”  When she did, she saw no wing on the penguin.

They said, “Oh no! There’s only one person that can help.”

Luna asked, “Who?”

“Ember will,” they replied.

”Can you fly this penguin to Ember?” asked another penguin.

”Why yes!” Luna said.

Another penguin said, “Her cave is in the autumn area, and two big trees are next to the cave.”

When they arrived, Ember was sitting down and she was meditating. Ember was a white wolf, and she was over a thousand years old. She said, “I know you, Luna, we’ll talk about this later. But for now, I’ll take care of the penguin. ”

Ember put a robotic wing on the penguin.

Luna asked, astounded, “How did you make it?”

Ember said, “Magic. You may leave the penguin. There’s a problem. There’s a bad guy taking over the world, and his name is Siro. You must get the red crystal to save the world and Siro will become a good guy again. We’re still trying to find out how he became a bad guy. Pegasus will help you on your quest, and Chrissa, you may go with Luna. Now go. Pegasus is in the summer area.”

When Luna and Chrissa arrived to the summer area, Pegasus was nowhere to be found.

“She must have gone all the way to the spring area!” said Chrissa.

So they went to the spring area, and there she was. Pegasus was walking around sniffing flowers. Luna said to Pegasus, “We need your help!”

Pegasus said, “Oh, shut your mouth! I’m coming.”

They all walked over to a dark, dark corner of the spring area that nobody knew existed except Ember and Pegasus. There, Pegasus said, “There’s going to be a lot of booby traps! So step where I step.”

“Well,” said Luna, “why can’t we just fly?”

“Because then arrows will shoot at you and you might die!” said Pegasus. “There are evil archers hidden in the rocks!”

“Oh, you could have told me that in the first place!”

“I’m sorry, but you have to step where I step.”

“Oh alright!”

They all followed Pegasus. When Chrissa stepped forward, she almost fell into a hole, but she didn’t fall: she flew up, and there were a lot of arrows! Then there was a big, big hole in front of them, and they couldn’t walk! But there was a cabinet right next to them, and written in blood on the front of it were the words: “Please come in.”

It was better than flying and almost dying so they stepped in. There were dead rats on the ground, and inside the cabinet, the walls had more words written in blood: “You must answer the riddle to reach the other side.” The riddle said:

“Our dinner guests howl that we’re evil,

When they notice their place in the meal,

But it’s no big deal why,

We’re just one big happy tribe

And we get really fed up with people!

What are we?”

Chrissa cried, “Cannibals!”

And out of nowhere on the walls another blood sign appeared, saying:

“Yes, you are right!”

The wall then turned into a passageway. When they stepped inside it, they saw three red crystals laid out on a cushion on a tablet.

Above them, there was a fairy. It said, “If you choose the wrong crystal, you will fall into the deep depths of the cave.”

So they chose carefully. They all thought it was the middle one. But the middle one was the wrong one, and the floor disappeared, and they fell into the depths of the cave. Inside the depths of the cave there was a blanket on the floor and a tunnel. Above them, the floors shut. The cave was very narrow, and they were forced to stand in a single line. At the front was Pegasus, then Luna, then Chrissa.

Chrissa looked down at her feet and said, “Look!”

Stitched into the blanket, it said:

“Choose where you step carefully.”

“Where are the guards?” Luna asked.

“That doesn’t matter right now!” Pegasus said. “We have to focus on where we step.”

Then a huge red troll  appeared directly behind Chrissa. It had an ugly hooked nose with tusks for teeth and spiky red hair.

“Guys… th-th-there’s a-” Chrissa said.

“It doesn’t matter right now!” Pegasus interrupted. “We have keep going.”

“But there is a troll…”

“I-I see it too, w-w-we sh-sh-should run,” Luna said.

“What are you talking about? You’re right! There’s a troll!!!”

They ran through the whole maze, and somehow they got out. They were in a deeper part of the cave, and there were dead bodies. Corpses of rats, raccoons, and even a unicorn laid on the floor.

“How did that happen?” Luna said.

“Ugh!” Chrissa said. “I wanna barf because of the smell!”

Chrissa pulled her wings over her beak.

“Guys, we should leave. The troll is coming.” Pegasus said.

A flame bursts out from the walls behind them.

“I think that’s a sign!” Chrissa said.

Then the troll appeared. With a hiss, like a snake with a sore throat, the troll said, “Rise.”

The dead bodies came to life. The newly reanimated corpses’ bones began to assemble, and their various skins and furs began to grow back. Chrissa, Luna, and Pegasus stood, gaping.

“Uhh… what just happened?” Chrissa said.

“I think we should run!” Luna screamed.

A zombie unicorn marched forward, its arms raised, trying to grab them.

“Run!” Pegasus cried.

They began running. Luna turned to the zombie unicorn and said, “Why are you doing this?”

“Siro ordered me to do this!” The troll yelled. “He wants to rule the world forever and the only way he can do that is by killing you! You are the prophecy!”

“Thanks!” Luna yelled back and ran.  

The zombies chased after them, but before they could catch up, a large chunk of the ceiling crashed down and separated them. There was a medium sized hole in the ceiling where the chunk had been. All three girls flew through the hole and into a massive cavernous room. It stunk like rotten fish and even though Chrissa, as a hawk, ate fish, she wanted to barf. Siro sat on a rock hanging off the wall of the cave. Siro was a big tiger with glowing blue eyes and a coarse white mane.

Standing next to him were two henchmen. The first was a black unicorn. Her eyes were blood red, and her horn was a very shiny white.

“I can’t believe it! A dark unicorn? Unicorns are meant to be bright and good!” said Pegasus.  

The second henchmen was an ugly water troll with very sharp teeth wearing a seaweed loincloth.

Siro said in a dark voice, “Looking for this?”

He lifted his paw and revealed the red crystal floating in his palm.

“Wait! You mean none of the crystals back there are the crystal?” Luna said.

“Ha!” Siro laughed maniacally. “It was all a trick!”

Pegasus leapt into the air and launched herself at Siro. Luna wasn’t paying attention. Her eyes were on the crystal which seemed to be staring back at her. The crystal floated out of Siro’s grasp and towards Luna. Suddenly, a big, blue, hypnotizing vortex opened right in front of Luna. Ember stepped out of it, her face impatient.

“Say the magic words, Luna!”

“But what are they?!” Luna yelled back.

“HOLD THE CRYSTAL NICE AND FIRM, KEEP THE CRYSTAL CLOSE WHEREVER YOU ARE,” Ember replied.

“HOLD THE CRYSTAL NICE AND FIRM,” Luna said, “KEEP THE CRYSTAL CLOSE WHEREVER YOU ARE.”

The crystal began to glow red and released a red light that lit up the cave completely. Then it stopped, and the crystal vanished. Siro’s eyes, which had once glowed, were now regular blue. The black unicorn’s fur became pearly white, and her eyes faded to a normal red. The water troll’s teeth shrank back to normal size, and the seaweed loincloth turned into a suit. They all suddenly became good, and his henchmen suddenly became good.

“How did you become evil?” Ember asked.

“Snape is the real bad guy. I have been controlled by him but was saved by the red crystal,” Siro replied.

“Where is he?” Luna asked.

“He’s deep inside the cave,” Siro said.

“UGH! We have to go back in there?” Pegasus groaned.

“Yes,” Ember said. “Yes you do.”

“I will lead you there,” Siro said.

“I’ll come with you.” Ember said.

“Troll, unicorn, come with me,” Siro said.

“Okay,” The troll said in his groaning voice.

“Yay! Another adventure!” The unicorn said, jumping up and down with happiness. They began walking back to the maze.

Chrissa said, “Oh no, that maze! Not those dead bodies again!”

When they reached the fire troll, he said he wanted to come too. They got out of the maze, and there were the fake crystals still sitting on the cushion. And they went out of the cabinet and the hole was mended. Inside the cabinet, the blood signs were still there. When they went outside of the cabinet the hole was mended. As they walked deeper and deeper into the cave, a sword appeared from the cave ceiling. The sword said,

“Use me to kill Snape only. He’s in the door over there!”

The sword floated down to them, and they turned in the direction where he had said there was a door. But when they opened the door, there was another maze. Chrissa groaned. They all went into the cave. Of course, Siro knew where to go because he had been there before. They walked behind Siro who took them to the left, the right, diagonally, vertically, straight and then right again, left again, left again and, then diagonally again, and so on and so on.

When they reached the other side, there was Snape, sitting on the ground surrounded by zombies. Snape was a griffin with white eyes and huge wings bigger than Chrissa’s (and Chrissa’s wings were really big).

Snape had horns and their tail looked like a hand. Ember had never seen anything like Snape. She’d never seen something so scary. Maybe to you it’s not scary, but for them, right in front of them, it was death.

***

The zombies surrounding Snape were all green: one was a pig, a big dark death thing, one was a polar bear, one was a king cobra, and the other-the-the-other was Luna’s friend, the butterfly Rose!

“He’s going to pay for this!” Ember said. She was angry, very angry.

“Ha! You’ll all be turned into bad guys!” Snape said.

“How could you kill someone like that?!” Chrissa said.

I just want to kill him!  The fire troll thought.

But in fact, Snape was a girl. Snape brought out her sword and she said, “Battle! You’ll become a bad guy if I stab you, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”

The good sword said, “Luna! You must fight with me!”

“Okay!” Luna said.

She grabbed the sword with her blue tail. Luna ran up to where Snape was standing. When Luna reached her, they clashed their swords. And the battle began.

Five hours later, they were tired. Snape fainted, exhausted. And that was Luna’s chance. She raised the sword high and stabbed it through Snape’s back and into her heart. Suddenly, the sword floated out of Snape’s heart, out of Luna’s tail, and floated away through the ceiling.

Snape woke up. She looked the same but her expression looked like she had better feelings. No one was scared anymore. All the zombies transformed from green back to normal.

Rose was pink again and squealed, “I’m free!”

Luna and Ember were very confused.

“What happened?” Snape said, like she was waking up from a dream.

“What do you mean? You just made people into zombies! One of my friends, too!” Pegasus screamed.

“Yeah!” Rose said.

“That was just a dream!” Snape said.

But before Pegasus could say anything, Luna said, “Calm down Pegasus, she’s a good guy now.”

Then the cave around them, which was old and chipped, vanished and was replaced with trees, some with snowy parts, some with summer parts. And the summer sun rose in the sky. The ground shifted and moved them to the top of the world where all the animals could see. Every single animal in the world was gaping at such a marvelous sight.

Ember opened a vortex and went home. Chrissa, Pegasus, Rose, Siro, Water troll, Fire troll, the White Unicorn and Snape hunted through the grass, looking for what was left of the crystal. Luna turned to help them. Then saw her mother in the summer area.

“Mom? What are you doing here?” Luna said.

Luna’s mom looked just like Luna but way bigger.

“I also came through the grandfather clock to look for you,” Luna’s mom said. “Where were you?”

“I was here, just having a great adventure.”

“Like what?”

“Well… it’s a long story.”

THE END