( 2) The Adventure Continues...


The basket swayed and tipped. Everyone held on tight. When the dragon was about 20 feet away, Grandma asked in her calmest, nicest voice, "Please stop Mr. Dragon. You are close enough. If you come any closer our basket will surely tip and we will all fall out."

With that the dragon stopped.

Then a very strange thing happened....he spoke. "Good day. I am Douglas. I am a dragon. What kind of bird are you - so many heads and voices with a basket like body and a balloon type wing?"

They were all startled to hear the dragon speak. They laughed at the notion that he thought they were a bird.

Before anyone else could speak, Jake said, "Hi Douglas, please to meet you." Still blowing bubbles between his words he continued, "We aren't a bird. I'm Jake and these are my cousins Hope and Noah. We are traveling on an adventure with our grandma to find you. This is called a hot air balloon."

"A hot air balloon?" said the dragon,"How very interesting. I use my wings to fly from place to place. Why are you on an adventure to find me?"


"Because you are scaring people," Hope said. "When people are frightened sometimes they do things without much thought. We've come to see if we can help before someone gets hurt."

"Hurt someone? I wouldn't ever hurt anyone," said Douglas the Dragon, "I was sent to find food for all the dragons that live on Runaway Island. We have grown tired of eating the same old fruits and flowers day after day."

"Is that why you keep going to McDonalds?" inquired Noah.

"Yes," said Douglas. "We heard about a place called Texas where everything was said to be big. We dragons have big appetites. I saw the golden arches beaconing from the sky and that is where I went. I didn't mean to scare anyone."

"We understand," said Grandma. "You weren't going to hurt anyone. You just wanted to get something delicious to eat."

"That's it exactly!" Douglas smiled as he spoke.

"Trouble is we have trouble," said Noah. He had been keeping a watchful eye with his binoculars and noticed that people from the town below were looking up and pointing.

"Douglas we need to get out of here. We need to go somewhere safe to talk. We need to figure out how to help you before someone gets hurt."


"Okay, follow me to Runaway Island. We'll be safe there," said Douglas.

"Hurry!" said Hope. "Here comes some jets and I don't think they want to visit and talk."

"Quick Douglas fly ahead and flap your wings hard," Grandma said pointing towards some white puffy clouds.

Off he went flapping as hard as he could. The motion made the clouds multiply and soon they were all hidden in a veil of clouds as the jets went racing by.