Usually orphanages have to deal with problems like not having enough finances to keep their children, dealing with so many of them at all, and most of all making them feel loved despite everything. It is rare to find an orphanage that has to deal with children being kidnapped.
None of them had ever dealt with a dragon kidnapping them.
The first time happened during a sunny spring day. The children were all in the playground after lunch, for one hour before their afternoon lessons, under the supervision of the nuns who took care of their growth. They weren’t big children, for most of them, sooner or later, found a family who adopted them. There were some outliers, though: boys and girls who were ten, twelve, sometimes even fourteen, for whom nobody had ever come. Kids whose only fault was having some disability, or not having a skin light enough. Despite the nuns doing their best to convince someone to give them a lovely home, they had remained in that institute, and now they’d be too grown up to have a chance to spend their childhood elsewhere. But now, they were playing with their mates as happily as they could. Everything was going well.
Suddenly, appeared a shadow. A big, overlying shadow that obscured the whole yard.
It was a dragon. Green and enormous, it flew above the orphanage and dived on the playground. The children screamed and fled, and the nuns imitated them, unable to deal with that force of nature, not even by praying to God for mercy. Some of them got inside the building just in time; but not everyone was so lucky. A boy, who was ten years old and had a crippled leg, was captured by the monster’s talons and brought away.
The whole institute was quarantined inside the building for at least three days. For a long time, however, none dared spending playtime outside; the nuns forbid it to everyone. Meanwhile, the kidnapped boy was pronounced dead, and a symbolic, empty tomb was prepared for him.
One month passed, a terrible month. The kids, already facing the struggle of not having someone who’d love them unconditionally, were now facing the trauma of what had happened, together with the difficulty of spending their whole time inside. That place, already sad, was now getting similar to a reformatory. The nuns, seeing their mental health worsening, finally decided to let them go outside. The children, initially, hesitated, and their supervisors didn’t force them, given that they were afraid too. But slowly, they found back confidence with the outside world, and lunch breaks were soon spent outside again.
However, that was a vain hope. Not even ten days later, the dragon came back. This time, it made not one but three victims: a girl of Arabian origins with a missing hand, another girl with Down syndrome and a boy with dark skin.
Now the surviving children knew they’d never see the sunlight again. The nuns organized to transfer them to other structures, where they wouldn’t be targeted. The orphanage was destined to close.
Some months later, all the children had moved. They were reported to be even more difficult to handle than an orphan kid may already be. Shocked by the events they witnessed, a prolonged quarantine and the difficulties of a new home, most of them shut themselves up. The dragon, wherever it came from, was harming even more children than those it had taken away. Something had to be done, before it could cause more damage.
It had to be taken down.
A group of three men was organized. Two hunters, and one naturalist, were grouped together in a mission to track the monster’s lair. Speaking with the witnesses, they prepared an expedition in a mountain range. With them was enough to survive for several weeks, and if necessary, they could hunt game, too.
But it turned out not to be an easy task. The trio wandered in the wild for a long time, and after some weeks, there had been no visual sign of the dragon. However, they were sure it was around. Their eyes, so used to the signs of wildlife, could see beyond the mere beauty of the panoramas they were in. Unusually large tracks, signs of predation and more sometimes popped out. But even if the three men searched all around them, nothing else suggested the dragon lived close. Being a huge, winged creature, it could have made its lair just anywhere around those peaks.
Then one day, during twilight, they found the decisive track. Only, it wasn’t a dragon’s track.
They were preparing camping for the evening; the hunters worked on a brown hare’s carcass, while the naturalist prepared the fireplace. Then the latter, for a short moment, raised his eyes and admired the forest in front of them, that stood under a bleak, rocky landscape that ended in a snowy peak. Those sights were what gave them the most comfort in those harsh days. However, the rocky landscape wasn’t empty. There was an animal...at least, at first it looked like an animal. Only when it began running away did the naturalist realize what it was.
The naturalist didn’t lose time. “Guys! Guys!”
“What’s there?” One of the hunters said, with a tired voice.
“There was a child over there.” And he pointed at where he saw the kid.
The hunters didn’t believe him immediately. “Probably it was just a roe deer,” the second one said.
“No, I tell you! It walked on two legs.”
“Dude,” the second hunter replied, bothered, “we’re high in the mountains. How can there be a child here?”
“Well...” the naturalist scratched his head “I don’t know. But I’m sure of what I saw. Why should I lie? Have I ever done it before?”
The two hunters looked at each other for a short moment, with eyes full of perplexity. Then the first one said: “No, indeed, you never did.”
“But,” the second intervened, “this sounds just strange.”
“It could be something related to the dragon, though,” the first one replied. “It kidnapped children, right? So if our mate is right, there might be something there. Did we go to that zone?”
“Hmm...no.”
“But there’s a child there right now!” The naturalist exclaimed. “Shouldn’t we go save him, or her?”
“It’s getting dark,” the first hunter said wisely, “it’s risky for us too.”
The naturalist sighed and got back to preparing the fireplace.
The next morning, the three men were ready to go as the first sunlight hit their faces. A small and quick breakfast was all they needed before taking out their ropes and pickaxes and walking through the forest that separated them from the rock. Even if the hunters didn’t look convinced, the naturalist was sure: there had to be a correlation between that child and the dragon.
Among the gray, solid sea, stood a cave. Apparently, it wasn’t different from other caves they had looked at during their journey. Still, caves were always the best candidates for finding the dragon. All they needed was a handful of signs, and they would only have to wait for it to come out.
“Follow me,” the naturalist told the hunters, given that he was more expert than them in speleology. Their torches were on their hands, their eyes pointed to the surface-
“There!” One of the hunters suddenly exclaimed. The naturalist stopped looking at the ground and raised his head.
It was the child from last night. They could now fully see what the kid look like. It was a boy, who held a long wood branch, and limped a lot while fleeing from their sight. The first orphan the dragon had taken was said to be crippled.
“No wait!” The naturalist shouted. But even if they were faster, the boy had already disappeared into one of the cave’s tunnels. He turned to the hunters. “He didn’t kill them.”
“Indeed...” both said in disbelief.
They ran towards the tunnel, only to discover that wasn’t a tunnel. It was an entrance to a large room...and what they saw there left them in amazement.
In the center was a big, green dragon. The joy of finally finding their target was counterbalanced but another, more important detail. Four children were playing around him, apparently uncaring of how dangerous the dragon could be – in fact, a girl was riding its back and the crippled boy was talking to it. All the children corresponded to the description of the kidnapped kids from the orphanage.
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As the trio entered, they all turned their heads, and the dragon spoke.
“Who are you? You’re not going to take them away!”
Both the hunters extracted their weapons in unison, and pointed them at the dragon.
“These children have a place where they belong to! We have come to serve justice and put an end to your crimes!”
But as they pronounced those words, all the kids gathered in front of the dragon’s head. “No please!” A girl said.
The hunters lowered down their weapons. “Wait...what?”
“He’s our dad!”
The naturalist turned back to the hunters, like for wanting a confirmation he heard right.
“These humans are mine,” the dragon hissed. “This is my hoard.”
“Hoard?” All the three men shouted. The children were now hugging him in comfort.
“Yes, hoard. Gold and jewels have gone out of fashion centuries ago, you know...they gave a lot of problems with knights. Most of my brothers hoard books now, but I was never interested in learning to read. To impress others, your hoard has to be either plentiful or original. I chose the second way.” He paused. “I watched that place for a long time. Nobody was taking them.”
“What do you mean, you hoard children? They’re not your property!”
“Huh?” The dragon exclaimed. “Those human cubs who were taken out by human adults...aren’t they their property now?”
“Please don’t hurt him!” The crippled kid cried. “We’re so happy here!”
“How can you be happy?” One of the hunters replied. “He’s your kidnapper! He’s making you stay in a cold cave!”
“He loves us!”
“Don’t you miss other humans?” The naturalist said. “Watching movies? Chocolate? Toys?”
The children fell in silence. He had found a point.
“Dad,” the Arabian girl lamented, “can we have those things?”
The dragon puffed some smoke on her back. “My dear Amira, you know it’s difficult for me.”
“That’s not true! You took us from the orphanage! Why can’t you just come back?”
“It’s dangerous for me to go there too often. Look here, I took four of you and already they sent humans to kill me.”
The girl made a very sad face. That was the right moment to speak again for the three men.
“See?” The naturalist said triumphant. “If you follow us you’ll have toys, and chocolate, and anything else. Don’t you want them?”
“We want to stay with dad!” They all shouted.
“We’re so happy here,” the black boy took word, “dad loves us! Nobody liked us at the orphanage. I haven’t cried since he took me.”
The dragon, amused, patted the boy with his snout, and they exchanged a nose rub. The trio looked at them in amazement. After that, the dragon looked at them.
“See? I take a lot of care of my hoard. They wouldn’t stay here otherwise, right?”
“Right...” was all the naturalist could whisper. He turned to the hunters. “What are we going to do?”
“We have to think of their future,” one said. “We have to take them with us.”
“But,” the naturalist thought, “would they be happy? Nobody was adopting them. In few years they will be teenagers. What kind of life they’ll have, once back?”
“You can’t be serious! They are humans! They need to be among humans!”
The huge head of the dragon suddenly appeared above them.
“No. They need to be among me.”
The hunters didn’t look intimidated.
“We are armed, you know.”
The dragon didn’t reply, but instead grabbed their weapons out of their hands with his mouth and swallowed them. His teeth made a wide grin.
“Didn’t...didn’t it hurt?”
“They were already melted when they touched my tongue,” the dragon announced in amusement.
“We...see.”
The crippled boy reached them and punched the dragon’s hip to demand attention. “What’s there, Sean?”
“Anne won’t give me the stick! It’s my turn!” He cried, pointing at the girl with Down syndrome, who was rotating a tree branch, smaller than the one used by the men.
“Let me take care of it,” the dragon replied, and he walked towards Anne, who instantly stopped playing with the stick. The dragon grabbed it with his mouth, but didn’t swallow it this time. Instead, he gave it to Sean, who said happily: “Thank you, dad!”
“Remember to give it to Amira when your turn is over, alright?”
“Yes, dad.”
“Wait,” the naturalist suddenly said, while taking something from his backpack, “I can give you this.” He extracted a card deck. He and his travel mates had spent their evenings around the fire playing it, but now he felt like those children could appreciate it more. Especially now that it was clear they wouldn’t manage to rescue them out.
“What is that?” The dragon asked.
“It’s a game. I can show you how to play. Your hoard will certainly appreciate it.”
The kids already had come near to look at the cards. “Ooooooh!” they exclaimed.”
“Wait, don’t-” A hunter timidly protested.
“It’s useless,” the other hunter sighed, “we may as well have a bit of fun.”
They ended up sitting in a circle and teaching various games they could play with their cards. The dragon, being too big to handle the cards, mostly observed them, growling at the kids if they weren’t polite, an animalistic but surprisingly efficient way to keep them behaved.
“Well,” one of the hunters said after a long time, while looking at his cards, “maybe we should get back soon.”
“I think so,” the naturalist nodded. “Hem, Mister Dragon...?”
“My name is Gwarum.”
“So, hem, we must admit, you’re doing a good job with the kids,” he began, “but do you plan to take more of them?”
“Of course. This is my hoard. It needs to grow.”
“Then there’s a problem. You can’t take them like you did until now. They will send others to try to kill you.”
“I can face them.”
“Sooner or later, someone will find a way.” He took a breath. “All you need to do is asking the orphanage for adopting a child. The human way.”
A hunter intervened. “How can they give them to him? They think the children are dead!”
“I see a solution, then,” the naturalist smiled, “Gwarum, if you come with us and bring the children, we will explain the real story, and you’ll get more of them, in safety.”
The children reacted like if they had seen a ghost. “We don’t want to go back there!”
“You won’t, you won’t!” He calmed them down. “It’s just something for your dad to give you new friends to play with. How about that?”
The dragon still hadn’t commented to the proposal. His tail was moving left and right. Then he said: “If you say it will prevent other hunters coming here, then fine. Anything for my hoard’s safety.”
***
When the trio got back to the orphanage with the dragon, everyone at first thought they had brought him to confess his crimes, until the children appeared out of nowhere. The shock of everyone was rapidly replaced by the joy of seeing them alive. Not much as the shock of seeing them hugging in affection the dragon who had taken them away. In the meanwhile, though, someone took care of destroying the symbolic tombs they had made for them, so they wouldn’t risk finding them.
Once the truth became apparent, the few kids who were still at the orphanage all walked towards the dragon, ignoring the nuns’ calls to get back. Gwarum opened their paws and accepted them as part of his hoard.
However, nobody could accept them living in a cave in the mountains. In few months, a new place for them was built, closer to civilization but still comfortable for Gwarum, with a bigger cave, plenty of green around and a road that connected the children with the rest of humanity. The dragon acted as their foster father, and at the same time worked together with a group of humans, which included the two hunters and the naturalist, to be sure they would grow up properly.
And this is the story of how the dragon child center was born. The dragon is still there, and is always happy to host children nobody else wants. He doesn’t care about skin colors. He doesn’t care about disabilities. For him, a big hoard of children is the nicest thing ever.