Wyvern in Ann Arbor

James Ulery, Age 10
Daycroft Montessori

Gilan’s normal routine was to run in the morning, so she was on her run when a loud, sinister hiss was heard. Then a sleek, green Wyvern slithered from its hole! Gilan was so scared. Will it eat me or burn me? she thought. The thing was sleek and green. It was a long serpent with two wings and two clawed legs with a classic barbed tail like an arrowhead. It had a yellow cat eye and a mouth with razor-sharp fangs. Its mouth reeked of ash, poison, and sulfur. Gilan turned around and ran when a tree next to her had vaporized in an explosive fireball. Gilan just kept running and running until she reached the boat rental. Then she said, “Sir, there is a dragon in the woods!” “No there is not, lady.” But little did they know, in a lair of reed and bone the Wyvern glared at them. Just then, the dragon rose and circled above the lake and shot a fireball and flew off. “Oh my gosh,” said the boat owner. “You’re right.” “Help, help,” bellowed the boat owner as his livelihood was vaporized by the intense flames. People screamed and fled. Its flickering tail smashed buildings and its fire boiled the water and dead fish floated to the top. The dragon circled over Ann Arbor spewing poison and flames but the people fled to avoid danger. The dragon flew to the Argo Cascades, where a portal appeared and the Wyvern flew in. A new portal appeared and a red blinding laser appeared and smote the feathery portal so hard it vaporized in a cloud of blinding white smoke. The civilians roared their thanks.

The Swamp Goon

James Ulery, Age 10
Daycroft Montessori

Long ago on a misty, marshy, uninhabited swamp with lush reed beds and a rickety wooden dock lived a hideous green monster called the Swamp Goon. It lived under the dock. The monster was seven feet, five inches, green, and scaly. It smelled of dead fish and unpleasant dead things. It had a round head and two fins on either side of its head. Disgusting water plants were its hair and lining its mouth was fringe with whiskers. It had large impenetrable metallic green scales except for its belly. It had webbed and clawed hands and feet. It was once human, but was cursed. After eleven stacks no one went there—all but one young man who fought the beast with a knife but it bounced off its scales. Soon it was upon him, and he was on the beach when its vulnerable spot was showing. He stabbed it, and it shuddered and hissed and fell dying into the water, and everyone lived happily.