Once upon a time there was a little dragon who always listened to his mom in everything she told him to do. She would say “don’t fly to close to the sun” or “don’t eat more than three frogs in a day!” or “make sure you rinse your wings off good when you splash through the mud” and the little dragon would do as she said. One day, the little dragon was walking through the forest when he came upon a devious little squirrel. This squirrel was always known for getting into mischief and none of the other squirrels would give him the time of day, but the little dragon didn’t know this. The squirrel saw the little dragon playing in the mud and said “hello, little dragon”. The dragon said “hello, would you like to play in the mud with me” The squirrel said “no, but perhaps you could help me with something. I can’t find the acorns that I buried, and I think that I hid them on the other side of the forest, would you mind taking me over there? You’re so much faster than me and it would take me all week to find them!” The little dragon stopped playing in the mud and agreed. The squirrel climbed on the back of the little dragon and off they went on foot. The squirrel decided they weren’t going fast enough, so he asked the little dragon “why don’t you fly us up, because itll be so much faster than you running?” The little dragon thought a moment, and responded “well, how will you see where they are buried if we go higher?” The squirrel said “I’m usually higher in the trees when I choose the places I bury my nuts, and I’ll know exactly where we are” the little dragon said, “okay, but I have to find somewhere to wash my wings off.” The squirrel said “why is that?” “My wings are muddy and I have to wash the mud off my wings.” “But why do you need to wash the mud off your wings? Are you not able to fly with mud on your wings?” “Well, my mom said to wash my wings off before I fly.” “Why?” “I don’t know” “well, if you don’t know why, you don’t have to do it. Your mom probably just wants you to be clean all the time, but you can just go without it just this once. It’s going to take so much longer if we go to the stream” so the little dragon took flight. The squirrel was so delighted by the experience that he kept yelling “higher! Higher!” And the little dragon, in his excitement, flew higher. The sun was shining so brightly and the little dragon wasn’t able to see because he was too close to the sun, and not only that but the mud on the dragon’s wings started to dry. And the little dragon discovered that he was finding it harder and harder to fly and his wings weren’t working. The mud got hard and down they plunged. The squirrel fell off the little dragons back and when they hit a tree, the dragon grabbed the squirrel, so it wouldn’t get hurt and they hit the floor of the forest. “Are you alright?” The little dragon asked when they stopped moving. The squirrel, a bit shaken up, replied “yes! But what were you trying to do, hurt us both!” The little dragon responded “I can’t move my wings, do you know where we are?” The squirrel looked around and they were at the end of the forest, “we’re at the end of the forest.” The little dragon’s stomach grumbled. The squirrel got worried that the dragon might choose to eat him, so he said “aw, you’re hungry. I know a spot where there’s all the frogs you can eat! Come on!” They went to the pond and the frogs were hopping around. There were so many frogs and the little dragon was easily able to catch them. After the little dragon had three, he stopped and said “okay I’m done.” The squirrel asked “why only three? You need to eat more than that, we have a long journey ahead of us if we want to get back home” The little dragon replied “but mom says that I can only have 3 frogs a day.” The squirrel asked “why?” “I don’t know.” The squirrel said “well, I promise, if you only have three, you will be hungry again, at least just have one more.” The squirrel was worried that he wouldn’t be able to find the little dragon more food later on and he didn’t want the little dragon to eat him. So the dragon complied and had one more frog. Then they went on their way. After a while, the little dragon started sneezing and every time he sneezed, flames would come out of his mouth. The squirrel became frightened that the dragon would burn him, so the squirrel ran away. The little dragon kept sneezing and sneezing. He wondered what happened to the squirrel and how he ended up all alone. The little dragon continued on the way home still sneezing periodically. The entire time, he thought about what happened. He started wishing that he had listen to him mom. The sun went down, but He found a little stream and waded in. The hard dirt turned back to mud and he was able to wash it off and he could move his wings again. The moon was high in the sky and shining brightly and once he took flight he could see the cave in the distance. When he made it to the cave, his mom asked why he was so late. He told her what happened and she grounded him… Perhaps the little dragon didn’t always listen to his mother, but he does now, and he will never listen to a squirrel ever again.