Sandpits and Somersaults

               Behind the wizard’s house, just at the beginning of the trees, next to a small stream, the wizard had dug a small sandpit several years ago. This was primarily for the amusement of his son and nieces and nephews, but dragons also like to play in sand. On this particular day, Neville and Tuor were planning to show Arianne and Dominic the woods and stream, and all four stopped to play in the sand. Neville was just trying to tackle Tuor out of the air and into the sand when they both were distracted by a bronze sheen, collided, and found themselves picking themselves up next to a shiny, bronze egg. Excited that they were finally the first to find an egg, the two promptly flew off back to the house, leaving the two others to sniff around and wonder at what an egg looks like from the outside.

                Back at the house, the two older dragons found the wizard’s son and whirred around his head, chirping, “We found an egg! We found an egg! We found an egg!” 

               “Okay, okay, you found an egg. Where is it?” the son finally asked, trying to brush them away from his head. 

               “It’s down in the sandpit! Come on, we’ll show you!” Neville and Tuor flew off, and the wizard’s son ran after. 

                Arriving at the sandpit, Arianne and Dominic were still inspecting the egg, which had just started to move. When the egg hatched, the young dragon promptly burrowed down into the sand, sprang back up through the sand, sniffed, sneezed himself backward, rolled over, jumped to his feet, shook himself and his wings, then looked up with bright eyes and a huge grin, as if to say, “That was FUN!” Never before had the wizard seen a dragon with such a love of sand. Some dragons liked to roll in it now and again, maybe to scratch some itches, but this dragon certainly had more of a love for sand than most. Of course, sand is one of those things that will work its way into anything and just never seems to completely leave. This little dragon nearly always had some little bits of sand stuck to himself, no matter where he went. Numerous names were tried for him, but the name of “Sandy” just, well…stuck.