Copper

                One sunny spring day, Arianne was flying over the meadow, when she noticed something moving about in the grass below her. Swooping down, she saw that it was another dragon, one with little bits of eggshell still nearby. He seemed to be inspecting something else on the ground. Flying down, Arianne landed nearby.

                “Excuse me, hi! Are you new here?” she asked, knowing that he must have just hatched.

                “Hi! I am. I just got out of that egg. What is this place?” replied the slightly startled new dragon.

                “Well, they call this whole valley Cwm Jones. I’ve only been here a few weeks myself. A whole bunch of us live with the wizard in that house over there. All the humans around here are pretty great – and there’re a few other animals too. I’m called Arianne. What’s that you were looking at?” Arianne nodded toward the brown-red, metal-looking lump on the ground. 

                “I don’t know, but it’s really interesting, isn’t it?”

                “Yeah, I guess so. Hey! I’ll bet the wizard knows. We could take it back and ask him.”

                The new dragon agreed to this, and the two little dragons attempted to pick up the lump of rock and fly it back. It was heavier than it looked. Finally, after alternating between carrying it and rolling it, and with some help from Sandy, whom they met along the way, the little dragons managed to get the lump over to the wizard, who was in the goat pen. 

                “Mr. Wizard!” they shouted, “Do you know what this is?”

                Stooping down, he picked up the rock, smiled, and said, “Sure, it’s a nugget of copper. Where did you find it? Oh, and hello to you. It’s always nice to meet a new dragon.”

                “It was in the meadow, just back there. It was right next to where I’d hatched.”

                “Well, that’s interesting. One doesn’t normally find copper in the middle of meadows. In fact, I only know of one place nearby that would have copper. See those mountains up there to the north? Those are full of all sorts of metal and gems. Truly remarkable mountains those. Not at all common to find such rich rocks all in one place. There’s a whole group of dragons who live up there. They’re a little different from those of you who hatch around my place. They all look like the different metals and jewels that they live near. Some are gold and silver; others look like emeralds or sapphires. They’re all quite nice, though. They come and visit here sometimes, and I’ve been up there a few times myself. One of them must have left this by your egg.”

                “Why?”

                “No knowing, but I daresay you’ll find out someday. In the meantime, how about if I give a tour of the place, and maybe find you something to eat? You other two want to come along?”

                So the four of them went off, walking and flying and talking, and the mystery of the copper was left to another day. However, Calumet, as he wound up being called, was always curious to find out more about those mountains, the rocks they contained, and the other dragons who lived there.