Pumpkins

       The wizard loved growing pumpkins. Every year, he would grow at least a few pumpkin plants. Sometimes they would be mostly the traditional, orange kind. Other years, he would grow dozens of pumpkins in every variety available: orange, yellow, white, red, even the Australian blue kind. He even discovered his own varieties and would grow turquoise, hot pink, purple, bright yellow, or even multicolored pumpkins. One year, when his niece was younger, he grew a magnificent gold and silver pumpkin, which he made into a carriage for her.

       This year, the crop was mostly orange with a few other colors dotted in amongst them for some extra fun. The wizard spent many hours tending the plants and teaching the dragons and local children about them. The pumpkin patch was a famous site in the autumn.

       One day, the wizard was out in the patch, occasionally being buzzed by chirping and chattering dragons, and humming contentedly. Thanksgiving was coming soon, and that was always a special holiday. He was looking forward to seeing everyone again, and his wife knew some very good pumpkin recipes.

        Around one corner of the patch, near one pumpkin that looked like it would be turning out particularly splendidly, he came across some shimmery pieces of eggshell. “That’s odd, looks like these are a couple of days old. Strange no one’s seen him or her yet.” As he stood there, thoughtfully turning a piece of eggshell over in his hand and looking about, he noticed that a pair of leaves on one of the nearby pumpkins that didn’t exactly look like leaves. Looking closer, sure enough, there was a little dragon there, blending in quite well with his chosen pumpkin. The dragon turned his head and looked back at the wizard.

        “Hi there,” said the wizard.

        “Hello,” replied the dragon. “Is this your pumpkin?”

        “Well, the whole patch of pumpkins is mine, but you can have that one if you like. Most of the land in this area is mine, and that’s my house over there. There are quite a few dragons like yourself who live there, or use it as a home base. You can come join us anytime you want. Have you met any of the other dragons yet?”

        “I met one of them, I think he said his name was Forager, but I’ve been happy here for now.”

        “Can’t say I blame you. I quite like it out here myself. You’re welcome over at the house any time you want, though. It’ll be nice and warm there if it starts getting too cold at night over the next few days.”

        “Okay, thanks.”

        They continued chatting for a little while, and the wizard taught the little dragon a bit about pumpkins and gardening. Soon, the sun started getting low, and the wizard had other things to attend to. He said goodnight to the dragon and went back toward the house.

        The dragon remained in the pumpkin patch, settling down to watch the night. He watched the sun set, and then watched as the stars came out. He watched the pumpkin leaves stirring in the night breeze and walked around the patch seeing what the pumpkins looked like in the starlight. As the night drew on, he curled up on top of another pumpkin and settled down to wait for the dawn. Suddenly, he woke with a start, thinking one of the pumpkins had lifted off the ground. Shaking his head, he saw that it was the orange sun rising again and it was starting to warm his face and tail. He stretched into the sunlight, shook himself again, and decided it was time to fly over to the house and explore something new.