Sunshine

    The wizard’s wife was busily making Thanksgiving preparations, which included making a batch of one of her most famous recipes: candy corn. Not only was it popular amongst her family, friends, and neighbors, but the little dragons quite liked it as well. Fortunately, it was a very nice day, so most of them were off exploring or playing games outside. Blueberry, Aeglos, and Flicker, however, were determined to snitch some candy. Flicker wasn’t as bad, as he was, after all, a visitor and didn’t want to offend his hosts. Blueberry and Aeglos, on the other hand, could be little trouble makers.

    Finally, with a mixture of fun, laughter, and irritation, the wizard’s wife succeeded in shooing them out of the kitchen, though they each departed with a sugary trophy. Settling back into the candy making process, with some peace at last, she noticed some movement back over by the bowl of completed candies. Sighing and rolling her eyes, she walked over to see who had snuck back in this time.

    Moving closer, she saw that it was a new dragon. In fact, he could have been there quite a while without being noticed, he blended in with the candy so well. He had just been sniffing the candy and looked about ready to try a nibble when he realized he was being watched and looked up.

    “Well, hello there. I haven’t met you before. Where did you come from?” asked the wizard’s wife.

    Momentarily frozen, the dragon backed away from the candy and said, “Just from over there,” pointing with his nose to the grass outside the window, where some eggshells lay. “I heard some noise in here, so I came up to the window and looked in, and I could smell these,” pointing at the candy, “so I came in when the other dragons and the bear went out. Can I try one?” he asked, pointing at the candy.

    “Sure, you can have one, but only one. They’re so good we have to set limits so everyone gets one and no one gets too much of a sugar buzz. Those little rascals were just playing a game. Some of them prefer to have a challenge getting their candy, and I think they wanted to be the first to get some from this batch.”

    As the little dragon nibbled his candy, he sat up on the window sill and watched as the candy was made and learned about the valley, the other dragons, and the wizard’s home and family.

    “Now, all the dragons get a name, how would you like ‘Sunny’ as a name? You did hatch in the sun on a nice, warm day after all, and that’s a nice, sun-yellow egg you had,” asked the wizard’s wife. Sunny agreed, and that was his name from then on.