As always, Dragon Tales is owned by Sesame Workshop and created by Ron Rodecker.

Chapter Two: Follow that Ball

One day, near the end of summer, two small children were just lying about in their playroom. Their names were Max and Emmy, and they had a big secret. They were friends with real dragons, and had been ever since they had moved into their new house(1). Right now, they were waiting for their parents to finish up some errands before taking them out to the museum.

"Are you excited, Max? We get to go to the museum of natural history and see real dinosaurs." Emmy said.

"But I don't want to go to the museum. It's just old bones and statues. It'll be boring." Max complained

"I'm sorry, Max. There's nothing I can do about that." she replied. "But I do know somewhere we can go that's never been boring before."

"Dragon Land" they both cried.

Max walked over to the window, opened up the hidden drawer and removed the scale from its wooden box. They both then gripped the scale and repeated the now familiar chant: "I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to fly with dragons in a land apart." And with that, the dragon designs started to come off of the wallpaper before encircling them in the familiar flash of light and rush of wind…

Ragnarock mountain, Dragon Land

It was just another ordinary day in the realm of dragons. A group of young dragons were seen playing in a clearing. One of them, Cassie, a small pink one with yellow scales that went all along her back, was tossing a ball to Ord, a big blue one with a row of purple scales along his back

"I got it." He called, and took a big leap up to catch the ball and turned towards another dragon. "Catch it, you two."

The ball was shown going towards a two headed dragon that was purple on one side and green on the other. "We got it." They said in unison. Taking to the air in order to follow the ball, Wheezie, the purple one, turned around and shouted "Get ready. It's gonna come back like a comet." She had unfortunately turned around at precisely the wrong moment, for she inadvertently altered their course so that they were heading straight towards a tree. "Look out, Wheezie." Cried Zak, the green one, but his warning was a second too late, for a great crash was heard by both Ord and Cassie as the twins collided with the tree. They immediately ran over to help them up.

"Are you okay?" asked Cassie.

"Oh, sure, we're fine." replied Wheezie. "Now, let's get back to the game."

The game continued for a few more tosses, until they felt the wind start to rustle, and turned to see a small gathering of sparkles that formed into Max and Emmy. Ord stopped playing when he saw them, and ran over to give them a big hug.

"What you doing?" asked Max

"Playing catch" He replied. "You want to join in?"

"Sure"

Max ran over to where the ball had landed, and shot it right at the dragons. He must have overestimated the distance however, because when he tossed it, it sailed right over everyone's head and into a densely wooded area just beyond the clearing.

"Come on." He cried. "We need to find that ball."

They all started running in the direction of where they thought the ball went, but didn't get very far before running into a sheer cliff that reached high over their heads and far off to the sides, with only a small cave entrance in front of them.

"The ball must have gone into that cave." stated Emmy.

"Are you sure that's a cave, and not a dragonocerous?" Ord asked, remembering the time they had gotten swallowed by one(2).

"I'm sure, Ord" replied Cassie. "Come on. We have to get that ball back."

So, they all went into the cave, following the faint trail of sound caused by the bouncing ball. They soon reached a junction.

"So now which way do we go?" asked Ord.

They pondered the question for about a minute until Cassie called out "The ball must have gone down that way."

"How do you figure?" asked Max

"See that?" she gestured towards a group of webs off to one side, particularly one with a round hole in the center "only a ball could have done that."

"Okay. Let's go."

They all continued on, even when it got dark enough that the dragons needed to use their fire-breath to see. They soon came to the end of the tunnel, with what appeared to be a knuckerhole leading downward. The faint sound of a ball bouncing could be heard from within.

"Does anyone else have a funny feeling about this?" asked Zak.

"What do you mean, Zak?" replied Max.

"Well, for starters, we seem to be in a cave that hasn't been disturbed in a long time, despite being near a populated area. Second, I've never heard of a knuckerhole entrance being inside another cave. They're always out in the open, so that anyone can use them. And finally, how is it that you managed to throw the ball this far? You have a good arm, but I doubt even Ord can throw a ball with this much distance."

"So?"

"Something just seems fishy here."

"Anyway," Wheezie interjected "while we're standing around talking, that ball is getting farther away. We need to just jump down the hole and hope for the best."

So, they all jumped down the knuckerhole, and began a long slide that must have lasted for several minutes before eventually popping out the other side.

"Man." Commented Emmy "that was the longest knuckerhole slide I've ever been on."

"At least it's over, but which way do we go now?" asked her brother.

"Easy. There's only one way to go." And indeed she was right, for at this end of the knuckerhole, there was only a single path going forward. They had no choice but to continue in the dark passage for what seemed like miles.

Suddenly, Zak cried out "Look. I can see daylight. That must be the other end of this cave." So, they proceeded on toward where Zak had seen the light. After a couple of abrupt twists, the area gradually became bright enough for them to see the exit in the distance.

"We made it" cried Wheezie.

"Thank goodness." added her brother.

After a few more minutes of walking, they finally managed to reach the entrance of the cave. It was then that a cloud must have moved out from behind the sun, for they were suddenly blinded with a bright flash. As their eyes re-adjusted to the light, they let out a collective gasp at what they saw…

To Be Continued…

1 See Dragon Tales episode To Fly with Dragons for the origin of their friendship.

2 See Dragon Tales episode To Do or Not to Do for the previous encounter.