Once upon a time, a large, strong, handsome and pink dragon lived alone in the Enchanted Forest of Fiore. He practiced his fire-breathing every morning, noon and night. He exercised his wings, flying swiftly above the clouds and swimming in the water. The dragon ate lots of fish and animals. He had to forage far and wide because he'd eaten so many of the forest creatures, they were scarce. The dragon was proud of his pink scales which shined in the sun and dazzled his own black eyes.

He lived alone for a long time. A few of the braver and stronger forest denizens wanted to befriend the dragon, but every time they approached the dragon with friendship, the dragon would challenge them to a fight. The bravest and largest of the forest creatures was an especially smart mountain lion. The mountain lion's name was Happy. His parents didn't have that much of an imagination, he was born smiling away like a loon, so the name stuck.

Happy didn't have that many friends either. He studied the dragon's habits and followed him around. It was pretty advantageous for the mountain lion to do so because the dragon would leave his leftovers unattended and Happy was able to chow down frequently without having to work for it. After months of skulking around, Happy decided to introduce himself to the dragon.

"Hello there Dragon! I'm Happy!"

In a large, powerful, growly voice, the dragon shouted, "I don't care if you're sad and blue! You wanna fight?"

"No, I wanna be your friend!"

"Well, I wanna fight!" The large, strong, handsome pink dragon launched himself into the air and flew straight up and then swooped down on the mountain lion. He bellowed a challenging roar and ripped his talons through the tree branches protecting the lion.

Happy growled back at the dragon. The lion climbed into the top of the tree and as the dragon was making another pass, Happy jumped onto the back of the dragon. "Let's make a bet, dragon! I bet I can stay on your back as long as I want!"

"Get off of me, damned overgrown cat! I bet I can shake you off!" The dragon flew a loop-de-loop but was unable to shake off the pestilent mountain lion. Next, the dragon rolled over and over but had to stop because he was getting motion sickness. The dragon decided to dive through water next, but Happy just laughed, because he loved warm baths. The dragon was getting so frustrated, he was leaking extra heat, which had warmed up the water.

Tired, the dragon slowed down and Happy leapt off. "I wanna be your friend! I bet I can jump back onto your back whenever I want to and then you have to be my friend!" Happy climbed back into the tree and watched the dragon kick some tree trunks in a manner befitting a two year old having a tantrum.

"Haha, ha! Are you going to accept my bet? Hey dragon!" Happy yowled in excitement he usually reserved for eating fish. "Tell you what, I'll fight you if I can't jump onto your back, but then after the fight I have to become your friend!"

At this statement, the dragon perked up and grinned a wide, fang tipped smile. "I accept! I'm all fired up!" The strong, handsome pink dragon launched himself back into the sky, going straight up and up and up to dive bomb down as fast as he could around the tree that the mountain lion was crouching in. The dragon inhaled a large belly-full of air and opened his maw as wide as he could and spewed flames all over the tree, burning it to a cinder.

The dragon landed and inspected the charred remains of the tree. "Haha, ha! Showed you who's the boss of this forest, didn't I?" The dragon sat there preening, buffing his talons and admiring his shiny pink scales. (He was an extremely vain dragon.) He was so lost in his admiration of himself, he didn't notice Happy jumping from another tree onto his back.

The sudden shock of the mountain lion's claws attaching themselves to his back made the pink dragon spray another gout of flame onto a nearby stand of resinous pine trees. They caught fire easily and spread rapidly.

"I win! I win!" roared Happy. "Damn, my new friend! You trying to burn us out of the forest? Hurry and blow the fire out!"

"Okay, okay!" With another large inhale, the dragon exhaled a veritable gale-force blast of wind that ripped the pine needles off of a dozen trees and killed the fire consuming the trees. "That actually worked! I guess it won't be too bad to be your friend!"

"Of course not! I'm the largest and bravest of the forest creatures that you haven't eaten in the Enchanted Forest. Now that we're friends, what's your name dragon? I'm Happy!"

"I still don't care how you feel! But I never tell anyone my name. Never, ever because it's not a manly dragon name at all." The dragon pouted and kicked another tree trunk.

Happy leapt down and gave the same tree another kick. "Hey this is kinda fun! What else you wanna do?" The mountain lion decided to swipe his claws into the tree and made some awesome marks on it. The dragon thought this looked pretty fun too, so he aimed his pinky claw and slashed the tree trunk a good one.

Happy decided that he should just name his new friend for himself. "I'm going to call you Pinky. Your scales are pink and you just trashed that tree trunk with one pinky claw."

The dragon puffed out his chest, "Yeah, I totally showed that tree I am awesome."

So, that was the day the large, strong, handsome, and pink dragon was befriended by a large, smart mountain lion named Happy.

The End