A Dragon in Central Acre Park (A Central Acre Park Adventure)
Trix, the miniature horse, has big dreams. She wants to be the best scientist in the world. She wants to observe everything and know everything. There is just one problem. She has hooves and no hands. How will she record her amazing discoveries?! With the help of all of her animal friends, of course!
In the middle of a big city surrounded by honking horns, concrete sidewalks, and skyscrapers is a huge patch of green. Welcome to Central Acre Park! It’s a farm in the city full of curious animals who have a lot to learn about the scientific world. Each day is a new adventure. Today, they will meet a fierce reptile believed to be a dragon.
***
Trix the miniature horse trotted out of the barn to find her Chief Research Assistant and Note Taker: Garbanzo the raccoon. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a very good assistant, but at least he could hold a pencil.
A huge clang came from the dumpster.
“Garbanzo, what are you doing?”
“I’m looking for… samples,” the raccoon replied through a mouthful of food.
Trix could see only his striped tail poking out above the smelly garbage bags. The stench was awful. She wrinkled her nose.
“You mean you found snacks,” she snorted, tossing her black mane against her brown and white fur.
A tiny, brown sparrow landed on Trix’s back with a chirp. It was her friend Beatrice. “Trix, news from the pond! We just spotted… ooh bug!” Beatrice gulped the bug down. “What a dee-EE-licious ant! Did you know that ants can carry up to 5,000 times their body weight?”
Garbanzo emerged with a day-old hamburger bun in one hand and a bruised apple in the other. “Bea, focus. What’s the news?”
“Oh, yeah! There’s a spooky voice coming from the cave. A dragon. Aren’t they fire-breathers?” The tiny, brown bird shuddered.
“Let’s go check it out,” Trix said. She stamped her foot on the concrete path. Her heart beat fast with the excitement of a new discovery. “Tell me everything you saw.”
While Bea and Trix talked, the food in Garbanzo’s hands mysteriously disappeared.
The raccoon finally spoke up. “Dragons aren’t real,” he said.
“Are too!” Bea exclaimed.
Trix trotted across the farm. She ignored her two friends bickering back and forth about mythological creatures. She had no proof whether dragons were or were not real. Still, she was sure there had to be another explanation, and she was going to find out.
***
The cave that Bea mentioned was actually an old sewage drain. They would have to travel through a lot of the park to get there. On her way to the “cave,” Trix passed the paddock and an old chicken coop full of cackling hens. She rounded the magnificent fountain that shot water straight up in the sky like glittering gems in the sunlight. Then she came to the marsh where the turtles basked on rotting logs among green lily pads and duckweed. Finally, Trix trotted up to the perfectly straight row of trees inside the park fence.
Nestled inside a small hill was a wide, round metal pipe. Trix squinted, but she couldn’t see into the darkness.
The miniature horse tapped the pipe. It gave a dull clang.
“Um, hello? Excuse me,” Trix said in her sweetest, most polite voice.
Most humans and animals trusted Trix because of her warm, brown eyes and quiet, gentle manner. She learned a lot of important facts just by listening. Her ears pricked forward.
A faint but fearsome voice roared: “Pendragon the Mighty is most displeased! Leave now if you value your life!”
The miniature horse snorted. Though the voice certainly sounded mighty, the echoing metal made the noise much louder than it actually was.
“You can come out,” Trix said. “It’s safe.”
“I’d rather not,” said Pendragon the Mighty.
***
Garbanzo and Bea arrived later, still arguing.
“Garbanzo, Bea… I need a little help,” Trix said to her friends. “Our new… uh… dragon friend won’t come out.”
“I’m not going near that thing,” the sparrow declared.
“I’ve got this.” The raccoon pretended to roll up his sleeves.
With his excellent night vision, Garbanzo looked inside the tunnel. He reached in and tugged on a scaly tail.
Out came a squirming, unhappy reptile about the size of a small rabbit. It hissed like a cat. Its chin was covered in a beard of spiky scales, and there were more all over its body. It wore a smart, checkered bowtie collar and a tiny hat.
“Pendragon the Mighty is most displeased!” it hissed at Garbanzo. “Put me down!”
“You got it, dude.” The raccoon dropped the squirming newcomer in the grass.
Bea peeked out from behind a leaf. “I told you it was a dragon.”
“I’m a bearded dragon.” Pendragon straightened his hat and bowtie. “I’m a lizard, you silly bird.”
“Nice to meet you, Pendragon,” Trix said kindly. “You look lost. Can we help you?”
“My human misplaced me, and I got hungry,” Pendragon said huffily. “I was hunting crickets.”
Trix shook out her mane eagerly, and a pencil and pad of paper fell out. “Write this down, Garbanzo.”
The raccoon pretended to take notes. His scribbles didn’t mean anything. They were just squiggles and lines. When Trix asked him to read back what he’d written, he repeated word for word using his memory. He never forgot a thing.
“Bearded dragons are cold-blooded reptiles that come from Australia,” Garbanzo said. “Pendragon climbed a tree while basking in the sun and fell asleep. His human couldn’t find him because he blended in. When Bea interrupted his meal, Pendragon lashed out to defend his territory from what he thought was another reptile.”
Pendragon’s spiky neck puffed up indignantly. It looked like he’d swallowed a balloon.
“Birds are very similar to reptiles,” the lizard said. “Well, except for their feathers and flight. We are both distant relatives of ancient beasts.
“Dinosaurs,” Trix added. “It means ‘terrible lizards.’ And Pendragon is right. You do share ancestors, Bea.”
Bea puffed up until she was perfectly round and balloon-like too. “I’m not related to this thing! It looks crusty!”
“You both eat bugs,” Garbanzo pointed out.
“And you both have scaly, clawed feet,” Trix added.
“Well, he can’t fly,” Beatrice said. The sparrow turned and flitted off to find more ants to eat.
Pendragon hissed after her. Trix and Garbanzo just laughed. Not everybody on the farm got along with Bea.
“Let’s help Pendragon,” Trix said to Garbanzo. “Check your notes. Where should we look first?”
Garbanzo picked an area from his memory, and off they went. The miniature horse, raccoon, and bearded dragon hid behind parked cars and newspaper stands. They peered down shadowy alleys. They circled the neighborhood around the farm half a dozen times. They walked miles and miles. They didn’t see Pendragon’s picture on any of the missing pet signs near the farm.
Pendragon’s human wasn’t anywhere to be found.
***
After a long afternoon of searching, Trix offered Pendragon a hidey hole in the barn behind a loose board in her horse stall.
“Pendragon the Mighty is pleased,” the bearded dragon said. “Thank you, Trix.”
“You’re welcome,” Trix replied.
Garbanzo relaxed in a ratty, cloth hammock that dangled near the ceiling. He nibbled on a fresh watermelon rind.
“Don’t forget to add bearded dragons to the farm species list,” Trix said.
Garbanzo pretended to scratch the words into the wall with his other scribbles.
Trix felt one step closer to becoming the scientist she’d always wanted to be. Maybe she was meant to be a herpetologist who studies reptiles and amphibians? Or an ornithologist who studies birds? She fell asleep dreaming about feathers and scales.