William
(Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia)
Meet William! I first met William at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was his second bout with cancer, and things were progressing as normal—well, as normal as things can be when fighting cancer—and William was in pretty good spirits despite having being confined to a tiny hospital room for two weeks.
That day we discussed William’s dream of becoming a dragon rider. I knew I wanted to do something really fun for him during our shoot.
We traveled to a secluded office building a couple miles up Big Cottonwood Canyon. The plan was to explore the woods and hills near the building. We were going to search for William’s dragon! William and I had a great adventure searching for dragon hideouts. It was the first time I was able to see William just being a boy, full of life and adventure! And, as luck would have it, William was able to find a dragon.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIo6WuPCUk0
William and the Dragon
J. Scott Savage
William stared at the side of the mountain as three of the city’s most skilled knights stumbled from the entrance of a large cave and through the yellow mist that floated outside the dark opening like an evil cloud. The men’s armor—normally the bright gold and red of the city’s colors—was covered in black soot. One of the knight’s swords had been melted into a shape like a large letter J. Coughing and gasping for breath, the men pulled off their helmets and revealed faces red from exhaustion . . . and fire.
“Report,” commanded the king, who sat astride a great white stallion. The horse glanced toward the cave and whinnied, trying to trot away, but the king held the reins tightly. “Did you kill the beast?”
“No,” said the largest of the knights, shaking back his sweaty blond hair. “The creature was too powerful to be defeated by a dozen men. Or three dozen, for that matter.”
“It could eat a horse in one bite,” said the knight beside him, a woman with long black hair that looked even darker covered by soot. She held out her bow, which was now little more than a blackened stick. “My arrows bounced straight off the monster’s scaly hide.”
William, the youngest son of the king, was only six. But even he could see the look of worry that crossed his father’s face. In the two months since Nogard, the great red dragon, had taken up residence in a cave outside the city, over a dozen villages had been burned and hundreds of sheep had gone missing.
The knight with the blond hair was Barton, William’s oldest brother, and the woman was his aunt. They were two of the fiercest warriors in the land. If they couldn’t defeat the dragon, who could?
The king pushed back his crown and shook his head. “Is it possible we can negotiate with the beast? What does it want? Gold? Treasure? Land? I’ll grant it anything to save my people.”
The third knight, an old man with gray hair and a white beard that disappeared down the front of his neck into his armor, shook his head. “I am afraid not, Your Majesty. We tried offering the dragon whatever it wanted, but it can’t be bought. I’m afraid the only way to stop Nogard is to defeat him.”
Crag had been the king’s advisor for more than thirty years. He was the wisest man William had ever met. If even he was discouraged, they were in deep trouble.
William’s father sighed. “I’m afraid we have no choice, then. As long as the dragon is here, no one is safe. Since my best warriors could not kill it, my decision is made. We must leave the kingdom.”
“No!” William cried. Leave their homes and lands? The castle had been in his family for hundreds of years. How could they desert it? And what about the farmers working their fields? If they left now, they’d have no money, no food. They’d starve this winter. “There has to be something we can do.”
Barton examined his bent sword and let it fall to the ground. Sadly, the three knights mounted their horses, and the group began riding back toward the castle. William urged his little pony up to Crag’s much larger horse. He leaned toward the old man. “Isn’t there anyone who can stop the dragon?”
Crag gazed down at William with eyes so light blue they looked almost silver. “Perhaps someone with extreme courage could find a way.” He raised a bushy white eyebrow. “Sometimes the bravest are not the biggest or the strongest.”
William dropped behind the rest of the riders, deep in thought. Someone with courage. His father was brave. He was king of all the land. But he was leaving. His mother was brave. As queen, she ran most of the kingdom and held the townspeople together through all kinds of trials. His older brothers and sisters were brave. But none of them had been able to stop the dragon.
Then a thought occurred to William. It was such an amazing thought that he stopped his pony in the middle of the road. What about himself? Was he brave? Although William was only six, he’d gone through some hard things in his life. People said he was brave for the way he handled the hard things, but William didn’t feel especially brave. In fact, sometimes he felt so scared he started to cry.
But as scared as he’d been, he never gave up. He never quit. Did that make him courageous? Crag had said that sometimes the bravest weren’t the biggest or the strongest. William was not as big as his father or as strong as his brothers, but maybe, just maybe, he could be brave. Biting the inside of his cheeks, trying not to let his hands shake on the reins, he turned his pony around and headed back to the cave.
He was nearly to the side of the mountain before anyone realized what he was doing. “Come back!” everyone shouted. But by then William was already tying his pony up to a small leafless tree.
“Wait here for me,” he said, rubbing his pony’s mane.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and stepped through the yellow mist into the cave.
The first thing William noticed when he stepped into the darkness were the two gold circles high above his head. It took him a moment to realize the circles were the eyes of the dragon. The sight of those two huge glowing eyes made William want to run. But even though he was frightened, he continued into the cave.
“What are you doing here?” snarled a deep voice.
As William’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could make out a huge red head with sharp horns, long teeth, and a pointy beard. William squeezed his hands together and said, “I want you to leave the kingdom alone.”
The powerful dragon burst into startled laughter. “Are you going to stop me?”
William swallowed. His mouth felt dry, and his nose stung from the smoke-filled air. “I don’t know how, but I’ll try.”
“Try this!” the dragon shouted. Before William could move, Nogard lunged forward, opened his cavernous mouth, and closed his jaws around William.
William looked about, blinking. He couldn’t see a thing. “Where am I?” he shouted. “Am I, am I, am I?” his voice echoed back at him.
“You are in my stomach,” the dragon growled.
William wrinkled his nose at the foul smell. “Disgusting.”
Realizing he had to escape before he was dissolved by the dragon’s stomach acid, he reached into his pocket. He was hoping to find something to cut his way out—a knife, maybe—but the only thing his fingers touched was the sparrow’s feather he’d picked up the day before.
It was small, just like him, but somehow it would have to do. Clasping the feather between his fingers, William reached up as high as he could and tickled the inside of the dragon’s throat. Nogard coughed. William tickled the dragon’s throat again. Nogard coughed harder. William tried one more time, and the dragon coughed so hard that it threw William up.
William landed a few feet away from the dragon. As he pushed himself to his feet, he realized he was covered in dragon saliva. “Yuck,” he said. “This will never come out of my leather armor.”
The dragon cocked his large red head. “I’ve never seen anyone survive being eaten by a dragon before. Perhaps you should run away while you can.”
Although his knees were shaking and his stomach felt tied in knots, William shook his head.
Nogard waggled his beard. “Aren’t you scared?”
“Terrified,” William admitted. “But I’m not going away until you agree to leave the kingdom alone.”
The dragon sighed. “I sort of liked you too.” He opened his mouth and blew a stream of fire directly at William.
William pressed his eyes shut as heat engulfed him, sure he was about to be cooked into a small, charred William-kebab. But when he opened his eyes, he was still standing. He looked down at himself, examined his armor the best he could in the darkness, and ran a hand over his head. Not a single hair was singed.
It took him a moment to realize what must have happened. “It’s the dragon spit,” he said. “If it’s strong enough to protect a dragon’s stomach from fire, I guess it’s strong enough to protect me, too.”
Nogard stepped toward William, his great claws tearing divots in the stone floor of the cave. “What weapons did you bring to fight me with, little man?”
William shrugged. “I don’t, uh, actually have any weapons.”
The dragon chuckled and spread his great wings. “You came to stand against me unarmed?”
Feeling a little embarrassed, William said, “My mother says I’m too young to play with swords and spears.”
The great red dragon leaned close until the boy could feel the creature’s hot breath on his face. His nostrils flared as he sniffed at William. “I swallowed you and yet you chose not to run. I scorched you with fire and you stood your ground.”
William shuffled his feet.
“I have traveled the world far and wide,” Nogard said. “Many warriors have tried to fight me. Every one of them wore their strongest armor. They carried thick shields and sharp weapons. They all trembled and fled when they beheld my power. Yet you, a boy, come against me without a single weapon, wearing simple leather armor. How do you explain this?”
William wasn’t sure how to answer. He rubbed his hands on his pants, hoping the dragon wouldn’t notice how grossed out he was by the spit. “I guess I’ve learned that it’s okay to be afraid. But being scared doesn’t mean you give up.”
The dragon bent his front legs and lowered his head until his chin rested on the ground. “I have searched every kingdom for someone as brave as you. You are truly a person of courage. Climb onto my back.”
William could hardly believe what he was hearing. “You mean you aren’t going to eat me?”
“I never really liked the taste of humans,” the dragon said. “I much prefer sheep. And chocolate. I really like chocolate.”
“Me too!” William said. Grabbing the dragon’s scales, he climbed onto the creature’s thick neck. His short legs dangled on either side as the dragon stood.
“Hang on,” Nogard said. The dragon bent his legs, spread his wings, and suddenly they were rocketing out of the cave faster than a speeding arrow. Wind blew back William’s hair and cooled his cheeks. Together the two of them blasted through the yellow cloud and into the sky. It was like being on the back of the biggest, coolest bird ever.
Down below, William’s father, brother, and the others looked up in terror before seeing William on Nogard’s back.
“It’s okay!” William yelled down to them. “He’s my friend.” Throwing back his head, William let out a whoop, and together he and Nogard soared toward the sky. It was the greatest day of his life.
Now the only thing he had to worry about was how to convince his mother to let him keep a dragon at the castle.
J. Scott Savage
J. Scott Savage is the author of the Farworld series and the Case File 13 series. He grew up in Northern California and now lives in northern Utah in a windy little valley of the Rocky Mountains. He has a wonderful wife who has somehow stuck with him for more than twenty years, four great kids, and a spastic border collie.