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Once upon a time, is how some stories begin. But this story isn’t like that. This is not a story about a dragon who wasn’t always a dragon, or was he, but about a boy who sometimes was a dragon, or was he? You see I am not sure and I’m going to need your help to answer that question.

Meet Eric. He is ten years old and doesn’t like school, or does he? What do you think? You see, Eric daydreams in class. He dreams of dragons, or does he? You tell me. If you ask Eric he will tell you emphatically that he does not dream of dragons, but that he actually becomes a dragon.

Well, that does not make Eric very popular, at least not in a good sense. He is very popular with the bullies and the teasers. So Eric would rather keep his dragon adventures to himself seeing as no one will believe him anyway.

Once upon a time, well I already said that this wasn’t such a story, because there wasn’t one time, there were several times. Several times when Eric dreamt of the dragon, or as he would tell you if he were telling this story, when he was a dragon. But that sounds silly, doesn’t it? So rather than having you and everyone else laugh at me for telling a silly story I spoke to Eric’s teacher and classmates, to get their perspective of what actually happened and whether or not they saw any dragons or perhaps saw Eric change into a dragon.

Alas, it wasn’t to be so simple, as you can now read.

So, once upon the first of the several times when Eric either dreamt of or became a dragon, Eric sat in class at his desk. Teacher was teaching about history and Eric was paying attention and listening very carefully until Teacher said,

“There are many myths and legends about mystical creatures and dragons.”

After that Eric can’t for the life of him recall another single word Teacher said. Eric says that as soon as he heard the word “dragons” that he instantly was surrounded by a cloud of light, or white smoke which was very bright, although he didn’t smell any smoke. He heard a roaring noise, the kind you hear when a strong fire blows up the chimney or maybe like the roar of a jet plane or a rocket taking off. Eric hadn’t heard either a jet plane or a rocket taking off but he guessed that must be what a jet or rocket sounded like, like this white light cloud which surrounded him while he sat there no longer listening to Teacher teach about history.

What Teacher and the other children saw was a sudden beam of sunlight shoot through the window as the clouds parted slightly allowing the sunlight to shine through, right on top of Eric’s head. It was only for two minutes, yet when the clouds again blocked the sunlight Eric blinked, shivered, looked around, and said,

“I have just been a dragon and had a great adventure.”

Poor Eric. The entire room full of children burst into a mighty roar of laughter. They pointed their fingers at him and called him names like, “Day dreamer,” “Loopy loo,” “Bonker head,” and one which hurt him very much, “Dragon dozer.” When Eric looked at the clock above the door of the classroom he couldn’t quite understand what had happened. Had he travelled back in time? So much time had just passed, a long time, and yet the clock showed that only two minutes had passed.

Teacher was not amused and gave Eric extra homework for dreaming in class.

Eric went home befuddled and confused. When he tried to tell his mummy what had happened she told him off worse than Teacher. “No day dreaming in class, Eric,” “You must pay attention,” “you have to listen to become smart and get a good job when you grow up.”

Eric didn’t want to grow up. It was hard enough being little. But anyway he went up to his room for he had to write down what he had experienced. On his shelf there was a thick notebook. It had a black fake leather cover and golden edges on the paper. It was a birthday present, to write down the interesting things which happen in his life, said Aunty. Well, he had never written anything because, apart from learning history and doing math in school, nothing ever happened. Nothing important enough to write it in his shiny new notebook, that is until now.

So here is what Eric wrote in his notebook from that day when he first was a dragon, or was he?