Once upon a time there was a little dragon called Elliot. He lived in a lovely cave with his Mama dragon, Dadda dragon and little baby brother Callum dragon. Mama was a bright blue dragon with purple wings, Dadda dragon was a grey dragon with wings that sparkled like where the ocean meets the horizon, Elliot was a green dragon with sparkly green wings, and Callum dragon was gold all over. They all loved one another very much, and they always would love one another, no matter what happened, even if one of them did something really bad.

Elliot the Dragon went to a school that he loved. It was called DragonPAC. His teacher dragon was wonderful. She would say, “Class class class,” and they would say, “Yes yes yes!” or sometimes she would ask them to put their attentascopes so they could listen to what she had to say. Elliot loved being at DragonPAC. The thing was, DragonPAC had rules just like any other place, and one day, Elliot the Dragon broke a rule. It was a big rule and he’d broken it before, so he knew what had to happen. He had to go to see the Principal dragon.

Elliot didn’t want to go to see the Principal dragon. He preferred to pretend that he hadn’t done that thing. He tried changing the topic, and cracking jokes, and even running away from school. He also didn’t look back at his wings anymore. Just near his wings on his back, there was a brown spot, about the size of Elliot’s fist. It was a shame spot, that reminded him of the thing he had done. Elliot didn’t want to see it, so he looked straight ahead and tried not to look over his shoulder. But sometimes, when he went around a corner, he would catch a glimpse of it and he would remember what he had done. The brown mark didn’t go away because he refused to think about it. It just stayed there. Elliot’s beautiful green scales had this ugly brown spot on them. It made him feel sad. His sparkles started to fade.

So Elliot decided that he would go to Principal dragon like he was supposed to, and when he got there, he asked her how to get rid of the brown spot. Principal dragon loved him very much and she was very kind. She told Elliot that she could only fix the brown spot a little bit. She had some special soap, and that could scrub off the brown spot for a while, but it would come back. Elliot was crestfallen at that. Would he always have the brown spot? But then Principal dragon leaned in very close to Elliot’s face and told him a secret. She knew who could get rid of the spot forever. Would Elliot like to meet the spot-taker?

Elliot said yes please he would, and so Principal dragon took him outside. Elliot didn’t see much outside except for a little sheep, but Principal dragon told him, “This sheep is the spot taker.” Elliot thought that was a bit funny, but he gave it a go anyway and asked the sheep to take away his brown spot. 

“Of course I can,” replied the sheep. “If you lift me up onto your shoulders, I will  rub my beautiful white wool on your brown spot and that will take it away.” 

Elliot asked, “Won’t it hurt you? Sometimes my scales are a bit sharp.”

The sheep answered, “Yes, it might hurt me, but this is the only way to take away the spot.”

“But why would you do this?” asked Elliot. “We have only just met.”

The sheep chuckled softly, “Elliot, you are only just getting to know me, but I have loved you since before you hatched out of your egg!”

So Elliot agreed to let the sheep wipe away his spot. Now, dragons are very strong, so Elliot had no trouble lifting the sheep onto his back, and there the sheep went to work, wiping the brown spot off with soft wool. Every now and then the sheep made little yelps because of Elliot the dragon’s scales, but the sheep still kept going.

By the end, the sheep’s wool was not lovely and white any more, but all brown, from Elliot’s spot. Elliot, on the other hand, was a gleaming green again. Then the sheep told Elliot, “This is what I am going to do. I am going to take this brown spot that you have given me, and I am going to run away with it. I am going to go so far that you will never see it again. If you are all the way in the east, I will take it all the way into the west. That’s how far away I’m going to take this spot.”

And that’s what the sheep did, running away and taking the brown spot along, so far that Elliot could no longer see it. Meanwhile, Elliot turned to Principal dragon and gave her a hug. He was sparkling, free of the spot, and they walked back to DragonPAC together.

Categories: Written by Tamie

Tagged as: Elliot the Dragon shame

Tamie Davis

Tamie Davis is an Aussie living in Tanzania, writing at meetjesusatuni.com.