Tane and The Dragon

Tane crept into the school,

And climbed onto the window pane.
He peered in the window,
And saw something very strange.

There was something in the room.

Something that should not have been there.
It had prongs on its back,
And spikes instead of hair.

The boy sitting in front saw it too.
And he jumped up screaming.
"There’s a DRAGON!"
"There's a dragon in the room!" 

The class bolted out of their seats,
As chairs crashed loudly to the floor.
And shrieking with horror,
They hurtled towards the door.

Startled by the noise.
Tane lost his grip,
And toppled to the floor.
He too was frightened as he galloped out the door.

The children ran screaming and pointing,
With their arms flapping everywhere.
But when Tane glanced around,
That dragon wasn’t there.

"There he is! There he is!"
The children screamed in fright.
But when Tane looked once more,
There wasn't a dragon in sight.

But he knew something was lurking there,
And he knew dragons could run very fast.
So he ran even faster,
To catch up with the class.

But the children were too quick for him,
And when he could no longer run.
Tane plonked himself down,
And waited for that dragon to come.

He covered his head and waited.
He waited and he waited,
He waited for that dragon to come.

But when nothing happened.
He opened his eyes and looked around.
And found that he was all alone ...
Sitting there on the ground.

The class stayed far, far away.
And they watched, trembling with fear.
They knew that dragon was real.
For they could see him lurking there.

Tane turned and made his way home,
But then he too felt a prickle of fear.
When he realised that ...
Something was waiting for him there.

 A raspy voice whispered,
"Won't you come on in?"
And his eyes narrowed with rising fear,
Was that dragon lurking in his darkened lair?

Then his eyes grew wide.
And his heart thumped loudly.
For now he saw quite clearly,

Not a dragon or some scary thing.
It was just a little tuatara.
That stared back at him.
 
But she suddenly shrank back in fear.
And he swung around,
Afraid of what he would see lurking there.

Now he too saw the prongs, large upon it's back,
And he saw the terrible spikes instead of hair.
For the dragon had perched itself ..
Right beside him there.

He screamed out loud,
And it did too.
He backed up against the wall,
And the shadow shrunk right down,
And became very small.

He peered at the ghastly shadow.
And then he knew ...
He knew who had caused that dragon to loom,
So menacingly across the room.
 
He knew who had caused them to scream and shout.
HE was the dragon.
HE was the dragon that they had been screaming about.