Author's Note: This story is meant to be a children's story, with the text on the left-hand pages and color illustrations on the right-hand pages. Each page is a chapter, and the illustrations are described in italics at the end. Use your imagination! Also, bear in mind that this is a KIDS' story, and I've tried to use simple vocabulary, sentence structure, and plot development to reflect that. So if you notice anything too "adult" in the syntax, vocab, or plot, please let me know so I can fix it. I'm not used to limiting myself in this way!

And now, on to the story!

--Ruatha

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Xatu sat in his cave on the top of the mountain and looked down. He sighed. It just wasn't fair. He knew that the world beyond his home on the mountain was beautiful and full of adventures, but he wasn't allowed to go see it. He was a young Dragon and he could fly, but he wasn't allowed to fly where he wanted to. He had to stay on the mountain with his mom and dad, while his older cousins got to have all the fun.

"Mom!" he would cry. "Why can't I go down and visit the lake to the east? Or the Elven forest to the south? Or the desert to the west? Or the ocean to the north?"

"Xatu!" his mother would always answer. "You're still a Dragonet. You're too little to go flying so far. What if you got hurt or lost? Wait until you're a little older. Then you can fly wherever you want to."

When he asked his father the same question, his father always said, "You're not even one hundred years old yet, son! Wait until you're older, like all the other little Dragonets."

And when he would race up and down the mountain with his older cousins, Xatu would always lose because his wings were smaller and not as strong. "Don't worry, Xatu!" his cousins would tell him. "In a few more years, you'll be as fast as us. Just wait until you're older. Then you'll show us!"

But Xatu did not want to wait until he was older. He wanted to be older now.

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Illustration: Xatu looking down the mountain. Xatu is green and brown, in a sort of smoothly-mottled fashion, with large golden eyes (like all other male Dragons). There are clouds and rocks in the foreground. Lower down (below the clouds), you can see numerous entrances into the mountain. There are brightly-colored Dragons flying around playfully. Note that throughout this story, the Dragons are drawn as thin, long-bodied creatures with small wings – more along the lines of a Chinese Dragon than a Western one. There are no fat or muscular flying beings here, just lithe magical ones.