The green dragon was leading Omega and the kids along a narrow, steep in places, up and down, up and down, for miles. Because the rocks were newly phosphorescent, the was enough light to see, but it was hot and the air was close, almost sticky.
Soon enough, they were following a river. They weren't descending, but they may have been going all the way through the mountains.
And then they were there.
A massive, underground cavern, big as 10 city or suburban blocks. All of the rocks were glowing, and the light softened the edges of things. About half of the cavern was covered with a clay-like substance, that you could either burn or or knock off.
There was an area that looked like a altar or a big, big table. It glowed too, although the table was covered with pineapples, grapes, mangos, kiwis, beautiful plums and peaches, and egg plants, corn on the cob, all kinds of potatoes, yellow ones, golden ones, blue ones, purple one, with wrinkled tomatoes, sweet peas, and watermelon.
"Really?" Petey asked. "The dragon is a vegetarian?"
"Must be," Omega said.
"All that fire-breathing stuff, just for show. Apparently," John-John said. "You see him set anybody on fire?"
"No." Omega said. "No, not once."
The dragon purred.
The kids wandered respectfully throughout the underground cathedral. About half of the magnificient space still had the clay covering, but the other half had been cleaned and polished to an astounding shine. The soft, watery colors of gold, of lavender, pink, sky blue, silver, peach, and scarlet were burnished and the light seemed to come from within. The were massive stalactites and stalagmites that touched the floor and the ceiling. And astonishingly enough, the underground Cathedral was close to the surface so that there were slivers of life that left long trails on the rock floors and walls. It was a sacred space.
Jewels were everywhere on the clean side of the Cathedral. Not so much on the clay side of the cathedral. Jewels were encrusted on the table, in patterns on the walls, inlaid in the floors. They caught the light and sparkled in their multiplied magnificence.
Rick was muttering under his breathe, "And I just thought he was some stupid reptile. Turns out he is an artist, working on the most beautiful of projects. So, why did you save his life, Omega?"
"Turns out green dragons are exceedingly rare. Gotta be careful with them."
"Hey!!!!!!!" Tim came around a big rock, carrying armfuls of straw. "Hey!!!!!!!! What are you guys doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" Larry demanded.
"The green dragon could get anything he wanted, carrots mostly, from people's gardens. And he could mine for jewels. But he didn't have a decent bed. So we are making him a bed."
"We?" Cheryl asked.
"Me," Marcus appeared too. "I'm helping too. We found a great big woven piece a cloth, like a burlap sack, and we're laying it over branches and leaves, covered with straw. It's beautiful too. And our dragon, who'd been in a bad mood because he never slept, slept for three days, and woke up in a beautiful mood. That was so fun and it felt so good to help somebody else. Wanna help?"
And the kids helped move around the stores of branches of leave, laid them carefully with golden straw. The bed was about as big as a city block, so there was room for all of the dragon, including his tail.
The dragon responded with growls, with purrs, with yelps, with mild roars. Clearly he loved his bed. Suzie, Cheryl, and Julie crawled up on his giant arms and gave him big smooches on his cheeks. He loved to be loved. Pretty much like every being—kids, kitties, dogs, armadillos, and dragons— on this sweet earth.
Omega said, "Well, that about does it. We've done what we are supposed to do. Learned to love unlikely critters and help out where we can. Turns out Alpha has pre-wired your brains so you feel good when you do good."
And then Omega snapped his fingers.
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