“Yeah, this seems kinda dangerous, Mom,” Ginny whispered as crossed her arms. “Something about a fire-breathing, aggressive reptile doesn’t seem too family-friendly.”
“Oh Ginny, hush!” her Mom shushed her as she glanced over at her husband who was bouncing Ginny’s younger sister on his shoulders. “Isn’t this fun, sweetie?!”
“Dragon!” the little girl squealed with excitement as she clutched a stuffed dragon from the zoo gift shop.
Ginny rolled her eyes at her mother’s lack of attention and turned her focus to the large purple curtain that was obscuring the dragon from view.
“This nearly two-ton reptile was discovered in the Himalayan mountains and is believed to have a life-span of over two hundred years. With a fire-breathing capability of temperatures near 2,000 degrees, introducing...” the zookeeper paused for great effect while the curtains began to part. Ginny leaned forward with the crowd in attempt to get a better glimpse.
“Krypton!” she yelled as the curtains parted to reveal the mysterious dragon. The crowd was quiet as everyone surveyed the creature that they’d only seen in illustrations or computer-generated movies.
The dragon’s scaly skin changed color as it moved and smoke rings rose from his nose to the sky of the open-air cage.
“Krypton has been discovered to have chameleon-like properties and can change the color of his skin. Impressively, he also has a wing-span of nearly 50 feet.” Krypton paced his cage and his piercing yellow eyes stared into the crowd.
“Mom, I don’t like this. He’s freaking me out,” Ginny tugged at her mother’s sleeve. After a full minute of deathly quiet, the crowd irrupted into cheers and applause. The Zookeeper beamed and rattled off a few more facts but Ginny wasn’t listening. Her eyes were glued to Krypton’s yellow and fierce eyes that pointedly gazed at the audience.
The noise from the crowd began to agitate the beast as he moved roughly against his shackled ankles. Krypton let out a huge roar that stunned the audience and they stepped back from the cage quickly.
“There’s nothing to fear, he’s been given harmless drugs to subdue him and because of those drugs he’s unable to breathe fire,” the Zookeeper attempted to keep the peace. Krypton roared once more and blew fire at the Zookeeper.
She quickly was enveloped in flames as the hundreds of people began to scatter like cockroaches. Ginny was frozen in horror as she watched the Zookeeper flail, scream and writhe in agony. Her attention was called to the dragon who was now flapping his wings wildly and trying to break free of his confines. One of his shackles broke loose as the other zoo workers were kept busy trying to put out the fire on the burned woman.
“He’s getting loose! RUN!” someone yelled and the crowd pushed Ginny into the ground. As much as she tried to get up she kept being shoved back to the pavement by frantic feet scurrying away from the cage. Her body ached after being hit numerous times and she screamed for her family. When she was finally able to get to her feet she saw the dragon had managed to break his other shackle and took flight into the sky and quickly vanished.
“Ginny!” her mother grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the cage as if the threat was still eminent.
“I told you it was dangerous, Mom!” Ginny cried.
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