What Do We Know About Dragons?
Far away in an ancient land lies a dark mountain cave. The local villagers say there is treasure in the cave, but no one dares to look for it. The cave is deep and damp and smells like dead goats. But there is something far worse inside: a dragon.
The dragon is thirty feet long with green, scaly skin and a lizard-like tail. It has four clawed feet, two bat-shaped wings, horns on its head, and ridges running down its back. It sees with eyes like a snake’s, smells through an elongated snout, and tastes the air with a forked tongue. Inside its mouth are rows of crooked fangs and breath so bad it can kill a bird mid-flight.
But something far deadlier comes out of the dragon’s mouth: fire. The dragon can spew a stream of fire that is hot enough to melt steel. Just one fiery blast can set an entire village alight. The thought makes the villagers quiver and quake. It has been a while since the dragon last ate. Surely, it must be getting hungry?
The dragon moved to the cave many months ago and has been terrorizing the village ever since. Every couple of weeks, the dragon crawls from its lair and takes to the skies with its massive flapping wings. It plucks goats and sheep in its claws and sometimes breathes fire over a wheat field just for fun. Then it circles back to its cave to feed. But now the dragon has eaten every animal for miles around. Are the villagers next? What can they do to avoid the danger?
Luckily, help is at hand. A hero with a sharp sword has ridden in on his horse to slay the dragon. He approaches the cave. Will he find the weak spot among the dragon’s scales? Or will the beast roast him and burn down the village in revenge? As the villagers nervously watch on, the dragon starts to stir.
This tale might seem familiar to anyone who comes across a dragon in a book, movie, television show, or video game. It is a modern idea of a dragon that originates from stories told in Europe hundreds of years ago. In these stories, dragons look like monstrous lizards with huge wings, sharp fangs, and terrible claws. They spend their lives attacking people and property and are often killed by heroic knights on horseback.
But this is only one idea of what a dragon might be. Most countries around the world have their own versions. Some of these dragons are snakelike serpents without wings or feet; others are covered with feathers and have bills like birds. Other dragons look like lions, tigers, and even camels. And not all of these dragons are dangerous and destructive. In many places, dragons are considered to be friendly and helpful and to bring good luck. There are probably as many different dragons as there are countries in the world.
Because there are many different dragons, there are also a lot of unanswered questions about them: Are there any photos of dragons? Has a live dragon ever been found in the wild? Have the remains of a dragon ever been dug up from deep underground? If not, then what do we really know about dragons?
Copyright © 2026 by Ben Hubbard; illustrated by Andrew Thomson. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
