Jamal the Thirsty Dragon
Jamal began his walk to the store through the city of Palo Alto. His destination was 401 Waverley Street, 7-Eleven. The 7-Eleven sold the Kool-Aid that he was running low on, which helps him stay active and alive. Without it, he would have not enough red 40 in his blood stream causing him to pass out. This was due to his severe case of red 40 deficiency as was with most dragons.
With his dragon-like features, Jamal was careful not to stomp on the people walking by. Jamal towered over the pedestrians, standing at nine feet. Jamal was a nine foot dragon with dark brown scales that looked like rich dark chocolate. The pedestrians coward away in fear as his imposing body cast a great shadow on them. As he approached the store, he ran into a man named Charles. Jamal didn’t like Charles as he was part of a group of humans that owned dragons. Jamal despised these kinds of people thinking that dragons should not be owned by anyone. Whilst Jamal was thinking this Charles looked up, seeing Jamal, thinking he was as big as the sun. Jamal looked up at his destination, getting distracted by the flickering lights. Because he just trimmed his claws, he had a hard time gripping his Kool-Aid refill bottle, and he dropped it . Before he could reach down to pick it up, Charles was already running away, holding the bottle in his small hand.
Seeing Charles running away with his red 40 rich drink, Jamal got mad. His eyes started to turn fiery red and his breath started to steam. Jamal took this seriously. He had only one hour without red 40 before he had to find a nice place to pass out. He had to think fast, so he quickly ground up some watermelon he kept in his emergency pouch and sprayed a little drop of blood from his eyes. If the blood was brighter than the watermelon, he had some time left, otherwise he was living on borrowed time and would soon pass out.
Finding the last bit of energy, Jamal knew he had to try something to get back his Kool-Aid. Jamal's first move was to try to stomp on Charles, but Charles quickly moved next to an innocent child, leaving Jamal infuriated. But Jamal could not waste too much time. He had only two options left: one was to fly back to his den to find his emergency red 40, and the other was to try again to purchase a refillable bottle of Kool-Aid. Jamal thought to himself that he could not go to his den because it was too far, and he would pass out before he reached back home. He thought of his last option. In his pocket, he always kept an emergency red 40 jolly rancher boost, and he quickly ate it.
While Jamal was lost thinking about his next move, Charles had quietly ran away with the refill bottle. Jamal thought that it was because his dragon also had red 40 deficiency. Jamal extended his wings revealing his amazing wing span. His wings were so thin he thought one day they might break. After a few flaps, he took off, flying through the sky looking down at the horrified Charles running through Johnson Park.
Losing track of Charles as he ducked through some trees he started looking for him. Soaring through the sky, Jamal surveyed the area for Charles like a hawk. After searching through the busy town, he located Charles, standing under a tree out of breath with the Kool-Aid in his hand. Jamal swooped down at a swift pace to confront Charles, landing with a graceful thump. Charles looked up at his eyes that were as reflective as mirrors.
“Give me back my Kool-Aid thief!” Jamal yelled, widening his silver eyes and flaring his nostrils.
“You are not the only dragon that needs Kool-Aid,” Charles replied. “My dragon has spent way too long without Kool-Aid. He also has red 40 deficiency so he’ll pass out without some.” Charles explained. Charles had been taking care of a dragon for years after he adopted him from the streets. Charles had to get him pounds of jolly ranchers just so he could live. For the past two days, the dragon had been having tedious headaches, the side-effects of a red 40 deficiency. Because there was only one bottle in the world that 7-Eleven would refill, he decided to take Jamal’s. This cup has been given to Jamal by the founder of 7-Eleven for the time he saved him (a story for another day).
Jamal was done with Charles yelling at him. Taking a deep breath, his snout sizzled with scorching smoke as he started to blow his super hot golden fire at Charles. But out of nowhere, a silver dragon jumped in front of Charles, protecting Charles from the blast of fire. Charles started laughing with an evil cackle.
“Jaquavion?” Jamal asked, shocked. He recognized Jaquavion from his silvery eyes. When they were younger they used to always fly around town, pretending like they were lost in the forest. Feeling a little bad he held back from using harsh language.
Jamal yelled at Jaquavion, “I need that kool aid!”
Jaquavion responded with, “Jamal it's not the end of the world.” He straightened posture.
“Okay fine it's only one bottle!” Jamal said with heavy irony, stretching his legs.
Charles, not understanding Jamal’s irony, responded, “Thank you for understanding me.”
Jamal snapped back at him saying, “That was ironic you idiot!”
Charles started running like a mouse with Jamal bounding after him in a fit of rage. Jaquavion stepped in between them and said, “Jamal, you can take my bottle of red Kool-Aid.” This was Jaquavion's way of giving back for the time Jamal almost passed out because he gave him his red 40 when they were younger. Jaqavion had always felt like he should have done more, and he never forgot the kindness from his friend.
Jamal stopped in his tracks seeing the bright red bottle of Kool-Aid in Jaquavion’s hands. “Really Jaquavion, you would do that for me?” Jamal asked with confusion.
Jaquavion responded, “Remember when I almost passed out and you gave me Koo-Aid?” Jaquavion stared at him remembering the day when he was feeling dizzy and Jamal gave him almost all of his Kool-Aid.
Jamal hugged Jaquavion whilst crying out, “Thank you so much I was going to pass out.”
Jaquavion comforted Jamal while saying, “It's no problem really.”
With his red Kool-Aid in hand, Jamal was able to go to the store and get enough Kool-Aid for multiple weeks in advance; Charles thanked Jaquavion for his help.
