Dragon Bones by Sojourner McConnell

Dragon bones? Are you sure you heard that right?”

I wasn’t falling for some silly Internet prank if I could help it. I wasn’t born yesterday so I wanted to have all the facts laid out in front of me before I believed this news and started passing it along as I was prone to do. Not that I blab everything I hear, I probably don’t do that. Ok, so sometimes I do pass along interesting tidbits.

Katie nodded solemnly, “I am positive, I saw the bones on YouTube and they were real. It is just a skull but it has all the ingredients of a dragon. Pointed nose, pointed horns on its head. It was a dragon.”

“Hmm… I am going to look for myself and make sure.” I reached for the laptop and pulled it into my lap. Clicking the icons and waiting for the screen to load I asked Katie a few more questions, just for my own peace of mind.

“Was it anywhere else other than YouTube? You know people play pranks on YouTube with homemade videos, don’t you? I continued to type in the words dragon bones into the search bar and waited.

“Yes, Amelia, I know that people play pranks on there, but this is true. I even saw the cover of National Geographic with a picture of the dragon. It doesn’t get any more real than that.” Katie formed quotation marks with her fingers as she spoke the last few words.

I did feel more confident once she produced the name  National Geographic. Although I was a bit annoyed at her use of the quotation marks. They always made me feel like I was being made fun of when she used them.

“Ahh, here we go, hmm… I don’t see anything that would be like what you said. There is nothing about dragon bones being found.”

“Did you put in Dracorex Hogwartia? I think that is how you say it.” Katie leaned over and watched the screen as I typed in a rough spelling of what she had said. The screen flickered for a moment then a revised response came up featuring the results for Dracorex Hogwartsia complete with images and links.

“There! See!” Katie was practically jumping up and down on the cushion next to me on the sofa.

“I see it; hold on let me click the link. Be still you are going to break the sofa. Then where will Sasha sleep?”

Sasha raised her head from her paws and gave an annoyed look, then she yawned and wagged her tail in a jerking motion. I wasn’t sure if she was more annoyed with the bouncing or my saying her name. She just looked completely annoyed as only a cat can.

I looked back down at the video that had finished loading and had started playing. The first thing I heard was that they had found a skull in North Dakota and it was an almost complete skull and several vertebrae intact. The skull had the thin narrow face of a dragon and had prominent horns and spikes. Plus there were bony deposits that formed scales. This thing had all the facial features of a freaking dragon!

My breath caught and I squealed into Katie’s face. “Oh my goodness, it is real!”

Katie pointed back to the screen. “Look, see, I told you, National Geographic!”

I looked over and there it was a man sitting in front of the dragon skull holding a copy of National Geographic that happened to have that same skull on the cover. A smile crossed my face as I watched them discussing the eating habits and the fact that this dragon, dinosaur lived on what at their time was seashore. The scientist even explained that at this period in history the ocean went straight through the United States because the oceans were higher since there were no ice packs at that time.

Both of us were utterly quiet as we listened to the dinosaur expert explaining about this dinosaur that looked so much like a dragon.

“I owe you an apology” I acknowledged after the Director of the Dinosaur museum finished talking. I shook my head in disbelief. “If I had not seen it for myself, I never would have believed it. You were right.” I told her then I muttered, “for once.”

Katie rolled her eyes and blurted out, “I am always right. You just always have to try to prove me wrong. This time, you failed!” She pointed both thumbs back at her chest. “Winner!”

Sasha stood up arched her back and hopped off the couch, even she had had enough. Katie and I both rolled our eyes at her.