Missing!

Dani was leaving the meadow and heading straight to the forest with a terrible ache in her heart.

The dragon failed to show up as it usually might while she played in the meadow.  She deliberately stayed away from the forest, afraid that the strange man would be there again asking for her dragon.  She wished she looked harder for where the dragon stayed at night, because if the dragon didn't find her in the forest, she feared the worst.

Might that terrible man try to take, or hurt the dragon?

What she got to the usual spot in the forest, she sat down on a log to catch her breath and wait.  The minutes took forever to pass as she looked in the seemingly empty sky, searching for her friend.

Her stomach knotted up as she became aware that the dragon was not coming today.  That man must have taken it, there didn't seem to be any other option.  Tears welled up in Dani's dark eyes as she took one last look to the sky, than ran back to town.

There was only one thing she could think to do.  She ran straight into Mr. Effert's shop and burst into tears when he turned to greet her.  She collapsed to her knees in exhaustion and tried to hold back the sobs.

"Help me... he's taken... the dragon." Dani managed to utter out.