The Deep Dark Woods

Once upon a time in the deep, dark woods, little Ruby walked along the path with her mom and dad.  She stayed close like she is supposed to until, suddenly ... from the distance, they heard a most amazing BURP!  It was a hugely magnificent burp and even the ground vibrated a little bit.

Ruby and her folks were so surprised; it was even a little scary. They couldn't help but go look and see what it was. What could burp so loud? Could it be an elephant, or maybe it was some secret dinosaur that had been hiding in the woods for a million years.  Who knew?

Off along the trail they ran, and Ruby ran the fastest.  Down the trail, over the hill, around the bend, and into a clearing ... 

FIRE!  FIRE! There was a cloud of fire in the air right there in front of them.  They could feel the heat, and it wasn't bad, sort of like sunshine at the beach.  And it was coming from a dragon!  It had to be a dragon because it was breathing fire out of it's mouth!

"Eeeek!"  They stopped in their tracks, not really sure what to do next.  Should they run, hide, scream?  Not knowing any better, they ran around in circles yelling, "what do we do, what do we do?"

Finally, Dad, the calmest one in the merry-go-round, says, "Wait a minute.  The dragon is smiling at us!"  And sure enough, it was.  

Ruby, ever the adventurer, steps curiously into the clearing and sees the monster close up.  Sure enough, it really is smiling and it's got something in its little hands; it's a strawberry!  Ruby loves strawberries, of course, and the monster cheerfully gives it to her, a friendship gift.

They all became life-long friends, and Ruby visited him a lot in the deep, dark woods.  Much later, they found out it wasn't a dragon, it was a granoladon, a friendly herbivore (leaf-eater) that had occasional flammable burps.  They named him George.

Ruby took all of her friends to meet George and play, but only after they and their parents got over the 'dragon' thing.  

Ruby learned a lot from George over the years, the best part of which was that being good and even occasionally being nice was a pretty powerful thing.

Think about it.  If George had been angry and mean, no one would have liked him, and everybody would be afraid of him because he was different. But George was good and even nice; and he shared his strawberries.  And if Ruby hadn't been brave, it would all have ended badly.  But! They did it right, and it changed everything ... without a word being spoken.  

Pretty cool, George.  Well done, Ruby.

__________________________

For Ruby, the nicest granddaughter in the world,

Grampa 

Of course, then there's the story of Tiny Tina Tumbleweed and how she saved everybody.