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The Little Cloud Dragon

Daniele Lippi

Translated by

Caio Magliano

Reproduction and translation rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, or disseminated in any medium without the author's written permission.

The story narrated in this book is the result of the author's imagination. It is therefore not autobiographical. Any reference to names, things, people who existed or existed, or to facts that really happened is purely accidental.

To my daughter Morgana, thanks to whom a new dragon runs through the pages of the imagination.

Only children (and a few adults who still stubbornly wear the glittering, magical, and shining armor of the imagination) dare to admit that they still manage to see dragons.

CONTENTS

	Acknowledgments
1	First Part	1
2	Second Part	10
3	Third Part	17

A big thanks to you who are reading this story.

First Part

Once upon a time, a long time ago in a magical realm far far away, there was a little dragon that lived in the clouds.

It was the Little Cloud Dragon.

He lived on a large magic cloud. On this cloud, there was his castle made of clouds and everything inside it was also made of clouds. The sofa, the chairs, the table, the bed ... everything was made of clouds and everything was soft and very comfortable.

A few steps from the castle there was a tall tower (also made of clouds, of course) from whose top the little cloud dragon did its job.

A very important job.

The little dragon had the task of telling the clouds where they should go.

It was not an easy job.

It was not always easy to decide what they should do. Now and then he had to clear the sky to make the sunshine, other times, to bring shade where it was too hot. Not to mention the rain.

From its cloud, the little dragon carried out his task with commitment and dedication and did it always thinking of the day when he could have descended on the earth below.

The little dragon could only go down to the ground once every five years, just for one day, and that was the best day for him because he loved jumping and, unfortunately, he couldn't do it on his cloud.

Oh yes, he had tried, for sure, but the clouds were too soft and when he did it he sank to his belly. Jumping on his cloud was impossible.

The little dragon was very happy today because tomorrow the five years would have passed and, after such a long wait, he would finally be able to jump and jump for a whole day!

The little dragon was very enthusiastic and was so excited that that night he hardly slept, waiting for the sun to rise on the horizon and, as soon as the first of its rays illuminated the room, he dived from his cloud, flying fast towards the ground.

He landed near a beautiful lake surrounded by majestic snow-capped mountains.

He looked around and then, filled with emotion, he stamped his foot on the ground.

How nice it was to feel the strength of the solid earth underfoot.

Then he made a small jump.

Then another, putting in a little more strength.

Then another one, putting even more strength into it.

He began to laugh happily like a child as he kept jumping around.

He jumped onto the small lakeshore.

Jumped in and out of the water.

Jumped over a large stone nearby.

Jumped from above the trees of the forest that surrounded the lake.

He jumped, jumped, jumped, and jumped.

He was so happy that he even forgot to eat.

In the afternoon, while he continued to jump, he noticed that, behind a nearby bush, someone was watching him.

It was not the first time this happened, but people who saw him would usually run away screaming in fear.

The little dragon did not understand why, but by now he was used to it.

He then decided to leap towards the bush, just to do so, but whoever was there did not run away and, on the contrary, unexpectedly jumped out of it and ran towards him.

It was a girl. A little girl. A small girl who, instead of running away screaming, looked at him smiling and, still smiling, made two jumps in his direction.

The little dragon didn't know what to do. He had never been in a situation like that before and, not knowing what to do, he did the first thing that came to mind: a big jump to the right.

The smiling little girl looked at him ecstatically and did the same thing while staring at him as if waiting for his next move.

He then did it: another jump to the right followed by one back and one to the left.

The girl laughed, imitating him again.

The little dragon felt, if possible, even happier. He had just discovered that jumping was beautiful, but jumping together was fantastic.

The little dragon and the girl jumped together laughing for the rest of the afternoon competing for whoever invented the strangest jumps.

But the sun soon began to go down and sunset came.

The little dragon then stopped.

The girl looked at him puzzled. She didn't understand why he wanted to stop playing.

He explained to her that he had to go back to his cloud. "I can't stay, I have to go back to my clouds," but he wasn't sure if the girl understood the dragon language.

She stared at him seriously then pointed to the sky widening her eyes in amazement.

The little dragon nodded.

The girl pointed a small finger at him then pointed it at the cloud and jumped a couple of times.

He shook his head. "No, I can't jump up there, that's why I like it so much down here and now that we've done it together I like it even more."

The little girl stared at him with sad, shiny eyes and then threw herself at him, hugging him tightly with her little arms.

The little dragon was dumbfounded, no one had ever hugged him like this before and, after a moment of indecision, he returned the hug. It was so good to be hugged that he would like it to never stop, but he had to go. He had to go back to his clouds. Who would have directed them otherwise?

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