Everyone Needs a Friend

A Short Story

There are no dragons in Georgia. Everyone knows that! Dragons lived in places like England where they had castles and kings. The dragon always took the damsel in distress and locked her in a tower (like Fiona in Shrek). Then the prince in the story had to slay the dragon to get her back. And by the way, dragons are never purple. Everyone knows that!

But maybe, just maybe there really was a dragon at one time that lived in Georgia. We don't know what happened to it, but here is the story - or at least as much as we know. Unlike the fairy tales, here is no prince in this story.

There was once a little girl named Kendal. She was a pretty girl. She was tall for her age. She liked to explore the woods behind her house. Although she liked her friends, she liked to spend time alone exploring the trails in the woods. She never went far because her mother would worry about her. Besides, she was afraid of getting lost in the woods. She was only 10 years old.

One day she was walking down her favorite path through the woods. The path led toward a beautiful waterfall that flowed down into a stream. She had been to the waterfall a few times before. She enjoyed looking at the waterfall and hearing the sound of the falling water. It was so relaxing.

On this particular day, she decided to walk all the way to the waterfall. She had lots of time to get there and enjoy the waterfall and still get back home before dark. She slowly walked along the path enjoying the trees and flowers in the woods. It smelled so nice because of the flowers. Kendal liked flowers a lot.

She could hear the waterfall long before she got close to it. The roar of the water falling 50 feet from the top of the hill sounded so nice. As she got to the last curve in the path before it got to the waterfall, she could see a flash of something purple through the tree branches.

"Purple!" she exclaimed softly. "There is nothing purple at the waterfall! What could that be?"

She slowed down her walk as she rounded the curve in the path. She moved quietly in case there was something dangerous in there. She just had to see what the purple thing was. She could not imagine what it was. These woods definitely did not have any purple trees growing in them. The waterfalls are never purple. What could it be?

Kendal carefully crept around the curve to get where she could see the waterfall. She peeked past the last tree.

"Wow!" she whispered. "What is that thing?"

Kendal had never seen anything like this before. Standing in front of her was a large purple animal. What was it? The huge animal was standing at the base of the waterfall. It was drinking water from the stream coming from the waterfall. At first, it did not move and Kendal didn’t think the creature saw her.

It slowly raised its head and turned around to face Kendal. It appears that it did sense that she was there after all, but it did not seem to be worried about her being there.

What was this strange creature? It was hard to describe. It had a long pointed tail. It had scales all over its body. It was huge. It must be at least 15 or 16 feet long. It was bigger than an elephant. All of a sudden, Kendal realized what the creature was. It looked exactly like the pictures of dragons in the fairy tale books. At the same time, it was somehow different. This dragon was purple all over. Who ever heard of a purple dragon? And what is a dragon doing here in Georgia? She had never heard of a dragon in Georgia before. This was crazy! Kendal was getting very confused!

The big purple dragon just calmly looked at her. Kendal stared back at the amazing dragon. While the creature was huge, it did not seem to be a danger to her. After all, there was no fire or smoke coming out of its nose. But just in case, Kendal was ready to run toward home as fast as her legs could carry her.

Since the dragon had seen her, Kendal took three more steps forward. She shakily said, "Hello."

In a deep voice the dragon asked, "Hello. Who are you?"

"You can talk?" asked Kendal.

"Of course I can talk!" roared the dragon. "How else could we communicate with each other?"

"Oh, okay," answered Kendal. "I didn't know dragons could talk. My name is Kendal."

"Hello there, Kendal. What are you doing here at my waterfall?"

"Your waterfall? I had no idea that it was your waterfall. I didn't see any signs anywhere that said, 'Keep Out! Beware of the Purple Dragon.'"

"Well, now you know. No one is supposed to know about this place. It is my secret hiding space."

Kendal asked, "Mr. Dragon, Can I ask you a question?"

"I guess you can ask," the dragon replied. "But my name is not Mr. Dragon. Do I really look like a boy dragon? Now, what is your question?"

"Why are you purple?"

"I was born that way. My father, Robert, was purple. My mother, Alexis, was purple. My baby brother, Aiden, was purple. Is being purple a problem?"

"No, of course not! I was just curious. I have never seen a purple dragon before. To be honest, I have never seen a dragon before of any color."

"If you have never seen a dragon, how do you know dragons aren't purple?"

"I guess you are right. I didn't mean to be rude,” Kendal answered."

"It's okay this time. But you still haven't answered my question about what you are doing here."

"I like to come out here to look at the waterfall and think about stuff."

"I can understand that. I come here to think and enjoy the waterfall also."

"What do dragons have to think about?" she asked.

"I mostly think about little girls invading my quiet space!"

"Oops! I’m sorry!"

The dragon told her, "I am just picking on you. You can come back anytime you want. Just don't bring anyone else or tell them about me."

"Thank you! I won't tell anyone about you. They would never believe me anyway."

"How about doing this, yell my name when you get close so I know that you are coming.” The dragon softly added, “ I don't have any friends any more."

"Do you really want to be my friend? What do I call you?"

The dragon told her, "My name is Katie. And yes, I guess I do need one friend. Everyone needs a friend. Even if that friend isn't purple."

Kendal laughed at that and said, "I don't have a lot of friends myself. I don't mind being your ‘unpurple’ friend. Can I come back tomorrow and see you?"

Katie replied, "Yes! Please come back and we will talk more."

Kendal smiled and said, "Yes, I will be back tomorrow. Goodbye, Katie, my large purple friend!"

Carl B. Seay

September 1, 2025