The Kiss of Bravery

I wrote this for Daily FF.

All my best toys are downstairs, but there’s a problem. Even when the lights are on, there’s a lot of scary shadows down there. I told Mommy that there’s lions and dragons hiding in the dark, but she told me there wasn’t. She said that there’s no way our dog would let them in our house. I don’t know about that. Our dog is even scared of my baby brother sometimes, so I’m not sure he’d protect us from lions and dragons.

Yesterday, I really wanted to play with my toys and Mommy was too busy making dinner to come downstairs with me. I took my wooden sword that Daddy bought me and went downstairs by myself. I thought it would help me fight off the lions and dragons. It always works to knock Daddy down when we’re playing knights.

I started playing with my race track, but I knew there was a dragon hiding in the corner. I took my sword to fight it, but I couldn’t see anything. How was I supposed to fight the dragon if it was too dark to see it?

I ran upstairs to tell Mommy about the dragon. She bent over and gave me a kiss on the forehead. She said it was a magic kiss that would help me see the dragons and lions that were hiding in the dark. I told her that was silly, but I took my sword back downstairs just to make her happy.

I could tell the dragon was still in the corner when I got downstairs, but I couldn’t see it. I went as close as I could without being scared.

Then a funny thing happened. I felt the spot on my forehead where Mommy kissed  me tingle. I looked in the corner, and there was a little green dragon looking back at me. I swung my sword at it and the dragon disappeared.

After I took care of all the other dragons and lions and whatever else was hiding in the dark parts of the basement, I could finally play with my racetrack. Now, I can play downstairs all by myself. Every time I feel scared of the dark places in the basement, I think of my Mommy and I feel brave.