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Ember, the Dragon Who Helped

Age: Little, 4-6

A friendly green dragon warming a bakery oven

This is not just a one-page story. This is a game, like After Midnight Tales, but for kids. Try to be a hero, read it aloud, make your choices, then create a book, print it, and show your friends.

Guidess, your story guide, waving with a storybook
★ Before the story begins

Try to be a hero

You play as Ember.

Story teller — choose one

Voice is locked for the whole story.
Play again to change it.

Score card — what does the hero learn?
Goal: Become friends with the village.
Scores in this story: Friendship, Helpfulness, Courage
Morality note: Friendship needs a first kind step, from either side.
If the goal was not reached: If Ember had stayed on the hill, shy, and never offered help, the village would stay afraid, and Ember would not become friends with the village, because no one took the first kind step.
Funny Loser final: Ember sneezes, and blows out all the candles in the village. Ha, looooooser! Now it is dark, and Ember says, Oops! Try again, hero!
Talk about it: What small kind step could you take first? How do you become friends with someone who is different?
Read the whole tale

High on the hill above the village lived a small green dragon named Ember. Ember was friendly, and Ember was helpful. But Ember was also shy, because when other dragons talked about fire, Ember only made a tiny warm puff, like a sigh from a warm oven.

One cold morning the village bakery oven went out, and the bread for the whole village was not ready. The baker looked worried. The children looked hungry.

Ember flew down, very quietly, and said, 'May I help? I can make a warm puff, just enough for an oven.'

The baker smiled. 'Please do.'

Ember gave the oven one gentle warm puff. The oven glowed warm again. The bread rose, and the whole village smelled like fresh bread. In the square, children laughed and shared the bread, and the baker said, 'You saved our bread, Ember.'

After that, Ember helped every week. A warm puff for the bakery oven. A warm puff for the lanterns on the winter path, so a little boy could find his home in the dark. A warm puff to dry wet mittens after the snow. A warm puff for a lost lamb in a snowstorm, until the shepherd came.

Ember was not the biggest dragon, and Ember was not the loudest. But everyone in the village knew: a friendly dragon is a wonderful neighbour.

Because helping does not have to be big. A small warm puff, given kindly, can warm a whole village. And friendship needs a first kind step, from either side.

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Guidess, in the same purple dress, listening and writing your feedback

Guidess reads every feedback, in the same outfit, 24/7.

Feedback goes straight to the studio, to Guidess. She will review it, it is never published without your permission. No email, no copy needed. She is our best (and only) worker, and she works 24/7.