For years and years he swam through this tunnel. Along the way he began to change. His feet and hands became webbed, his back grew a spikey fin and the end of his tail flattened and thinned. The more he changed, the faster he could swim. On day in the tunnel, the dragon decided to take a rest in a pocket along the tunnel. He came across a fish he had never seen before, and decided to ask its name. The fish would not talk to the dragon but instead bit him and swam away quickly. Discouraged, the dragon went along his way. Upon reaching the outlet of the tunnel, the dragon soon realized that the floor of this sea was now behind him, and he could see light up ahead.
The dragon looked at himself. He was no longer the bright magnificent red he was in china. Being in the dark for so long bleached his beautiful scales. Although they were still iridescent, they were clear as blown glass and bordered on translucent. It took him a while to get used to this. He had been bright red his entire life and losing his magnificent color made him angry and sad. But eventually he accepted his new look and decided to swim up toward the light.
He emerged from the water in a small town in the United States. He didn't recognize it immediately but knew for sure he was not in China any longer. The body of water was surrounded by houses, many of them with docks stretching out with boats attached. It was night and while there was a bright full moon ahead, there were very few lights on near the houses. The dragon had been in the water for so many years, he decided to investigate the land. It was a little wobbly at first, but eventually he gained his land legs and started wandering up to the first house.
Upon reaching the house, the back door swung open and a man came out. The dragon recognized him as a man, but he was much bigger than other men he had seen. This man was just as big as the dragon, and the dragon didn't like it. The man pulled out a cigarette and began to smoke. The dragon waited patiently in the shadows and then slinked into the house as the man returned inside. After he was sure the man was not coming back, he tucked his tail in close to him and began to look around. He found the living room and the strange black screen on the wall. He found the bathroom and wondered why have water inside when there is a whole lake right out the back door. He found the kitchen and was amazed at the boxes of food in the cupboards and the containers of liquid in the refridgerator. Suddenly, he heard a noise directly behind him. A young girl, my daughter, came into the kitchen and upon seeing the figure of a dragon screamed quite loudly. The dragon retaliated, bit the girl on the hand and quickly found a place to hide. Almost as quickly, my husband and I came into the kitchen to calm the scared child. The bite on her hand looked more like a snake bite than anything else and because she insisted there was a dragon in the kitchen, I took her to the ER while David looked for the snake.
David searched the cabinets in the kitchen and found no snake. He looked behind the appliances and even in some of them to no avail. After deciding for sure that the snake was no longer in the kitchen, he moved onto the next room. He searched under the couch, in the cushions, behind the entertainment center, but no snake. He opened the door to the linen closet and the dragon jumped ontop of him, bit him square on the nose, and ran through the back door, leaving a large hole in our house.
At the hospital, the doctors were befuddled. They agreed that it looked like a snake bite but that the teeth marks were too far apart and the fact that the went completely through the child's hand meant either a giant snake or something else. Meanwhile, Rebecca's health began to deteriorate. Once David arrived, bloody nose and all, he concurred with Rebecca's conclusion of dragon. The doctors added delusional to their list of symptoms. 
Soon enough more and more people came to the hospital claiming they had seen a dragon and suffering the same symptoms as my child and my husband. The doctors were confused that every single patient that came down with these symptoms claimed the exact same thing. A six foot figure of a dragon with fins and a flattened tail. Some had even seen it slink back into the lake after attacking. The police were called in and a sketch artist rendered a few drawings based on descriptions. These were released to the media and people were warned about locking their doors and staying inside once the sun was down.
After a couple of days, almost the entire town was quaranteened inside the hospital. A few of the doctors who had not left the hospital decided to hunt down this dragon in order to produce an antivenom and cure the town of the dragon's disease. After recruiting some of the men who had not been sick for long, they armed themselves, went out at night and hid in various places around the lake. And waited. The dragon had only seen a few of these men set up with their big sticks around the lake. He thought he had avoided them, but upon emerging from the lake, he was tackled by two large men and wrestled to the ground. They stabbed the dragon a few times, but he was too strong and escaped back into the lake.
The dragon was outraged. He had already been scared by so many of the people in this town and now they were attacking him outright. He decided to stay in the water until his wounds healed and then he would make his revenge.
The men took their knife back to the hospital lab and the doctor's produced the antivenom. For some reason, though, injection was not working. They tried topical application, ingesting the serum, and finally I suggested that perhaps breathing the antivenom would be the key to the cure. So the doctors agreed and began preparations to put the serum through the ventalation system.
I went back into the room where my sick husband and daughter lay only to discover that my child was no longer in her bed. She had been too sick after all this time with the venom in her system to get up and walk out. David was still asleep after receiving the previous tests so he couldn't have seen where she went. I searched the room first but found nothing but a wet trail. I followed the trail, questioning everyone in my path. An announcement was made that anyone not suffering from the dragon's disease to leave the wing. I grabbed my shotgun out of the room and followed the trail outside. I didn't know where it would lead me, but it was the only clue to where my daughter was. A few other people noticed me tracking and after explaining my situation they agreed to help me find my child. The trail led us all the way to the lake and dropped off at the water's edge. It had occured to me that the dragon could have taken my daughter when I first found the trail, but this confirmed it. I ran to my house, grabbed my scuba gear and dove into the lake. I had only a knife to protect myself.
The following words echoed in my head:
"Do not take for granted the gifts you have been given."
And then I woke up. I desperately tried to deny the fact that I had woken up and tried failingly to go back to the dream to find my daughter. I knew that I had been dreaming and that my daughter was safe at that point, but I still wanted to go back to the dream and rescue her. I really don't think I take her for granted, but I guess my subconscious needs to warn me from time to time.
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