Back in the day when wishes still meant something, there lived a momma dragon and a baby dragon. The dragons lived in a cave on the highest mountain peak overlooking an enchanted forest. Every day the momma dragon would go out and find food. She brought back breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the baby dragon.            

    Typically, dragons dine on the hottest foods they can find. That's how they get their fire breath. It's not all that uncommon to find dragons eating up a field of Carolina Reaper peppers, or breaking into a hot sauce factory. There have even been times that dragons have been caught drinking up all the lava out of volcanoes. Almost all dragons love their spicy and hot foods.

       But these two dragons were different. Long ago the momma dragon had been cursed by a wizard. The wizard cursed momma with super sensitive taste buds. This meant the momma couldn't handle any spicy foods. 

        This curse was passed down to her baby dragon, so rather than eat spicy and hot foods, the momma and baby dragon ate wood--there was a lot of wood in the enchanted forest.

    The baby dragon had no idea about the curse that the wizard had placed on them, or the spicy food that all the other dragons ate. In fact, the baby dragon loved eating the wood. Rather than breathing fire, the baby dragon breathed toothpicks. While he waited for his mother to return with wood for his dinner, he would breath out toothpicks and use them to build toothpick forts.  The insects loved it.  They would find the perfect fort and move right in.  

    One day, the baby dragon's mother did not come back to their cave. He waited, and waited, and waited some more. Hours turned into days; the baby was worried.

    "Where is momma? She always comes back for me," thought the baby dragon.

    His tummy started to rumble. He was so hungry that he ate all the wooden toothpicks that he had breathed out. When all the toothpicks were gone, he left the cave in search of more wood. 

     The cave was way at the very top of a mountain and the baby dragon was frightened to leave because he had never gone beyond the entrance before. He held his breath and took one big step out into the bright sunlight. He started down the steep mountainside to look for his momma and find some food.

    The baby dragon gobbled up as many yummy tree branches as his tummy could hold. With a full belly, he began the search for his momma.

    "MOMMA, MOMMA, WHERE ARE YOU?" roared the baby dragon.

    He searched every inch of the enchanted forest. He looked high in the trees and low in the grass and bushes. He even looked in all the rivers and lakes. He looked everywhere, but found no sign of momma.

    The baby was tired, lonely, and scared. It was getting dark and he could hear the howl of werewolves in the distance. He saw an abandoned nest in the hole of a large tree trunk and squeezed himself into it. 

    "Please come back momma," he whispered. Images of his mama tucking him into bed drifted through his thoughts as his eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep.

   The baby woke up scared and cold; he wanted his mamma. Even though his tummy was rumbling and he wasn't sure where he was, he crawled out of the nest and continued his search. He wandered farther and farther from anything that looked familiar to him.                 Eventually he came to a volcano, and as he got closer to it, he could hear noises coming from inside. He flew to the top of the volcano and peered down into the darkness. What he saw surprised him. He had found an entire village of dragons.

    The baby dragon started to cry and his sobs floated down to the dragons below.  One by one, concerned dragons flew to the top of the valcano to see how they could help the little dragon.  

    "What is wrong little guy?" asked a big green dragon.     "I am lost, and cold, and hungry, and I do not know where my mamma is," whimpered the baby dragon.          The dragons had not seen his mamma.

    "Join us," said the Dragon King, "we were just about to have lunch and after lunch we will find you a place to stay here in our village."

    The baby dragon was very hungry and needed to rest so he decided to stay.

    All of the dragons gathered around a very large table. The Dragon King scooped up the baby and placed him right next to him.  Baby dragon looked around but he saw no wood, all that he saw were peppers of every color and size and big bowls full of lava. The baby watched the dragons gulping down the bowls of lava and eating all the brightly colored peppers. Although he was confused that the dragons were eating peppers instead of wood, he was so hungry that he picked up a green one and took a bite. 

     The pepper was so spicy that he spit it out.   He tried to wash the spice off his tongue with a big gulp of the lava. His eyes got big and steam whistled from his ears. The peppers and lava were way too spicy and hot for the baby's extra sensitive taste buds. All though he was still very hungry, he decided to wait for dinner in hopes that wood would be served. Dinner time came and still there was no wood at the table, just more peppers, hot sauce, and lava.  

      Days passed and the only foods available were peppers and more peppers, and bowls and bowls of lava. Baby dragon felt like he was starving and his ribs started to show through his scaly skin.  

        One day he couldn't take it anymore and he started to nibble on the wooden legs of the table. 

    "What are you doing little one?" asked the Dragon King. "We have plenty of peppers and lava to eat." 

    The baby ran away from the table; he felt embarrassed and ashamed. "Why can't I be like the other dragons?" he sobbed.      

    The very next day all the young dragons gathered to play baseball. When it was baby dragon's turn to hit the ball, he started gnawing on the bat. All the other dragons were confused and some even started to laugh.  

    "What is he doing?" a dragon yelled."That's not food." The baby ran away and hid from all the confused dragons. He felt hopeless and he missed his momma more than ever. Late that night he woke up with a terrible tummy ache. He had to eat something.