Grown-ups usually fly off for the whole day searching for valuables, whilst the little ones stay in the tree with their old nanny. But it's so incredibly tempting to find treasure!
Philly and his best mate Freddy would give their tails and wings just to get their claws on real treasure! But where do you get it when you haven't got a map? Then one day Freddy brought a map!
Look, Philly, what I've got! A real map!
Bloody hell! That's brilliant! Let's have a look.
Philly was chuffed.
Here, look. This cross is the treasure, and this is our tree—we'll start the search from there.
What's this then?
Philly asked doubtfully, looking at the wonky little scratches, like marks from a tiny claw, on the crumpled dried leaf.
That's the direction and number of steps. Each mark is ten steps.
Where'd you get it?
Philly asked suspiciously.
I drew it myself!
Freddy said proudly.
Can you even do that?
Philly asked. His mate just shrugged. But they both immediately headed for the exit from the nursery.
The sun warmed their curious noses nicely, and Philly happily spread his wings and sprang into the air. He loved his wings. They were shiny and a lovely lilac colour.
The dragon couldn't help himself—he turned his neck slightly and glanced sideways to admire his wings. "The best pair on the whole dragon tree," he thought.
And then he nearly crashed into a branch near the ground. Freddy absolutely cracked up laughing. Philly snorted and carefully straightened his course, and then they landed together at the very base of the tree. From down here, it seemed absolutely massive.
Right, get the map out.
Freddy immediately rummaged in the small pouch on his chest and pulled out the precious item.
Okay. We've got a long and difficult journey ahead, so I've brought us some tucker—dragon fruit. We'll drink fresh dew and sleep on the hard ground, like a proper adventure!
He said.
Sleep where?
Philly was gobsmacked. He'd never in his life slept outside the nursery under the letter P.
Well, you never know how luck will turn. We can't come home empty-handed.
His mate looked very businesslike. Philly got a bit more into it too, though the thought of sleeping on hard, unfamiliar ground didn't appeal to him.
And so the adventure began. Freddy took the map and walked ahead, saying: "Three lots of ten steps to the right from the tree, then turn left and go another ten steps straight, now we need to turn left twice and take thirty-three steps."
Only a few minutes had passed, but Philly was already knackered. They were walking in circles and zigzags under the tree, and there seemed no end to their journey.
Mate, this is exhausting. Shouldn't we have a rest?
Are you joking? We've only just started! We'll rest once we find the treasure.
Philly trudged along behind his mate without complaint. Actually, they only had a couple of steps left to reach their goal, and soon the young dragons had reached the spot marked with a cross on the map.
Right in front of them was a bush. Freddy purposefully dived into the thicket. For a minute he noisily trampled amongst the branches, which rustled their green leaves and resisted his assault. But then the dragon suddenly burst out with a triumphant gleam in his eyes.
What've you got?
Philly's tail twitched with impatience and he bounced over to his mate.
Here.
Freddy opened his paw and showed a small striped pebble.
Wow.
Philly said, mesmerised. The pebble really was quite nice. They immediately had their tucker. The mates munched on fruit, washed it down with dew, and admired their treasure.
You found a ripper treasure, Freddy! But we found it pretty quickly, didn't we?
Philly said. He'd already forgotten his worries, and now he really wanted to find something too.
Yeah, true. And there's only one treasure—how do we split it?
Freddy agreed.
Exactly! Maybe we should keep looking?
But we've only got one map!
Freddy said.
So what? Let's start from a different tree. We'll go to any tree and do the whole route again!
Philly wasn't fazed.
That's brilliant!
Freddy yelled with joy. They immediately got up, hid their treasure, unfolded the map, and headed to the nearest tree. Following the map route again, they discovered a huge rock, behind which Philly found a beautiful white shell.
The little dragons oohed and aahed at the beauty of their find, then without much thought moved on to searching for the next treasure. They found a third tree and followed their route again. It led them to a cold stream, at the bottom of which a lolly wrapper sparkled and glittered.
Freddy bravely plunged his paw into the cold water and pulled out the new treasure. Meanwhile, it was starting to get dark. Freddy said he had enough treasures and it was time to head back.
Philly looked wistfully at the map and agreed. They took to the sky and, spotting their home tree, flew back.
At the door of the bedroom under the letter P, Philly and Freddy started dividing up the treasures.
The wrapper and pebble for me, the shell for you.
Freddy said.
That's not fair, you've got two treasures and I've only got one.
Philly pointed out.
What can we do? If I give you the pebble, I'll only have the wrapper, and that won't be fair either.
Philly could see for himself that their treasures couldn't be divided evenly. And then he remembered the map and their whole amazing day of searching, resting, and finding treasures.
You know what? You take all these treasures. Just leave me the map!
Philly said to his mate.
Well, if that's what you want...
A pleased Freddy handed the leaf with the map to his mate, whilst he tied up his pouch of treasures more tightly. They entered the bedroom, where the nanny was already making up clean beds, and started telling the others about their adventures.
When everyone was asleep, Philly gently pressed his map to his chest and thought dreamily: "Why do I need treasures when I've got this map? With it, I can find a whole mountain of adventure treasures."
