We needed sticks for the bonfire. We had marshmallows but nothing to hold them over the fire. I tagged along with a group of party goers in their hunt. When we approached the forest, they got sidetracked by a desolate looking truck. Their curious nature and disregard of the concept of private property prompted them to break into the truck and shine their phone lights inside. I was standing aside, looking for sticks with another girl along the treeline, when I looked up in confusion at their screams. They hysterically ran back to the bonfire after slamming the truck’s door.

Shouting after them for answers didn’t get me any, although I later discovered it was out of ladybug-induced fear. We ignored the truck and delved deeper into the dark forest through a parting in the trees, taking an path into the darkness. We searched through the underbrush, our phone lighting our way. A pair, armed with a flashlight, came and joined us in our hunt and my companion seemed satisfied with the amount of sticks she had gathered, parting from our small group.

Us three laughed and joked as we searched. We were horrible stick hunters, only recovering two or three sticks by ourselves for a party of nearly twenty. The girl with the flashlight managed to convince me and her companion to delve deeper into the forest. It didn’t take much, we were eager to go deeper. After walking further in, she made us stop and pointed something out to us in the darkness. The shape of it was hard to distinguish, especially in a half-lit state.

We decided to move in closer, stepping off of the path and into the forest. We gathered and tried to make sense of the shape. We figured it to be a dragon, half completed and well-aged due to the weather conditions, the scales on its head worn off and the wings folded in on themselves. A piece of junk, abandoned in the forest because somebody was too lazy to dispose of it properly. I snapped pictures of it in the darkness and ran off to with my companions to the rest of the party.

My phone was passed around, everyone taking short-term interest in our story before disregarding it and returning to their party activities.

Disappointed with the reaction, we later dragged one of our mutual friends into the forest, but not after having roasted marshmallows using sticks that we didn’t gather.

We returned to the same spot in the forest multiple times throughout the night, always drawn back. Going a little deeper every time, the forest welcomed our presence. Something about the darkness was inviting, exhilarating. Despite the fun we had, however, it is discouraging to see such things like this dragon being abandoned in the wilderness. It’s not going to vanish, it’s stuck there. Interrupting the natural habitat, the junked dragon is foreign, and who knows what it could do and has done to the nature around it.