It was mid fall, almost winter on a late night in the years before any of you could remember. I was 16 at the time. We were asleep in the family castle when it happened. I heard a loud bang from the throne and glass shattering I got out of bed and grabbed my sword freshly sharpened  opened my door and jogged down the hallway quietly so no one could hear me I looked over the railing of the stairs and saw someone taking my dads gold dragon staff that was locked up for the night, but  before I could catch a glimpse of the robber he was gone out the door I ran down the steps and walked up to the throne to see what was all taken the staff was the only thing gone the staff was powerful the most powerful weapon on the land only the ruler had it and it was gone I ran upstairs to wake my dad and tell him what happened while my dad got the police I went downstairs to check on my dragon Bartholomew to see if anything had happened to him. 

Bartholomew was a green dragon with green wings on the top and bright red wings on the bottom. I got him when I was 10 when he was the last dragon left because his left wing was shorter than his right wing and that he wasn’t the brightest of the bunch. I ran downstairs to where we keep Bartholomew. When I went down there he was knocked out cold, snoring and not waking up. I sat there and shook him and said his name for three minutes before he finally woke up. Good sleep? I said he looked at me and sighed and sat and petted him for 5 minutes before I got up and went upstairs to my father standing next to the broken glass lockup for his staff. The police find anything? I said he looked at me sad and angry. 

The only thing they could find was a map that was ripped into 4 pieces and scattered all over the place; they could only find two of the four  pieces that were missing. The rest of the map has to be around her somewhere but there is no hope in finding it. I grabbed the 2 pieces of the map he had and looked down at them. When I looked up from the map my father was gone I looked around then started wandering around looking for the other 2 pieces of the map. I wandered around the halls and the throne room and didn’t see anything until I looked down from the balcony and just by a sliver I saw the third piece of the map under the stairs all the way underneath . I ran down the stairs and crouched down and picked up the piece. I looked at the map with the third piece of the map. It was almost completed. I just needed to find the last piece which I knew wasn't in the hallways or in the throne room. 

I went upstairs into my brother Mike's  room. Mike was my twin but we aren't identical. I walked in and looked at Mike who was sitting there looking at a piece of paper that he was spinning in his fingers. What is that I said? I found this laying in the hallway when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom after dad went back to sleep. I was curious why there was just a piece of paper lying on the ground. What's that you got in your hand, Mike said? I looked at Mike then looked down and realized that Mike was holding the missing part of the map. I walked over to Mike's bed, sat down and grabbed the piece out of his hand. What's that and what are you doing? Mike said I looked over and said this is a map that the thief tore up and threw and I found two of the three pieces and it looks to be that you found the fourth and what should be the final piece of the map. He looked at me and said what does the map lead to and did you tell dad you found the rest of the map. I looked at him while messing with the map and said I don't know where it leads yet but it has to be somewhere important.

 I stood up off Mike's bed and asked him if he wanted to go on an adventure to look and see where the map led. I Don't know if that sounds risky. Mike said I looked down at him sitting on the bed and said we have to get dads staff back because if we don't I know he won't go after it and whoever has it will have the most powerful weapon on the land. Fine Mike said he stood up, looked at me and said I guess I'll go with you. 

We both walked to the door. Mike looked at me and said should we take Winston? I looked at him and said nothing I was thinking about the ways that he could be help to bring with us and so that he wouldn't be a burden I sat there for a few seconds and thought about how good of a protector he would be I looked at mike and agreed we have to be quite leaving but we should at least write a note for mom and dad I walked over to Mikes desk and picked up a pen and opened a notebook and started writing 

Dear mom and dad , Me and Mike found the pieces of the map and put them together. We both are going after dads staff and are taking Bartholomew  with us. We probably won't be back for a few weeks. We will be fast love you , -- James and Mike. I grabbed a piece of tape of the roll walked out the room and up the stairs and quietly taped the note to their door 

I looked at Mike and said go gather your things and get snacks and meet me outside I will go get my things grab Winston and meet you at the old tree outside I'll be out there in 15 Mike looked at me and said okay I'll meet you out there in 15 

I turned around and walked to my room grabbing my bag and shoving extra clothes incase something happens my knife sharpener a pen the map a notebook a compass a dagger and my water bottle I grabbed my sheath for my sword and put it on it and threw the sword around my back I looked around thinking about anything else if I needed it but i didn't so I  walked out my room and shut my door. I slowly walked down the hallway so my parents didn’t hear me walking around i walked past there room and went down the stairs I got to the bottom of the stairs and looked around to see if there were any other clues on who took the staff unfortunately there wasn't so I went down and other flight of stairs to reach Bartholomew are that we kept him in walked up to him and patted him on the head the went behind him and grabbed his saddle so we could ride on him i grabbed it threw it over him and locked it in I filled his saddle bag with food and supplies so he could make it through with us. I walked over to the door and pulled it up to see Mike waiting on the other side of the door he called Bartholomew over and he started walking over there he got out the door far enough for me to close it I stood there and let the door fall down slowly I looked around to see if we need anything else and walked away i walked over to where Mike and Bartholomew were sitting it was just becoming sunrise and Bartholomew was sitting like a person would trying to swat at the butterflies he was also eating the flowers that were on the ground which don’t sound to good but he was eating a lot of them Mike walked over and said you ready I looked at him and said yea did you get enough food to last us and did you grab money just incase we need it. Mike opened his wallet and showed me a big wad of cash and said yea I think I got enough it was all me and you had bunched together.  

We started walking and realized we could sit on the back of Bartholomew and have him walk us, but as soon as we sat down to get on him he kicked us off and made us go flying to the ground. We sat on the ground for a minute with the wind knocked out of us. We eventually stood up and started walking again. We walked for a good 6.5-7 miles before we reached our first body of water it was a pond not to big but we couldn't walk around we both thought about what we were going to do and we both immediately said no to getting back on Bartholomew because we didn’t want to get kicked of into the water and be out of breath under water so we rolled up our pant legs and took our socks off because nobody likes wet socks we got all of our stuff off and looked up and Bartholomew was already floating in the water trying to play with ducks and trying to catch fish we both looked at each other and nodded and then realized that we would have to get him focused so we could get him out of the water with us. I threw my bag over my head so it did not get wet and started walking and floating we made it to Bartholomew and as we floated up to him he popped his head out of the water with a fish in his mouth I grabbed the fish out of his mouth and got on to of him not caring if I got knocked off which he didn't do this time so Mike got up on him and he took us to the other side of the pond we got off of Bartholomew and put our socks on then put our shoes back on. We walked about another mile when we made it to a town. We walked up to a random person minding their own business. Do you happen to know where we are and where I can ask someone about a map? The stranger looked at me and said Your in a little town called Rock Hollow and if you walk down two roads and turn left walk until you see the sign that says Cartographer and go in it should be open if its not open then walk further down and take a right to the little green house with the red roof and that's where you will find him. I looked at the man and shook his hand and said thank you. He said no problem and we kept walking. We walked down the road with street vendors offering us products. We walked past all of them except for the glass shop and a place for food. We entered the glass store and were met by an older man who had a bunch of glass items scattered around the store. Hello he said is there anything certain you are looking for or No we just came in to look around for a minute I walked around the store and found a spyglass with a leather case so it didn’t break I picked it up and asked how much the man wanted it for he said since it's your first time in here I'll give it to you for 5 dollars I handed the man a 5 out of our money said thank you and walked out the door. We went outside and Bartholomew was laying sprawled on the middle of the road we walked up to him and made him get up and walk with us he got up and started walking we walked past a taco restaurant and walked in making sure Bartholomew was out of the road and out of the way. The girl worker who was working the register said hello what can I get for you today we walked up to her and said we will take 6 tacos and whatever you think will be good for a dragon she said is that it and we said yes and handed her the money we sat there for a minute and got our food mike and I ate inside and when we were finished we walked outside and gave Bartholomew his food. When he was done eating we walked to the end of the road and took a left and walked down the street. We made it to the map store and the lights were on and we walked in but when we got in there it was silent the only thing we could hear was groaning in the back room we walked back there to see the owner of the shop laying on the ground when we looked at him you could tell someone beat him up and left we walked up to him and picked him up off the ground and sat him in a chair. We looked at him and asked him what happened. He looked at us and said some man wearing all black with something gold in his hand and told me to be quiet if anyone came in here looking or asking about a map. Mike darted his eyes at me and we sat there and looked at each other. We looked back down at the man and said the gold thing that the man was holding a staff with a dragon head. The man looked at us shocked and said how do you know that? I looked at him and said it is our fathers it was stolen a night ago and the person who stole it had a map and they dropped it and we found it all tore up and in different pieces that's why we are here we were wondering if you could look at it for us. The man looked at me still scared and hurting from the way we found him. Let me get up and clean myself up and I will help you.