"That's strange," Noah whispered, his nose crinkling. "Where did all the cookies go?"
Sophia, his furry dog, wagged her tail, sniffing excitedly at the empty cookie jar. Noah loved baking with his family, especially cookies. They always made so many, feeling grateful for the flour, sugar, and chocolate chips they had. Today, the cookies were gone!
"We need to solve this mystery, Sophia," Noah declared, feeling like a detective. He knew gratitude meant being thankful, not taking things for granted. Someone took the cookies, and that wasn't very grateful!
His mom had told him stories about magical dragons, creatures with shimmering scales and fiery breath, who loved riddles and protected treasures. Maybe a dragon took the cookies!
Noah rushed to his room, which was filled with books about animals and birds, and grabbed his magnifying glass. He imagined a big, friendly dragon with kind eyes, maybe green and blue like his favorite superhero costume. This dragon probably loved cookies as much as he did.
He raced downstairs, his cheetah speed a blur. "First, we need clues, Sophia!"
Sophia barked, sniffing at the table. There, Noah found a tiny, shimmering scale, emerald green with a hint of blue. A dragon scale! His heart pounded with excitement.
He remembered his mom saying dragons loved riddles. He looked around and found a piece of paper with his dad's handwriting. It was a riddle!
"I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no rocks. I have water, but no fish. What am I?"
Noah thought hard. He looked at Sophia, who was now licking a spot on the rug where a crumb might have fallen.
"A map!" Noah exclaimed. "The answer is a map!"
He rushed to the bookshelf and pulled out a big atlas. There, tucked between the pages, was another tiny scale and another clue: "Look where the sun sleeps and the moon awakes."
Noah knew! "The garden! The sun sets in the west, and the moon rises in the east!"
He ran outside, Sophia at his heels. There, in the garden, amongst his mom’s prize-winning roses, was a small, colorful tent. And sitting inside, munching on a cookie, was his little sister!
"Lily!" Noah exclaimed, laughing. "You took the cookies!"
Lily, her face smeared with chocolate, grinned. "I just wanted to have a picnic with my stuffed dragon, Sparkles."
Noah hugged his sister. "Next time, ask, okay? We can have a picnic together and share." He knew sharing was a part of gratitude.
That night, after enjoying the remaining cookies with a grateful heart and listening to his dad read a story about a kind, cookie-loving dragon, Noah snuggled into bed.
He knew that even though the mystery wasn't solved by a real dragon, the real treasure was his family and the joy of sharing with them. And that was something to be truly grateful for.
