Long, long, ago, when wizards and dragons ate ice cream sundaes for breakfast, there was a little boy with freckles sprinkled across his nose like confetti. His eyes matched the colour of the sky on a sunny day and his hair blended in with stars at night. The little boy's name was Bravery because he had the most courage out of all the children in the world. His parents were very proud of him and told him that he would be able to get his own pet dragon very soon. Bravery was going to name it Mister Monster.

One morning Bravery woke up and felt a little bit sick. His mom cooked him his favourite soup, Chocolate Fudge Noodle, but it didn't make Bravery feel any better. It wasn't his tummy that was sick, it was his heart.

"I think my heart is broken," Bravery told his mom when he had finished his bowl of soup.

"Hearts can't break, Bravery," his mom told him with a smile, "They can get sick, but they don't break."

"Then I think my heart is sick," Bravery said frowning.

Suddenly Bravery didn't feel so brave anymore.

"Does your heart hurt?" Bravery's mom asked him.

"Yes,” Bravery replied, "It feels like there are tiny little dragons inside of me breathing fire on it."

"Okay," his mom said, "We'll go see Dr. Thump. He'll be able to make your heart feel better."

Dr. Thump was the Wizard of the Heart. He had bottles and bottles of magic potions for people with sick hearts. Bravery met him when he came to the house to visit Bravery's older brother, Smiley. Smiley's heart got sick when a girl kicked it one day after school. Dr. Thump said that Smiley's heart was bruised and gave him a bottle of potion called "Get Over It". The potion smelled like peanut butter cookies which were Smiley’s favourite food. Bravery wanted to try the potion, but Smiley told him that he was much too young. Smiley was all better now so Bravery hoped that Dr. Thump would be able to fix his heart too.

"Hello Bravery!" Dr. Thump said cheerfully when Bravery and his mom walked into Dr. Thump's Fix-It Room. The room was bright yellow and smelled like lemonade.

"Hello Dr. Thump," Bravery replied.

"Hmmmm," Dr. Thump said shaking his head, "You don't sound too happy today my little friend, what's wrong?"

"I think my heart is broken," Bravery told him.

The doctor chuckled and asked Bravery to climb onto the Fix-It table. The table looked like a bed, but it didn't have a pillow and its sheets were made out of paper. Bravery wondered if anyone ever slept on the table because it didn't look too comfortable. Bravery hoped Dr. Thump wouldn't ask him to sleep on the table.

Dr. Thump held up something that looked like a snake and told Bravery that he was going to listen to his heart. Bravery had seen a snake before, but wasn't afraid like the rest of the kids had been. They all ran away, but Bravery had stayed and talked to the snake. His name had been Slither and Bravery liked hearing his tail rattle when he got excited. Dr. Thump told him that this snake's name was Stethoscope. Bravery thought that was a funny name for a snake.

"Uh-oh," Dr. Thump said when he held up Stethoscope to Bravery's heart.

"What's wrong?" Bravery and his mom asked.

Dr. Thump tapped Stethoscope on the mouth and shook him around. He put Stethoscope back on Bravery's heart and closed his eyes while he tried very hard to listen.

"I don't...I don't believe this!" Dr. Thump exclaimed opening his eyes.

"What!?" Bravery and his mom asked again.

"Your heart is missing!" Dr. Thump said.

"That's impossible!" Bravery's mom told him.

"It can't be missing," Bravery told the doctor, "I can feel it and it hurts."

"No, no, Bravery, that isn't your heart that hurts, it has to be something else. Your heart isn't there. I can't hear it."

"Could someone have taken it?" Bravery asked feeling very confused. How could his heart be missing!?

"There is only one way to find out," Dr. Thump told him. "We'll have to take a special picture of you. I have to use a special camera that sees everything inside you and it'll show us what is there instead of your heart."

Bravery was very scared, but his mom held onto his hand nice and tight while Dr. Thump shut off the lights and got the special camera ready.

"Are you ready Bravery?" the doctor asked him when he had finished setting up the camera.

"Yes," Bravery said. His mom squeezed his hand and Bravery gulped down his fear as far as it would go.

"Okay," Dr. Thump sang out, "Here we go. One, two, three..."

Everything went black.

Bravery could hear voices, but he couldn't see faces. His eyes felt wide open, but they were closed.

"Bravery?" a voice asked, "Can you hear me?"

It was Smiley. He sounded very far away.

"Bravery?" another voice asked, "Can you see me?"

It was his sister, Sunshine. Bravery felt warm.

Bravery felt a cool liquid spilling into his arm through a straw. As the liquid crawled into his fingers and up past his neck, the darkness surrounding Bravery began to fade into a light brown.

"Bravery!" his mom exclaimed, "Are you awake!?"

He was.

His eyes opened and everyone began to laugh and cheer.

Bravery was awake.

"What happened?" Bravery asked trying to sit up. There were a lot of straws on his arms and giant calculators with skinny black licorice sticks attached to Bravery's skin.

"You fell asleep," Smiley told him.

"Did you find my heart?" Bravery asked. He didn't feel sick anymore. Just tired and hungry.

"Your heart was never missing, Bravery," his mom told him.

"It wasn't?" Bravery asked. He was very confused again.

"No, your heart was just asleep. Those tiny little dragons you felt were just trying to wake it up."

"It was asleep?" Bravery asked, "Is that why Dr. Thump couldn't hear it?"

"Yes," Sunshine told him, "Your heart doesn't snore like you do!"

Everyone laughed. Bravery looked down at his chest and saw a band-aid right above the spot where his heart was.

"We had to take the dragons’ out," his dad told him when he saw Bravery looking at the band-aid. "Once we woke up your heart, the dragons didn't need to be there anymore. They were just there to protect you and let you know that something was wrong. Hearts can't sleep forever."

"How did you wake up my heart?" Bravery asked.

"Dr. Thump took some lightening bolts from the sky and made up a special potion just for you."

"Wow," Bravery replied, "My own special potion?"

"Yes," his mom said smiling, "He even named it after you - Braveheart."

"And guess what?" Bravery's dad continued.

"What?" Bravery asked.

Bravery's dad nodded to Smiley and Smiley left the room. When he returned, he was carrying a small cardboard box with him. He placed it on Bravery's lap and stepped back.

"Open it!" Sunshine shouted out.

Bravery peered into the box and gasped when he saw a tiny dragon munching away at peanut butter cookie crumbs.

"Is this for me!?" Bravery exclaimed, "My own pet dragon!?"

"Yes," his parents said with smiles on their faces.

"Is this..." Bravery began, "Is this one of the dragons from my heart?"

His mom nodded.

"We thought you would want to keep one. We gave the rest of them to the other kids in the All Better Now hospital. That's where you are now."

Bravery took the tiny dragon out of the box and held him in the palm of his hand. He wasn't much bigger than his a couple of his fingers.

"So is his name still going to be Mister Monster?" Smiley asked.

Bravery shook his head sideways.

"No," he said, "His name is going to be Protection instead."

Because everyone should be named after something they're good at and Bravery knew this the best.