Nothing happened.
A dry wind lazily picked up some flower heads and swirled them around. The air was thick with pollen and perfume. A stony grey nostril twitched.
"I saw something," cried the youngest boy. They stared intently. An ear swiveled like a periscope. The ground began to rumble. "Look out! Run! Run!"
The children scampered in all directions, shrieking and squealing, arms pumping with excitement.
The rumbling grew and grew.
The Dragon raised its sleepy head. It got onto its front feet and sat like a dog. It stood up and stretched, arching its long scaly back like a sleek tabby cat. It blinked and looked around with big, kind, long-lashed eyes.
And then its nostrils twitched and quivered again.
The older folk were alerted by the screams and shrieks. The ladies held up their long skirts to run and the men rolled their sleeves up. Soon the whole town stood together in a tight huddle at the foot of the hill, staring up at the large beast with mouths held open.
"AHHHHH AAHHHHHHHHH!!" The noise erupted from the Dragon. "AHHHHH AAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
The families gripped each other tighter and shut their eyes.
"AHHHHH CHOOOOOOOOO!!" The sneeze blasted from the Dragon like a rocket, throwing it back fifty paces, causing a whirlwind of dust and dirt. "AHHHHH CHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
The second blast split open the dry earth, sending explosions of soil and tree roots high into the sky like missiles, and something else too...
The people heard the sound but couldn't recognize it at first, for it had been such a long time since their ears had heard such a tinkling melody. As their eyes widened in wonder, their smiles turned into grins and then yahoos and hoorahs.
Water, cold, clear spring water, oozed, then trickled, then roared out of the hole, down the hillside and along the valley floor.
The torrent knocked over a farmer's haystack, but he didn't care. The river carried away the schoolteacher's bike shed, but she cared not a jot. It even demolished the Ladies' Bowling Club changing rooms, but they howled with laughter and slapped their thighs. When the flood sent pools of water out towards the golf course, filling up sixteen of the nineteen holes, the men just hooted and whistled and threw their caps up in the air.