Dragon's Blood

Dragon's Blood's was an adaptation of the Jane Yolen book of the same name, about a world of bonded slaves, dragons, and pit-fighting. It was part of "The Pit Dragon" series, and adapted for television for the CBS Storybreak. Of the cartoon adaptation, Yolen once remarked that "it looked as if someone had waved the book in the direction of the camera" and done little else. The story starts with a bond boy named Jakkin, working with many others in Sarkkhan's dragon nursery. Jakkin plans to steal a baby dragon from the farm to raise, hoping to train the dragon to fight and earn him enough money to buy himself out of bond. He eventually succeeds, as one of the hatchling dragons was "miscounted", thus no one would notice if it was missing, though it is eventually revealed that Sarkkhan had purposely given him the opportunity to steal the hatchling. Jakkin stows the tiny dragon away to an oasis that he had previously found. Akki, a girl at the nursery, eventually discovers his secret, and helps him, building a strong relationship in the process. After a full year of training and growing, Akki arranges a way for Jakkin and his beautiful red dragon to get to the pits. The red dragon’s first battle is hard won, and as it turned out too late for Jakkin, Sarkkhan was watching the fight. Fortunately, Sarkkhan took well to the idea of Jakkin raising the dragon, even admitting that he had known about Jakkin’s secret all along.