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28 February 2026

Posted by Frankie

Junior & Young Writers Week 6: Mythical Golden Creatures

This week, keeping the gold theme going strong, we explored mythical creatures.

First up: the griffin.

Imagine that a character in your story encounters a griffin, what happens next? Alternatively, writing from the griffin’s point of view, what might their story be?

Poor, ignorant Bob believed getting gold from a griffin would be easy. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Another griffin was described as being as old as “before time had a name.

For our second gold-loving magical creature, we encountered a dragon. Once again, we wrote either from the perspective of someone discovering the dragon or from the dragon’s own point of view.

One gentle-natured, vegetarian dragon was in desperate need of a chiropractor after sleeping on a pile of gold for hundreds of years.

Another dragon was successfully lured away from their hoard by sugary treats.

For our third and final writing exercise, we met a golden sphinx, brimming with riddles.

One sphinx had unfortunately forgotten the riddle it was meant to recite. Another presented the following:

"I spread around as quick as a mouse,
Put me in the clouds, and I get put out."

Can you guess what it is?*

- Frankie :)


Ages 7–11: What is Gold? - The Royal Mint Museum Short Story Competition

www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/learning/short-story-competition

Ages 14–18: BBC Young Writers Award 2026
bbc.co.uk/ywa



**Riddle answer: fire!

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