CHAPEL HILL -- The little children around the circle gasped, covered their mouths with their small hands and screamed, "oh no!" as the green dragon chased after Michael.

But when they saw Michael summon his courage and slay the 25-feet-long dragon with his sword, they clapped and cheered for him.

On Friday afternoon, the pre-K-12 students at Emerson Waldorf School participated in what they call Michaelmas, an annual festival inspired by medieval times and by the story of St. Michael the Archangel defeating a dragon.

The dragon had green scales and a pink belly, but it wasn't just a dragon. It represented the students' inner demons -- the temptations and indulgences they must guard themselves from, said Kathleen Stone Michael, a pre-K teacher who is also on the festival committee.

"We have to face the inner dragons," she said. "The dragon is constantly trying to challenge us."

The festival coincides with the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn.

All the parents and students wore red Friday, representing a fire inside them, Stone Michael said. The fire is supposed to help give them the strength and courage to struggle against the encroaching darkness of winter and those inner dragons.

In the "fairy meadow" area of the Emerson Waldorf campus, the first-, second- and third-grade students clustered around their teacher as he told stories and fairy tales that illustrated vices they should beware of, such as greed.

The fifth-graders learned teamwork by forming a dragon train with their bodies. They locked their hands on the waist of the person in front of them. Then they had to try to catch a classmate without breaking the chain.

The sixth-grade students learned to trust each other by playing a "trust-fall" exercise. They formed two circles with one blindfolded person in the middle of each circle. The blindfolded person was to fall freely and trust classmates to catch him or her.

Stone Michael said the exercise was critical for students that age because they're going through adolescence -- a time when many children find it difficult to trust others.

The high-school-aged students played drums, guitars and other instruments to form the soundtrack to the festival.

The drums beat faster and louder as the dragon came closer and closer to Michael. The flutes played light-hearted, airy notes to draw cheers from the audience after the dragon was defeated.

Janet Buehler, a volunteer at the school and parent of 6-year-old Aidan and 3-year-old Malcolm, appreciates the lessons the festival teaches. Aidan has grown attached to stories of the dragon told in class, she said.

The children have drawn pictures of what they think the dragon looks like, so the students become very involved with the characters in the stories, she said.

Since school started, Aidan's teacher has been telling tales of a gnome named Twinkle. One day, Twinkle comes across the dragon, who singes Twinkle's hat with his fiery breath.

Aidan was affected by that, Buehler said.

"Usually, he sleeps like a rock. And [that night], he got up about 30 minutes, an hour into bed," she said. "And he said, 'Mom, I can't go to sleep! I'm laying awake and thinking about the dragon!' "

All these stories teach the students how to deal with situations they'll come across in life, she said.

"They're not done explicitly," she added. The teachers allow the students to interpret the stories themselves.

"If you're trying to overcome, and use your better nature and not give into the dragon, it's something we can all relate to," she said.

One of her own dragons, she said, is her impatience when dealing with her boys.

"When I want to yell at my kids ... I think of my inner dragon and try not to lose my cool," Buehler said. "A lot of times, when times get tough and you have to summon your inner strength to rise above, you have to have these images and stories to live up to ... to hold fast to and remember, even if it's subconsciously."