The Boy Who Sang with Dragons Page 2

  Of course, he could still be a bit rough around the edges, so sometimes I had to remind myself to be nice to him in response to any grumpiness. As I watched, he strode over the little fence between the gardens, a tray tucked under his arm.

  ‘No, no. Let’s not take any chances,’ he continued. ‘It’s an honour to be chosen to grow the flowers for the centrepiece of the Village in Bloom show. We can’t mess about with that. I’ve bought a new polytunnel – just the ticket for hothousing these beauties. And I’ll be back later to pick up the willow arch too.’

  He gave me a brief nod hello and then headed into Grandad’s greenhouse and started loading his tray up with pots, leaving Grandad scratching his beard.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ I asked.

  Grandad’s eyes twinkled as he smiled down at me. ‘Oh, you know Jim. He’s got a plan in his head, that’s all. Just sometimes he forgets we’re supposed to be doing this project together.’

  ‘But you’ve been working really hard at looking after all of those flowers. You shouldn’t let him just take everything over to his.’

  ‘It’s OK. No doubt he’s right. They’ll be better off in that polytunnel of his.’

  I must have frowned, because Grandad nudged me. ‘He might not go about it in the best way, but he’s only trying to do the right thing for the show. We’re a team. He knows that, even if he doesn’t always show it. I wouldn’t want to be doing all this work on my own, that’s for sure. And I don’t suppose he would either. A lot of responsibility for one person.’

  ‘I guess so,’ I said.

  ‘I know so,’ said Grandad. ‘Things are always friendlier with two. Someone clever said that once.’

  ‘Who?’ I asked.

  ‘A very small piglet. Friend to a very wise bear.’

  4

  Are We Growing Choclit Now?

  My sister Lolli skips everywhere, and not gentle skipping. She’s a fierce skipper. The trouble is, sometimes the momentum is so forceful she ends up going splat on her face. Which is exactly what I saw her do as she skipped after Aura who was coming through the fruit trees towards me. I winced at the sight of Lolli sprawled on the ground.

  Hearing the little yelp behind her, Aura turned. She hurried back and lifted Lolli up, dusting down her tutu, straightening her Batman cape and popping her star-shaped sunglasses back on.

  Undaunted, Lolli launched back into skipping, but at least with Aura holding her hand, this time she made it up the garden in one piece.

  ‘You know, if you wore trousers, you’d be able to see your feet,’ I teased as Lolli raced up and hugged me.

  ‘A shorter cape might help too,’ added Aura.

  ‘But trousers aren’t twirly,’ she said, unpeeling herself and spinning round. ‘And Batman always wears his cape.’

  ‘It is pretty twirly,’ Aura said with a laugh as the cape swung out.

  ‘You need capes and tutus too,’ Lolli said. ‘Then we can all go twirly.’

  I grinned and, holding her tightly, we spun round and round, faster and faster until Lolli’s feet flew off the ground and I almost staggered into the spiky leaves of the dragon-fruit tree.

  Eventually I put her down and, still giggling, she scampered over to Grandad.

  ‘Where’s the choclit, Guppie? Nana said you putting choclit on the garden. But I want some.’

  She looked around at the vegetable plot and peered into the wheelbarrow. Then she turned to me, looking rather cross.

  ‘Did you eat it all, Tomas?’

  I laughed, but then realised by the stern look she gave me that she really wasn’t joking.

  Her lip suddenly wobbled. ‘That’s not fair,’ she said.

  I glanced at Grandad, confused.

  He smiled and wrapped an arm around Lolli. ‘I’m sorry, Lolli, I think you might have got the wrong end of the stick,’ he said gently.

  She sniffed the air. ‘But I can smell choclit. And anyway, all my sticks are home in bed, even sticky Herbert cos he’s hurt his head again.’

  Grandad chortled. ‘I’ve been spreading cocoa mulch. It’s made from the shells of cocoa beans. That’s what chocolate is made from,’ he explained when she still looked blankly at him. ‘That’s what you can smell.’

  ‘So there’s no yummy choclit bars?’

  He shook his head sadly.

  ‘It’s great for the garden though,’ he added happily. ‘Keeps down the weeds, gives the soil food and nutrients when it breaks down, and the worms love it too!’

  I knew that Lolli, who had an imagination as fantastically fizzy as mine, had probably been picturing chocolate bars hanging like bean pods ripe for the picking.

  Poor Lollibob!

  I fished around in my pocket, but only found the remains of a marshmallow stuck in there.

  ‘Here you go,’ Aura said. And she handed Lolli a little chocolate frog. ‘He’s been living in a pocket so he might be a bit melty,’ she added apologetically.

  Lolli gave a wobbly smile. ‘I love him,’ she said, then hugged Aura quickly before tearing the wrapper open and popping the frog in her mouth.

  ‘Thanks,’ I whispered.

  As usual Grandad was right. Doing things together was friendlier. Even picking slugs off plants and carting barrows of cocoa mulch around was more fun with Aura. She was a bit like Ted throwing out facts, except with her it was all about dragons and often about the stories she’d grown up reading. Like me, The Reluctant Dragon was one of her favourites. But she knew loads of other books I’d never even heard of. I needed another trip to see Mrs Olive at the library to check them all out.

  At last, with aching arms, we collapsed on the bench outside the shed.

  Rosebud was flitting around the garden, landing on plants and bushes and then fluttering off again, as if she was inspecting them. And Zing was darting between the branches of an apple tree, letting out little sizzling lightning bolts that left jagged scorch marks on the fruit. Aura watched them, a big contented smile on her face.

  ‘You really are lucky, Tomas,’ she said. ‘This place is completely brilliant. And now with added chocolate!’

  I laughed. ‘Yeah, it’s a shame we can’t actually grow chocolate bars. Just as well we grow dragons to make up for it!’

  Aura nodded and grinned. ‘I don’t know why,’ she said, ‘but I just get this lovely feeling whenever I walk through your nana’s kitchen. And then you come out here and –’ she waved her hand at the garden – ‘there’s all this, just waiting. Like the best-kept secret.’

  5

  Lights, Camera, Mayhem!

  My house is usually pretty busy, what with Dad working from home, Lolli on the loose and Mum offering a place to stay to every stray animal she comes across. But when I got home on Monday, with Aura in tow, we found a whole new level of crazy even for us.

  Five people with cameras and clipboards and one waving a brush in my mum’s face were crammed into the lounge. Along with a Shetland pony, a chatty cockatoo, a large vivarium full of snakes, a hastily put-together enclosure for a gang of gerbils and a furious-looking Tomtom. Everyone was rushing around, tripping over wires, adjusting lights, moving furniture and talking at about a thousand miles an hour to each other.

  We squeezed past a man wearing a bright orange turban and even brighter orange trainers who was talking excitedly on his phone. Without a pause, he grinned and gave us a thumbs up.

  ‘What on earth is going on, Mum?’

  ‘Oh, Tomas,’ she cried above the din of the animals and the chatter of people. ‘The radio show has been spotted by a TV producer. We’re making a live show! Isn’t it brilliant?!’

  I looked at Aura, who was watching my dad chasing a gerbil, while another one climbed up his trouser leg. ‘I don’t think cardboard was the best idea for a gerbil enclosure,’ she whispered.

  Mum waved. ‘There are oat-and-raisin cookies over there – help yourself.’ She might have been about to say something else, but the cockatoo flew at her head and she had to divert.

>   ‘Shall we grab some cookies then?’ Aura said. I watched the man with the make-up brush, who’d failed to get any powder anywhere near Mum, holding a half-bitten cookie. The look on his face was one I recognised from a life-time of eating my mum’s desserts.

  ‘Best not,’ I said. And motioned to the man, who was now discreetly crumbling the cookie into the gerbil enclosure. Which felt a bit mean to the gerbils, if you ask me. Still, at least with all the holes they’d nibbled in the cardboard, they had an escape plan.

  ‘I’m so glad you’re back,’ Dad said, passing us a gerbil each. ‘Can you try and contain these lot while I look for Mr Floppybobbington? Lolli’s at Bea’s house and I’m supposed to be on bunny watch. Only it’s all got a bit out of hand.’

  ‘Of course,’ I said. ‘We just need to pop upstairs.’

  Helping wasn’t a problem, but helping while you had a dragon tucked into your clothes was less easy.

  ‘No time, Tomas,’ Dad squeaked. ‘We go live in five.’

  So you know when you watch something live on TV and things go a bit wrong and the presenters all get a bit giggly. Well, just imagine a small living room, a LOT of animals, one presenter who looks terrified of anything with teeth, my mum with a cockatoo permanently attached to her head and a rebel stunt gerbil who decides to launch himself at the woman filming it all. Oh, and then add in a dragon who keeps farting green giggle gas. That’s some serious live TV right there.

  At least Zing getting fidgety in my coat and charging up like a battery – and then unleashing an electric shock that fried the camera – stopped the live broadcast before Tomtom tore the hairy microphone to shreds and the presenter slipped and fell bottom first in the Shetland pony poo.

  ‘That’s a wrap,’ the man in the orange turban said.

  He gave Mum a thumbs up. ‘Same time next week, then?’

  While the TV crew dismantled all the equipment and loaded it back into their van we slumped on the sofa.

  ‘I’m sure it’ll get easier,’ I said.

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Dad, giving Mum a squeeze and rescuing the gerbil nesting in her hair.

  Mum smiled, then jumped when the doorbell rang. ‘Oh dear, they’re not back already, are they?’

  ‘I think that’ll be Mamma, come to pick me up,’ Aura said. ‘She wanted to say hi and meet everyone. I hope that’s OK?’

  Mum looked around at the mess. ‘Absolutely. Probably best she gets to see the real us, don’t you agree, Tomas?’

  Aura’s mum didn’t bat an eyelid when she came in. In fact she was so captivated by the cockatoo on my mum’s head that Dad had to gently point out the pony poo she was just about to step in.

  ‘It’s so lovely to finally meet you all,’ she said, reaching out to shake hands with Mum and Dad. ‘I’m Rosa.’ She was wearing a pair of denim dungarees, red boots covered in flowers and a bright yellow scarf. She had the same beaming smile as her daughter, and we couldn’t resist beaming right back.

  ‘Tomas,’ she said. ‘I’ve heard so much about you.’

  I shook her hand and grinned an apology as the pony started nudging her leg.

  ‘Expect she can smell this,’ she laughed, and fished out an apple from her pocket. ‘Is it OK to give it to her?’ she asked. Mum nodded and Rosa offered it to the now-delighted pony.

  By the time Liam and Bea’s mum dropped Lolli off half an hour later, it felt as if I’d known Rosa forever. And Lolli obviously felt that same familiarity. She immediately settled herself on Rosa’s lap and started recounting her afternoon, in between licks of a sticky and slightly hairy lollipop.

  6

  Soaring to the Stars

  Every night after Mum had kissed me goodnight and Dad had done his ‘rock ’n’ roll’ tuck-in, I wriggled back out of bed and opened the window to peer out at the night sky. I scanned the clouds, keeping my eyes wide open, desperately hoping I’d see a glimmer of red. But tonight, just like every evening since the dragons had been told to keep a low profile, it looked as if Flicker would only be visiting me in my dreams.

  I kept the window ajar in case Zing wanted to explore, and climbed back into bed. But the little dragon left the windowsill where he’d been scratching at the wood and darted over to me. Recently he’d found a new favourite game, flying from one end of my bed to the other, seeing how low he could skim over me without bashing into me. To be fair he flew with a lot more control than he had in the past. But even so, the amount of times I got hit in the face by a wing or scratched by a claw meant I still wasn’t sure this was my favourite game.

  I rolled over and stuck a pillow on my head for protection, at least that would catch any stray wing tips or claws. Then I drifted off to sleep with Zing whizzing back and forth above me.

  I woke up feeling as if something was wrong. Like there was something I was really worried about only I didn’t know what it was. I rubbed my eyes and stared around the dim room. Zing had finally fallen asleep at the bottom of my bed. He was stretched out, wings lying across my feet and his body tucked in the gap between.

  A little puff of cloud floated in through the window. I rubbed my eyes harder as it hovered in front of me and I saw little sparks dancing inside it. When I heard a low rumble I Ieaped out of bed, sending a startled and still dozy Zing flapping into the air.

  I rushed to the window and flung it open, my whole body buzzing and crackling with energy. In fact, if I’d had silver threads like Zing they’d have been flashing like lightning across my body. I stared out into Flicker’s diamond eyes.

  ‘I knew you’d come back!’ I cried. ‘I knew it!’ Though given the huge electric current of relief I’d felt seeing his eyes twinkle back at me, I had to admit there had been a secret part of me that was worried I might never see him again.

  As Zing zipped out of the window and perched on Flicker’s horn, I clambered onto the sill and stretched one leg over his back.

  ‘There’s someone I really want you to meet,’ I whispered.

  Of course Aura had seen lots of little dragons since she’d first met Zing and Rosebud. And I’d told her all about Flicker. Endlessly, in fact. But the truth is, you can’t do a dragon like Flicker justice in words.

  I wanted Aura to meet him for herself.

  As we went soaring over the village, Zing clung to Flicker’s horn, obviously content to hitch a ride. I stretched out my arms as if they were wings and a whoop of happiness bubbled out of me. Flicker’s scales shimmered red to gold as we flew on.

  I whispered directions into his ear and Flicker rumbled again and blew out another puff of breath that crackled with sparks.

  As we circled the park I spotted two familiar shapes in the sky ahead. I waved and called out to Liam and Ted, who were riding Maxi and Sunny in formation, wing tip to wing tip. I hoped that somewhere far across the world, Crystal and Dodger had found Kat and Kai too.

  Leaving the others to race, I pointed downward and Flicker flew lower, blowing a cloud of smoke that hung like mist and camouflaged us from any nosy neighbours. When we reached Aura’s house Flicker leaned his head against the little balcony outside her window. I scrambled off, careful not to send any of the flowers and pots crashing to the floor. Luckily she always left the window ajar for Rosebud. I leaned in and hissed her name.

  She didn’t stir, but a bud next to me unfurled and a sleepy Rosebud lifted her head and stared up at Flicker and Zing.

  ‘Aura,’ I tried again. Still nothing. Zing flew down from Flicker’s horn and through the gap. He rocketed across the room and landed with a bump on Aura’s bed, then started clawing at her sheet. He was obviously as eager to get back out into the star-speckled night as I was.

  Even the heaviest sleeper would have trouble sleeping through a dragon tearing at their bed, especially one whose tail kept thumping on their forehead.

  Aura sprang up in alarm as if she was being attacked – which she kind of was.

  Her eyes flew from Zing to me, leaning in through the window.

  ‘Tomas, what on ear
th are you . . .’ she hissed. And then her final word ‘you’ disappeared in an awestruck gasp, as she spotted Flicker’s giant head outside.

  ‘I wanted to introduce you to someone,’ I said, grinning. ‘Hurry up!’

  Aura didn’t breathe a word as she looked into Flicker’s eyes and then followed me as I clambered onto his back. But I guess even the most talkative person is likely to feel a bit tongue-tied the first time they climb onto a dragon.

  With Rosebud nestled in Aura’s dressing gown and Zing now clinging to my back, Flicker rose up through the smoky mist, an almighty burst of glittering red against the inky black of the sky. We began to swoop and dive and soar and after a few minutes I craned my head back to check that this unusually silent Aura was OK. The beaming grin and her bright twinkling eyes reassured me she was a lot more than OK.

  But it was only when Flicker took us on a stomach-churning loop the loop that the squeal of delight finally came, as though Flicker had known that was what was needed for her to fully let go and enjoy the ride.

  ‘I haven’t got any words,’ she whispered as we levelled off, our stomachs still floating somewhere among the stars.

  I grinned. ‘You don’t need words for this.’

  Grandad always says that some things live in places words don’t reach. And dragons are most definitely one of them.

  7

  Eyes Up, Everyone!

  As we soared home later, after dropping a beaming Aura back onto her balcony, I rested my face against Flicker’s neck and wrapped my arms tightly around him.

  ‘I’ve missed you,’ I whispered.

  Flicker’s scales glimmered turquoise, and feeling the warmth from them, I let out a little sigh.

  ‘At least I can tell Lolli you’re back,’ I said.

  Tinkle rarely came at night with the other dragons, but if they felt safe to return, maybe I could promise Lolli that she too would see her dragon again at last. ‘You will come again soon, won’t you? And bring Tinkle?’