The Boy Who Lived with Dragons Read online

  And I guess he might have done, had the fruit not burst at that point and splattered him with huge quantities of green foul-smelling goo.

  ‘Slimed!’ cried Kai and Ted in unison and high-fived, looking utterly delighted as Liam staggered around covered in smelly gunge.

  Meanwhile the dragon that had hatched from the fruit had passed in an arc over our heads. As we watched, it landed some way off. It was the size of a large turkey and was a fluorescent green, which made it look almost radioactive. It raised its head, unfurled its wings and shook its body. It shuddered and we all stared in horror.

  ‘It’s getting bigger!’ Kat cried.

  The dragon was indeed growing. It had gone from turkey to large sow in a matter of seconds. And it didn’t look as if it was about to stop. With every shudder it expanded further, though its belly was inflating faster than the rest of it so its wings and tail now looked stubby in comparison.

  Like Flicker when he was born, the dragon didn’t seem to have control over its tail, which flung about wildly, ripping through Grandad’s runner beans and sending his sweet peas flying. Its wings obviously weren’t up to getting it airborne, so it began to undulate its way across the garden, flattening everything in its wake.

  When it had reached the size of a large, very fat walrus, it let out a rumble. A rumble that grew louder and louder until finally it opened its mouth and a green fiery belch exploded out of it. We all clasped our hands over our mouths and noses as the sickly green fog of belch breath drifted over us.

  ‘That stinks worse than Dexter after he ate that jar of chilli sauce,’ Kai groaned.

  ‘I thought Sunny was bad,’ Ted said. ‘That’s a whole other level of rankness.’

  Liam, who was closest, stumbled around gagging, his face screwed up in disgust. His skin had taken on a green tinge of its own.

  ‘I bet it’s like skunk spray; he’ll reek of it for days.’ Kat grinned.

  Liam wasn’t impressed. ‘It looks like a huge spiny winged slug,’ he whined.

  ‘Oh dear. Not living up to your expectations?’ Kat said sarcastically. ‘What a shame.’

  He scowled at her and pulled a face. Then he picked up a strawberry that had been super-sized and was looking nicely fit to burst and lobbed it at her. It missed its target and splatted on the ground, but in reaching for another mushy missile Liam slipped, staggered backwards and actually bumped into the huge dragon’s rear end. Its tail swung up in the air and something truly noxious exploded out. If we thought the green gases from the front end were bad, they were nothing compared to this. It exploded out with such force that Liam was sent flying one way and the dragon actually lifted slightly off the ground and flew forward in the other.

  ‘That’s jet propulsion in action, that is,’ sniggered Ted.

  The dragon seemed keen to capitalise on its first self-propelled flight of less than two metres. It had its eyes on Grim’s super-size aubergines and a flimsy wire fence wasn’t going to get in its way.

  ‘We’ve got to stop it,’ I cried.

  But how could we? It was getting bigger by the second. And so were its fiery belches. One of the trunks of the apple trees had already been left blackened.

  We tried to form a wall in front of it. But you try facing down a ravenous fire-belching dragon which is clumsier than you’d be after spinning upside down on a roundabout all afternoon. And there was no way any of us were going near its back end.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ Kat yelled.

  They were all looking at me like I had some great plan tucked up my sleeve. I resisted shrugging helplessly and instead looked for Flicker, trying to buy myself a few seconds to think.

  But a few seconds is all it takes for things to go from bad to very, very bad indeed. With another shudder the dragon gained elephant stature. And its next belch set light to Grim’s compost bins.

  And then Kat squealed. And we all turned to see a tall figure striding down the garden through the darkness towards us.

  The thing about a dragon the size of an elephant is you can’t really hide it up your jumper. Or even stand in front of it whistling nonchalantly and hoping the person doesn’t notice. And let’s face it, when toxic-smelling green flames are lighting up the sky around you, there really isn’t anything left you can do. So there wasn’t much point trying to hide the truth from Grandad any longer.

  He came to a stop in front of me, breathless and dishevelled. His mouth hung open and his eyes ping-ponged between me and the rather large dragon behind.

  Funnily enough, the main thing I felt was relief. It was as if the great big prickly hedge of fibs had been razed to the ground by dragon fire. I stepped forward and Flicker flew down and settled on my shoulder. His scales shimmered, flickering through every colour.

  For a moment the chaos in the garden and the fire-belching dragon still setting things alight all went into freeze-frame. And there was just me and Grandad again.

  I smiled. I couldn’t help it. And the best thing – the thing I suddenly realised when Grandad’s eyes lit up with that twinkle of his – was that I hadn’t ever needed to grow the prickly hedge in the first place.

  ‘Well, Chipstick, looks as if we might have something to talk about after all.’

  And he grinned.

  There wasn’t time for the whole story of course, but that could wait. He could see the problem. I had intended to point the finger at Liam, but the sneak was already legging it down towards the hedge, cradling the grey dragon who was still super-sizing things with every breath. Typical. Trust Liam not to stick around to face up to the trouble he’d caused.

  ‘He’ll have to wait,’ Ted said, watching Liam disappear. ‘For now, anyway. So what’s the plan?’

  Everyone was looking at me again. I looked to Grandad but he shrugged.

  ‘You’re the expert, Chipstick. I’ll follow orders on this one. Beans are more my area of expertise. All I’ve got is a raspberry net, and somehow I don’t think that’ll be much use for catching this fella.’

  I stared at the dragon who was chomping its way through some giant lettuces and demolishing the rest of Grim’s vegetables with every flick of its tail.

  ‘We need to get it up in the air,’ I said. ‘The dragons usually feed up and then fly off. That’s what the others all did.’

  ‘Except for these guys?’ Grandad said, looking up at Crystal, Dodger, Sunny and Flicker who were hovering above our heads.

  ‘Well, yeah, except for them.’ I grinned.

  ‘The thing is, those wings don’t look like they’ll get it very far,’ said Kai.

  ‘You’d be surprised,’ said Grandad. ‘Think about bees. They don’t look like they should fly, but there they go, buzzing merrily around. Maybe it just needs a bit of lift to get it going.’

  Ted looked at me. ‘Reckon a full on fiery fart should do the trick. Let’s help it by gathering up as much food as we can. If it’s like Sunny, the more it eats the bigger the reaction.’

  ‘Broccoli and beans!’ Grandad cried. ‘That’ll get it going. Well, it always works for me, anyway,’ he chortled.

  We hurried about collecting as many vegetables as we could, and the dragon played its part by eating whatever we produced. Our own dragons joined in, dropping little offerings into the pile. Suddenly the dragon paused and its belly started glowing an intense lurid green. It shuddered and knowing what was coming we all dived for cover.

  Even the dragon seemed to know this was the one that would do the trick. It lifted its head and stretched up its neck, unfurled its wings and readied itself for launch.

  ‘Five … four … three … two …’ called Ted. But before he got to one, the dragon blasted off. Choking on the smell from the green fug it had unleashed, we watched, hoping to see it soar skywards and away. But having got off the ground, the dragon just flapped around awkwardly a couple of metres in the air, sending out more belches that set light to what was left of Grim’s vegetables.

  ‘It’s not going anywhere!’ Kai cried.
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  ‘I can see that!’ I yelled back. I called to Flicker. ‘We need your help, Flicker.’

  I stretched out my arm, looking hopefully at the little dragon. Flicker shone a brilliant red and zipped down towards me.

  I grinned. ‘Blaster dragons at the ready,’ I called. Everyone soon cottoned on and a moment later we were all standing there with our dragons gripping our sleeves.

  ‘We need to shepherd it upwards,’ I said desperately. ‘Stop it thinking it can hang around for another spot of lunch.’

  Kat lowered her head to Crystal and whispered something. Her dragon let out a shot of ice straight at the dragon’s tail, making it twist away from the tree it was about to crash into. Sunny soon joined in, belching flames for all he was worth, and Kai and Dodger showed how the hours of water-balloon practice had paid off by launching cucumbers at the dragon whenever it started veering the wrong way.

  The trouble was, with Crystal spraying out tiny icicles and Sunny’s unpredictable flames, the lumbering dragon just seemed to get confused and blundered around even more. The final straw came when Dodger blended into the green of the dragon’s scales, then suddenly darted out in front of it in a flash of shocking pink. The dragon was so startled it started swooping down towards us until I thought it was going to crash-land.

  Suddenly Flicker let go of my arm and I watched him disappear into Grim’s shed. I couldn’t blame him for getting out the way. I knew he didn’t have the fire-power of Sunny or Crystal or even the stealth factor of Dodger.

  Then I noticed Kat peering into the shed. She suddenly turned and called to me.

  ‘Tomas, I think Flicker’s had an idea.’

  I raced over and she pointed at him. He was hopping from foot to foot on Grim’s old computer, his nose stabbing at the keys.

  ‘The music!’ I said, suddenly understanding.

  Kat nodded. ‘They loved it, didn’t they? Maybe if we play it, that dragon will calm down a bit.’

  ‘It’s worth a try,’ I said. Flicker flitted out of the door as Kat bent over the keyboard.

  ‘There’s something called “Pomp and Circumstance”,’ she said. ‘What do you think dragons like?’

  ‘I really don’t think it matters,’ I said.

  But I was wrong about that.

  Kat’s fingers tapped the keyboard and music blared out. It didn’t sound very calming. Sure enough, when we dashed outside to look, the dragons were responding to the marching rhythm. Dodger and Crystal started hurtling back and forth over our heads and the huge dragon began thrashing and bucking madly.

  ‘This is no good,’ I shouted. ‘It’s whipping them up into even more of a frenzy. Try something else.’

  I watched Kat scanning the screen. ‘“Serenade for Strings”,’ she cried. ‘That sounds more like it.’

  A brief silence was followed by an altogether calmer sound. Flicker started circling upwards, turning and twisting in a spiralling dance along with the lilting melody. We watched with held breath, waiting to see what the enormous dragon would do.

  For a second it didn’t look as if the change of music had had any effect, but then the huge lumbering shape stopped thrashing about and turned to look up. Its eyes locked on Flicker. The little dragon was spinning above its massive head, flickering different colours, blazing red and fiery orange and electric blue. He lit up the sky, shining brilliantly like a beacon.

  Slowly, lifted by the music, Flicker rose higher. And the bigger dragon began to follow, captivated by the sound and mesmerised by the colour-changing glow from Flicker’s little form.

  Then Crystal, Sunny and Dodger flew in and joined Flicker in the dance, leading the dragon higher still.

  ‘I think it’s working,’ Ted shouted.

  And we cheered them on, Grandad calling his encouragement along with the rest of us. Higher and higher the dragons flew. Until eventually the huge shape became a small dot and one by one our dragons flew back down, returning to Ted, Kat and Kai.

  But I couldn’t see Flicker. Grandad came and stood next to me and rested his hand on my shoulder. He gave it a little squeeze. I wasn’t worried. I knew Flicker wouldn’t just leave. But I don’t think I really let out my breath until I saw the little flickering orange glow appear again and begin to make its way down towards me.

  Flicker settled on my shoulder. He curled his tail around my neck till the tip of it tickled my ear and nestled his head under my chin. As usual, his shimmering red body glowed like a hot ember. And right then as the warmth pulsed through me, I really felt as if I was glowing too.

  I turned to Grandad.

  ‘Grim’s not going to be happy when he sees all this,’ I said. ‘You know, I thought he was hurting the dragon-fruit tree. Turns out he was bathing his plants in music, not chemicals. He’s as green as you are.’

  The truth was that after all that time thinking it was my fault, if I’m honest, it had been a relief to blame Grim. I’d been so busy pointing the finger at him, I hadn’t seen what’d really been going on.

  Grandad chuckled. ‘So old Jim’s not so bad after all then, hey?’

  I raised an eyebrow. I wasn’t sure I’d go that far, but I was sorry about the state of his garden.

  ‘It’s a terrible mess,’ I said sadly. ‘I’m not sure he’ll be winning the annual show this year – not unless he’s going for the smoothie category.’

  Grandad surveyed the destruction.

  ‘Reckon you’re right. And I don’t think we’ll be able to blame this on the pesky bugs,’ he said with a grin. He ruffled my hair. ‘We’ll just have to tell him the truth.’

  I stared at him.

  ‘We can’t do that!’ I cried.

  ‘Hold your horses, Chipstick. Let me finish. We’ll tell him the truth that there was an explosive gas incident in his garden. If he wants to think it’s the methane in those compost bins rather than a massive dragon with stomach problems, then who are we to correct him, hey?’

  I laughed. ‘You really think he’ll believe that?’

  ‘I think most people would sooner accept that than believe in dragons. Sad though that is.’

  ‘Sad for them,’ I said. ‘Not sad for us. We have to protect the dragons. We need to keep them secret. It’s bad enough that Liam knows.’

  Grandad nodded and rubbed his chin, looking thoughtful. He didn’t speak for a bit while he bent and picked up a snail slowly making its way over one of the enormous aubergines.

  ‘It’s good that you want to protect the dragons, Tomas. But you know you can’t keep them here. Not really. You do know that, don’t you?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I said.

  ‘Well, you saw what a mess that dragon made of everything.’

  ‘But that was because it grew so fast,’ I said quickly. ‘Liam’s dragon breathed on the fruit and super-sized it. Ours aren’t like that.’

  Grandad sighed. ‘Not right now they’re not. But they will grow. And who knows how fast. You can’t have four huge dragons living with you. Apart from anything else, I think people would start to notice them then.’

  I realised I was shaking my head. Inside, I felt my heart drop, squashing my earlier happiness like a brick flattening an overexcited cheerleading ant.

  ‘I’m sorry, Tomas.’

  ‘But it’s the summer holidays soon. We’ve got so much planned,’ I pleaded.

  Grandad smiled. ‘I bet you do. And we’ll have a fair bit more to talk about now, won’t we?’ He smiled. ‘I’ve missed our chats.’

  ‘Me too,’ I said.

  ‘How about this: you keep them till the end of the holidays …’ Grandad said.

  My brain started spinning. It would give us some time at least. And maybe Grandad would change his mind.

  ‘But then you have to let them go,’ he said, looking me straight in the eye. ‘Deal?’

  I looked over to Flicker, perched on the dragon-fruit tree. It was starting to look healthier already without the huge dragon fruit sapping its strength. Flicker shone gold and bobbed
his head up and down, sending a spray of sparks into the air. With every atom of my being crossed, I whispered:

  ‘Deal.’

  I turned back to the others. Kat was cradling Crystal, who was breathing frost circles along her arm. Dodger had obviously decided there was no need to be shy around Grandad and had turned an electric blue. He was happily collecting raspberries in his claws and dropping them into Sunny’s open mouth from ever greater heights.

  ‘Now that’s true friendship.’ Ted laughed. ‘How come I don’t get to sit around while you guys feed me?’

  ‘Here you go,’ Kai laughed, and threw a mushy raspberry at him.

  ‘If I’d had time to actually open my mouth that might have gone in,’ Ted said, wiping the squelchy mess off his face.

  I watched them lobbing raspberries at each other and wondered how on earth I was going to tell them what I’d just agreed to.

  I thought of all the cool things the dragons could do. Crystal with her ice-breathing, Sunny with his awesome flames and Dodger the ultimate in stealth. And then I thought of Flicker. Thanks to him, the super-size catastrophe of a super-sized dragon on the loose in our little village had been averted.

  How could we ever let them go? And go where? We didn’t even know where home was for the dragons.

  But then I felt Flicker settle on my shoulder. He curled his tail around my neck and blew a warm breath across my cheek. His scales flickered and glowed. And I thought maybe things would be OK after all.

  Maybe we could find a way to keep the dragons. Maybe we would even find out where they called home. After all, I had the map now; perhaps there was more Elvi had to tell us than just how much ash to use. And maybe we’d tackle Liam and his super-sizing dragon in the process.

  OK – there were a lot of maybes. With the odd perhaps sprinkled in for good measure.

  But here’s what I’d realised: Flicker didn’t just shine with bright colours, he shone with bright ideas too. Like a lightning bolt in the middle of a storm. A beacon, lighting the way. Together I felt sure we would be prepared for anything.