Dragons of Draegonia (3 page)

Dragon White had thought it was about time for her breakfast. She had been up most of the night due to the noise of the storm and was clearing the beach of all drift wood that had been washed up.
Whoosh,
another flame propelled from her mouth,
Whoosh, Whoosh
two more huge flames sprang twenty feet across the beach setting fire and devouring all the drift wood and other rubbish washed up in its path. Then, she stopped. What on earth was that? She spied, at the water’s edge, a round strange object. It had a peculiar orange coloured head with a mouth that strangely opened up to reveal a pair of eyes. Then there were three pairs of eyes, then one pair, or was it two? Almost immediately the mouth opened right up and out popped a very strange creature. Dragon White had never seen anything quite like it before and considered her options. She could ignore it, she could run or she could attack it with the hope it would be frightened off. Dragon White decided to attack.

Grace stood motionless by the water’s edge unable to believe her eyes. She looked straight across at a large white dragon, who obviously was thinking about its next move. The white dragon peered back at Grace, its quizzical eyes glinting in the early morning sunshine. For a split second neither moved. Then all of a sudden the tranquillity of the early morning stillness was broken, as an ear piercing scream came from Grace. A scream that not only frightened all the birds perched high up in the trees that on mass shot high into the sky squawking and screeching their warning cries, but a scream that also for a split second sent a shiver down the long white tail of Dragon White.

White’s jaw opened in dismay, she puffed and a red and white flame shot high into the air. Dragon White was uncertain and slightly afraid but knew she had to do something. Was the noise from this animal a call to alert others, or was it a form of communication? Dragon White started to move towards Grace. She had decided attack was her only option.

Grace, on seeing the dragon start to move towards her ran from the water’s edge, up the beach, towards the cover of shrubs and trees. Dragon White, with increasing speed followed, her head bowed low, snorting as she rushed towards Grace, puffing out streaks of fire with every sand-splattering bound.

Grace did not look back, but dived headlong into the shrubs and rolling over peered out between two very thick bushes. The dragon had lost sight of her but Grace could feel its hot breath on her face as Dragon White nosed the bushes that concealed her.

George, Joel and Zach had not fully understood why Grace had charged out of the raft but could see an enormous white dragon chasing her. As Grace disappeared from view into the shrubbery the dragon caught up and was now pushing with its huge head the shrubs and bushes from side to side, snorting as it did so.

The two oldest boys, leaving Zach behind, jumped out of the raft and sped up towards the white dragon shouting and waving their hands. “Pick on someone your own size!” shouted George, “Leave her alone!” cried Joel.

The dragon, hearing the yells of the two boys turned and with a mighty thrash of her tail clipped them both with one sweep, tossing them high in to the air.
Spla
t,
Plop,
both boys flew through the air landing on their backsides. Fortunately their fall was broken by landing and bouncing off the rubber life raft. Picking themselves up they scrambled inside and joined Zach.

The dragon, determining that two animals cornered in a raft was better than one hidden in a bush, stomped down towards the water’s edge and the reddish orange craft.

George, seeing the dragon approaching knew that they were in imminent danger, picked up the first aid and survival kit that is kept in all life rafts and found what looked like a large hand gun. The cartridges for this flare gun were clipped together in a pack of four. These were also inside the yellow plastic bag that carried the gun and emergency locator radio. Each cartridge, the size and shape of a cardboard tube found inside toilet rolls, was divided into two sections. The base of the cartridge held the powder that when ignited by the gun’s firing mechanism propelled it towards its target, whilst the top part, coloured red, housed the explosive charge and magnesium. Magnesium is a powder that when ignited burns and makes a powerful white hot flare that can be seen for miles. The cartridge now placed in the gun made it a very useful defence weapon.

George pointed the loaded gun at the approaching dragon, took aim and squeezed the trigger. There was a loud BANG, the bullet or what George was soon to discover was an explosive flare, was propelled from the gun at great speed, aiming straight for the dragon. The dragon, taken completely by surprise, stopped dead in her tracks, opened her mouth in amazement and precisely at the same time swallowed the incoming ballistic missile.

There was an explosion followed by a lightening flash of light giving off tremendous white heat. The dragon’s mouth suddenly became very, very hot and without any help from her, huge red, blue, yellow and white flames shot out high into the sky. So strong was the flash of light caused by the explosive charge in the dragon’s mouth that she became for a few moments, blinded. Unable to see, Dragon White stumbled on the sand and toppled over rolling down the slight gradient towards the waters edge. Still unable to see, her whole body turned, her large front legs splayed out in front of her and head between them like an arrow, headed for the sea. White’s mouth was still very wide open with bursts of angry flames shooting out uncontrollably in all directions with her every outburst of growls and moans until she came in contact with a enormous wave and swallowing several gallons of sea water and several clumps of floating grotesque looking seaweed, she totally extinguished her flames. There was nothing left of her dragon fire but small rings of black smoke drifting either side of two, very bright red and furious eyes.

George and Joel took their opportunity, ran frantically towards where Grace was hiding and with giant leaps jumped over the first few shrubs, landing close to a crouching Grace, who had her hands firmly clasped over her eyes.

Dragon White, up to her knees in salty water, something dragons care little for, slowly picked herself up and staggered to the waters edge. With a very large shake of her body she rid herself of thousands of water droplets, making a small rain storm. The sun glinting on the droplets made a number of mini rainbows appear, each displaying colours of blues, yellows, greens and reds. Dragon White opened her mouth and growled but other than a roar and a couple of confused looking fish popping out, no flames appeared,
her fire had fully extinguished,
she had
‘Flamed Out’.

White again made a mighty roar, this time sending a shivering vibration through the air at the annoyance of losing her ability to spit flames. Although Dragon White was usually quite a placid dragon, when aroused or annoyed she could be quite frightening. And right now, Dragon White was most annoyed.

Who, and more particularly, what had caused this catastrophe? Dragon White knew she had to report the entire incident. There were strangers on the island, they had removed her flame and were obviously a danger to all other dragons. Stomping off, White made her way round the edge of the lush grass, bushes and trees, taking the longest but easiest trek, back to the centre of the island and safety.

In the centre of the city, the streets of Draegonia were quiet apart from the grumpy noises of Dragon Black. Even the volcano was asleep with faint plumes of white smoke curling from its huge mouth in time with little rumbles that sounded like snoring. Dragon White, slightly out of breath and still trying unsuccessfully to breath out fire, ran breathlessly to Dragon Blue’s residence.

A large sign could be seen showing that Dragon White was now outside the premises of Draegonia Police Station. Inside, Dragon Blue was fast asleep making odd grunts and snoring sounds. Dragon White rang the bell. No movement was heard, so White rang it again.

Dragon Blue lifted his head and in his most assertive tone bellowed “Just a moment and I will be with you.” Blue got up and as he passed a full length mirror made out of highly reflective steel, obtained decades earlier from shipwrecked vessels, he gave a once all over look at himself and realising that this was obviously an official call, put on his dark blue waistcoat and tightly fitting police cap and opened the door to his office. There, silhouetted in the bright sunlight was a very out of breath Dragon White.

She looked even paler than ever. “Come in, and what can I do for you?” Chief Constable Dragon Blue demanded, as he laid down a flat rock for her to crouch on. Dragon Blue also crouched down on his haunches behind his official desk. His solid stone desk was covered in very important looking tablets of stone, pieces of paper like material and what looked like ‘Dragon Leg Chains’.

The construction of Draegonia Police Headquarters was similar to most of the other caves of Draegonia. It was hewn out of the side of the volcanic mountain. But inside, the similarity ended. It was much larger and had many corridors, some leading to individual cells others to living quarters. Dragon White entered the largest and main room of the station trying to compose herself. The walls were covered in blue and white stripes and every so often, hanging on big hooks, were pictures carved in stone of dragons wanted for questioning. The pictures were very old for on Draegonia no one dared to break the law as Dragon Black had a particularly nasty way of dealing with offenders.

It was said that in olden times when all dragons could fly that criminals were taken up to the top of the volcano and thrown into the mouth to be consumed by flames. White shuddered at the thought and explained to Chief Constable Blue that she had been clearing the beach of driftwood when she was attacked by some very strange creatures. “They arrived on the island in a very peculiar craft,” she said. Dragon White further reported to Dragon Blue that she had fought for her life and that after a great struggle the attackers had run off but not until they had stolen her ability to roar fire and spit flame.

Blue listened intently and took lots of notes engraving them with a pen like instrument held in his claws onto very smooth flat stones, so thin they looked like thick parchment. “This is very serious,” he said. “We must inform Mayor Dragon Gold and also let Dragon Black know that we have been invaded.”

Dragon White lowered her head, had she made too much of the incident? Had she told all the truth? Had she exaggerated a little too much? As she was thinking of perhaps telling Chief Constable Blue that it was in fact only four small creatures and what really happened. Dragon Blue pressed a large red and white button marked EMERGENCY. The noise was immediate and deafening. Loud clangs of a bell could be heard throughout the island and the large flashing blue light close to the top of the volcano started to pulsate, flashing on and off alerting all on Draegonia that a serious incident had occurred.

Dragon Red had been looking forward to another quiet day as he was painting his office a bright red. In fact he had painted everything red. Red floors, red door, red windows, and red ceilings. The only problem of course, was that when he was in his cave he could not be seen, because he too was red all over. Hearing the alarm bell he looked out of his freshly painted bright red window up towards the top of the volcano and the flashing blue light. Dragon Red dropped his brush and can of paint splattering his shiny black ‘Fire-dragon Boots’.

He knew something major was up, as the emergency alarm to his knowledge had never been pressed before. He jumped into his Red Fire truck and sped quickly round to Chief Constable Blue. As he arrived, he could see Dragon Blue was gluing a reward notice onto the blue information board situated outside the main entrance to the Police Station.

In large blue letters on a white background the notice informed.

WANTED 500 DRAEGONIAS REWARD FOR THE CAPTURE OF DANGEROUS FIRE STEALING INVADERS

Seeing Dragon Red approaching after alighting from his fire tank, Dragon Blue put down his glue bucket and brush and explained to Fire Officer Red what had happened and specifically that Dragon White had lost her flame. Dragon Red trotted across to where White was standing and asked her to open wide. He examined Dragon White’s mouth thoroughly asking her to cough and spit some fire. No matter how hard Dragon White tried, she just could not raise a spark let alone a flame. Dragon Red knowingly shook his head, this was the first time he had to re-flame any dragon, but he knew what he had to do. He removed from his tank a white can with the words ‘Highly Flammable’ in red, painted on it.

“Stand back” he said as he poured the special fluid into White’s gaping mouth. “Stand well back” he said again and aimed from his mouth into White’s own mouth a fine narrow beam of very hot flame. Dragon White felt a warm sensation as the heat penetrated the back of her throat. There was a flash and her flame ignited. She roared with relief. “It’s back” she exclaimed, but her euphoria was short lived as her flame became smaller and smaller until with a little puff of smoke, it went completely out.

Dragon Red scratched his head.
“Ummn”
he declared, “not enough ‘Dragon Fuel’ I think.” He poured the remainder of the fuel into White’s mouth, drenching the residue of the flare fired earlier by George and the bad smelling seaweed she had swallowed. “This will do it.” Dragon Red took a long deep breath and aimed another flame towards White’s gaping mouth. Tears came to White’s eyes as Dragon Red’s flame was unleashed. This time it was far hotter and more concentrated. What happened next took everyone by surprise. From White‘s mouth there exploded a huge ball of fire followed by thick black smoke that enveloped her and everyone else. As the smelly sticky black smoke cleared White could be seen with large tears in her deep blue eyes. She sneezed with thousands of droplets of the sticky black stuff spattering Dragons Blue and Red. White’s black smudged face carried a frown. It was now very clear that her flame had not come back. A flameless dragon - what was she going to do? She had totally ‘Flamed Out’. This was very serious.