Drake the Dragonboy (3 page)

“Welcome, Drake. You look as excited as I am.” Drake looked around to see Juniper sitting in one corner and Ronan, the bad kid, sitting in the other. He sat down in the middle of the room.

“This evening you'll be copying from this Geography text book into your exercise book. Word perfect. I expect every word … all about the world being flat and other important facts such as what the moon is made of. Start at page 29 … continue until 72. Got that?”

The three detainees nodded grimly, looking sideways at each other.

“Right then, I'll be back at … well some time. I won't tell you when so you won't know when to expect me.”

The three knew him well and knew he wouldn't be back until the end of the hour — he'd be off having a drink at his desk, or trying to chat up poor Miss Tess — so they relaxed as soon as he walked out of the room. Drake looked over at Juniper anxiously. She looked great today. She was wearing her long fluffy brown hair down and it hugged her figure, moulding around her shoulders and curling up just below her waist. She was wearing her purple dragon-rimmed glasses and a sparkly purple cardigan to match. She looked soft and warm. Sitting on the other side of the room, Ronan was in stark contrast. Ronan looked hard and cold, wearing a tough leather jacket and an even tougher expression. He had huge stomping boots on, a piercing through his eyebrow and a shaved head. Drake had never actually spoken to him before so was surprised when he addressed him.

“How you doing, mate? Heard about your little incident. Wouldn't worry. They'll have all forgotten about it within a week. You'll be nothing again in no time.”

Drake nodded in thanks.

“Drake, I'm so sorry,” yelped Juniper too quickly. “I really can't help my fire thing happening. I didn't mean to make you look … I was so embarrassed … couldn't sleep all night.” Now Drake was stunned. She didn't think he was an idiot? She was embarrassed? Maybe life was not so bad after all, he thought for the first time all day. Drake's thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of his phone vibrating in his pocket. He pulled his phone out to see a little message icon and clicked on it. The message was from his dad and said:

Help. Kidnapped. Set this message to be sent after my phone is thrown from the car. No reception in the car. They have blocked it. Have been taken across the wasteland to the city outside the force field. Please contact my office and get them to help. Sorry I missed last night … was being kidnapped. Hope you didn't stay up waiting. Love Dad.

Drake felt all the blood rush out of his face. His hands were shaking.

“What's wrong?” asked Juniper.

“It's my dad … he's been kidnapped.”

“No way!” exclaimed Ronan.

“Are you sure?” asked Juniper.

“Check out this message,” Drake said, showing them both his phone.

“You should go to his work straight away and show them this,” said Juniper.

“I wouldn't,” said Ronan, shaking his head so that his eyebrow ring jiggled. “I don't think you can trust them.” Drake looked at Ronan with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“You know, Ronan, I think you're right.”

“But it's Thermodynamics. They're the biggest company in Dragonland. If you can trust anyone here, it's gotta be them,” said Juniper.

“The thing is, Dad's secretary called to say he wouldn't be visiting for dinner because he was working.”

“So?” asked Juniper.

“He wasn't working. He'd already been kidnapped. She must be in on it.”

“So what are you going to do?” asked Ronan. Drake was silent. He had no idea what to do but he knew he needed to do something. “Well,” continued Ronan, “your dad sounds like a good guy. If I had a dad who cared about me like that I'd try to save him myself.”

“But how can we do that? We're just kids,” said Juniper. “And we don't even know if what he's saying is true. Is there really a city beyond the wasteland?”

“Cool,” said Ronan. “Let's go and see.”

“But how?” asked Drake. “How could we possibly save him? How would we even get out of Dragonland to the wasteland?”

“We could fly,” said Juniper, her eyes shining. Ronan twitched his stumpy wings, cut short each month, as if to say ‘what, with these?' “We'll grow our wings. We just have to miss wing-cutting each day this week and keep our wings hidden. By the end of the week, we should be ready.”

“How will we hide our wings?” asked Drake, skeptical about the whole idea but without any alternative options. The end of the week seemed like too long to wait. He wanted to help his dad now.

“We can wear capes,” suggested Juniper, excitedly. “We can make them as our project for Textiles.”

“Won't people notice that we're wearing capes and wonder why?” asked Ronan.

“They'll think they're a new fashion statement,” replied Juniper. Ronan and Drake looked at each other and smiled. No-one would wonder why Juniper was wearing a strange cape — that was the sort of thing she always did — but they'd really look at Ronan and Drake. “Got a better idea?” said Juniper seeing how they were looking at each other. And neither of them did, so for now this was the plan. They'd grow their wings long, hiding them under capes as they did, and then they'd fly … after that, wondered Drake, what would they do? They'd firstly need to learn to fly as it wasn't something they'd ever done before. He wondered if instincts would just kick on in or if it would take a while. Then they'd need to find a way through the force field. Finally they'd have to make it through the Quinta-ridden wasteland and into the strange city outside, beyond the wasteland. And what would they do then? How would they know where to go? Oh well, he thought, at least we are doing something. He couldn't bear the thought of sitting back doing nothing.

When Drake eventually arrived home that evening and his mother asked about his day, he didn't tell her anything. If he'd told her about the ‘nudie' incident, she would have rolled her eyes, run her hands through her curly hair, and blamed his father for giving him the thermodynamic suit. If he'd told her about the kidnapping, she wouldn't have believed it and would have made some kind of sarcastic comment about his dad being unreliable and overly ‘creative' in his excuses. Ronan and Juniper were his only hope. He was hoping that the next day when he got to school they hadn't forgotten and moved on to their next project.

Ronan and Juniper hadn't forgotten. Quite the opposite. They were chatting together at the school gates when he arrived and pulled him over to join them.

“We've got Textiles first up and luckily today is the day we get to decide on our new project.”

“Are you coming to class?” asked Drake and then wished he hadn't. That probably sounded a bit mean.

“Absolutely,” answered Ronan. “Got good reason to be there now.”

The trio positioned themselves at a group of tables at the back of the class. Juniper went to look at patterns for capes while Drake and Ronan looked at material. Drake chose a brilliant red for his cape, just like Dragonboy's cape and a purple velvet for Juniper's. Ronan chose a patterned material with skulls. They were all back at the table ready to go when Ms Friar, the Textiles teacher, came to have a look at what they were doing.

“Ooohhh, this is interesting,” she said. “Are capes all the thing at the moment?”

“Yes,” said Juniper. “Everyone's getting into them.” Drake noticed a couple of girls at the table next to them listening in. “They're in all the fashion magazines at the moment.”

They had never focused so well during Textiles class before. By the end of that class, the material was all cut out and pinned ready to start sewing.

“Look,” said Juniper. “A couple of girls at the other table are making capes too!”

“I didn't realise it would catch on so easily!” exclaimed Drake. He felt good about what they were doing, even though he felt sick with worry about his father. He was really enjoying spending time with Juniper and Ronan. There were moments when he had almost forgotten that his dad was missing but then the sticky mud feeling in his stomach reminded him again. He hadn't really felt like he'd had friends since primary school. And it seemed as if they were enjoying themselves too. Ronan was more focused than Drake had ever seen him. And Juniper, in all her enthusiasm, had forgotten all about her need to fit in with the ‘cool girls'.

At lunchtime they got to the cafeteria early and lined up for their serving of mushy green stuff with crispy brown stuff on the side and a drink of berry juice. They quickly found a table in the corner where no-one would listen in.

“So, we've got the capes sorted. What next?” asked Juniper.

“We need to figure out where to hide during wing-cutting tomorrow,” replied Drake.

“In the back girls' toilet,” said Juniper. Drake and Ronan both turned to look at her in horror. “It's the best place. The boys' toilets are checked because doofus Barry and his gang always wag in there. No-one ever goes to those girls' toilets down the back. The furthest cubicle is a shower with a door that goes all the way to the ground, so we can just close the door and sit on the floor.”

“Okay,” said Ronan and Drake in unison. What Drake liked about the trio was that no-one was taking charge. They were all coming up with ideas equally.

“And the next thing is getting past the Quintas … that's the hardest,” said Juniper.

“We could make a bomb,” said Ronan. Drake stared at him startled and Juniper let out an involuntary yelp.

“I know it seems extreme, but how else will we get past them. They eat people!”

“Where'll you get the stuff to make a bomb?” asked Drake.

“From the chem lab. I know how to make a bomb that we can carry without too much risk of it going off … and then we light it and throw it at the Quintas and it will go off when it hits one.”

“Not too much risk? So there is risk of it going off while we carry it?” Juniper asked looking frightened.

“Juniper, you don't have to come if you don't want. It's my dad who is in danger, not yours.”

“Of course I'm coming,” she said, looking annoyed.

“We're going to need her,” said Ronan, looking affectionately at Juniper. Drake felt a burst of jealousy rise from the pit of his stomach and explode in his head. He hadn't realised until now that Ronan had a crush on Juniper. Is that why he was helping? He quickly dismissed this idea. No, Ronan was in this for a whole lot of reasons. He liked an adventure; he had a real daredevil streak in him. Juniper was just the icing on the cake for Ronan.

Drake walked home that afternoon deep in thought, tapping his dragon claws on his forehead. He hadn't heard anything from his father and he was worried. He knew that his father had thrown his phone out the window, so not hearing from him didn't mean anything. He probably was okay but couldn't get any messages out.

When he got home his mother was sitting in front of the television with a glass of wine.

“What's up, Mum?” asked Drake. She only watched television and drank wine when something was wrong. Normally she would be buzzing around the house, tidying up, making dinner, flipping over to her laptop to mess around with the online business she was running, all the while asking him about his day.

“Nothing Drake, honey; everything's fine.”

“Don't lie to me, Mum.”

“Okay … I'm a bit annoyed because your father said he'd put money in the account this week and he hasn't … so we're a bit short on cash.”

“I've got some money if you need it,” said Drake, quickly.

“We're okay … it's more the principle behind it. He should do what he says he's going to … but I don't want to get into this with you. It's not your problem.”

“Maybe there's a good reason he didn't, Mum. Maybe he got tied up.” His mother smiled.