She held the packet out to me and I took it nervously. She motioned for me to take one.
As I bit into it, she smiled. But it was one of those droopy smiles that hardly makes it past the corners of the person’s mouth, never mind all the way up to their eyes.
‘Now I don’t want you to worry, Tomas,’ she began.
Which has to be the worst possible thing you can say to someone, right? I mean, if I wasn’t worrying before, then of course I’m going to when someone tells me not to. That’s just normal. Only my brain went into mega-overdrive and started thinking up my absolute worst worry.
‘It’s all fine,’ she went on. ‘It’s just Grandad.’
Hello? Now my worry swelled up as fast as Liam’s super-size dragon. It was positively planet-sized.
‘He’s had an accident,’ she said.
And the planet exploded right there and then into a thousand million billion pieces.
In the end I learned a valuable lesson. Having my imagination is great – most of the time. But sometimes, just sometimes, it can land me in a whole heap of unnecessary mess.
Because what had happened wasn’t good – but it wasn’t the completely absolutely worst worry after all.
Grandad had got fed up of being stuck in bed and eating boring porridge and had sneaked out to get himself one of Nana’s jammy tarts. But while he was balancing on the little stool and reaching up to Nana’s ‘not at all secret’ secret stash of goodies, he’d fallen. And broken his hip.
What it did mean was Grandad would be in hospital for a little while. And because Lolli had been a tiny bit sick in the night the nurses had told Mum and Dad not to bring us in. I reckon it had more to do with all the blue icing than a bug, but I wasn’t going to say that. If I’m honest I was a little bit relieved that I wouldn’t have to lie to Grandad’s face. I knew the first thing he’d ask about was whether we’d let the dragons go yet.
Over the next few days the superhero squad all tried to carry on as usual but it was difficult. The threat of Grandad’s deal sort of hung over us. You know that phrase ‘the elephant in the room’? It means when there’s something really big that everyone knows but no one is talking about. Well, the elephant just got bigger and bigger and bigger. Until he was taking up most of the room and we all felt a bit squashed whenever we met up.
‘Let’s plan what we’re going to do for Halloween,’ Ted suggested after school, neatly elbowing the elephant out the way. Everyone nodded except me. I was distracted by the elephant, who was now sulking and blowing huge raspberries at us with his trunk. You can see the problems caused by my over-active imagination – now I was feeling sorry that someone had upset an imaginary elephant, who by the way had taken up wearing a bobble hat.
‘Yeah, come on,’ Kat said. ‘I’ve already got my costume sorted. Thanks to Crystal’s ice-tastic powers I’m going as Icicle Girl. My new superhero alter ego.’
‘And I’m going as the amazing Telekinesis,’ said Kai. He held his hands up to his head and screwed up his face in what I guessed was meant to be a look of intense concentration. It actually looked like he’d just sat on a nail. A towel lifted off the ground and flew across the room, carried by a suitably disguised Dodger. The effect was pretty cool.
‘With everyone dressed up, it’s the perfect night to have a bit of fun with these guys,’ Kai said.
‘Awesome,’ said Ted excitedly. ‘I can be The Flame.’ And Sunny belched fire as if in agreement.
They all looked at me. And I looked at Flicker. A superhero’s superpower didn’t immediately flash into my mind when I looked at him. To be honest, I’d always felt a bit like everyone else thought they’d got the cooler dragons. Which wasn’t fair because Flicker had been the one who’d saved our bacon twice now. If it wasn’t for his bright ideas we’d probably still have been battling Liam’s super-sized dragon. It’s just that Flicker wasn’t as obviously flashy as the others. Flickery – but not flashy.
‘I’m keeping mine a surprise,’ I said lamely.
We spent the next hour drawing up our route for maximum sweet collection and planning the tricks we’d unleash if we didn’t get a treat.
I had to admit it did sound great. Even the elephant was nodding. Maybe it was just what we all needed. I mean, what could possibly go wrong, right?
On Halloween night Lolli danced in through the door wearing her leotard, pink tutu and a witch’s hat and waving a star-shaped wand. It was quite understated for her. And then she tipped a jar of glitter over herself and I realised she’d painted the leotard with glue. She definitely sparkled anyway.
While Mum bundled Lolli and Dad outside and started desparkling the carpet, I met up with Ted, Kat and Kai. Or should I say The Flame, Icicle Girl and Telekinesis. When I turned up they all went a bit quiet, like they were trying to decide what they should say.
‘You’re Cloud Boy?’ said Kai, eyeing my grey top and trousers.
I frowned.
Kat jumped in. ‘No, I get it you’re …’ She paused and tapped the grey cardboard dome on my head, then traced her fingers along the squiggly lines I’d drawn on it. ‘Um … Rhino Boy?’
A huff exploded out of me. How could they not be getting this?
‘Forget it,’ I said.
Grandad always told me, ‘Play to your strengths, Chipstick.’ Well, I had. Flicker was full of bright ideas and actually so was I. So it had seemed like a brilliant plan to take that as my superpower.
‘I was meant to be Captain Brain,’ I said. ‘You know, solving crimes with the power of the mind.’
‘Oh … er … cool,’ Ted said.
Except it wasn’t really, because part of my brain had come unstuck and I was desperately trying to push it back on while I spoke. I could tell he was trying not to laugh.
‘Plus,’ I added, scrabbling to impress them now, ‘whatever I imagine appears, and so I make whatever I want happen. I just have to imagine it. It’s the ultimate superpower.’
None of them looked that convinced. Ted smirked and said: ‘Don’t suppose you can imagine me a giant custard doughnut by any chance? I’m starving!’ The others broke out in fits of giggles.
‘Oh, never mind – let’s just get going,’ I grumbled.
Funnily enough, as my pillowcase filled up with sweets it helped lift my mood a bit. And so did the tricks. It was pretty hysterical seeing Kai doing his mind-moving act in front of people. And you should have seen one woman’s face when Ted’s head seemed to set on fire, thanks to a well-timed – and thankfully well-aimed – breath by Sunny. She totally screamed.
I saw Liam being dragged along by Bea. She was dressed as a pumpkin and looked so cute that people stuffed whole handfuls of sweets into her bag. They seemed to have completely forgotten about Liam standing empty-handed next to her. Or maybe they just didn’t think much of his costume. It was a bit lame. He was only wearing a cloak over his school uniform, and it looked as if he’d shaved a random patch of hair from his head. Come to think of it, that might have had something to do with his dragon. It wasn’t the first time we’d seen him looking the worse for wear. At least I could tell Kat he must still have the dragon. It was pretty clear though that he hadn’t had much luck with training it, which meant Kai had probably been right about him keeping it locked up.
As I was about to join the others, Liam caught my eye and opened his mouth to say something. But I pretended not to notice and ran up the path to the next house. Best not to give him the chance, not with half my brain still only held on with sellotape.
After another hour of trick-or-treating Ted and Sunny were both in hyper-drive. And the fiery halo Sunny provided for Ted’s costume had become increasingly explosive. Jets of flame shot out from Ted as he whooped and hollered his way down the street.
Even Crystal was going a bit loopy. Kat couldn’t eat any of her sweets as Crystal kept breathing on them so it was like chewing on an ice cube.
‘Oi,’ Kat yelled at Kai after she’d nearly broken another tooth on a frozen mar
shmallow. ‘Stop dropping things on me.’
‘Sorry,’ Kai said, shrugging. ‘It’s not actually me doing it, remember? Dodger’s just decided to take it to the next level.’
‘Yeah, well, stop him,’ she shrieked as a can of lemonade swung perilously over her head, threatening to empty its contents over her.
But looking around at the increasingly manic dragons, I wasn’t at all sure we were going to be able to stop them. Once again, things had rapidly got out of control.
People were fleeing in panic from the fires Sunny kept setting off. And Crystal was too busy freezing everything else to help put them out. Having eaten so much sugar, the dragons were pooing more as well. Explosions started erupting along garden paths on either side. Dodger, not so helpfully, zipped back and forth dropping a cascade of lollipops and sweets. Witches, wizards, ghosts, pumpkins, superheroes and cartoon characters ran helter-skelter, trying to catch the raining treats.
Looking around, I knew it was time for Captain Brain to step in. Here was my chance to show everyone what I could do.
‘Think, Captain Brain, think,’ I urged myself, banging my domed skull. ‘If only I could conjure up a storm,’ I muttered. ‘That’s what we really need.’
A downpour would put out all the fires, wash away any unexploded poo and send everyone running indoors. But how was I meant to produce one of those exactly? The most I could offer was a bunch of water pistols and a garden hose.
While I was trying to wrestle my thoughts into some kind of actual plan, Flicker wriggled his way out of my pocket and shot up into the air. I watched him flying higher and higher. His little sparks twinkled in the clear black sky like extra stars. I didn’t know what he was up to, but I knew if anyone could help me, it was him.
For a second he just seemed to disappear. I kept my eyes locked on the sky, remembering the night in Grandad’s garden when he had led the super-sized dragon away. He had helped us then, and I had to believe he would again.
I raised my arms and shouted after him: ‘Go, Flicker! Go on! You can do it.’
Whatever ‘it’ was.
A cloud scudded in front of the moon and everything went dark. I squinted through the gloom, hearing the sound of the others still dashing round madly after their dragons and now crashing blindly into things and each other.
Then a whistling wind blew up out of nowhere. The moon reappeared and the sky turned a weird eerie colour as if someone had tipped orangeade over the skyline. More clouds filled the sky. Huge billowing ones that loomed low over the street. And then the rain started. Just a misty drizzle at first, but then huge fat drops that sizzled on the fires. I stared up at the sky. Hadn’t I just been imagining a storm? Good grief – did I actually have mind powers after all? This was incredible!
Then I noticed Flicker zooming back down. He was glowing and rapidly changing colour. As he drew nearer he began circling the street, then spiralling inwards in an ever smaller loop until finally he was just spinning on the spot. Faster and faster he spun. And with every spin the rain beat down harder and the wind blew more fiercely. As he whirled around it was like watching a tornado at the eye of a storm.
And then as if a bolt of lightning had struck me – which it hadn’t luckily – I understood. This wasn’t me with mind powers. This was Flicker. A little dragon quietly being himself and now playing to his strengths, just as Grandad always said I should.
All this time I hadn’t seen it. But now the truth shone out as clear as the North Star.
I stood there in the pouring rain. The biggest grin on my face. Eyes fixed on Flicker. My cloud-shaping, lightning-crackling, weather-brewing storm dragon.
Afterwards, drenched but still grinning, I sat with Icicle Girl, Telekinesis and The Flame. As the storm had calmed, so did the dragons. And now they were curled on our shoulders sleeping.
‘You know what, Tomas – it looks like Flicker has some superpowers after all. We just didn’t notice,’ Ted said.
‘I know,’ Kai replied. ‘I mean, looking back, it was there all along. Remember that night with Grim and the flaming cabbages? It suddenly started raining, out of the blue. And the same thing happened that time at the Caldwells’ farm when the barn went up in flames. We thought it was just another bit of luck.’
Kai was right – it wasn’t the first time Flicker had understood what was needed and come to the rescue.
‘I reckon you should have a new name though, after what you and Flicker did tonight,’ said Ted. ‘With your ideas and his tornado twirling – how about Captain Brain-Storm?’
Kai grinned and slapped me on the back.
‘Nothing you can’t handle with a bit of belief, a whole lot of imagination and the power of a storm-wielding dragon behind you, hey, Tomas?’
I grinned. I could live with Captain Brain-Storm.
Over the past months I’d found out that having a dragon was a lot more work than looking after our cat Tomtom – or the little family of worms in the Keep Your Own Wormery kit I’d got for last year’s birthday. Don’t think that just because you’ve got a handful of terrapins or a long-haired guinea pig that you know about pet-based chores. Because you really don’t, not on this scale. Of course Tomtom and the worms can’t fly or warm my hands with their breath, so as far as I’m concerned Flicker’s definitely worth the extra work.
But after Halloween it wasn’t just the basic looking-after and the regular chores keeping all of us busy. I couldn’t help noticing everyone was looking a bit frazzled – and I mean actually frazzled. Ted had lost most of a sleeve to one of Sunny’s belches. It was a good job he wasn’t wearing the jumper at the time.
But it was only when Kat and Kai staggered into my room a couple of days later that I found out exactly how bad things had got.
Ted and I were flicking raisins, seeing whose dragon could catch most in mid-air. So far Flicker was winning forty-eight to two. Though that might have had something to do with Sunny being more interested in some hairy stale popcorn under my bed.
The first thing I noticed was how surprised Kai looked. It took me a second to work out why. And then I realised.
‘Er … Kai, where are your eyebrows?’
His forehead wrinkled as he looked up and then down, attempting a frown. But without eyebrows he still just looked astonished.
‘That’d be Dodger sneaking up on me,’ he sighed.
‘We need one of your woolly hats, Tomas,’ Kat said. ‘Before our mum notices. I mean, I thought the ones I painted on him were fine, but apparently not.’
‘Yeah, well, if I wanted eyebrows that big, I’d stick caterpillars to my face,’ Kai said crossly.
While I fished out some suitable headgear, everyone flopped on my bed. Ted launched into full-on fact-file mode, telling Kai that the world’s longest eyebrow ever was over nineteen centimetres long.
‘That’s almost as long as this furry pencil case,’ he said, waggling it above Kai’s eyes.
I handed Kai the hat and noticed Kat watching Crystal and Dodger. The two dragons were locked in a fire and ice duel, which was in danger of scorching half my bedroom.
Flicker flew down and settled on the bed next to her. I watched his scales shimmering their familiar red as he scratched the quilt with his claws and curled up. He blew a smoky breath over Kat’s fingers. She gave a little smile and looked over at me. I smiled back, but that quickly slid off my face and landed with a splat on the floor when she spoke again.
‘I think your grandad’s right,’ she said quietly.
I looked at her. Was she about to say what I thought she was about to say?
‘I think it’s time to let the dragons go.’
Yup.
I gaped at her. I waited for Ted and Kai to jump in and start protesting, like they had when I’d told them about the deal I’d made with Grandad. But this time neither of them said anything.
‘Hang on a minute,’ I said. ‘A few days ago you were furious with me for even mentioning it.’
Kat sighed. ‘I know,’
she said. ‘But things got pretty hairy at Halloween, and the truth is they’ve both been getting more …’
‘Challenging.’ Kai finished the sentence for her.
Kat nodded. ‘The thing is, Tomas, however much we want to, I just don’t think we can keep them any more,’ she said sadly. ‘Mum and Dad nearly found out about Crystal and Dodger.’
‘It’s easier for you – Flicker’s still small,’ said Kai.
‘And he hasn’t got someone winding him up all the time,’ added Kat.
‘Dodger used to do everything he could to hide from people, but it’s like he’s getting less afraid. Which is great in a way, but he’s not being very careful. He keeps forgetting to blend.’
‘The other day Dad came down to breakfast and found him sitting on his plate scoffing his toast. Dodger disappeared quick smart, and Mum didn’t believe Dad of course, but then the next day she found claw marks in the butter. They’ve been acting really weird ever since.’
‘And now Mum’s decided it was rats and is going to get the pest control people in,’ Kai said.
‘What if they start putting poison down or something horrible?’ said Kat.
I saw her shiver just at the thought.
‘So maybe they should stay with me and Ted until things quieten down?’ I suggested.
I turned to Ted, hoping he might back me up.
He looked shifty and started poking his tongue round his teeth – a thing he does when he’s about to say something he knows you won’t like.
‘Actually, Sunny’s been a bit of a handful too lately. I didn’t want to say anything – because you all seemed to be getting on fine. But remember you told us how to deal with the poo? You know, get it down the loo quick so it doesn’t dry out and explode. Well, Sunny poos a lot. And it must have caused a blockage. All the toilets started overflowing. Mum went in first with a plunger. But she couldn’t clear it and had to call a plumber. And they found this … this … poo-berg.’
The Boy Who Flew with Dragons Page 3