The Land of Roar

by Jenny McLachlan

  We half fall off Bad Dragon’s back, then watch as the three dragons eye each other warily. After some huffing and puffing, and a little bit of teeth gnashing, they settle down in the long grass, Bad Dragon sitting apart from Vlad and Pickle. She stretches out her long neck and keeps her red eyes firmly fixed on the smaller dragons.

  ‘Shouldn’t we make them fly off somewhere?’ I say. ‘If Crowky comes after us, he might see them and find Win’s cave.’

  Rose shakes her head. ‘We’re fine. You saw Crowky’s wings. He’s not going anywhere.’

  For now, I think.

  Rose goes to each dragon in turn. She rests her cheek against their snouts and whispers in their ears. For a moment she disappears in a cloud of smoke seeping from Bad Dragon’s nostrils. She’s saying thank you and goodbye.

  I don’t risk getting so close. Instead I give them a respectful salute, then we walk into the wood that leads to Win’s cave.

  We find Grandad propped up by the mouth of the cave, eating an apple and watching Win practise his moves. ‘This is my very, very best one,’ says Win as he jumps in the air and does a somersault with no hands.

  ‘Fabulous!’ says Grandad, making Win beam with pride, then he looks up and sees us walking towards him. ‘There you are!’ Grandad may be smiling, but he looks terrible. His face is bruised and his hair is singed. Black soot from the dungeon covers his cardigan and even though he’s only been gone a few days, he looks skinnier, fragile. Possibly for the first time Grandad looks like an old man.

  ‘What I fancy right now,’ he says, pulling us to him, ‘is to go home and have a nice cup of tea . . . and maybe a bath.’

  Win looks up in alarm. ‘You can’t go. Not yet. I can do tea. I could probably even sort out a bath, although I usually just jump in the waterfall.’

  ‘Tea would be good,’ I say, looking hopefully at Grandad.

  He laughs and nods. ‘Fair enough. The bath can wait, but a cup of tea and maybe a bit of toast would be just the ticket.’

  Win jumps to his feet and soon we’re sitting round Win’s fire, eating bees on toast and drinking Win’s milky tea. Afterwards Grandad nods off and we drape one of Win’s sleeping bags over him. Rose keeps glancing at him, and I know she’s thinking that we should get him home, but I can’t leave Roar. Not yet.

  The day starts to drift towards evening. Birds fly down to the forest, the red ones that go ‘Pow! Pow!’ and fluffy yellow ones that look more like chicks. Some settle in the trees, others hop around on the rock eating our crumbs. Some furries come out of the forest too. They fly right up to our faces. They peer in our eyes and ears. One drops down on Rose’s lap and just lies there, staring up at her, saying, ‘ROSE!’ every now and then.

  Then we start to talk about the Magic Road, and the Crow’s Nest and everything that happened today. Rose doesn’t mention the flash of blue and neither do I. But we talk about everything else, interrupting each other and going over the best bits again and again until there’s nothing left to say.

  ‘So Crowky definitely didn’t follow you?’ says Win, his eyes shooting towards the forest.

  ‘He couldn’t,’ says Rose. ‘His wings were burnt and he was half drowned. We left him on the Raven. The Lost Girls have the Crow’s Nest now.’

  ‘But without the Magic Road and the Raven they’re trapped in the castle.’ Win looks at me hopefully. ‘Maybe we could help them build a bridge, or a boat . . .’ He wants us to stay. I understand. I want to stay too. ‘And when Crowky comes back he’s going to be mad about the whole “Lost Girls in his castle” thing. We could probably do with a bit of help.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ I say, looking out over Roar. ‘We’ll be back. Right, Rose?’

  She holds up her wrist where her bracelet of sea glass and shells catches the light from the fire. ‘Definitely. I’ve got to give this back to Mitch.’

  Seeing the bracelet makes me think of something important. ‘Win, I need you to give me the Relic of Arthur.’

  His eyes widen and his hand clutches at his chest. ‘Why?’

  ‘Look, I trust you with it, but, like you said, imagine if Crowky got hold of it? All he’d need to do is crawl through the tunnel and then he’d be in our world, and our world and Crowky would be a seriously bad combination.’

  ‘What’s the Relic of Arthur?’ says Rose.

  ‘This!’ Win holds up the fidget spinner on its chain. ‘It’s how I got into your grandad’s attic.’

  ‘He only got through to Home when he was wearing something that belonged to us,’ I explain.

  ‘You don’t need to come to us,’ Rose says. ‘We’ll come back to you.’

  ‘When?’

  Rose and I look at each other. Mum and Dad are picking us up in a couple of days, then we’re starting secondary school. ‘We’ll come back as soon as we can,’ I say.

  Reluctantly Win takes off the fidget spinner and places the chain over my head. ‘Ninja promise?’

  I nod. ‘Ninja promise.’ Then I say something I know he’s not going to like. ‘I’m sorry, Win, but we need all our other things back too: the welly boot, the putty. It might not just be the Relic of Arthur that lets you through the tunnel.’

  Win sighs deeply then gets to his feet. ‘Come on,’ he says as he trudges into the forest.

  Rose can’t quite believe what she sees in the cave. She runs her fingers over the hoof prints and gazes at each object in turn. ‘I looked for this everywhere,’ she says, picking up a cuddly toy owl that’s missing both eyes. ‘I thought Mum chucked it out.’

  We collect everything in the knitted hat and welly boot. Win insists on putting each object in himself. ‘Goodbye, Hula Hoops,’ he says, dropping the packet in the boot. ‘Goodbye, hair clip. Goodbye, T-shirt.’ He rests the T-shirt against his cheek for a moment before putting it on top of the other things.

  ‘Well, that’s it,’ he says, looking around the now empty cave.

  I shake my head and hold out my hand. ‘Putty.’ With a sigh Win pulls the putty out of his pocket. ‘You don’t need it,’ I say. ‘I did a ninja promise. We’ll be back.’

  After one last stroke of the tin, he drops it into the welly.

  It takes some time walking to the On-Off Waterfall. Grandad is still wheezy, Rose and I are exhausted and Win is doing everything he can to delay us – ninja moves, stealth walks, bad magic. Plus it’s hard to rush when Roar looks so beautiful. Soft sun shines through the trees, and butterflies and furries fly around us. Every now and then we catch a glimpse of the sun setting into the Bottomless Ocean. ‘Incredible . . .’ Grandad keeps saying. ‘Just incredible.’

  When we can hear the crash of water from the On-Off Waterfall, Prosecco appears. He thunders up to us – desperate to see Rose before she leaves – and then sniffs her hair and face as if he’s checking she’s OK. Rose clambers on to his back for the last bit of the journey. She tries to get Grandad on too, but after he’s stung by Prosecco’s tail he decides it’s not worth the risk.

  ‘Sorry, Grandad,’ Rose says, but she doesn’t look sorry when she buries her hands into Prosecco’s mane and rides along with her eyes half closed with happiness.

  When we reach the pool Rose slides off Prosecco’s back. The waterfall suddenly crashes down, making Grandad jump and covering us all in a fine spray.

  ‘Will you look at that?’ says Grandad, laughing and letting the cool mist fall on his dirty face. He looks at me and Rose and smiles. ‘You know, this whole place is quite amazing.’

  After Rose has said goodbye to Prosecco, Win leads us in a limping line up a path behind the waterfall. Soon the path becomes a series of rocks that jut out like stepping stones. Every now and then water thunders past, forcing us to stand close to the rock face. Grandad is so distracted that I have to keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn’t fall into the pool below.

  Eventually we get to the mossy ledge and the four of us squeeze together. Behind the curtain of leaves is the tunnel that will lead us back to the camp bed and home.
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  Grandad shakes Win’s hand. ‘It’s been a pleasure to meet you, young man. I wonder if I could ask you to do me one last magical favour?’

  Win’s eyes light up. ‘Anything!’

  ‘I need a bit of energy, just to see me along this tunnel.’

  ‘I know the perfect spell.’

  Only it turns out Win doesn’t know the perfect spell. While he waves his wand in the air and tries out different words – ‘Basket tail . . . no, wind tail, no, maiden grizzle ?’ – Rose and I take one last look over Roar.

  I let my eyes run all the way along the river as it twists and turns. I see the Tangled Forest and the dark blue Bottomless Ocean. Then I stare at The End. There is so much of Roar that we didn’t get to see. Purple smoke floats around us as Win cries, ‘Imp grass! No . . . Imp glass !’ and fizzing stars start to pop. I know I have to take Grandad home, but I don’t want to go. I feel at home here. I belong here.

  ‘You know, you’re going to be fine at secondary school,’ Rose says.

  ‘Stop reading my mind.’

  ‘Never,’ she says.

  Win must have remembered the right spell because there is a bang and a sudden puff of yellow smoke that twists around Grandad, leaving him with a faint sparkle. ‘That hit the spot!’ he says, then he turns and disappears inside the tunnel.

  Now it’s Rose’s turn. She gives Win a long hug. ‘Keep looking for Mitch for me,’ she says. Then after gazing down at Prosecco who is still standing by the pool, watching her, she crawls through the curtain of leaves.

  Win throws his arms round me. ‘I’ve had the best adventure, mate.’

  ‘Me too.’ I squeeze him tight. ‘It’s been imaginary.’

  When he lets go I tuck the welly and hat under my arm and quickly duck under the leaves into the tunnel. I don’t look back. I can’t.

  ‘Hang on,’ says Win. ‘I’ll light your way with a little bit of Win-magic.’ Before I can stop him he sticks his wand into the tunnel and yells, ‘Sapphire ferret!’

  I crawl after Grandad and Rose surrounded by thousands of blue stars. The stars follow me down the tunnel, lighting it up, and only begin to fade when the stone under my fingers disappears and I’m crawling over soft mattress.

  I see a bright light and I move towards it until I’m rolling on to the attic floor.

  Rose is slumped against Grandad. The old rocking horse glares at me from the corner of the room. ‘I’m so glad you both decided to play,’ Grandad says, then he has a puff on his inhaler and leans back in the sun.

  I put the welly boot and hat stuffed full of our things on the floor. Then I take the fidget spinner off. I hold it in my hands.

  ‘Do you think it has to be something that belongs to us?’ I say.

  Rose looks up. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘To get into our world? Does someone from Roar need to be holding something that belongs to you or me . . . or could it be anything that comes from here?’

  ‘Like what?’ she says.

  ‘Oh . . . nothing.’ I decide there’s no point mentioning that Crowky still has Grandad’s ‘NO PROB-LLAMA!’ T-shirt. I mean, what are the chances of Crowky wearing it if he ever goes into the tunnel? Almost zero I decide as I clamber to my feet.

  Rose and Grandad join me.

  ‘Does anyone fancy fish and chips?’ Grandad says.

  ‘With mushy peas,’ says Rose, slipping her arm round Grandad’s waist, then the three of us trudge down the attic stairs, a few stray blue stars and wisps of yellow smoke floating along with us.

  One week later, Rose and I are walking towards Langton Academy. The sky is grey, my blazer is enormous and I really wish I hadn’t let Mum cut my hair last night.

  I feel nervous, but not a-dragon’s-about-to-eat-me nervous, so nothing I can’t handle.

  ‘I wonder what Win and the Lost Girls are doing,’ says Rose.

  I look up, surprised. We’ve not talked much about Roar since we got back. Rose has come up with a theory that what happens in Roar must stay in Roar in case the universe gets mucked up. She says it’s to do with physics and too complicated for me to understand, but really I think it’s because Roar is impossible to put into words, not without sounding weird, and Rose still doesn’t like sounding weird.

  ‘Wrestling?’ I suggest. ‘Or maybe they’re all at the Crow’s Nest having a barbecue.’

  Up ahead I see Langton’s grey walls and the high-security fence that surrounds the school. My stomach squeezes. If the camp bed was in front of me, I’d dive straight in.

  Seeing as Rose is breaking her no-speaking-about-Roar rule, I decide to ask her a question. ‘Rose, you know when you said that flying was the second best thing that’s ever happened to you?’

  ‘Yeah . . .?’ she says suspiciously.

  ‘Well, what’s the best thing?’

  She rolls her eyes. ‘Making Roar with you obviously.’

  She’s right. It is obvious.

  We haven’t forgotten our promise to Win; we’re going back as soon as we can persuade Mum and Dad to drive us over to Grandad’s and leave us there for a few days. We’ve already told them that we need to help Grandad finish the den and half-term isn’t far away. Meanwhile, we’ve decided to get fit. Since we got back, Rose has been swimming every day, and like Win I’ve been eating lots of apples. I’m building up to the press-ups.

  We spent the day after we got back patching up our cuts and bruises. Mum thinks all three of us crashed our bikes when we were out mountain biking. She wasn’t quite so convinced when I told her my trainers got so bashed up I had to throw them away.

  ‘Really, Arthur?’ she said, eyes narrowed.

  ‘Actually they got burnt off my feet by a dragon.’

  ‘Very funny,’ she said, before agreeing to buy me a new pair.

  Grandad also took us to choose our paint for the den and now it’s sitting up in the attic waiting for us. One half of the attic is going to be yellow and the other half will be navy-blue. I chose the blue and it’s exactly the same colour as the Bottomless Ocean. The camp bed is tucked away under the eaves, next to the paint and Prosecco, and that’s where it’s staying.

  ‘Rose!’ The shout comes from over the road where three girls – Angel, Nisha and Briony – are waving like mad. ‘Walk with us!’ Nisha calls.

  Rose glances at me. ‘I’m fine,’ I say. ‘I’ve beaten my nemesis. I think I can handle a few teenagers on my own.’

  A group of older Langton boys sweep past us, knocking my bag off my shoulder.

  ‘Well . . . you didn’t actually beat your nemesis,’ says Rose. ‘He escaped. In a boat.’

  ‘Details, Rose, details.’

  ‘Walk home together?’

  ‘All right.’

  She grins and punches me on the shoulder. ‘See you later, Arthur.’

  ‘Yeah. See you later, Rose.’

  Just before she crosses the road she pushes up her sleeve and there is Mitch’s bracelet. ‘So I don’t forget,’ she says, then she goes to join her friends where she’s greeted with a flurry of squeals and hugs.

  I pull down on my rucksack straps and walk on towards the gates of Langton Academy. I might be short and I definitely can’t play football, but that’s fine. Because I know who I am.

  I’m Arthur Trout, Master of Roar.

  Leaving the island behind us we walk back across the frozen sea. Rose carries the box as carefully as if it were a baby. The lid of the box is loose, but we’ve got nothing to keep it down. No sellotape or string. I tell myself that unless someone opens the box we’re perfectly safe, but still the loose lid makes me feel uneasy.

  When we arrive at the forest we speed up, desperate to get to the safety of the ship. We follow our footprints, our cold breath billowing out around us. Like dragons, I think, wishing one of the dragons could be here with us now, protecting us, filling this icy world with fire.

  Rose comes to a sudden stop and Win and I bump into her. Her hands tighten on the box.

  ‘What is it?’ M
y eyes flick into the snow-heavy trees.

  ‘I thought I heard something,’ she says, and for a moment we all stand and listen, snow squeaking under our feet, our breathing heavy.

  ‘I heard it too,’ whispers Win. ‘It was just a tree moving, right?’

  Rose shakes her head. ‘It sounded more like . . . feathers.’

  ‘No,’ I say. ‘You’re imagining it!’

  But just then something in the branches of a tree catches my eye: a flash of black, two glittering eyes, a wide grin. Cold shock punches into my chest.

  Rose’s voice explodes in the silence of the forest, ‘RUN!’