Drake the Dragonboy

by Rebecca Schultz

  “In my land, there is no prison. We give everyone enough to eat so they don’t need to break the law.” He paused and everyone cheered loudly. What he was saying was true. In Dragonland there was no prison. Sometimes people were sent to therapy at the hospital if they did something strange or out of place. They generally came back cured and were looked after by a supportive community.

  “Daisy,” said Drake, pulling her to the side. “Please don’t tell anyone we’re dragon people. We’re here to find my dad and if they find out, I think it will be a distraction.”

  “Of course,” she replied. Ronan looked over and saw them and jumped up with delight. “But you’d better tell him that!” she added.

  “Friends,” bellowed out Ronan, dramatically, “come and join me on my throne.” Juniper ran up first and whispered something in his ear. He nodded seriously.

  “My lovely friends, who are also descended from apes like all you normal people,” said Ronan. “Meet my followers. They think I’m great!” Drake and Daisy now joined him on the stage. The followers made way for them and the four sat in a small circle around Ronan.

  “Are you okay, Ronan? We were so worried. We thought you might have died,” said Juniper.

  “I’m okay. Badly burned, but these kind people have been putting cream on my wings and have bandaged them up. They think I’m some kind of angel sent by someone called God. I’m just going along with it.”

  “How did you get away? Last I saw, you were heading right into the belly of a fire-breathing Quinta,” asked Drake, always keen for the details.

  “Well, as I headed out of control upwards, instinct kind of took over. I grabbed the bomb out of my bag but lost the bag and the matches … so when he breathed fire the first time, I thought, that’s it! I’ll throw the bomb into his fire breath and then fly away as fast as I can. So when he blew for the second time, I chucked the bomb right into his mouth. I didn’t count on the force of the fire and the bomb being so strong and it blasted me, burning my wings so badly that I pretty much floated to the ground. I don’t really remember that bit. Next thing I knew, I was here in the hall being tended to by these lovely people. They said they found me on the edge of the desert. I would have died if they hadn’t found me. They are my saviours as I am their saviour.”

  “Hallelujah,” said one follower. The other 299 followers repeated this loudly.

  “So, how are you going with the search for your dad?” asked Ronan. “That is, after all our mission here.”

  “Not good,” said Drake. “We don’t have any leads.”

  “Oh, Drake,” said Ronan, putting his arm around his shoulders. “We’ll find him. We’ve got all these people to help us,” he said, sweeping his arm around the room. “We should start by eating a baked potato.”

  “What?” Drake asked, looking at Ronan and thinking about the shrivelled-up baked potatoes his mum put on his plate for dinner. “Okay, but I’m not sure how a potato is going to help things.”

  Ronan, Daisy, Drake and Juniper went out onto the street and Daisy ordered them all baked potatoes from a tiny little caravan. Drake ordered a Mexican bean potato with extra chilli. He wasn’t sure what Mexican meant but Daisy assured him that he’d like it. He’d told her about how much dragonfolk loved hot food. They loved the feeling of fire in their mouths.

  Drake was only into his second delicious mouthful when a dark shadow fell upon them and the three looked up to see the familiar dark grey mass of a giant Quinta’s belly.

  “Quinta, run!” screamed Drake.

  “Follow me,” commanded Daisy. She took off at lightning speed, her strong supple legs lifting her into the air with each step. She was graceful even when running in terror. Ronan was close behind her, his long legs carrying him so quickly that he was tripping over himself to stay behind Daisy, despite his injuries. He was obviously terrified of the Quinta after what he’d been through. Drake, followed closely by Juniper, was well behind them and kept dropping further back.

  They wound in and out of streets and up and down alleyways, Daisy quickly figuring out that the Quinta’s large wingspan meant that it slowed down in alleyways. It could fold up its wings but without being able to stretch its wings out, it was sluggish. Alleyways helped them to get ahead but the Quinta made ground on the open streets. Daisy seemed to be heading somewhere.

  As they rounded a corner, Drake leapt over an old homeless man sleeping under a pile of newspapers. He kept running but something felt wrong — he couldn’t hear the pitter patter of Juniper’s foot-steps behind him. Drake stopped and turned to see Juniper on her knees talking to the old homeless man, the Quinta zooming up behind her.

  “Juniper,” yelled Drake, angrily. “What are you doing? Run!”

  “Drake, I tripped over this man and I had to stop and see if he was okay. You might be going all ape-city but I am still a dragonfolk and I need to look after others.”

  “Juniper, not the time for a lecture … ” Drake ran back to her, grabbed her and pulled her to the ground just as the Quinta flew over the top of them. Drake could feel its warm breath as it swooshed over his head. The Quinta kept flying, completely ignoring them. They both sat up and watched as it flew down the street, ape-people flying left and right to get out of its way, some nursing serious injuries. Turning to look back down the street to where the Quinta had come from, Drake saw that some people had been burned, others bruised and battered and all were in shock. Wide-eyed people sat in the street looking down the road to where the Quinta had disappeared. Some had taken out their mobile phones and were pointing them around the street. Drake wondered why they would do such a thing.

  Drake took a deep breath. There had been times in the last few days when he had felt strong and the adrenaline pumping throughout his body had helped him to think quickly and run fast. Now was not one of these times. Now that the immediate threat had flown off, Drake’s limbs felt like lead. For Juniper’s sake and for his dad’s, Drake shook his head and forced his mind into action.

  “Amazing,” Drake said turning to Juniper.

  “It just flew off …” Juniper’s shaky voice trailed off at the end of the sentence.

  “I think it’s the same Quinta that burned Ronan. I think it’s caught his scent and it’s after him.”

  “Hunting him, I guess,” added Juniper. “And that was quite a scent that was coming from those puss-ridden burns. Be pretty easy for a Quinta to follow that.”

  “Yep,” agreed Drake.

  “Drake, I just can’t deal with losing Ronan again. Not now. We just found him. I’m not letting him go …”

  “Me either,” said Drake, ignoring the jealous twinge he felt as Ronan was really a good friend and wouldn’t have even been here if it wasn’t for him. “Let’s follow the wreckage. Pretty easy.”

  Drake and Juniper walked hand in hard like they had on their journey into the city the day before. This time they were silent. They followed the mess of fallen-down street stalls, dented cars and bewildered bystanders. Drake stopped thinking and just walked; one foot followed the other. He was still in this kind of stupor when he felt Juniper’s grip tighten. They both stopped dead and Drake turned to Juniper who was staring into the sky. Drake followed her gaze.

  Above them the Quinta was swirling around, its pointed tail switching like an angry cat’s. It was circling around the top of what looked like a tunnel entrance. A sign above the entrance said ‘Subway’.

  “Let’s make a run for it,” said Juniper.

  Drake’s mind was jumping back into action.

  “Nope,” he said carefully. “We should walk really slowly, as if we don’t even care that it’s there. If we run, we might attract its attention.”

  “Okay.” Juniper gave a quick nod of agreement. It seemed that if she’d taken her time to do a full nod she might have changed her mind and turned the nod into a shake.

  “We won’t look up … just look at our feet and the subway sign and walk slowly.”

  Still hand in hard, they wa
lked slowly towards the tunnel. Each step was painstaking and took all the willpower they each had. It seemed like hours before they reaching the tunnel opening. Drake looked up and sure enough, it seemed as though the Quinta hadn’t even changed its pattern, although it seemed to be a bit lower. As they took their final steps into the safety of the tunnel Drake felt the wind from the Quinta’s wing ruffle his hair and he shivered. He could only imagine how terrified Ronan felt.

  As they entered the tunnel, Drake couldn’t see anything. It was a bright sunny day and it took time for his eyes to adjust once he was in the tunnel. He heard Ronan and Daisy calling out in delight before he could see them. As his eyes got used to the light, Ronan and Daisy came into focus running towards him.

  “You’re okay!” exclaimed Daisy.

  “We thought you were both gone for sure,” squealed a relieved Juniper, yelling so loudly that people stopped and stared at her. She put her hand over her mouth when she noticed and whispered, “Sorry.”

  Ronan and Drake both grinned madly at each other. Daisy’s phone rang. She moved away from them and sat on the ground, cross-legged. Her blonde hair was tucked behind her ear, her brown arm cradled her phone, and her pink lips moved slowly like flower petals fluttering in the breeze. Drake stared at her enchanted. Juniper punched him hard on the arm.

  “Ouch. What?”

  “We need to talk about our plans. What are we going to do next? Standing here staring isn’t going to get your dad saved,” sniped Juniper. Drake felt a twinge of guilt.

  “Hey, Ronan,” Drake said, ignoring Juniper. “Why were people pointing their phones at the Quinta?”

  “The phones have cameras in them. They take videos all the time with their phones and share them with each other on the internet,” answered Ronan.

  “So my dad was right! He invented that idea in Dragonland but no-one believed you could put a camera into a phone. Huh! And what’s the internet?”

  “I don’t really understand it,” said Ronan, “but there’s heaps of cool stuff in this place. Can’t wait to try it out … you know, after we’ve found your dad. That’s what we are focusing on at the moment.” Drake nodded in appreciation and felt the little pit of panic in his gut rise to the surface again. They were no closer to finding him. Daisy got off the phone and came over to them.

  “Great news, guys. I think I know where your dad is, Drake. Some of Ronan’s followers saw a man being taken into a hotel late at night under suspicious circumstances. They caught it on vid,” said Daisy putting her hand on his shoulder. Drake nearly fainted at both the news and the soft warm feeling of Daisy’s hand. Daisy played the video on her phone while they all huddled around and watched. It was Drake’s dad. Unmistakably, it was Drake’s dad looking drugged and confused being led into a hotel by what looked like two men. The men could only be seen from behind and it was hard to see any of their features.

  The small group led by Daisy caught a train into the centre of the city. She knew where the hotel was. On the train, there were all sorts of different looking people: people with no hair, people with pink hair, old women dressed all in black, young women dressed in platform shoes with spiky pink hair, young men in tight pants and no shirts, old men without any teeth. Drake and Juniper stopped to stare at the old man without any teeth. “What’s so interesting?” asked Daisy.

  “Dragonfolk all have teeth. Very strong teeth. You’d never see dragonfolk without teeth. We also have really strong fingernails … we’ve noticed how you can chew yours short with your teeth,” said Juniper.

  “Check out my fingernails,” said Drake, offering Daisy his hand. She stroked his fingernails and then tapped them.

  “They’re like bones! How do you cut them?”

  “We have a special cutting every day at school where they trim our wings and our nails with a saw,” explained Drake. They both had quite long fingernails at the moment because they’d missed a few wing-cutting sessions.

  “That sounds awful,” exclaimed Daisy. It was just normal to Juniper and Drake. They’d never known anything else.

  When they came up and out of the train station, it was as though they were in a different city. Now they were amongst the tall buildings they’d seen stretching across the horizon yesterday. The buildings were massively tall and shiny and well-built. They were far more splendid than anything in Dragonland. The city seemed to be one of extremes. Daisy led the way in and out of the tall building and alleyways gushing with wind and seemed to know exactly where she was going.

  “This is it!” she said finally. They stood outside a grand hotel. It was lit up with bright spotlights and had its own little driveway to drop off and pick up passengers. Daisy took them into the lobby. It had a marble floor and giant crystal chandelier, big black leather couches and glass tables.

  “Why is this so splendid when you live in a little shack?” asked Drake. Juniper pinched him. He guessed he was being insensitive again but he wanted to know, so he didn’t really care. “Why?” he asked again. Daisy look confused.

  “That’s just how it is. Some people have lots and lots of money and other people have hardly any. That’s life.”

  “It’s not life in Dragonland,” Drake said, gently. In Dragonland everyone had a comfortable house. People had different ideas of what this meant. For example, Juniper’s parents lived in a cedar cottage near the edge of the woods. Drake and his mum lived in a modern house in a quiet suburban area. Ronan’s mother, with her many children, had run out of space in their little house on the edge of town, so the council had built her some extra rooms and put a little portable house in the yard for Ronan (the oldest child). Dragonfolk took care of dragonfolk. No-one would have been comfortable living in a palace while someone else went without. These ape-people didn’t seem to be very nice — although Daisy was really lovely and generous. It didn’t make much sense to Drake.

  “What do we do now? What’s the plan?” asked Juniper.

  “We need to know which room they’re keeping my dad in. Any ideas?” Drake asked, turning to Daisy. Daisy walked over to the reception desk and started chatting to the boy on the desk. She came back a few minutes later.

  “From the sounds of it, he’s on the twelfth floor, room 212. Charlie on the desk there said there have been two funny-looking men keeping watch at the door. He said they seem harmless.”

  “They can’t be harmless if they drugged and kidnapped my dad. We’d better be careful.”

  Daisy grinned. Drake could tell that she was a bit like Ronan in that she really liked excitement.

  “Ronan and I’ll go up and pretend we’re staying on the floor — you know, looking for a bit of romance.” She winked at Ronan. Juniper and Drake nodded in agreement and Daisy and Ronan disappeared into the lift, hand in hand. Daisy had snuggled her head into Ronan’s chest. She came just up to his armpit. Drake sighed. No girl his age ever came up to his armpit. Even the shortest girls around were the same height as him. Drake and Juniper sat on the couch silently and waited. They both seemed to be deep in thought. A few minutes later Daisy and Ronan returned.

  “What’s the story?” asked Drake, rushing over to them.

  “The guards are, like, ninety years old. They’re both quite deaf and one of them is blind. I don’t think this will be as hard as we thought.”

  “Especially as I’ve already stolen the room access card from the blind one,” laughed Ronan.

  “My hero,” said Daisy, still holding his hand. You could let it go now, thought Drake.

  Ronan handed Drake the key. “Let’s go and do it. You two get into the room. I’ll pretend I’m having a fit and distract them,” said Daisy. “Ronan, you back me up.”

  Drake and Juniper followed Daisy into the lift. Daisy punched the button labelled twelve and the lift jolted upwards. Drake and Juniper had been in lifts in Dragonland but never up twelve floors. Six floors was about the highest they had in their city. Drake was worried that Daisy was underestimating the kidnappers. He didn’t think ninety year olds wo
uld be able to manage his dad. He might be a bit out of shape, with one of those pregnant-looking bellies older men get, and maybe his eyesight wasn’t that good and he was a bit clumsy … but still, he could look after himself.

  The lift doors flung open and Drake and Juniper immediately recognised the two old men. It was Gerry and Hubert, two of Dragonland’s oldest and most respected elders. Juniper and Drake looked at each other bewildered but didn’t get time to think any further as Daisy threw herself on the ground pounding and screaming and throwing her arms and legs into the air. Ronan ran over to her and joined in the commotion, yelling and screaming and jumping around.

  “Quick,” said Drake and grabbed Juniper’s arm leading her to the room. He swiped the access card and they both quickly slid into the hotel room, closing the door promptly behind them. Drake turned to see his father sitting at a table near the window staring at him.

  “Drake? How did you get here?”

  “Dad, are you okay?” He ran over and fell into his father’s arms.

  “I’m fine,” Donny Dramco said, holding his son tight and patting his back. “But are you okay? These kidnappers are likely to be dangerous … I don’t want you to get hurt.” Donny ran his hands through a grey version of Drake’s spiky out of control hair.

  “Ummmm, Mr Dramco,” interrupted Juniper, “they don’t seem to be dangerous … it seems that Gerry and Hubert kidnapped you.”

  “What? Why would they do that? How would they do that?”

  “They drugged you, Dad, and I guess between the two of them dragged you into the car and then here. I’ve no idea about the why,” said Drake.

  The door burst open and Daisy and Ronan pushed Hubert and Gerry into the room all tied up in ropes.