The Bug Dragon Project

by Suzie Taylor

  It was Emily.

  “Em! What are you doing here?” Ben whispered furiously.

  A mauve and pink pyjama clad body rose reluctantly from the undergrowth. Emily flicked back her ponytail and made her way over to the boys.

  “Me?” she protested. “What about you?”

  “Why are you following us?” Ben demanded. “Go home!”

  “Don’t tell me to go home,” she responded tartly. “Go home yourself.”

  Ben looked at Alf in frustration. Alf shrugged and sighed. “Em, you can’t come. This is an important mission and you’re not invited,” Ben snapped. “How’d you know we were here anyway?”

  “Told you I was watching,” she said smugly. “What was that little lit up thing that was on the tree back there? You’re following it aren’t you?”

  Alf groaned. “Whatever. C’mon. We’ll lose him otherwise.”

  Ben turned his back on his sister with deliberate rudeness and they continued on their way down the hill.

  “What was it Alfy?” Emily persisted. “It looked like a flying mouse except that it was all bright. You were closer than me.”

  “Bug dragon,” said Alf shortly.

  “BUG DRAGON?!”

  “Shhhh!

  Halfway down the hill they found themselves face to face with the impenetrable bulk of a huge fig tree hung with a tangle of woody vines, and they were forced to change direction to go around it. On the far side, the undergrowth became mercifully thinner and Mouse appeared again, not far ahead of them sitting on a flat fungus that was growing out of a fallen branch. He looked over his shoulder, noted that they had seen him then took off. When he left, the fungus glowed in wonderous bands of orange and browns.

  “Woah,” said Emily, impressed.

  “He knows we’re here. He’s leading us somewhere.”

  “He’s so cute!” Emily crooned.

  Ben rolled his eyes.

  “What does he eat?” asked Emily. “Are there more of them? Will I be able to I touch one?”

  “Shut up!”

  “Is that what wrecked our house? Bug Dragons?”

  “Yes,” snapped Ben. “And we’re trying to find out where they’re coming from.”

  “So did you know they were gonna wreck our place? How long have you known about them? Why didn’t you tell Mum and Dad?”

  Ben grumbled quietly and Alf said nothing. They continued to follow Mouse who was now flying from tree to tree and lighting up the occasional frilly lichen, fruit or leaf to make sure they could see where to go.

  “He’s so cute!” squeaked Emily as high as her voice would go. “Alfy, are there girl bug dragons? Do they lay eggs?”

  “Your sister is having a seriously detrimental effect on my equanimity,” said Alf.

  “Your what?” said Emily.

  “Sut up!”

  Mouse led them a long way into the rainforest, up and down slopes, along rocky ridges and down along the gullies that were thick with damp vegetation. Eventually they joined a narrow ‘roo path’ which wound its way through the trees for some distance before it faded into nothing. A few drops of rain began to fall and the air felt heavy with moisture.

  “Just what we need,” said Ben. “Should’ve checked the weather.”

  “How are we going to get back?” asked Emily.

  “GPS.”

  “I have a hole in my new Jarmies,” she said, twisting her leg round for a better look. “It’s a big one.”

  Ben pressed his lips together. She was being annoying on purpose. He was not going to take the bait. They continued for some distance in silence. From time to time Mouse appeared just far enough ahead of them to keep them going, but it was hard work and without their torches, visibility was almost non-existent.

  “Need a machete,” Alf grunted as he was slapped in the face by a palm leaf for the umpteenth time.

  They all paused, breathing loudly and heavily in the dark.

  “Alf, turn your torch off,” said Ben. “We’ll just use one from now on to conserve batteries. Stick close together.”

  “How far are we gonna go?” asked Emily.

  “As far as we need to,” said Ben grimly. “Mouse? Mouse! Where are you?”

  No answer.

  “Alf, Check our position.”

  Alf looked at his phone. “Noted.”

  “Let’s try this way,” Ben decided. “It looks easier.”

  They continued for a while, following the areas where the undergrowth was thinner until the ground began to slope downwards once more. Alf shone his torch down the hill. The pale narrow trunks of palm trees rose in abundance on the slope, interspersed with the feathery tops of tree ferns. A light mist began to rise from the gully and Ben thought he could hear the sound of running water. He put his hands on his hips, considered their situation then decided.

  “Let’s have a look down there and then we’d better give up. He seems to have gone. We’ll need to change direction a bit though in order to get down. Have you still got our position?”

  Alf looked and then frowned. “It’s not working. I have no signal and no GPS.”

  “What do you mean, ‘no GPS?’”

  “Exactly that. According to this we are nowhere right now. I’d say we’ve walked into a parallel universe.”

  “Ok… well the weather in this universe seems about the same,” sighed Ben, “although I don’t know where this mist is coming from. Try restarting your phone.”

  “Was the bug dragon trying to get us lost?” asked Emily. “I’m tired, I want to go home.”

  “Reckon it was a ploy to get rid of us,” Alf agreed. “We’ll have to live out the rest of our lives in the forest and eat worms… I lived on worms for a whole week once.”

  “Why are we following him if he’s not friendly?” Emily demanded. “What if there are more of them waiting to attack us?”

  Ben rubbed his forehead. It was a disturbing idea. What could they do if they were ambushed? What if Alf’s fears were correct and Mouse was leading them into something dangerous? Ben vented his frustration by telling his sister to leave, then immediately remembered that she couldn’t. “Em, you chose to come so you’ll just have to stay with us and do as you’re told,” he snapped. “I reckon its worth checking out if there’s anything at the bottom of the hill. If there’s no sign of anything useful down there we’ll go back home.”

  “If we can,” Alf grunted.

  “I’ll do what I want,” Emily muttered. There was a roll of distant thunder. Ben began the descent, battling for a foothold on the loose leaf litter that lay heavily underfoot and using vines and young saplings where possible to steady himself. Halfway down Emily spotted a small fern leaf glowing delicately from amidst the thick mosses on a rock. They all stopped for a breath and Alf took a picture. As soon as he had done so, his phone began to glow eerily in the dark.

  “My phone’s gone funny.”

  The light that came from it was green and began to rise out of the screen like a mist

  “That’s weird,” said Ben. “What is it?”

  “Don’t know.”

  Ben cautiously reached out his hand and found that it was cool and slightly damp. The mist began to increase in intensity until it was pouring out between his fingers, whereupon Alf dropped his phone on the ground. It continued to pour out of the screen, enveloping them all in its tendrils, tasting, testing, feeling. Alf took a step backwards, waving his arms about, but made no impression. Then just as quickly as it had appeared, the mist withdrew and the screen became dark once again.

  “Well that was freaky,” said Emily.

  “Didn’t like it,” said Alf.

  “Me either,” Ben agreed. “It was kind of getting into me somehow and there was nothing I could do to stop it...”

  Alf picked up his phone and turned it over carefully in his hands. “It’s probably transmitting detailed information about us to headquarters as we speak,” he intoned ominously.

  “Should I turn it on?”

&nb
sp; “You might be able to see what it’s doing...” suggested Ben. Alf did so and shrugged. “Well the picture worked – but it’s a painting as usual.”

  “What do you mean ‘it’s a painting’?” Emily demanded.

  “Explain later,” said Ben shortly. He then called out - “Mouse? We can’t keep going like this! Where are you? It’s too dark and we don’t know where we are.”

  They stood in silence for a moment, waiting.

  Ben exhaled and scratched his head. “Well I guess we can go to the bottom of the hill,” he conceded at length, “but no further. Do we have a position yet?”

  Alf shook his head. “Nup. We’re still on another planet.” The sound of fast flowing water became louder as they descended, and Ben imagined that they were about to come across some substantial rapids but when he was finally able to shine his torch to the foot of the gully he saw that although the stream was quite steep and fast flowing, it was not very wide. Alf took a step forward, lost his footing and slid down a little way.

  “You ok?” called Ben anxiously.

  “Sustained only minimal damage,” Alf replied

  Ben and Emily followed, carefully seeking footholds on the roots that threaded their way down the slope until they reached the water’s edge.

  “There, look!” said Alf. A tiny blue and gold light flickered amongst the trees on the far side of the gully.

  Ben looked then nearly lost his footing on a slippery rock and caught himself just in time. “Forget it. We can’t go any further,” He decided. “We’ll just have to try to find this place again in the daylight.”

  “These are awfully funny rocks,” said Emily.

  “What do you mean? Where?”

  “Here. Shine your torch back over this way. See? They’re in rows.”

  Ben sighed impatiently. “Yeah I s’pose they are. Whatever. We can’t hang around here all night… Oh no - here it comes!”

  The unmistakable sound of heavy rain could be heard approaching rapidly over the forest and very soon they found themselves caught in the deluge.

  “Hate rain,” Emily wailed, clutching her arms together as if it was going to help.

  “Shouldn’t have come then,” Ben snapped.

  “There’s Mouse again!” Alf pointed to a rock close by. His hair was already plastered to his face but his eyes were round and excited. “He wants us to go over the stream!”

  “Forget it,” said Ben. He turned and began the long climb back up the hill. Alf contemplated his options then followed reluctantly with Emily a short distance behind him, trying to look back at the shining dragon on the rock.

  They would certainly have got lost had Mouse not come to their rescue. He pulled at Ben’s jumper at first, trying to lead them back down the hill, but to no avail. Ben was adamant.

  “Forget it Mouse,” he growled. “It’s too hard, too far and too wet. We’re going back.”

  Mouse hesitated then flew back up the hill ahead of the children and waited for them to catch up. This had not worked out entirely the way he wanted. Whilst it had been fun trashing the human hive (and they’d found some awesome stuff!) he had begun to feel concerned that they were missing something important. The children could not possibly have been involved in the initial theft but perhaps the stone had chosen to pass through their hands for a reason? Mouse had watched Ben through the window and had seen the way he sat in his bed with his head in his hands. They were kind of cute and innocent and he hated to think he had been instrumental in hurting them. Was it possible they actually had a role to play?

  Mouse looked back and observed the way the children staggered and slipped on the heavy clay, blinking the water out of their eyes and fending off occasional slaps of wet foliage. They were really quite pathetic. Mouse flitted easily from branch to branch, catching the occasional insect on the way and making sure he never got too far ahead. If nothing else, he now had some confirmation that his theory was correct; the water wraiths had let them through, and that ought to be proof enough even for Growler.

  He resolved to try bringing them back another night.

  “I have reception!” shouted Alf suddenly.

  Nobody bothered answering. Ben walked with his arms folded tightly across his chest only releasing himself every now and then to retain his balance. He was beginning to wonder if Mouse was leading them around in circles on purpose. The water kept running into his eyes until he could no longer be bothered wiping it away; instead he kept them open as slits, doggedly following the blurry gold and blue light that buzzed ahead of them. He began to fantasise about his comfortable bed and dressing gown. How far had they come? He tried to focus simply on moving his legs, trudging and squelching his way along for what seemed like an eternity, trying to maintain a rhythm and not stumble over unseen obstacles in the dark.

  When they eventually arrived back at the house, they were a sorry sight indeed. Alf turned to the side gate without a word and Ben and Emily, a pair of bedraggled wet mops, did their best to enter the house quietly. The rain began to ease and Ben could hear minnie’s heavy bark in the distance.

  “Now it stops,” he muttered as the downpour diminished to a light drizzle.He padded towards the bathroom leaving a muddy trail behind him, grabbed his towel and headed for his bedroom where he gratefully peeled himself out of his wet clothes, dried himself and put on his pyjamas. He then went out of his room in search of a plastic bag and found Emily busy drying the floor with her towel. Good thinking. It would not do for his mother to find that.

  He glanced at the clock. Just after three a.m. Thank goodness it was holidays.

  Ben and Emily both had an attack of ‘maturity’ when they finally awoke much later that day. Emily insisted on putting on a load of washing (which also meant bringing in the last lot and folding it all) so that she could hide their wet clothes and the towel that she’d used to dry the floor. Ben had agreed as a fair exchange to wash the mud off her sneakers.

  “If you really want to be helpful, you could also empty the dishwasher,” said Mrs Prinsloo.

  Parents just didn’t get it. You do them one favour and they instantly think you want to spend the whole day doing it. Not only that, but Ben had to put up with some searching questions because Alf’s parents had said that he had been acting more strangely than usual and wanted to know if Ben or his mother knew anything about it! Ben did his best to be evasive but in the end he just emptied the dishwasher as quickly as he could and went back to bed.

  The following afternoon Alf wandered over and was cornered by Mrs Prinsloo before he could sidle his way into Ben’s room.

  “Nice to see you Alf,” she said. Simple statement but her tone was loaded. “How are you doing?

  “Exceptionally well thank you,” he responded, shrinking back slightly and looking for an escape. “Ben here?”

  “Yes - In his room. Are you two up to something you shouldn’t be?”

  Alf’s eyes were wide and round. “Not at all Mrs Prinsloo! We’re the epitome of righteousness.”

  Mrs Prinsloo smirked despite herself “So long as that’s true Alfy. We’re just a bit concerned about you two.”

  Alf escaped and ran to Ben’s room, rushed in melodramatically and stood with his back to the door panting slightly.

  “They’re onto us,” he gasped. “Your mum interrogated me in the entry hall.

  “What did you tell her?” Ben asked only slightly concerned.

  “That we were completely innocent of any controversial activity.”

  Ben scratched his head. “Dad checked my computer earlier… it’s ok don’t panic! I’ve put everything on a thumb-drive. I changed the file name to ‘project 1’ and deleted it from the computer. All our notes are hidden behind the shelf there. He probably only wanted to check my internet history anyway.”

  Alf sat down on the bed. “We need to make plans.”

  “Yes, but we need to do it carefully. And preferably during the day time.”

  “Mouse was leading us to something but we nev
er made it – I don’t know how much further he would have taken us, but we need to start by going back to where we left off. Problem is, I’m not sure where that exact location is. I’ve only got our last recorded position...” Alf took a map out of his pocket and unfolded it on the bed. “About here... but the contours aren’t making a lot of sense because we didn’t climb any more hills. We stayed on a level for a bit then went down into a steep gully but where’s that? The nearest stream is this one but it’s too far away and the sides don’t look particularly steep. I hold to my original theory that we left the planet.”

  Ben considered the map thoughtfully.

  “As you say this is the nearest stream to that spot... so I suggest we need to go there for starters. Mouse took us on a direct route which was difficult because it was off track, but if we follow this public trail and then turn eastwards along this one here, we only have to bush bash a short distance before we get to the stream and then we can follow that and see where it gets us. If the stream isn’t right then we climb up here and along to the last known location. It’s a much longer route but easier; I know that path. We can go along there quite quickly – especially in daylight. We could even cycle the first little bit to the car park at the end of the street. We’ve got two weeks to solve this and it’s our best chance. We’re going away next weekend but apart from that I’m home for the holidays. You?”

  “We’re not going anywhere.”

  “One problem though. Emily will have to join us.”

  Alf frowned. Didn’t Ben have any control over his sister? Couldn’t she be bribed or tied up or something? More importantly – was she capable of keeping a secret?

  “She’ll tell Mum if we don’t include her. I reckon if she’s part of it she’ll be less likely to give us away. We’ll have to give her the rundown though.”

  Alf reluctantly agreed. Emily was duly found and stood in Ben’s room with her arms folded and a superior look on her face. Alf handed her an official looking contract, headed with the B.U.R.P. logo.