by Suzie Taylor
Emily grimaced at the insects. “Eww!” she shrieked. “Some of it’s still wriggling!”
“Insects are very nutritious.” said Alf. “You can live on them you know. It’s the food of the future.”
“It’s ok Em, we have our own lunch,” sighed Ben. “They didn’t take it thank goodness.”
“We don’t need our goggles any more either,” said Alf. “Our food is normal and the fuzz balls look the same without them.”
Nadia opened her bag and frowned at the contents. “Next time, remind me not to bring bananas on a caving expedition.” She produced a plastic bag full of bananas, squashed to a pulp. “Anyone?”
Emily tore her eyes away from the bouncing fuzz balls. “Eww! Pizza will do I think, and then cup cakes.”
“Chocolate?” asked Ben hopefully.
“Still no cocoa.”
“Should’ve got some.”
“You should’ve got some!”
“So what are we going to do?” said Nadia. “We need to get home eventually!”
“I’m sure we’ll work something out,” Ben reassured her. He spoke with more confidence than he felt however. Even if a search party was sent out after them, they would never be found – not unless the powers that controlled this crazy world chose to let other people in – which begged the question as to why they had been able to get in themselves. “I wonder if we’re the first people to have ended up here?”
“In the zoo?” asked Nadia.
“Well anywhere. These goggles are a good fit; not made for or by the dragons I don’t think.”
“No you’re right,” said Nadia. “And their armour didn’t fit properly either... except for Growler’s.”
“Maybe the people from the ruined city made them?” suggested Alf. “They do look old. What if the bug dragons stole them and are responsible for the ruin?”
“I doubt it,” said Ben. “If they don’t even have their own armour,I can’t imagine them taking over a large civilisation of any kind - unless it was just to trash it for a joke. Hey! Get your snozzle off my pizza!” One of the fuzz balls had crept up next to him and extended its trunk around for a taste.
“Oh!” Emily crooned. “Come here little snozzle! You can have a teeny bit of mine!”
Two more creatures joined the first one. “Now you’ve started something,” Ben groaned. He put the lid on the pizza container and attempted to push them away. “Go eat your insects...”
“Why would you eat insects when you can have pizza?” asked Emily.
“They might have been capable of more than we bargained for,” said Alf continuing their previous conversation. “I always knew they were up to something.”
“Hey, you thought they were just animals!”
“Only at first.”
“Well they’re definitely jokers if nothing else,” said Nadia. “The zoo! They can’t honestly believe we’re animals.”
“No,” Ben sighed. “I’m sure this is just their idea of a fun time.”
“I still don’t see the point,” Nadia grumbled. “Why not just kick us out? Unless they’re worried we’re going to tell other people about the place in which case we’ll never get out!”
“Maybe they intend to do experiments on us,” said Alf ominously. “I did experiments on a goldfish once. I wanted it to change to a greenfish so I added food colouring to its food and when that didn’t work I put some colouring in the water.”
“What happened?” asked Emily.
“It died.”
“Poor fish!”
“It wasn’t the food colouring that killed it, it was the bleach I put in first...”
“For goodness sake!” said Nadia.
“Well they feed flamingos at the zoo with pink water to keep them pink so I thought green food colouring might change the colour of the fish but I had to bleach it first or it would have been a brown fish... I was only little.”
“Alright, alright,” said Ben. “Get serious guys – we’re in a predicament here and we need to work this out. Apparently we’ve stirred up the enemy in the ruined city – just by going there - and it’s affected their freedom.”
“Probably not a bad thing,” Nadia grunted.
Ben looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully for a moment then spoke. “You know what? I don’t reckon the bug dragons had anything to do with the ruined city. Sure they like their shiny stuff which is to be expected in a dragon, but could you really imagine any of them actually killing anybody? Nah. I reckon they just raided the place after disaster struck – whatever that disaster was.”
“The people might not have been killed,” said Emily.
“Not sure how any of this helps us now,” said Nadia crossly.
“And what is the ‘Spectrum Stone’?” wondered Emily. “The King said it was a star but I thought a star was a gigantic ball of flaming gas!”
“It’s just a fancy opal,” said Nadia. “It probably came out of the centre of the mountain like the ‘Arkenstone’ in Lord of the Rings. Because it is so shiny they’ve invented a story to explain it.”
“Superstition,” agreed Alf. “It’s probably their lucky charm and has a placebo effect.”
They were all silent for a moment then Nadia got up from the floor and wandered to the entrance to observe the animals in the neighbouring enclosures. Most had quietened down and were settling back onto their beds apart from one huge spotted beast with leathery looking skin that continued to grumble and press its head against the force-field that imprisoned it. She watched in silence for a while then pressed her face into the invisible barrier so that her lips and nose squashed out. Gypsy turned her head to look for a moment and their eyes met. Nadia didn’t care what Gypsy thought. She backed away and noted that her face didn’t leave a mark. Gypsy was suddenly distracted by something speaking through the tiny unit that hovered close by. She answered and a brief conversation followed that caused her to react in surprise. With a frown she looked back in the direction of her prisoners and shrugged.
“What was that about?” Nadia wondered as Gypsy settled back down.
“Who knows?” grumbled Ben. “She can hear us just as well as we can hear her, but most of them can’t understand anything.”
“I wonder where the King learnt to speak in Australian?” said Emily.
“English,” muttered Alf. “Don’t know. He was a bit hard to understand; like their voices are not made for our kind of talking. It would be the same for us - imagine trying to speak in those high squeaky words that Mouse uses!”
“I reckon I could...” said Emily
“Don’t!”
A dozen snozzles were now climbing on them and trying to open the boxes, but eventually they managed to shoo them away and finish all their food. The thought of what could be in store for dinner had crossed Ben’s mind but he decided not to say anything and instead lay down awkwardly on the hard floor for a rest. Were they going to be displayed as the latest zoo attraction? He pictured hoards of young bug dragons with popsicles made of bugs, staring at them and taking pictures. Time seemed to pass very slowly. Everybody was silent, each hoping that the other would come up with a good escape plan. Gypsy yawned and stretched and Ben noted the sharpness of her claws as she extended them.
“The floor’s hard,” grumbled Emily, dislodging a snozzle that had curled up next to her.
“You could climb up onto their bed,” suggested Alf.
“I’d be buried in them if I did that,” said Emily. She scratched the snozzle on the back and it fluffed itself up in obvious pleasure. Emily’s nose began to twitch. She sniffed then sneezed violently. The snozzle leapt straight up and latched itself onto the wall where it hung, staring down wide eyed.
“There’s a snot hanging out of my nose!” Emily wailed.
Ben foraged in his pocket for a hankie. As he did so he felt something unexpected; smooth and hard like a large pebble, except that it didn’t weigh anything.
“What’s this?” he wondered and brought it out. It was a larg
e rounded stone, multi-coloured like an opal, but with greater depth and luminosity than any opal he had ever seen. “The Spectrum Stone?” he said in astonishment. “But how on earth did it get here?”
They all sat up and looked. Gypsy who was watching from outside started to have a meltdown, grasped her transmitter and began shouting into it.
“Now we’re really in trouble...” said Alf.
“You should have kept that quiet,” said Nadia. “Where did you find it?”
“In my pocket... but I don’t understand! How did it get there?
“We’re being framed,” agreed Alf. “I reckon it’s Scamp or Growler. We’re just pawns in some kind of rebellion.”
“That’s ridiculous!” said Ben “I was never anywhere near Scamp or Growler.” He put the stone on the ground and took a step back from it. “We don’t want to be part of this, they can have it back!”
The stone glowed for a moment then floated effortlessly back into his pocket.
“Well, I guess that explains how it got there,” said Nadia.
“Remote control!” muttered Alf.
Ben held his hands in the air helplessly. The feeling of having no control was irksome but at the same time there was a mysterious sense of warmth and strength deep within him. This thing was no lucky charm, it had a mind of its own. He reached into his pocket again and pulled it out for another look. The depth of its colour was mesmerising.
“What are you?” he asked with his mind.
There were no words, only a sense of space; a vastness beyond measure that for a brief moment caused everything else to fade into obscurity. As the sensation passed he raised his eyes once more. Gypsy having made her call was staring at him and he shrugged his shoulders at her. This was bigger than any of them, even the King.
It did not take long for the King to arrive. As the force-field was lowered, he and his soldiers strode in menacingly and all the snozzles leapt back into their hammock and peered anxiously over the rim. Ben squared his shoulders and stood his ground.
“It wasn’t me,” he said defiantly and took the stone from his pocket. “I’m not hiding anything so take it if it is yours. We just want to go home.”
Mouse arrived a little out of breath behind all the others and pushed his way forward to watch.
The King reached out to grasp the stone but as he did so it began to dissolve, separating like mercury to drizzle between his fingers. The silvery liquid then coagulated once more into a solid shape and flashed briefly with the brilliance of a star before placing itself back in Ben’s pocket.
Ben raised his hands helplessly. “You see? Not my doing!”
The King was clearly taken aback. He opened his mouth to speak and then shut it again. He looked down at Mouse who grinned and made a sound that could only mean one thing. ‘I told you so!’
A brief debate ensued. Mouse almost seemed excited by what had happened but the King was clearly irritated. When they finally came to a conclusion, the King’s manner, although courteous, was very controlled and Ben sensed an underlying anger that was quite unnerving.
“Very well,” said the King. “If that’s the way it is, we are innocent of your demise!” He turned abruptly and signalled for his soldiers to follow. Mouse winked and nodded encouragingly at the children to follow him out.
“Our demise?” murmured Alf anxiously.
“What’s demise?” asked Emily.
The soldiers picked up their bags and goggles for them. Apparently they were going on another journey but this time they were invited to ride. The King may have been cranky but there was definitely a sense of awe and respect from the other bug dragons. The usual four were selected and they crouched down to make it easy for the children to climb on their backs.
“Yay!” said Emily “This is more like it!”
Nadia was about to climb on Gypsy’s back when she caught the look in her eye. Without a word she turned and marched back to the enclosure, picked up the tub of water and emptied it on Gypsy’s head. Gypsy spluttered and sneezed and glowered as the other soldiers (including Growler) laughed at her expense.
“Did you have to do that?” asked Ben in a pained voice.
“Yes,” said Nadia.
“Can I shoot her?” asked Alf.
“NO!”
“I’d really like to take a snozzle home,” said Emily.
“Think about how small it would be in our world,” said Ben.
“Oh yeah,” sighed Emily, disappointed.
Once they were all comfortably aboard, the dragons rose carefully into the air and flew at a steady even pace back towards the buildings of the city. Mouse and the King led the way and the soldiers followed close behind. Emily squealed in excitement as they picked up speed, prompting Nadia and the bug dragons to squeal in mock sympathy with her. Ben and Alf winced.
But something wasn’t right. Ben looked around trying to get a sense of direction. No, he wasn’t crazy, they were going the wrong way!
“Um... the waterfall is that way,” he indicated to his Mount. “That’s the way out isn’t it?”
The bug dragon simply shook his head and continued on the route they were taking towards the city centre.
“No you don’t get it,” shouted Ben. “We’re going home!”
The bug dragon ignored him. Eventually they reached a large green stalactite and began making their descent in wide circles around it, carefully avoiding any sudden moves that could dislodge the children. Riding a horse bareback is one thing but riding a flying dragon is quite another. Their scales were very smooth and slippery and the ground was a long way down.
They alighted on a wide balcony outside a glassy domelike projection with views across to the King’s island.
“I could definitely get used to this,” said Ben. “Flying is awesome but a saddle would really help.”
“No kidding, even just a rope or something to hold other than hair,” said Emily.
“Check out the view,” said Nadia. “It looks like the clouds have increased.” The small clouds that had previously hung over the island had increased in size and number until they were halfway over the lake.
“Very strange,” Alf said. “I know the ceiling is high but it’s not high enough for cloud formation, and there’s no sun to evaporate the water up there anyhow.”
“They’re pretty,” said Emily.
“Your Awesomeness,” Alf addressed the King. “Please excuse my extreme ignorance, but what exactly are those clouds? I mean what are they made of?”
The King seemed surprised to be spoken to. He glanced briefly in Alf’s direction then turned his attention back to the entrance of the building. “We don’t know,” he said shortly.
The glassy wall ahead of them rippled and a very different sort of character emerged out of it. He was round bodied and simply dressed but stood on exceptionally long legs that ended with large feet encased in soft velvety slippers. His head was green and slightly mottled with a wiry mop of thinning brown hair, and his features were animated and expressive. He bowed briefly to the King and then looked at the children in open astonishment, his eyebrows almost disappearing up into his hairline. He began to talk and then realising they couldn’t understand, simply offered his hands for the children to shake; a gesture that caused them to start in surprise – he had four arms! each long fingered hand was decorated with mysterious devices that he seemed to be able to manipulate without looking or thinking about it.
The children shook his hands and exchanged sideways glances at each other as he chattered away in an undecipherable language that seemed to be made up exclusively of twenty syllable words. He addressed the King briefly before turning back to the children, indicating that they should remove their goggles. He began to fit them instead with a curling silver device that clung to their foreheads, similar to the goggles in that they were furnished with several glassy orbs and appendages. When switched on, a thin shield of light came down over their eyes allowing them to see into the new dimensions once again.
He then applied earpieces to his own ears and handed out similar devices to the children. His crazy speech changed in an instant.
“... been waiting a long time for this, but Human – I would never have guessed such a thing would happen. And such young ones at that! You can’t be more than fifty am I right? Well well. Sorry to have to meet you in my Pyjamas - you can understand me now can’t you?”
“Yes!” said Ben enthusiastically. “Fantastic!”
“Loud and clear!” grinned Nadia.
“Upgrades already!” exclaimed Alf, twiddling with the goggles. “Can I keep the old ones?”
“These are much more comfy,” said Emily.
“Excellent, excellent. These are my latest design and much more elegant I think. They work the same as the old ones except that I have utilised some Oreletaah light manipulation techniques. All I needed was some foreigners to try them out and here you are!”
“The sound thing is funny,” said Ben. “Your mouth isn’t doing what our ears can hear.”
“Ah yes – you get that with any translator. My name is Nexadominatomusticous but you can call me Nexus if you like. And you are?”
He repeated their names several times but for some reason seemed to struggle with ‘Ben’ and ‘Alf’.
“I’ll get them eventually to be sure, but you may have to remind me a few times.”
“Not enough syllables,” whispered Alf to Ben. “Might be why he doesn’t speak English.”
The King had a brief conversation with Nexus and gave Ben one last suspicious look before taking off once more with Mouse close behind. The four soldiers that the children had ridden settled down to wait.
Nexus led them towards the glassy wall and it was then that they noticed the stumps of what had once been wings protruding from his shoulders. They exchanged slightly worried glances at the sight of his disfigurement then followed him through. Once inside they found themselves in a large room full of astonishing memorabilia; souvenirs ranging from items of clothing to musical instruments and endless shelves of beautiful technical equipment, each piece wonderfully decorated and wrought into intricate designs. Three dimensional pictures, ornaments and artworks hung on every free space on the walls and other unrecognisable items were suspended from the ceiling. Several transparent wraith-like creatures drifted about in amongst the various items, their long wavering hairs reaching out to stroke things as they went.