by Andy Holland
"Theo, my old friend," Gul said approaching him, pushing his way through the crowd. "They will sing of this victory for years to come."
"I think you're right," Theo said, looking rather flustered as two girls kissed his cheeks.
Above their heads John squawked loudly, transforming as he landed and forcing a space in the crowd. He ignored the girls rushing to touch him, heading straight for Theo and Gul.
"Ah, the young man from last night," Gul said. "I congratulate you on your excellent plan. I see your admirers wish to thank you as well."
"Thank you, sir, but we have not won yet. There is much to be done."
"Come, John," Theo reassured him. "You should be very proud. This all came about because of you, and now it's finished."
John shook his head. "No, Theo, it’s not finished yet. I'd say we've only just begun."
Chapter 18 - Return to home
Arthur told Crystal and the others about the news Mark had given him as soon as he left. Crystal was surprised how quickly everything was moving and was excited about the journey home, despite her fears about what they might find when they got there.
"What about John?" Daisy asked. "Is someone going to tell him where we've gone?"
"Count yourself lucky John isn't here," Arthur replied. "He'd stop you going this time. And don't fool yourself into thinking he couldn't."
"He wouldn't dare," Daisy scoffed indignantly, although she looked less certain than she sounded.
"What is everyone taking?" Jenna asked looking through the pile of clothes she had amassed. "Are you leaving anything here?"
"I think this will be a one-way trip," Seth replied sadly. "At least for me and you. You do appear to have collected enough clothes for all of us, haven't you?" He picked up a dress. "Not sure it's my colour though."
Jenna pulled a face. "Do you mind putting a few things in your bag? I do seem to have quite a lot. Can I help it if boys keep buying me presents?"
"You could always try flirting with just half of them," Crystal suggested. "This wasn't meant to be a holiday shopping trip. How will it look when you return with all of that? People are dying and you're just worried about your new wardrobe."
"You're just jealous because the attention is on me rather than you. I can't understand why you complained about standing out with your hair. I love this place. Here I'm exotic and mysterious. Unique. Well, apart from Daisy who is virtually married to John."
"Jenna, will you hurry up or we'll leave you here," Arthur threatened in exasperation. "We have no time for this. You were warned that we might need to leave at a moment's notice."
"Alright, alright, I'm almost ready. Seth, if you can just take these…."
"How many clothes?" Seth responded in mock horror as he took the pile of clothes. "That's more than all of mine!"
"Oh don't fuss," Jenna replied impatiently. "None of these clothes are that heavy."
"None of them have that much material," Crystal observed.
Jenna smiled sourly at Crystal and put the last things in her bag. "Alright, I'm ready. Where are we meeting the others?"
"On the balcony," Arthur replied. "They're probably waiting for us." He picked up his bag and led them upstairs.
"Are you alright, Daisy?" Crystal asked on the way up the stairs. She looked troubled about something.
"I'm just worried about John. He's deep within Blue territory and I know what he can do in the air, but this is their land. If they work out what he is they'll tear him into little pieces. It makes me feel sick just thinking about it."
"He hasn't got us to worry about this time," Crystal pointed out. "Every time he's put himself in real danger it's been because of us. On his own he would be a lot safer."
Daisy laughed. "I suppose that is true. I guess I should be more worried about us now that he's not here."
Crystal nodded. "I'd feel a lot happier about this trip back if he was with us. Come on; the others will be waiting."
They joined the others on the balcony. Mark and ten other Golden Dragons, three of whom had already transformed, were also there.
"Hi, Mark, what's happening?" Crystal asked.
"We're trying to convince Arthur to let us carry you all," Mark replied. "He would rather fly. I've brought a few of the group to help me, so carrying you all will be no problem whatsoever. By the way, allow me to introduce you to Noah. He's leading this trip."
Noah nodded at her in greeting, while frowning at the pile of possessions that they were taking with them. He looked older than the rest of them—in his late thirties—and had a calm, composed look about him. Something about him reassured Crystal that this trip was going to be successful.
"Will it require so many of you to carry us five?" Crystal asked.
"Two for each for us," Seth replied, "and the rest to carry Jenna's clothes."
"Ha, ha, very funny, Seth," Jenna replied. "Arthur, I don't know why you're bothering to argue. It'll be much faster and you might not like it but they'll be babysitting for us all for this trip, just as John was on the way here. If we get attacked by the Blues, we won't be able to defend ourselves or outfly them. Just accept it now. So, who wants to carry me?"
Six of the young men accompanying Mark sprang forward to volunteer, much to Jenna's obvious delight. She smiled triumphantly at Crystal.
"Put this on, Jenna," Mark advised, passing her what looked a light sleeping bag. "We normally fly quite high, so it will get cold. This will keep you warm. Crystal, Daisy, Seth. Do you have any objections to being carried?"
Daisy shook her head and smiled politely, taking one of the bags. "Who will be carrying me?"
"I will," Mark replied. "At least for some of the time, as we'll be taking it in turns. John would want me to do so. Well, he would actually want me to stop you leaving, but this would be his second choice."
Crystal and Seth took the bags without grumbling, leaving Arthur no choice but to comply. Noah spoke quietly to Mark before transforming and taking off. Five of the young men were given their bags to carry in addition to their own bags and the one with Jenna's bag looked rather unimpressed. Daisy and Jenna were already in their bags and each were picked up by Golden Dragons and carried away. Arthur and Seth were not far behind them. Crystal was about to climb into her bag when she heard a familiar voice calling.
"Hey, wait!"
She turned around to see Leah arriving on the balcony, out of breath. She gasped for a few seconds, struggling to speak.
"Hi, Leah," Crystal said. "Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since the party."
Leah nodded. "Sorry about that. Mark told me that I had to stay away."
Crystal shrugged. "What did you expect? Why did you have to be so nasty to Daisy? And to John for that matter. He risked his life for me so many times. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him."
Leah shook her head. "I don't know. But I thought I should come and say goodbye. And sorry."
"About being mean to Daisy?" Crystal asked. "Shouldn't you be apologising to her? Although you might have to catch up; she's just left."
"No, about not coming," Leah replied. "I want to…."
"Then come," Crystal replied. "You wanted to see the Red Dragon kingdom, now you can."
Leah shook her head, looking embarrassed. "No, I can't. I'm—I'm afraid."
"Afraid?" Crystal asked. "Oh, I see. But you can fly so fast."
Leah shrugged. "I know. But I'm not a warrior. I volunteered for the spy program and avoided serving in the Defence Force. I'm not trained for battle and I'd be more of a hindrance than a help. I've dreamed of visiting places like your Red Dragon kingdom, but I can't fight Blue Dragons."
Crystal nodded, putting her hand on her cousin's shoulder. "That's alright, Leah. We'll see each other again, I'm sure."
Leah looked at Crystal sadly. "Are you sure? You're not a warrior or a Red Dragon either. You can't help them. Why don't you stay here? I could teach you to transform. Go back when you can fly as a Golden Dragon."
Cr
ystal embraced her cousin before answering. "I have to go, Leah. You'd do the same in my position."
Leah didn't look convinced, but nodded anyway. "Good luck. I think you're making a mistake, but good luck anyway."
She didn't wait to watch Crystal depart, simply turning and disappearing through the door that led inside the building. Crystal sighed before turning to the young Golden Dragon that had been assigned to her, the last one standing on the balcony. Looking at him, she immediately felt more cheerful. The young man beamed at her enthusiastically before introducing himself as Levi and transforming, ready to carry her. She wasn't sure if Levi was showing off or just eager to get started, but he flew very fast right from the start. At least he was very gentle with her, handling her exceptionally carefully when he picked her up as if she might shatter if he gripped her too tightly. This did enable her to move her arms freely and she pulled the bag tightly around her head to shield herself from the wind. The group climbed higher and higher, the Golden Dragons seeming to prefer travelling at higher altitudes than other dragons. As soon as they levelled off, the group was joined by five other Golden Dragons. These dragons were there to help carry them and after a few minutes they carefully swapped their passengers to give the first five a break. They swapped over quite frequently, which enabled them to keep up a good pace.
Their destination was a spot near the point where the Golden, Brown and Sandy Dragons' borders met. They set up a camp as soon as they landed and after they had prepared their evening meal and everyone was sat down, Mark and Noah called them over to explain the plan.
"We've convinced parliament to allow us to go on the condition of having a certain number of volunteers," Mark explained. "We knew that they would place a much higher requirement on this mission, in the hope that I'd fail to get the numbers and they could blame lack of interest rather than their reluctance, so we made sure we had the numbers before I went to them.
Getting that many people was never going to be easy, especially just on my own, so my father approached some people he knew who were unhappy with our government's inflexibility and who had previously argued for greater intervention in the affairs of our neighbours. They're part of a political group, with members from all over society who try to push our government into relaxing their approach to military support for countries who are attacked by their neighbours.
Noah has been a member of that organisation for a long time and along with my father, he is the person who has really pulled all this together. I know you'd all be happier if John was here, but Noah is by far the best qualified person to lead this mission. He is very experienced, as a warrior, a leader and a strategist. He's also very well respected in the Defence Force and knows all the people who sympathise with his cause. We were asked to have ten captains in our group, which was a lot higher than I expected, but was the exact number that Noah managed to persuade. Each of these captains brought along a number of people with them, so our group numbers one hundred and twenty-five, including all of you. I helped, of course, and identified some of the people who are coming along, but most of the people have come through Noah.
Noah has also done most of the planning for this journey, so it probably makes sense if I now hand over to Noah to explain what's happening."
Noah nodded and stayed seated in his chair, looking around the group. "For us, travelling through our neighbour's lands is quite easy. We can either fly very high and very fast, out of their reach, or just mimic them, flying among them without them realising. The problem of course is what to do with you.
The fastest and safest way to get you home is to carry you and that's what we propose doing for the whole journey. You may prefer to fly, but even the fastest among you are slower than all of the dragons whose lands we will be flying through and you're very easy to spot, so it just isn't practical for you to fly.
It's a long journey, so to prevent the ones assigned to you from getting tired, there will be two assigned to carry each of you, to take it in turns, plus another one to carry the essentials." He paused to frown at Jenna. "And then five more who are to be unencumbered all the time, including myself, to take responsibility for flying ahead of the group and identifying potential hazards.
So, that's the minimum we would need to get you back and to be honest, I'd prefer to keep the group small. Our mission isn't to engage the Blue Dragons here, but to help defend your cities, so I want to travel unnoticed and get there without the Blue Dragons even realising that we passed by. That's easier with twenty-five than with one hundred and twenty-five. Therefore the others are going in seven small groups, each led by a captain, but you won't see them until we meet them near the border between your nation and the Blue Dragons, or at least where that border was. Our group will have three captains: myself, Captain Mark, who you all know and Captain Jude, who will lead the scouts.
The entire journey will take just three days. One day to cross the Sandy Dragons' territory, another day to enter the Blue Dragons’ territory and get to a point halfway across—a point which is safe from the Blue Dragons—and then another day to get out of their territory and to your capital. Any questions?"
Arthur raised his hand and Noah nodded at him. "That's a long flight from the Blue Dragon territory to our capital. Can you really do that in one day?"
Noah nodded. "We'll have our full force back together then, so no one will carry you for any length of time, so we'll be able to fly at a high pace. We'll make the journey."
"How can you find a safe place in the middle of the Blue Dragon territory?" Seth asked. Crystal had been thinking the same thing.
Noah nodded again. "A good question. There is a place where the Blue Dragons don't spend any time. Remember, the land we are crossing used to be Green Dragon territory and the Blue Dragons have only had one generation since taking the place, so there are parts that we actually know better than them. We know a place that is safe from them."
Jenna raised her hand. "Go ahead, young lady," Noah said to her.
"What happens if something goes wrong? If the Blue Dragons realise that you're carrying us. Could you outfly them while carrying us?"
Noah smiled at her. "Carrying just one of you and taking it in turns between two dragons, the Blues won't have a chance to catch us." His face darkened. "But it's a good question. Out-flying individual dragons isn't a problem, but if we run into their army, there will be too many of them. I won't pretend that it will be easy to get past them. We don't know where their army is camped, but when we find out, it may alter our plans. If we run into large numbers, there will be a greater risk. Is that acceptable for you, young lady? If you're not happy, you're always welcome to stay in our land until your war is over. I won't try and persuade anyone who doesn't want to come to change their mind. In fact, Mark and I are agreed on this point. If there's any of you who doesn’t mind staying behind, we would rather that you did so."
Jenna glanced at the others, who stared back at her. She appeared a little undecided. "That's fine, thank you," Jenna replied, her voice quiet and unsteady. "I need to go home with my friends."
Noah nodded. "As you wish. Now, if no one has any further questions, I suggest that you relax for a while and then get some sleep. The next few days may be spent not moving that much, but they will be stressful times nonetheless. Try and relax while you can."
Noah whispered something to Mark and then stood up and bid them goodnight before walking over to speak to some of the other Golden Dragons.
"What now, Mark?" Arthur asked.
Mark shrugged and stood up. "Up to you, really, although I'd take Noah's advice. I'd suggest getting to know the rest of the group, since they'll be the only ones with us for the next three days. I'm guessing Jenna needs no encouragement—"
"Hey!" Jenna objected. The others laughed and she joined in, before standing up with Mark. "Come on, Mark. Introduce us to your friends…."
Chapter 19 - Consolidation
"Congratulations, men. That was a well-earned victory," General Zygar st
ated, "but the war has only just begun. Generals, I want your initial verbal reports now, after the three colonels have given me their updates. Colonel Perak, you're the logical person to start with; please, begin."
Perak nodded, pleased to be first. He stood up to address the generals and colonels that were gathered in Zygar's command room. The building had been the home of some rich Red Dragon, probably some sort of noble, and the room they were in had presumably been used for entertaining and was richly decorated. The oversized portraits and mirrors had been stripped from the wall opposite him and a large map now took their place, showing the Red Dragon kingdom in great detail, put together using information gathered by Perak's spy, Jerome. Perak picked up a long stick to point to the map.
"As you all know, I split my troops into three different operations, each led by a colonel and aligned to the three regions to be attacked. We conducted extensive research into the settlements within these regions, aided by my spies within their capital, and identified hundreds of targets within each region.
I divided these three regions into further sub-regions, based on the distribution and size of the settlements and instructed the colonels to assign division commanders to be responsible for coordinating the numerous missions within each sub-region. Missions varied in size, ranging from attacks on single houses with as few as two occupants up to villages of two hundred. None of these small missions would be deemed exciting or spectacular, but overlooking these settlements is the mistake that has doomed so many attacks to failure.
Thirty division commanders were assigned to these sub-regions and under my careful guidance, they diligently coordinated the planning of each. The largest of these sub-regions had over two hundred settlements and even the smallest had forty-two settlements, so this was no small task. Attacks on each settlement were carefully planned and assigned to individual squadron or flight leaders to lead with wing commanders responsible for monitoring groups of missions and reporting to the division commanders.