Benjamin Forrest and the Bay of Paper Dragons

by Chris Ward

  ‘Where do they all come from?’ asked Tommy Cale.

  ‘Well,’ Jim Green said, ‘that’s the great mystery, isn’t it? They’ve been here quite some time, for certain, because some of the species have actually learned how to breed.’ He pointed at a cluster of tiny fan-flowers no bigger than Benjamin’s thumb. ‘It is believed that none of this section of forest is natural; that everything was collected by the great botanist of Endinfinium, Jeremiah Flowers.’

  Benjamin’s ears pricked up.

  ‘Who?’ Fat Adam asked. ‘Never heard of him.’

  ‘Oh, he’s long dead,’ Jim Green said. ‘Supposedly, at least. He disappeared. No one is sure what happened.’

  He escaped, Benjamin wanted to shout. But he kept quiet. Instead, he inched away from Cuttlefur and Miranda, getting closer to the front as Jim Green started walking again.

  ‘Jeremiah Flowers was a great man in Endinfinium,’ their guide explained to a rapt group of boys following at his shoulder. ‘He founded the Endinfinium High School’s Botany Society, but after a few years, he became tired of it and went off in search of more unique species of flora and fauna, eventually settling here in the Bay of Paper Dragons, where it is believed he was responsible for collecting all of the species you see around you, as well as protecting the nature of the dragons themselves.’

  ‘Where did he go?’

  Jim Green shrugged. ‘Well, there’s the realist belief, and the romantic one. In those days, the Bay of Paper Dragons was a remote outpost, rarely visited by people from the school, mostly forgotten about. Where the guesthouse stands today was Jeremiah’s home—a small shack set halfway up the hill from the beach. When one day messengers came looking for him, he was nowhere to be found.’

  ‘He must have left something behind, right?’ Snout asked. ‘Evidence?’

  Jim Green nodded. ‘Oh, he did. Piles of papers were found in his possession—hundreds of pages of notes on the flora and fauna of Endinfinium, and his own crude drawings. Many were made into books, which I’ve heard are collecting dust in the school’s library.’ He grinned. ‘Have any of you ever been in it?’

  A few snorts of laughter rose up, and Professor Eaves glared at a couple of boys, lifting his notebook out of his pocket in a threatening manner, which made them immediately clap their hands over their mouths.

  ‘And there was one more thing,’ Jim Green said. ‘He left behind a diary of his day-to-day life. Most of it was inconsequential stuff about his daily chores and the dragons, but there was a final passage about going off to find the ultimate starting point of all life in Endinfinium: the source of the Great Junk River.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘About ten miles northwest of here is the river source. It flows straight up out of the ground, but quite why is a mystery, because we have neither the means nor the technology to figure it out.’ He grinned. ‘Some people say it’s magic.’

  ‘There’s no such thing,’ Fat Adam shouted, even though from the warmth his body gave off, Benjamin knew he had a latent Weavers’ skills.

  ‘In any case, we know it’s there, but not why. Jeremiah, it seems, wanted to know. Unfortunately, that’s where the diary ends, and Jeremiah was never seen again.’

  ‘Perhaps he actually found out,’ Fat Adam said, ‘and it was so awesome, he decided to stay.’

  ‘Ah, but it would have been impossible. The water is coming out, not going in. It would have brought him—or what was left of him—back out, and he would have eventually reanimated into a cleaner or a ghoul, like everyone else.’

  At this, the children descended into whispering huddles, and Professor Eaves groaned. ‘Don’t fill their heads with such nonsense, man.’

  ‘How do you know it’s nonsense?’ Jim Green said, eyes twinkling. ‘We all share enough of the mysteries of this land to know there are a thousand things we don’t understand about it.’

  ‘Got to make your peace with any situation,’ Eaves said. ‘We’ve all learned that. Shouldn’t we be moving on?’

  Jim Green gave the pupils a conspiratorial smile, then turned back to Professor Eaves. ‘Quite, quite. The dragons are waiting. This way, please.’

  Up ahead, the front of the line emerged through the trees, onto the head of the beach, and Benjamin shivered as he spotted the dune from where he had watched Cuttlefur just a few short hours before.

  ‘This is the main bay.’ Jim Green waved his hands in both directions. ‘According to the writings of Jeremiah Flowers, they used to be found only in the small lake we now call the breeding pond. Jeremiah allegedly used explosives to reduce the distance between the two headlands in order to protect the dragons from the tide’s drag and any large predators. After that was achieved, he released several dragons into the bay, and the results were astonishing.’ He motioned to a great swirl of colour curled around an outcrop a stone’s throw offshore. ‘I don’t know if any of you ever kept goldfish?’

  A few pupils murmured yes or no as Professor Eaves snorted. ‘Of course you did, didn’t you? Answer the man!’

  ‘Jeremiah found that dragons grew in the same way as goldfish did: according to the size of their environment. And because they no longer have any natural predators nor fear from the elements, here in the Bay of Paper Dragons, they continue to grow. The only restriction is their own size.’

  ‘Are they actually made from paper?’ Tommy Cale asked.

  ‘Lacquered paper-mache, as far as we can tell. The lacquer is old and cracks as they grow, giving them their slightly grainy appearance. Water can then get in, so they have to surface or bask on the rocks every few hours to dry out again.’ He gestured along the beach toward a pair of small fishing boats moored just offshore. ‘Every few weeks, Barnacle and I sail out and attempt to paint them as they lie on the rocks. Like any other animal, though, they don’t understand we’re trying to help them.’

  ‘What happens if too much water gets in?’ Snout asked.

  ‘Bits break off and sink. If too much breaks off so the dragon can no longer swim, the rest of it sinks to the bottom.’

  ‘And dies?’

  Jim Green laughed. ‘They can’t die, not in the way we know it. What they can do is dissolve until there’s not enough left in one piece for the creature to be considered alive. That’s why the water has a rainbow tint. It’s the colours of the dissolved dragons.’

  ‘So the whole bay is alive?’ Snout said.

  Jim Green looked at the boy for a long time before he answered. ‘The whole of Endinfinium is alive,’ he said, eyes twinkling. ‘Every last inch of it.’

  29

  Dreams and Hopes

  Miranda sighed. Up ahead, Jim Green continued to talk, holding the group of pupils around him rapt by his knowledge of the lore of the Bay of Paper Dragons. She stared at the back of Benjamin’s head, feeling bad about how she had spoken to him recently, and she willed him to turn around and smile at her, but he was only interested in Jim Green’s story.

  Something warm touched her hand, and she felt Cuttlefur’s fingers lock over hers. ‘He has a lot to say, hasn’t he?’ Cuttlefur whispered, leaning close.

  Heat rose up Miranda’s neck. She tried to hold his hand back, but it felt so embarrassing and awkward, she just let her fingers hang limb while his encircled them. And what if Cherise or Amy saw? They’d be so jealous, they would tease her half to death when they got back to the guesthouse.

  She was almost happy when the group started moving again and Cuttlefur had to let go. Benjamin was still up near the front, and Miranda slipped a few spaces back down the line, hoping to get near Edgar, who was trying his best to stop a group of the rugby kids from pulling the heads off of all of the flowers. Jim Green led them on a path headed west around the beach to a rockier area where the cliff was steeper and closer to the shore.

  Finally, when the cliff was nearly overhead, they came to another stop. Jim Green turned to Professor Eaves. ‘Right, here we are. We’ll stop here for about two hours, then move on up to the headland for lunch.
Over to you now.’

  Professor Eaves cleared his throat. ‘Okay, now I want you to split up into your groups,’ he said. ‘You’ll find several of the dragons basking on the rocks just offshore. I want you to find one that interests you, sketch it, then write me a detailed description. Include speculation if you want; for example, how old you can guess it to be, what its use might have once been, how intelligent you think it is. Don’t forget, I expect thorough reasons. This is science class, not English.’

  Several pupils groaned.

  ‘Oh, and you have two hours to finish it. Otherwise, you can do it tonight in the guesthouse common room. Ms. Ito will be supervising.’

  Groans were quickly drowned out by a scramble of activity as groups split away to hunt for a paper dragon worth examining.

  ‘That one’ll do,’ Benjamin said, pointing to a fifteen-foot-long dragon curled around a rock about a car’s length offshore. Most of the other groups had headed for a bigger one a little farther along the beach, but this dragon seemed unconcerned by its lack of popularity.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Miranda began on autopilot, as though rejection of Benjamin’s ideas had become prerequisite, until she realised it really would, in fact, do. ‘Sure,’ she said, turning to seek Cuttlefur’s approval. ‘It’s fine.’

  Cuttlefur, though, wasn’t looking at her, his eyes transfixed on a point somewhere midway between the two headlands facing each other like the pads of a vice. Feeling an uncomfortable jealousy of his misplaced attention, Miranda followed his gaze, but saw only the rippling of water and the occasional surfacing of a gliding paper dragon, its upper teeth clacking down on the surface.

  ‘Not quite what I was expecting,’ Benjamin said, pointing at the creature that regarded them calmly, its lower jaw bobbing up and down as though attached to the rest of its head by a string. ‘I mean, I was expecting giant, winged things that breathed fire.’ He gave the distant headlands a sudden suspicious glance, then quickly looked back as if embarrassed about being caught.

  She didn’t want to talk to him. He was her friend, and he had let her down, but she found the old conversations appearing on her tongue as if by magic.

  ‘They’re pretty unique, aren’t they?’

  Cuttlefur scowled at her as if she was making friends with a teacher. ‘I think they’re kind of useless. I mean, they don’t do anything. What a waste of everyone’s time.’

  ‘Just because they’re not doing anything right now, doesn’t mean they can’t, or won’t,’ Benjamin said.

  Miranda stared at him as he watched the dragons with that otherworldly look suggesting his mind was elsewhere. She knew how much harder it was for him to be here, after his brother had been in the Dark Man’s clutches, only to be snatched back to England, leaving Endinfinium forever.

  She didn’t fully understand it, only that, for a while, David Forrest had been part of both worlds until a choice had been made for him.

  ‘How about we make this interesting?’ Cuttlefur said. ‘Forrest, why don’t you go in and see if you can wake it up? It looks like it’s asleep.’

  Benjamin shook his head. ‘Not after what happened to Adam. No way.’

  Cuttlefur scowled. Miranda frowned. In the last couple of days, Cuttlefur had begun to change. When they were alone, he was charming and kind, but with other people, an undercurrent of contempt bubbled up like a hot spring. She was still mad at Benjamin, but they had been friends for a long time, and if Cuttlefur and she would soon leave Endinfinium, she didn’t want to part on bad terms. Even if she was still angry at him, would it be so bad to try to smooth things over before she left?

  ‘Are you all right?’

  Cuttlefur was looking at her. Miranda shook her head, then nodded, letting him make up his own mind. ‘Let’s just get this done,’ she replied. ‘Can either of you draw? I suck, so I’ll do the description. Benjamin?’

  ‘I’ll draw.’

  ‘Cuttlefur—’

  ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ he interrupted and, hefting up a fist-sized pebble, cocked it over his shoulder.

  ‘No—’

  ‘Cuttlefur, don’t—’

  Too late. The blue-haired boy flung the stone at the paper dragon. Miranda wasn’t sure what she had expected to happen, but it wasn’t for the rock to strike it, then pass through its body with a muffled clump that reminded her of a hole-punch from the classroom at the Facility, leaving behind a visible, fist-sized hole as it plopped into the water beyond.

  The dragon, still curled up on the top of the rock, made no reaction to the new hole halfway along its multi-coloured abdomen. It continued to stare in a rough southwestern direction, its lower jaw bobbing like the tongueless mouth of a rather excited and extremely colourful dog.

  ‘You shouldn’t do that,’ Benjamin said.

  ‘Look, it’s fine,’ Cuttlefur said. ‘They can’t feel pain like we can. Watch.’

  He picked up another rock, glanced at Miranda, and flashed her a smile. Then he lifted his arm to throw.

  ‘Don’t!’

  As Benjamin’s eyes narrowed, the rock popped out of Cuttlefur’s hand and exploded into dust. Cuttlefur himself was flung through the air by an invisible force to land on his back in the soft sand of the upper beach a short distance back from the shoreline.

  In an instant, his surprise was gone, and he glared at Benjamin. ‘That the best you’ve—’

  ‘What’s going on here?’

  Professor Eaves strode up the beach, pointed at Cuttlefur, then Benjamin, and then turned to Miranda as if he expected her to explain.

  ‘He … pushed me,’ Cuttlefur said. ‘Didn’t he, Miranda?’

  ‘You liar!’ Benjamin shouted, kicking sand at Cuttlefur. ‘You threw a rock at the dragon.’ He was shaking one hand, as though his magic had hurt him. Miranda remembered the way it had left cuts all over his body, and it looked like he still struggled to control it.

  Professor Eaves glanced from one to the other again. ‘Is this true?’

  ‘Look!’

  Benjamin turned to point at the dragon. Miranda gasped. The dragon had already gone, having slipped off the rock, and was now gliding away from them with only the back of its head visible above the water, a surface ripple the only indication of its long tail snapping back and forth beneath.

  ‘I guess we’ll never know, will we?’ Professor Eaves said, reaching into his pocket. ‘You’ve been spending too much time with young Master Jacobs, and even in his absence, it seems his influence holds strong. You’ve been warned about this. Two hundred cleans for you when we get back to the school.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘I’ll reduce it by fifty if you show a marked improvement in your behaviour for the rest of the trip.’ Professor Eaves smirked. ‘Our boots will need cleaning after getting back from this dirty beach.’

  Benjamin scowled as Professor Eaves marched on up the beach, climbing awkwardly over rocks and stumbling every few steps on hidden bowls in the sand. Miranda glared at Cuttlefur, who hummed to himself as he stood and brushed himself down. She went over to Benjamin and reached out for his shoulder.

  ‘Benjamin—’

  ‘Leave me alone.’

  He kicked out at the sand, then walked off down the beach in the direction they had come. She stared after him, an ache in her chest.

  ‘Sorry about that,’ Cuttlefur said. ‘I guess I’ll have to draw the dragon, won’t I? Come on, let’s go and find another one.’

  She turned on him. ‘You’re a pig.’

  His vindictiveness faded and the Cuttlefur she liked smiled back. ‘Look, I’m so sorry. That was out of order. I just, you know, find it hard to be nice to Benjamin after he and Wilhelm spied on us and then attacked me. It’s like he betrayed a trust I can’t forgive, no matter how hard I try. I don’t think we’re destined to be friends, you know?’

  ‘You could try.’

  Cuttlefur nodded. ‘I will try, just for you. I’ll apologise when we get back and tell Professor Eaves that everything
was my fault.’ He spread his arms and grinned. ‘I’ll even clean the boots! Look, are we friends again? It won’t be long now until we can leave Endinfinium and go home anyway. Just another couple of days. You’ll be so happy to have a real family at last.’

  Miranda nodded. The magic of words, she thought. More powerful than anything else. Her anger and suspicion still stood like the silhouettes of two horses on the horizon, but they were no good to her now. Cuttlefur’s words had woven a spell more complex than she could understand, and even though she could see its threads swirling and coiling around her, she could do nothing but smile and nod, and to think of all of the goodness he promised and to let her dreams take over.

  ‘I can’t wait to meet my family,’ she said.

  30

  Hopes and Fears

  The guesthouse appeared to be deserted. Jim Green was down on the beach with the pupils, of course, but there was no sign of Alan Barnacle. A couple of stumbling, vacant-eyed cleaners moved through the lower floors, picking up trash and organising tables for the evening meal, though none paid Benjamin any attention as he went up the stairs to his room and packed a few clothing items into a smaller bag.

  Then he went down into the kitchens to rummage through the cupboards for a few things to eat, which also went into his bag. Again, the few cleaners he saw paid him no attention.

  Back outside, he took one last look out at the bay, swallowed down the urge to cry, then turned for the path heading back up the way they had come.

  He would walk if he had to.

  Wilhelm was woken from a doze by a sound like hundreds of wicker baskets creaking in the wind. He frowned and, climbing stiffly to his feet, shook out the aches in his back and legs from where the tree roots had pressed into his skin. The small hollow had been the only shelter he could find, and while he wasn’t exactly dry, at least he didn’t feel like a soaked mouse.