by Booth, John
"Yes," Jenny said to my considerable surprise. I waited for her to explain, as I refused, on principle, to come out and ask her what she had in mind.
"Jake, hop back to your bedroom," Jenny commanded.
I started to walk towards the hopscotch court painted on the cave floor but she got up and stood in my path.
"Without the court, Jake. Hop straight to your bedroom and then back here without using the court or any of the silly skipping."
I wanted to tell her to 'get lost' as I couldn't see the point of any of this, but the look on Jenny's face made me take her seriously.
"Princess Esmeralda may be fat and ugly," Jenny said, "But she isn't stupid. You can do much more than you think you can, provided you allow yourself to believe."
The embarrassment associated with my earlier lie about how Esmeralda looked spurred me on to create the court in my mind and to mentally recreate my path across it. A second later, I was standing on the carpet in my bedroom. It took me three tries to get back to the Bat Cave, as I was so hyped up by my unexpected success.
"Now take me with you to your bedroom," Jenny said as she put her arms around my neck and linked her hands together.
"No sooner said than done," I said as I hopped us both to my room and dropped her onto my bed. I eased myself on top of her as she fell.
"Get off me, Jake," Jenny said as she laughed. "We don't have time for that. Well, maybe later. Take us back to Fluffy."
I rolled off my girlfriend and while she was in my arms, hopped us back to the cave. The rock floor was a little hard on my back, but it was worth it to see the look on Jenny's face.
"Meep, meep, meep," Fluffy said, laughing at the two of us. After a half-hearted attempt to pummel me, Jenny burst out laughing.
"Now we're ready," Jenny told us.
"Ready for what?"
"Ready to take Fluffy back to his mother."
"Meep?"
"You think I should fly out of this cave with Fluffy and hop us both back to the planet I stole his egg from?" I may be thick, but I'm not completely stupid.
"Not quite," Jenny said determinedly. "Fluffy will be carrying both of us when you do the hop."
"I can't. It's far too risky. Fluffy won't be able to carry the two of us," I prevaricated.
"You're a wizard," Jenny pointed out. "You can either strengthen Fluffy's flying magic or simply add your own. You'll also need someone to talk with his mother when we get there. She might decide to eat you for what you did to him."
"Meep, meep, meep."
"You won't need to protect him, Fluffy," Jenny said quietly. "Leave that to me."
"This just isn't going to happen," I told Jenny adamantly.
Jenny got on Fluffy so she rode him just in front of me. The smell of Jenny's hair intoxicated me and I wanted to kiss and cuddle, but after the long fight we just had, it probably wasn't a good idea. I was still getting used to the fact that fighting Jenny always resulted in me losing.
"Are you ready?" I asked.
The word 'yes' from Jenny and 'meep' from Fluffy merged into a single sound of assent. I imagined myself as light as a feather as Fluffy took a running jump out of the cave entrance with the two of us clinging to his back.
Fluffy went into his customary dive to build up speed and I didn't want to hop us away from Wales while we were heading downhill. As soon as Fluffy spread his wings and pulled us out of the dive I hopped us to the world he came from. I hadn't visited it since I was eight, but I recognized the smell of its air the moment we arrived.
Fluffy 'meeped' with delight as he swooped into the valley below us. The mountains in the distance were covered with snow. Jenny and I began to shiver as Fluffy took us higher. Then I remembered I was a wizard and cast a spell of warmth around us.
"Meep," Fluffy complained. I narrowed the warmth spell to cover just Jenny and myself as Fluffy complained I'd made him too hot.
The next half hour was delightful as Fluffy exulted in his new playground. This world seemed to suit him much better than Earth and he performed barrel rolls through the valleys in sheer joy.
"Come here!" a voice said loudly in my head. I looked around but could see no one. Fluffy ignored the voice and kept on playing.
"I have told you once, child. If you disobey me again your punishment will be painful," the voice said severely.
Fluffy sighed and banked to the right. I could still see no one around. Fluffy took us to a flat topped rock outcrop. It was of the kind you see in those American movies, the massive rock hills that go vertically upwards from a desert plain. No sooner had we landed than a giant dragon landed on the far side of the outcrop.
The dragon had a wingspan of at least sixty feet. Other than that he was the spitting image of Fluffy, except where Fluffy was orange this dragon was green and vice versa.
"Meep, meep," [Hello daddy]
"You are Fluffy's father?" I asked.
"Jake didn't mean to steal Fluffy's egg. He was just a child at the time and didn't know what he was doing," Jenny put in quickly.
The mountains shook with the sound of dragon laughter. Fluffy's father reared up in front of us as if to attack.
"I am Regore, sired by Ragnor," the dragon told us. "My son is Retnor, though he seems to prefer the name Fluffy. Do you think we would let a mere child steal the rarest of all things, a quickened dragon's egg?"
"But I did steal the egg," I said.
"We let you take Retnor with you. It's not quite the same thing."
"I don't understand."
"It was prophesied a child wizard would take Retnor's egg and the fate of the worlds would depend on that encounter," Regore said. "Human wizards often try to steal our eggs and we let them take the ones that will not hatch. Only once in a thousand years does a dragon's egg hatch."
"I still don't understand."
"It was our wish you take Retnor with you and that you should grow up together. It is good you have come to visit us. Sonsil, his mother, is flying to join us."
"It's more than a visit, sir," Jenny said, her whole body trembling as she spoke. We had got off Fluffy's back and stood only yards from Regore. "It's no longer safe for Fluffy to live with us on Earth so we've brought him back to you."
"What could possibly threaten a dragon?" Regore asked in a voice replete with astonishment.
I explained the situation as best I could. How Fluffy had been seen and now the area was full of idiots with gun and microlights, seeking to capture or kill him. Regore listened patiently before turning to Fluffy.
"Child, have you not yet learnt to glim?
"Meep," [Sorry, Father]
"Then your mother and I will teach you and you may return with the wizard, if that is your desire?"
"Meep." [Yes!]
Jenny and I were left on the massive outcrop as Fluffy took to the air with his father. Far above us we saw a spectacular flying display as Fluffy's mother joined the other dragons.
"What does glim mean?" Jenny asked.
"I don't know, but if it means that Fluffy can stay with us, that's fine by me."
"What are we going to do on this rock while waiting for Fluffy to come back?" Jenny asked as she sat down on a patch of grass that had managed to get a foothold on the rock.
"I have no idea."
"You really aren't very bright sometimes," Jenny said as she pulled me towards her.
Chapter Eight: Return to Salice
I knew it was inevitable even though I'd been fighting it from the day we got back from visiting Fluffy's parents. Jenny didn't even give me time to sit down before she started.
"Now that you can take me with you, I want to visit Salice."
"It's very old fashioned," I prevaricated. Why, oh why had I told her that Princess Esmeralda was fat and ugly? What had I been thinking of?
It didn't satisfied Jenny, but she let it go for a time. Probably because meeting two adult dragons on a strange world had been enough of an adventure for now. However, I knew she was going to come back to t
he subject. It was only a matter of time.
"It's raining and there's nothing on at the cinema. Why don't we hop over to that world with the fairy tale palace and look at their shops?"
"We don't have any local money."
"We don't have to actually buy anything. I just want to look around."
"Meep, meep, meep!" Fluffy had thrown in. [Me too! You never take me anywhere.]
"I am not arriving in Salice riding a dragon. The locals would probably come after us with pitchforks!"
"Retnor has a point," Jenny said in a critical tone. She had taken to calling Fluffy by his dragon name, much to my annoyance. I think it's her way of drawing attention to the fact that their relationship has grown deeper with each passing day. If I thought they could get up to any hanky-panky together, I'd definitely be jealous.
"We aren't going!" I reiterated, but I knew even then that it was only a matter of time.
"Daddy bought me this dress," Jenny said as she held it up in front of her. It was a beautiful blue ball gown and my heart sank. The chances of Jenny getting to wear anything so fancy in our part of Wales were so close to zero it didn't bear thinking about.
The dress was her father's birthday present to her and she knew I could afford to buy her little more than a card. I could see the trap had been sprung perfectly and I resigned myself to the inevitable.
"Perhaps we could go to Salice and you could wear it there?"
If you are going to lose anyway, pretend it was your idea. I learnt that a long time ago in the schoolyard.
"Do you really think so?" Jenny looked suddenly pensive, "I don't want to make Princess Esmeralda jealous, she being so fat and ugly and all."
"About that." I stopped, as I was lost for an acceptable explanation for my lies.
"She's actually beautiful, isn't she?"
"How did you know?"
"Some boys are good liars, some are bad…"
"And…"
"Don't take it up as your day job, is all I'm saying."
Jobs are a sore point with me right now. I had been doing casual labor over at Griffith's Wood Yard, mainly moving pallets about using a fork lift truck. Mr. Griffith knew I was a hard worker and he often gave me work when he needed an extra pair of hands, but I wasn't any good behind a till or at any admin job.
When the recession got worse and he had to cut workers, I was pretty much the first person to go. I was hoping he would get rid of Malcolm - a pimply faced twenty-two year old with the personality of a park bench. But Malcolm has a degree in textile engineering, whatever that is, and my only qualifications were that I knew my left hand from my right. So I left and he stayed. I haven't been able to find a job since and have been sponging off my parents.
"When will you take me? And can Retnor come too?"
"I'll go over first and see if they can spare us a room. And find out what their attitude is to dragons."
"Retnor can always glim," Jenny suggested.
Fluffy never showed the slightest sign of being able to perform magic before we visited his parents. It would have been a great help to me if he had when he was growing up. The number of times I got blamed for him destroying something…, well it's far too many to count. I could have done with a pet that could clean up after himself.
It was clear dragons come equipped with a lot of magical powers. Fluffy's parents hinted he would soon come into other magic. I found it all very worrying.
"He can't do it for days on end, you know that."
"He only has to do it when he's out of our room."
"He's fifteen feet long and when he stretches his wings he's over thirty feet wide, wingtip to wingtip. We're going to visit a palace, not a bloody airport."
"There is no need to swear," Jenny said primly. "You just go and ask your pretty princess when we can come."
I hopped out of the room and into the room I stayed in at the King's Palace in Salice.
The bed was devoid of blankets and the room had an empty, musty smell to it. It probably hadn't been occupied since the day I left. I got a bad feeling and rushed to the window to check everything was okay, suddenly worried the kingdom might be in trouble again. Given how much trouble I had brought onto the citizens of Salice in the past, it was a miracle they didn't lynch me on sight.
I sighed with relief when I saw people walking around the courtyard below. They looked normal and there was no sign of any trouble.
The door opened and Princess Esmeralda walked in. I caught my breath because she looked more stunning than usual. It didn't occur to me at the time to wonder how she knew I had returned.
"Here you are," she said matter-of-factly. "I was wondering when you would come back to us."
"There isn't any trouble, is there?"
"Not so far, but now you are here…"
"I was wondering if we could come and visit."
"We?"
"Jenny, remember? She's my girlfriend, and maybe Fluffy as well."
Princess Esmeralda gave me a most severe look, the kind Mr. Griffith used to give me when I moved a pallet of wood to the wrong place.
"Fluffy?"
"My pet dragon. He's very tame. He wouldn't eat anyone or anything, unless they were a sheep. He eats sheep, or lamb if he can get it. He could stay in the stables, he's never eaten horsemeat, well I don't think…"
"Stop!" Esmeralda demanded and my stream of drivel spluttered to a halt. "You wish to bring your maiden and a fire-breathing dragon into my father's palace?"
"Well, if you put it like that."
"We would be delighted."
"Huh?"
"The Spring Ball is in two days’ time. We have invited the kings from the three bordering kingdoms and they have promised to come. Dragons are considered very auspicious and it would raise our standing with the other kingdoms to have one in attendance."
Esmeralda frowned at me.
"Our standing as a kingdom is at an all-time low because of the period we were enslaved by the Master. If you had not dealt so effectively with Wizard Plath, the kings would never have come at all."
I wasn't sure how Esmeralda meant that. It sounded like I raised Salice's status by defeating Plath, but that didn't make sense as he would never have been there if I hadn't got rid of the Master, and the Master was all my fault. My head began to spin and I gave up. I never was good at politics.
"Is she presentable?" Esmeralda asked. It took me a moment to work out she was talking about Jenny.
"More than I am. And she has just been given a dress by her dad for a ball."
Esmeralda sighed. She seems to sigh a lot around me. Perhaps she did it with everyone.
"Bring them both tomorrow. Come to the Palace Gate and make sure everyone in town gets a good look at your dragon. We do not want him glimming in on us, as the idea is to let everyone know he's here. Pack enough clothes for a week. No, on second thought, I will get the royal tailor when you arrive, and I'll send for the royal shoemaker. I do not understand why you always arrive here dressed as a tramp."
Esmeralda turned and walked out of the room without a backward glance. Apparently, my audience with her was over. I hopped back to Jenny's bedroom.
Jenny was standing naked in front of her full length mirror. She yelped and reached for the towel on the bed to cover her body. I don't understand women. It’s not like I haven’t seen her naked before.
"It's on. We leave tomorrow and will be staying for a week," I told her triumphantly.
"Out! Get out of here right now, Jake Morrissey!" Jenny pushed me backwards towards the door with the hand that wasn't holding her towel.
I shrugged and hopped to the Bat Cave to tell Fluffy the news. If I'd known then what I know now, I have hopped to some unknown dimension and cowered in the first unoccupied cave I could find.
Up to this point in my life going to other worlds had been easy. Over the years, I got my parents used to the idea that I would disappear for a few days before returning safe and sound. My mother sometimes complained about it, but never
too loudly. I think she feared that if she complained I might vanish forever.
Now I was taking Jenny with me, I suddenly discovered vanishing for a few days was no longer quite so simple. Mr. and Mrs. Owens weren't happy with the idea of the two of us heading off without any apparent destination. I was quizzed at length about where we would be and why I couldn't give them an address where they could get in contact with Jenny in an emergency. They were also concerned that Jenny's mobile would be out of action, despite it being capable of receiving calls anywhere in the world.
"This has something to do with that gift of yours, doesn't it?" Peter Owen asked when he managed to catch me alone on the landing.
Many of the locals think I'm a psychic because I've told the police where to find missing people. However, my track record of finding people alive is pretty poor as I only get asked when other approaches have failed. It's a pretty thankless task and I try and put people off. I have enough hassles in my life without adding grieving relatives to the list.
"Jenny will be safe. This was her idea you know, not mine."
"Why can't she phone us?"
"It would spoil it," I told him. This was our new excuse. Jenny suggested it to me less than an hour before and it looked like I was going to give it its first field trial.
Mr. Owens gave me one of those looks that parents reserve for dumb boyfriends. It was remarkably similar to the looks both Jenny and Princess Esmeralda give me all the time. It's nice that everybody sees me in the same way.
"Can't we find a compromise, Jake? Jenny could switch on her phone and ring home every other day. It would get her mother off my back if you'd agree to it."
I gave this idea some serious thought. I have no idea how I travel across the multiverse. I just do a mental hop, skip and jump as though I'm on a hopscotch court and there I am. It doesn't tire me, and bringing Jenny and Fluffy with me takes no extra effort now that I don't need a physical court. I could always hop Jenny back to my bedroom for half an hour every other day so she could make a phone call.
"That might be possible, Peter. Can I talk to Jenny about it before I agree?" Using Mr. Owens first name made me feel uncomfortable. It felt like being cheeky to a teacher at school.