by Martha Faë
As we passed through the square on our way to the library we met Bo Wang and the others.
“Hello, Amaranta. Do you want to play?”
“Sorry, I can’t right now. I’ve been sent out to buy some things. I’ll see you later, OK?”
But when I went on walking, Bo looked at my rucksack and saw a dragon moustache poking out. He told the other kids that he had to go, and then he followed me. He saw me go into the library and he came in, too. I went from aisle to aisle with Gondra on my back, stopping every now and then to read the printed title on the spine of a book. He saw that I kept turning my head, as if I were talking to my shoulder. Bo knew right away that I was really discussing something with the dragon I was carrying in my bag. A few minutes later the pile of books began to build up in my arms. I had about ten or twelve. I went over to a table that was set apart a little bit from the rest and I put our load down there. Then I took off the rucksack and put it down gently. Straight away, Gondra made the mistake that confirmed everything. Bo Wang saw the rucksack jump up and down on the spot as if it were alive.
“Open up! Let me out!” said a voice from the bag. “I want to see the books, too. I have a right to an opinion, haven’t I?”
“What are you looking for?” asked Bo.
I jumped in surprise.
“Bo Wang!”
Gondra was already halfway out of the bag. On seeing my friend, he froze completely and pretended to be a toy dragon.
“I followed you to see where you were off to with your dragon,” replied Bo, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Oh, right, yes... My dragon...” I looked at poor Gondra, who was making a big effort to keep his legs still in mid air and in exactly the position he’d been in when he noticed Bo Wang.
“That’s right, your dragon. I told you what was getting into your room at night was a dragon.”
“Ah!” I tried to bluff, “You mean my tea towel dragon. This is just a toy Gran made for me.”
A tiny bead of sweat began to run down Gondra’s forehead. Then his right leg began to tremble.
“Ow!” he exclaimed, waving his leg vigorously. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I couldn’t hold it anymore, I got cramp.”
“Makes sense,” said Bo, smiling. “No one could stay that still for very long. So are you going to tell me what you’re doing here now?”
The librarian looked over at us with a stern face. Speaking much more quietly, we told Bo everything that had happened. He didn’t seem surprised at all about the magic portal between The Forest and my bedroom. He seemed to think the transformation of Gondra into Count Gondo was a good idea. About Princess Enedina, however... Bo thought this was all wrong and needed careful thought. He spent a good while tracing back over that part of the story.
“The thing about the princess just doesn’t sit right,” he said at last. “It isn’t logical at all for a dragon to fall in love with a princess.”
“Hey!” said Gondra, forgetting to keep his voice down. “I fell in love with her voice.”
The librarian began to glare at us again.
“That’s not normal behaviour in a dragon,” said Bo Wang. “A real dragon shouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a nice voice and a horrible one... Don’t take offence, Gondra, but dragons’ ears just can’t pick out these things. Besides, when have you ever seen a horse fall in love with a swan, or a mouse fall in love with a squirrel? It just doesn’t happen. The only explanation I can think of is that you’re not a real dragon.”
“But he is a real dragon!” I exclaimed.
“And why did he only have one eye? Why were his scales all irregular, like you said?” asked Bo.
“Now you just watch what you’re saying, Bo,” I interrupted angrily. I didn’t like it at all that it sounded like he was picking on my dragon.
“I’m not saying those things are bad or make him ugly. I’m not criticising Gondra. I’m just saying that all of this might be a sign that what we’re looking at here is not an ordinary dragon.”
I thought back to what happened at the trial. More precisely, I thought back to what they were accusing Gondra of: that he didn’t behave like a normal dragon.
“I think there’s something unusual here,” Bo went on, “but I can’t put my finger on what it is. We need to consult someone who knows everything about dragons, and I know who that person is.”
“Your grandfather?” I asked.
“My grandfather,” nodded Bo Wang.
18
**
We Visit Bo Wang’s Grandfather
We entered the shop belonging to Bo’s family. Gondra was inside my rucksack. We passed tubs of cream, tins of paint, laundry baskets, cuddly toys, hairclips, screws, and house slippers. At the back was a small door leading to the store room. There, sitting in a chair with a very high back, we found Bo Wang’s grandfather. After we’d told him the whole story, he asked to see the dragon. I opened the rucksack and Gondra jumped out onto the table. After observing him a little, Bo’s grandfather concluded that without a doubt we were dealing with a second-hand dragon.
“What my grandfather means to say is that Gondra probably wasn’t born a dragon,” explained Bo, who had to act as an interpreter because his grandfather was speaking mostly in their language. “Gondra, my grandfather wants to know if you remember anything from when you were small.”
Gondra closed his eyes. He couldn’t remember. He had no image at all in his memory from when he was a baby, and none from when he was a young dragon either. The old man asked a series of questions which helped Gondra to remember little by little. After a long chat, our dragon remembered a box that had been hidden behind a tree.
“My grandfather wants to know if you could draw it.”
“I think so,” replied Gondra.
With great effort he drew what he could see so indistinctly in his memory. It wasn’t a very big box, but it had a grinning skull on one side – crossed with two bones in the shape of an X. The bones were purple.
“I know it’s weird,” said Gondra when we all looked surprised, “but that’s what colour they were, I’m sure of it.”
Using grey crayons Gondra sketched in the dust that had accumulated on the box.
“It was hidden for years, that’s why there was so much dust...” said Bo’s grandfather, looking for the right words in our language. “Did you open it?”
Gondra nodded. The old man frowned, and tried to find a way to explain it to us so we could understand, then said something in Chinese to Bo Wang.
“My grandfather wants to know if you remember yourself opening the box – if you can see yourself clearly.”
“The truth is I can’t really,” said Gondra, surprised. “I feel like it’s me, but I don’t see my own two forepaws; instead I see hands like a little boy.”
“Grandfather says he understands now. You haven’t always been a dragon. It’s likely that when you opened the box you were a... a little boy.”
Bo, Gondra, and I all looked at each other, bewildered and fascinated at the same time.
“What happened when you opened the box?”
Gondra recalled that the lid flew off when he opened it. A very bright light burst from the box and an explosion was heard. Gondra was thrown backwards and landed far away, losing consciousness. When he woke up, his head hurt and he raised a hand to his face; except his hand was no longer a hand, but a leathery, scaly paw with little claws. Some major changes had happened in his face too: he had a long moustache and rough skin; his human eyes were gone and had been replaced by one single eye, in the form of a purple X.
“The bones on the box,” said Bo’s grandfather. “You took on the image of the bones in your eye as a reminder.”
After the explosion, the next thing Gondra remembered was a very big lady dragon who had lifted him out from among the weeds and had looked after him. From then on everything had gone smoothly, one thing after another: the dragon school, making friends, Sunday training, the Roy
al Squadron of Feared and Fearless Dragons... Gondra had completely forgotten that he’d been a boy. He hid the fact away in such a distant part of his memory that only now, thanks to Bo’s grandfather, he’d managed to remember.
The old man stood up and walked very slowly over to a red cabinet at the back of the room. The doors had a round seal on them, which split into two equal parts when they were opened. From inside this cabinet came a book that was unlike any book we’d ever seen. It was big, and its colour was very difficult to describe, it seemed like many colours all blended together including grey, green, and gold. As you turned it this way or that way, the cover seemed to shimmer with the different colours.
Bo’s grandfather said that the book contained an ancient legend. He said he’d tried to read it many times in his long life, but always without success, because the legend had never wanted to reveal itself to him.
We opened it. Its pages looked like they were made of silver.
“We can’t read it,” I said. “It’s in Chinese.”
“This isn’t Chinese,” said Bo, shifting his gaze from the book to his grandfather’s eyes in search of some explanation. “This is a language that can only be understood by whoever is ready to understand it. My grandfather says it’s been written for just one person, and only that person will be able to unlock the secret...”
Bo was just as surprised as we were.
“You should take the book. Those are my grandfather’s instructions. You should try to read it, even though its language seems unknown. If the story has been written for one of you, you will be able to understand it.”
I put it carefully into the rucksack and picked up Gondra in my arms, ready to go. We thanked Bo’s grandfather for what he had told us and then we left; surprised, confused, in silence. Even though Gondra didn’t say anything as we walked through the streets of my neighbourhood, I know we were both harbouring the same wish: that the book would speak to us and that within its pages we would find the answer.
19
**
The Secret Legend
As soon as we opened the book that Bo Wang’s grandfather had given us we saw that, not only was the legend ready to show itself to us, but it seemed desperate to do so. The pages turned by themselves, without any of us touching them at all. I read out loud and the pages softly turned so that I could continue reading without interruption:
... then, in The Magic Forest, where no person, animal, or plant had ever known sadness, suffering or pain, suddenly there sprouted a golden mushroom, as if it were the most innocent thing in the world. It grew and it grew, and in two days it had reached the size of an apple tree. Many of The Forest’s inhabitants drew near to admire the majestic size of this mushroom. When the entire population had arrived, and were all crowded around beneath it, the mushroom exploded in a cloud of yellow powder. Inside it was an evil-looking green goblin who jumped out and landed among the crowd. Everyone watched him with curiosity; the children, the adults, the rabbits, the cows, the flowers. That goblin had been born of all the hatred, envy, and resentment that the world above had produced...
“That means this world,” Gondra and I both said, knowing for sure that we were right.
... all the dark things that people send out of themselves to be carried on the wind. The anger, the revenge, the insults – they’re all swept up and carried far away to where they can cause no harm, because if they’re left wandering loose they cause pain and sickness. There, in the faraway place they’re taken to, they become tiny little flowers which, bit by bit, transform the bitterness they contain and make it disappear. But one day, too many people threw their hatred out into the wind and the flowers couldn’t cope with their task. Among the grass appeared a slimy pustule, which swelled and rose up tall, reaching several metres in height. Despite its enormous size, none of the inhabitants of the world above noticed its presence; they all were so busy being irritated. So, just when it looked like that horrible pustule was about to burst, it was absorbed by the earth and popped up in the shape of a mushroom in The Forest.
The goblin that came out of it was nothing less than the fruit of everything that should never have existed in the world above. The goblin was made from such evil and malevolent material that it gave him an irrepressible desire to hurt every living being around him.
He looked into the eyes of all who had eyes, and glared at the petals of those who had petals. He stared at birds’ feathers and the sheep’s wool. He lifted his hands up high and opened his mouth, letting out a piercing, grating shriek, more dreadful than anything the inhabitants of The Forest had ever heard. The sky went dark and an enormous cloud appeared which plunged downwards at great speed towards the ground. Every being ran away terrified, feeling fear and sadness for the very first time. Some cried, others screamed, and these were sounds that had never been heard before in that peaceful place. Just when the cloud was about to crash against the earth, the druid of The Forest took from within the folds of his robe a tiny box, and held it in both hands while he uttered incantations that no one else could understand. The whole cloud was sucked into the box and the goblin disappeared. When all the people, animals, and plants dared to look, they saw that the box had grown to at least twenty times its original size. Nobody ever knew, nor ever wanted to ask, where the druid had hidden it afterwards. It interested no one to search for it, since everyone knew that inside it were the darkest feelings in the world transformed into a curse. For several generations everybody knew that whoever opened the box would absorb the curse.
20
**
Real Magic Happens
We didn’t need to speak. Gondra and I both knew that the curse had turned him into a dragon and that that was the spell he was under. We were determined to find a solution, so we willingly threw ourselves down-slide through the magic door. I held onto the book and Gondra held onto my foot as we descended with bumps, jumps, and somersaults, and landed in The Forest - right on top of Squirelle, who just happened to be passing at that exact moment.
“Oh, my darlings, it’s been so long! What a painful but joyful arrival! I’m extremely happy to see you again – my dear Tamaran, and you, too... my dear erm... Mr...” Squirelle clambered speedily up my arm and whispered, “Who is that?”
“Squirelle, let me introduce you to Count Gondo. He’s from a kingdom that’s very far away,” I said as naturally as possible.
“Oh dear. Say no more, my dear count! You’re here hoping to meet our princess, is that right? You’ve heard rumours about her beauty and you want to see her with your own two eyes, yes? Well I really don’t like to disappoint you, but you must know the princess will never ever come down from the crooked tower. And it’s not because of pig-headedness, no, no, no. That’s what everyone else thinks, but I, Squirelle, the reigning queen of information, have recently discovered the real reason why the princess doesn’t ever come down.”
“Really? Do you know why?” I asked.
“Of course,” Squirelle pulled us both in closer with her little paws, lowering her voice till it became no more than a whisper. “The princess is absolutely hooked on the Sacred Book of Kingdoms. Someone sent it to her years ago and since that moment she hasn’t stopped reading it over and over again. She’s read it so many times that she knows it by heart. And, of course, she believes every word of the book to be true without a doubt.”
“And what’s the book about?” asked Gondra.
“Well, it’s aaaaaaaall about enchantments, spells, curses, predictions. Everything there is to know about the mysteries of The Forest. The princess is practical, and that’s why she does not and will not come down from her tower. The specific reason for it can be found on page three thousand two hundred and twenty one, which reads, and I quote: ‘the princess whose name begins with an E will only fall in love with a local prince, and never with any from another kingdom’. So, you see?”
“No,” said Gondra and I at the same time.
“The girl has decided not to waste her time
meeting princes who come from far away kingdoms. So, my dear count, this is my advice: don’t even trouble yourself. And now, my darlings, I have to leave you. Hundreds of snippets of news are awaiting me elsewhere in The Forest.”
“See you later, Squirelle!” I shouted, but as usual I had no time to say goodbye properly. Squirrel Tattletail disappeared like a brief gust of wind between the trees.
Gondra and I sat down. Once again, just like when we left Bo’s grandfather, we shared the same wish in our hearts. What if, besides being born human, he also happened to be only prince in The Forest? I didn’t dare say anything, because even if that had been his destiny, we didn’t know how to break the curse that had turned him into a dragon.
I took the book out of my bag and passed it to Gondra.
“But...” he said with eyes full of sadness, “I don’t know how to read! Dragons don’t read!”
“But you’re not a dragon...”
Gondra took hold of the book in both paws. As soon as he held it, we both realised that the cover had exactly the same look and feel as Gondra’s unusual scales. They were dragon scales! At the very moment of this discovery, both the book cover and Gondra’s paws began to glow and then the pages fluttered and turned themselves until they reached the last paragraph we had read up to.
... Only when you come to realise, deep within yourself, that you do not wish to use your gift of dragon strength to destroy, then you will have arrived at the first door to the tunnel that will return your true life to you.
You must search within yourself until you know what you want to do with your strength and who you want to be. When you can answer these two questions, you will have crossed the second doorway in the tunnel that will return to you your true life.
Wait for sunset and face the sun. From the bottom of your heart you must renounce the dragon fire that has been given to you and give it up to the sun so that it may shine a while longer on all living things. Then you will have crossed the third and last door that will return you to your true life. Then you will return to who you really are. You will regain your true appearance and will be able to reclaim the life that was destined for you. When you cross the last door, the book you are holding in your hands will disappear.