Dragon Mountain

by Katie Tsang

  ‘It’s my necklace,’ said Ling-Fei, pushing a strand of her dark hair out of her face. ‘I can go on my own.’

  ‘No way,’ said Charlotte emphatically. ‘We’ll find it faster if all of us look.’

  ‘She’s right,’ said Billy. ‘We should stick together.’ He still had the feeling he’d had immediately after the earthquake – that they had survived because they’d been together.

  Dylan sighed and put his head in his hands. ‘Fine,’ he said. He looked out of the window. ‘But it’s already getting dark. You aren’t going to make me go fumbling around in the forest in the dark, are you?’

  ‘No, we should wait till morning,’ said Charlotte. ‘Let’s go first thing. Right after sunrise. That way nobody will miss us. We have free time tomorrow morning, remember? We’ll just make sure we’re back for class in the afternoon.’

  ‘That’s really nice of you all,’ said Ling-Fei in a quiet voice. ‘I don’t want to get you in trouble again.’

  ‘You heard Charlotte,’ said Billy. ‘We’ll go so early nobody will even notice we’ve gone.’

  Dylan groaned and put his head in his hands. ‘This sounds like a terrible idea.’

  ‘Well, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to,’ said Charlotte with a huff.

  Dylan looked up with a small grin. ‘Like I’d let you lot go off on an adventure without me.’

  Disappearances

  ‘Do you have any idea where you dropped your necklace?’ asked Charlotte as they stepped into the cool shade of the forest the next morning. She sounded like a detective. Billy was surprised she didn’t whip out a magnifying glass. But in this kind of situation he appreciated her confident can-do attitude.

  Ling-Fei nodded. ‘I still had it when we got to the pavilion, because I remember rubbing it when we first saw the tiger.’ She paused. ‘I think I had it at the base of the mountain too. Before the earthquake.’

  ‘The earthquake that apparently only we felt,’ said Billy, furrowing his brow.

  ‘Right,’ said Charlotte brusquely. ‘We’ve got a clue, a lead, and now all we need is a plan of action. I think we should go back to the pavilion and retrace our steps to the mountain.’

  ‘What if an earthquake hits again? Or the tiger comes back?’ asked Dylan.

  Charlotte seemed to steel herself a little. ‘Then we’ll deal with it.’

  * * *

  This time, there were monkeys in the pavilion. Billy counted at least twelve, or he thought he did – they were moving around so fast he couldn’t be sure.

  ‘Ohhh, I hope a monkey didn’t find my necklace,’ Ling-Fei moaned. ‘Then we’ll never get it back.’ She looked up at one of the creatures. ‘Dear Mr Monkey, do you have my necklace?’

  ‘If he does, I bet he won’t tell you,’ said Dylan.

  ‘Let’s stick to the plan and retrace our steps,’ Charlotte said, sounding simultaneously bossy and soothing. ‘There’s no need to jump to any conclusions.’

  ‘I’m just glad we’re dealing with monkeys and not tigers,’ added Dylan.

  The monkeys mostly ignored them, seeming content to groom each other and hop along the roof of the pavilion to the trees overhead.

  The group went round the pavilion and into the bamboo forest towards the mountain.

  ‘What is the best way to look for the necklace?’ asked Billy, rubbing the back of his neck.

  ‘With your eyes,’ retorted Charlotte. ‘Look on the ground – it’s shiny, remember? It’ll stand out.’

  They carried on through the bamboo, keeping their eyes down. There was no sign of the necklace, but nobody stated the obvious – that they might not find it. They all knew how important it was to Ling-Fei. They kept scanning the ground and looking under bushes, until they were back at the base of the mountain.

  ‘Whoa,’ said Billy. Up until now, the forest had looked untouched by the earthquake. But the area around the mountain was ravaged. There were rocks and boulders everywhere, huge craters in the ground and a long, jagged crack down the mountain face itself. At the bottom of the crack was a small triangular opening. Billy shuddered, grateful that the mountain hadn’t collapsed on them.

  ‘Hey,’ he said, pointing at the crack in the rock. ‘Do you guys see that?’

  There was a thin stream of water coming out of the opening. Billy went closer. The water seemed flecked with gold.

  ‘It’s a river of gold, not a river of blood,’ he said, almost to himself, remembering the legend Old Gold had told them. The story swirled round his brain, mixing with the memory of what had happened yesterday. Had Old Gold said anything about a tiger?

  ‘Unless dragon blood is actually gold,’ said Ling-Fei, who clearly was following the same train of thought as Billy.

  ‘You are both off your rockers,’ Dylan said with a sigh. ‘It’s clearly a normal mountain stream that must have burst from inside the mountain after the earthquake. Basic science.’

  ‘I guess this is the proof we were looking for that the earthquake actually happened,’ said Charlotte, looking up the mountain.

  ‘Should we retrace our steps?’ asked Dylan, scratching his head. ‘Or do we think the necklace is somewhere around here?’ He tentatively kicked a rock near his foot. The rock rolled over and a beetle scuttled out from underneath it. Dylan jumped.

  Billy had the peculiar feeling that someone, or something, was watching him. He looked over his shoulder at the forest, expecting to see the tiger staring at him. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

  ‘You guys,’ he said, eyes darting around, ‘I think maybe we should leave.’

  ‘Billy’s right,’ said Ling-Fei sadly. ‘A monkey probably found my necklace and now it’s gone for ever.’

  ‘We can’t give up yet,’ said Charlotte. ‘Maybe it got buried under one of these rocks.’ She walked to the pile of boulders next to them.

  ‘Let me look!’ said Dylan, hurrying over.

  Billy couldn’t shake the unsettling sensation that they weren’t alone. It felt like a spider was crawling along his neck. A gust of wind swooshed by, blowing back his hair.

  Dylan and Charlotte were still focused on overturning rocks.

  Something was wrong. Billy was sure of it. He spun round quickly, ready to fight whatever was behind them.

  There was nothing there.

  Not even Ling-Fei.

  Into The Mountain

  ‘Where’s Ling-Fei?’ said Billy, trying to push down the panic rising in his chest.

  ‘What do you mean, where’s Ling-Fei?’ said Dylan, looking up. ‘She was right behind you.’ His mouth dropped open.

  Charlotte hopped off the rock pile, dusting her hands off on her dress. ‘LING-FEI!’ she shouted into the forest.

  There was no answer.

  Charlotte, Billy and Dylan stared at each other. ‘Do you think she went looking somewhere else?’ asked Dylan. ‘That makes sense, right? She must have just wandered off.’

  ‘We would have heard her… wouldn’t we? She would have said something,’ said Billy. He turned to face the forest, trying to see if there was any movement. There was another gust of wind, but nothing else. The panic in his chest spread throughout his whole body. Billy had seen a surfer disappear beneath the waves once, and not emerge when the wave had passed. This felt like that. The surfer had reappeared a few moments later in the surf, gasping for air. Just like Ling-Fei was going to reappear, Billy told himself. People didn’t just disappear into thin air. Billy took a deep breath. ‘The important thing is that we all stick together,’ he said, turning back to Charlotte and Dylan.

  Except now it wasn’t Charlotte and Dylan. It was just Charlotte, who was looking towards the forest.

  ‘Where’s Dylan?’ Billy exclaimed.

  ‘Dylan!’ Charlotte shouted. ‘Dylan, this isn’t funny! Get back here.’

  Silence.

  ‘What do we do?’ said Charlotte uneasily. ‘Should we go back to camp? Maybe we should get help.’

  ‘We can’t just
leave them,’ said Billy.

  Then he heard a yell that sounded distinctly like Dylan.

  It was coming from… No, that couldn’t be right. It sounded like it was inside the mountain. ‘Dylan!’ Charlotte shouted, running towards the small triangular opening at the base, her long hair flying out behind her. ‘Dylan, are you in there?’

  ‘Charlotte, wait!’ cried Billy, going after her. The strangeness of yesterday came flooding back, stronger than before.

  He felt another gust of wind, and a long shining silver blur shot out from the gap in the rock. It wrapped round Charlotte, and pulled her into the mountain with it.

  Billy froze in his tracks. He took a deep breath and began to back away from the mountain, keeping his eyes trained on the opening. He could see now that it was just big enough for a person to go through – almost like a small doorway.

  He got to the edge of the forest and paused. He realized he was expecting the same thing that had happened to his friends to happen to him. Waiting for that gust of wind.

  But nothing. Just silence.

  He knew his friends were in that mountain, and he knew that something – something fast and strong – had taken them.

  Billy stared at the mountain and could have sworn that the mountain stared back. Or, at least, something in the mountain stared back.

  His palms started sweating and his heart beat faster than ever. He put a hand on a tree to steady himself. He was afraid. He was alone. He could turn back, or he could do the brave thing. Do what in his heart he knew he wanted to do.

  He made a decision. He wasn’t going to wait around for that thing to come and get him.

  And he wasn’t going to leave his friends either.

  Billy thought about his family, about home. He looked up at the wall of limestone in front of him, realizing that, if he went in, he might not ever come out. From deep in the mountain, he heard a faint cry. And Billy knew what he had to do.

  He walked into the mountain.

  A Discovery Of Dragons

  It was dark inside the mountain. Dark and surprisingly cool. Billy found himself in a tunnel. He guessed that the light from the entrance would be enough for a little while, but he didn’t know how deep the tunnel went.

  Or if there were any sheer drops or sharp turns.

  He strained his ears. All he could hear now was the steady dripping of something up ahead. His friends had to be in here. Somewhere. He’d find them.

  Billy took slow and steady steps into the heart of the mountain. He glanced over his shoulder. The entrance, and the sunlight, looked a long way away. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when the light faded.

  And then he reached a dead end – a solid grey wall. Billy paused, overwhelmed with sudden fear and confusion. He clenched his fists to keep his hands from shaking. How could his friends have just disappeared? He’d seen Charlotte being pulled in here. Where was she? Maybe he should turn back and get help after all. He was way out of his depth.

  In frustration he kicked at the wall in front of him.

  His foot went straight through.

  It wasn’t a wall at all, but a thick grey mist that only looked like a wall. Billy put his hands out and they disappeared in the mist. He swallowed and looked back again. He had a feeling that, if he didn’t go through the mist, his friends wouldn’t make it out. They needed him, and there wasn’t any more time to waste. Summoning as much courage as he could, he took a deep breath and stepped into the mist, his hands out in front of him. He couldn’t see at all. The ground sloped beneath his feet and he tumbled forward.

  When he got to his feet, he saw that he was in an enormous cavern with thousands of glowing crystals all along the walls. As his eyes adjusted to the flickering light, he gasped. Because in front of him were Charlotte, Ling-Fei and Dylan.

  And they weren’t alone.

  His three friends stood with their backs to each other, in a protective triangular stance. Circling round them, in a blur of silver and gold, was a long and slender dragon.

  Old Gold’s legend about the mountain was true. Dragons were real.

  Billy’s heart began to beat very quickly. All those times he’d looked to the sky with Eddie, hoping for a glimpse of dragons, and here they were. Inside this mountain.

  And holding his friends captive.

  His wonder quickly faded as he realized with a jolt that real dragons meant real danger.

  The dragon seemed to sense Billy’s presence and it stopped circling, but stayed hovering in the air. Billy saw now that, although its long body was looped round his friends at least four times, it still had length to spare. It raised its large head and stared at Billy with glowing silver eyes. Billy stared back. The dragon had a serpentine face, small, elegant horns, long whiskers and scales that fanned out from its neck and behind its ears. Further down its body, small, gossamer-thin wings moved slowly, as if they were underwater. And there, clutched in its claws, was Ling-Fei’s necklace.

  Billy’s heart hammered in his chest and his vision blurred. He thought he might pass out.

  The dragon’s pink, forked tongue flicked out between a sharp set of teeth. It flared its nostrils and two jets of fire shot out, close enough for Billy to feel the heat on his face.

  ‘Billy! Watch out!’ shouted Dylan, noticing him now that the dragon had turned its attention to Billy. But they were still trapped.

  Billy took a step back. This was worse than being pummelled by a wave, worse than the tiger. He thrust his hands in his pockets, looking for something to use to defend himself, but all he felt was an old train-ticket stub, the lucky seashell he always carried and a few pennies.

  Suddenly, the dragon lunged forward, wrapped itself round Billy and hoisted him in the air. Billy fought as hard as he could, punching down on the dragon’s hard scales and trying to kick himself free. The dragon let out an ear-splitting roar and tightened its grip. Billy couldn’t move his arms or legs now, and he could barely breathe. The dragon’s hot, smoky breath burned the insides of his nostrils and he could see all the jagged edges of its teeth.

  The dragon flicked its tongue out again, hitting Billy in the face. Its tongue was rough and sticky. Billy wondered for a second whether the dragon was tasting him – deciding if he would make a good meal.

  ‘PUT HIM DOWN!’ yelled Charlotte from below. Billy glanced at his friends and saw a rock hurtling towards him. It struck the dragon below its eye and bounced off with little effect. The dragon let out what sounded like a laugh. Billy was starting to feel light-headed. He was losing the feeling in his arms and legs. This is it, he thought. This is going to be the end.

  A scraping sound, like knives being sharpened, came from a corner of the cavern, and another dragon emerged from the darkness. Its scales were a river of green and gold, and it walked on its hind legs, like a T-Rex. It had small green wings sprouting from its back and an unexpectedly big, round belly that swayed in front of it as its thick tail dragged behind. It clinked its claws together, as if applauding.

  Without warning, the silver dragon let go of Billy. He hit the cave floor with a thud.

  ‘Run, Billy!’ shouted Dylan. ‘Get out while you can!’

  ‘I’m not leaving you guys!’ Billy cried between gasping breaths. His mind was working in overdrive. The tiger had disappeared when they’d been together. He remembered the jolt he’d felt when they’d held hands. He’d thought that had been a surge of adrenaline. But maybe it was something more. Maybe it was some kind of magic that had made the tiger disappear. Maybe all he needed to do was reach his friends and the dragons would disappear too.

  His heart pounding in his chest, Billy ran towards Dylan, Charlotte and Ling-Fei.

  He had almost reached them when, out of the shadows, another dragon swooped in front of him. Billy slipped and landed hard on his back. He scuttled backwards like a crab, keeping his eyes on the dragon. This one was a pale, shimmery blue with flecks of gold. Sharp gold antlers rose from its diamond-shaped head. It had a long neck that curv
ed into its seahorse-like body and a long, narrow tail. An electric-blue mane ran from its head all along its spine to the end of its tail. Huge, sheer wings that looked like giant bat wings kept it afloat. It seemed to emit its own light and the air crackled round its body.

  The blue dragon stared at him. Billy tried to keep from trembling, but he could feel his knees shaking. He felt as if he’d swallowed a huge stone. Dragons. Real dragons. If he ever made it home, he’d have to tell Eddie that they were even more amazing and terrifying than they’d ever imagined. But he wasn’t sure he would make it back. He closed his eyes, trying to block everything out, trying to work out what to do next. If he couldn’t get to his friends, maybe he could—

  Something tugged on his hand. His eyes flew open and he saw Charlotte had somehow slipped through the silver dragon’s coils. Dylan and Ling-Fei were still trapped.

  ‘Come on,’ Charlotte said breathlessly. ‘We’ve got to go get help.’

  They raced past the blue dragon, which stared at them with its unnerving, unwavering gaze. The green dragon with the long claws dived at them as they passed, but missed, not quite fast enough.

  ‘How’d you get in here?’ Charlotte asked as they ran. ‘I can’t find a way out!’

  Billy looked around, trying to figure out which way he’d come in.

  The silver dragon shot towards them now, knocking Ling-Fei and Dylan over in a heap on the floor. Charlotte yanked Billy out of the way, and they raced in the other direction.

  From deeper in the cavern came a low rumble. Smoke filled the air. A pair of red eyes lit up in the darkness. The floor trembled as a new dragon approached from the shadows. By far the biggest dragon yet, it looked as if it had been through hundreds of battles. Its body was a tapestry of scars and red and gold scales.

  And it was coming right towards them.

  Superior To Humans

  The giant red dragon roared so loudly that Billy thought the entire mountain might come down on their heads. It hunched on its front paws and unleashed a stream of fire that hit the wall ahead of Billy and Charlotte. They turned, running from the flames and back towards Dylan and Ling-Fei. The red dragon slowly pivoted its head so the flames chased them, licking at their heels.