by Katie Tsang
‘You took two!’ Billy said, spitting blood.
The rock troll shrugged. ‘Accident,’ he said. ‘My fingers big. Your teeth small.’
‘Give me the pearl then,’ said Billy. ‘You took two teeth. I should get two things. Two for two, right?’
The rock troll seemed to consider this. ‘Okay,’ it said. ‘Fair.’ It tossed Billy the pearl and put Billy’s two teeth in his own mouth. ‘Mine.’
‘Yep, they’re your teeth now,’ said Billy, stepping out from round the hoard and joining his friends. He handed Dylan the pearl. Dylan breathed a sigh of relief. ‘I missed this,’ he said. He looked up at the rock troll. ‘Pleasure doing business with you,’ he said.
‘Easy for you to say,’ muttered Billy, wincing as he wiped blood from his mouth. ‘You didn’t have to give up any teeth.’
‘You have to admit, it did some pretty good negotiating. Surprisingly smart for a pile of sentient rocks,’ said Dylan.
‘I VERY SMART!’ roared the rock troll.
The children backed up. ‘That’s what I said, pal,’ said Dylan. ‘Smart.’
‘Can we get out of here before it decides it wants something else from us?’ asked Charlotte. ‘I’ve got an award-winning smile – I don’t want that thing to take any of my teeth.’
‘Don’t have to tell me twice,’ said Dylan, quickly walking back out into the light.
‘You are very smart,’ Ling-Fei said to the rock troll as she followed Charlotte and Dylan out of the cave.
With one last look at his teeth in the rock troll’s mouth, Billy ran after his friends.
A Ride In The Sky
Billy’s mouth ached and tasted like blood. As they walked back along the riverbank, he kept spitting, trying to clear the copper taste.
He still felt jittery from the encounter with the rock troll. In the moment offering his tooth had seemed like a brilliant idea, but now that they were out of immediate danger, and had Dylan’s pearl back, he realized just how much might have gone wrong. What if the thing had ripped off his entire head? Billy shuddered.
‘Good job in there, Billy,’ said Dylan, like he knew what Billy was thinking. ‘You really saved the day.’
‘Excuse me,’ said Charlotte. ‘I think you’ll find it was a team effort.’ But she was smiling as she said it and, with the support of his friends, Billy started to feel calmer.
* * *
They continued to walk along the river all afternoon and into the early evening, still keeping a careful eye out for enemy dragons and any other danger.
As the sun started to sink behind the black mountains, Dylan sighed. ‘Can we take a break? I’m tired.’
‘We need to find somewhere to hide for the night before it gets too dark,’ said Billy. ‘But I get it. I’m tired too.’
‘We’re all exhausted,’ said Charlotte.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much,’ said Ling-Fei. ‘And I love going walking in the forest.’
‘It isn’t just… being tired.’ Dylan said slowly. ‘I miss home. Not camp. Home home. Ireland home.’ He paused. ‘We will go home, won’t we?’ he added. ‘After all this?’
‘Of course we’ll go home,’ said Charlotte. ‘Stop being such a pessimistic possum.’
‘I’m not even sure I know what a possum is,’ said Dylan. ‘But seriously, do you guys think we’re going to make it out of here alive?’
Billy looked up into the twilight. ‘I hope so,’ he said.
They all were silent for a long moment.
‘We still want to do this, don’t we?’ said Ling-Fei quietly. ‘Our dragons would understand if we turned back.’
‘If we turn back, we’ll lose everything anyway,’ said Billy. ‘We’re what our dragons need to defeat the Dragon of Death. The world we know, everyone we know – everything – will be destroyed if we don’t stay and help.’
‘If I have a choice, I’d probably choose to have the world end while I’m in my own bed, fast asleep. Instead of, you know, being eaten alive by a dragon,’ said Dylan wryly.
‘We can go back, if you really want,’ said Billy slowly. ‘I don’t want to force anyone to do anything they don’t want to do.’
‘And know that I was dooming the entire world, both human and dragon?’ Dylan cracked a smile. ‘Can’t have that, can we?’
Billy grinned at his friend and slung his arm round Dylan’s shoulder. ‘That’s the spirit,’ he said. Being brave for Dylan and his friends was easier than being brave by himself. Despite his confident words, a small part of Billy wondered if they even had a chance of saving their dragons. Saving the world. Maybe they weren’t the right ones for this. Maybe the mountain shouldn’t have opened for them. Billy pushed the thought out of his head. He had to try. He was here now. He couldn’t let his fear get the better of him.
‘If we’re done with our little pep talk, can we keep walking, please? It’s getting darker by the minute,’ said Charlotte, looking over her shoulder. ‘I don’t want to know what comes out at night around here.’
‘Ling-Fei,’ said Billy, an idea occurring to him. ‘You know how you… sensed where the river was? And sensed that the cave was empty last night?’
She nodded.
‘Do you think you could find us an empty cave to sleep in?’
Ling-Fei’s eyes lit up. ‘I can try,’ she said. And then she promptly lay down on the earth and closed her eyes.
The other three waited in silence. If this didn’t work, Billy wasn’t sure what they were going to do tonight.
Then Ling-Fei sat up and pointed up. ‘There! See that small opening? I don’t sense anything in it.’
‘So… how do we get up there?’ said Dylan, squinting at where Ling-Fei had pointed.
‘Climb,’ said Billy.
‘Easy for you to say, backflip boy,’ said Dylan. ‘Unless I can charm the mountain to bend down for me, I don’t know how I’m going to get up.’
‘Let me go first,’ said Billy. ‘I’ll scout it out and try to find the easiest way.’
He quickly realized there was no easy way. Even with his new agility skills, he struggled to find footholds and nearly slipped several times.
There was no way the others would be able to climb it.
When he finally got there, he was relieved to see that the cave was empty, and just big enough for the four of them. It was barely a cave, more of a hidey-hole tucked away in the mountainside. It would be the perfect place to sleep – if only the others could reach it.
Then he had an idea.
‘Hey, Charlotte,’ Billy called down. Charlotte stared up at him in the fading light. ‘How far do you think you can toss Dylan?’
Charlotte grinned up at Billy. ‘Further than I can throw you.’
‘I do not like where this is going,’ said Dylan.
‘It’s the only way up,’ said Billy.
Dylan sighed. ‘Fine. But you’d better catch me!’
‘I promise,’ said Billy.
‘If I’m going to be a human elevator service, you could be a little more grateful about it,’ grumbled Charlotte as she squatted down and put her hands out for Dylan to step onto.
‘You have literal super-strength,’ said Dylan. ‘It’s the least you can do.’
‘Up you go!’ said Charlotte, and threw Dylan into the air. Billy reached out, grabbing Dylan and pulling him into the small cave.
‘Got him!’ Billy said. ‘Send Ling-Fei on up!’
Charlotte tossed Ling-Fei the same way she had done with Dylan. ‘Now how do I get up?’ she mused.
‘Try jumping,’ said Billy. ‘I bet you can jump pretty high with super-strength.’
Charlotte grinned. ‘Billy Chan, you are smarter than I give you credit for.’ She crouched down low and burst up into the air, as if there was a rocket beneath her.
‘Quick, grab her!’ said Ling-Fei. Billy and Dylan grabbed Charlotte as she flew towards them and pulled her into the cave, knocking into Ling-Fei. They all tumbled to the ground in a
heap.
Billy began to laugh first. And then they were all laughing. Laughing till their stomachs hurt and they had tears running down their faces.
‘What a day,’ said Billy when he could finally speak.
‘Understatement of the century,’ said Dylan.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired,’ said Charlotte with a yawn.
‘Do you think the dragons are okay?’ said Ling-Fei.
‘I think so,’ said Billy. ‘I think we’d feel it if something was really wrong. Like…’ He let his voice trail off. At least this was what he kept telling himself. He had to believe in the bond.
‘Like what?’ prompted Dylan.
‘Like if they were killed,’ said Charlotte matter-of-factly.
‘Charlotte!’ said Ling-Fei.
‘What? That’s what we’re all worried about. We might as well say it. No sense in giving a fear more power over us by not naming it. That’s what my grandma always says.’
‘As long as the dragons stay alive, and we stay alive, we’re fine,’ said Billy.
‘Easy-peasy,’ said Dylan.
‘I just hope they can stay alive until we reach them,’ said Ling-Fei, looking worried. ‘The red dome is still so far.’
If Ling-Fei said the red dome was far, it must be. Billy felt overwhelmed by the weight of what they needed to do. Would they ever reach the red dome? No, he couldn’t think like that. He refused to. He looked at his friends.
‘Well then, we need to rest tonight so we can get an early start tomorrow,’ he said with as much authority as he could muster. ‘We’ll go as far as we can. And then we’ll do the same the next day, and the next, till we get there. That’s the best we can do.’
‘What if our best isn’t good enough?’ said Dylan.
‘It’s all we’ve got,’ said Billy. ‘Now come on, let’s get some sleep.’
* * *
Billy woke with a start. The cave was shaking.
Dylan was lying on the ground next to him, snoring, and Charlotte was sprawled out in the middle of the cave. Ling-Fei crouched near the entrance, her hand on the cave wall to steady herself.
‘What’s going on?’ Billy cried, leaping up. He heard a faint but deep cracking that sounded like boulders ripping apart. As he reached the edge of the cave, his stomach rose up into his throat as if he was on a roller coaster. They were somehow being lifted hundreds of metres up into the air.
Ling-Fei turned to him with huge eyes. ‘I… I asked the cave for help,’ she said. ‘And I think it listened.’
‘Are we MOVING?’ yelled Charlotte from the middle of the cave. She poked Dylan. ‘Wake up!’
The ground rolled beneath them. ‘Whoa,’ said Ling-Fei, crouching lower and moving away from the opening.
Billy got low to the ground and crawled towards her.
‘Ling-Fei, what exactly did you ask the cave?’ he said.
‘Last night, before I went to sleep, I told the cave that we wanted to get to the red dome and asked it to help us. I thought it might be sentient like the rock troll. And I guess it is!’
Billy crawled forward on his belly as close to the mouth of the cave as he dared, and looked outside. ‘You’re right,’ he said in awe. ‘The cave is… walking.’ It had sprouted long legs made of rock and was taking large steps. The entire cave swayed slowly from left to right in great sweeping motions. From what he could see, the earth was far below them.
The others slowly crawled towards Billy until they were lined up shoulder to shoulder, their heads poking out just past the edge of the entrance and peering down at the ground.
Ling-Fei patted the floor of the cave. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘You are a kind mountain.’
‘What do we do?’ asked Dylan. He held his glasses with one hand to keep them from falling to the ground hundreds of metres below.
‘I think we just have to wait it out,’ said Charlotte. ‘And hope Ling-Fei is right about where it’s taking us.’
* * *
After several hours, and the rest of the pork buns, the red dome came into view.
The walking mountain took them to the edge of the black and purple foliage surrounding the red dome, then slowly sank back down towards the earth. Billy and the others climbed out of the cave as soon as it settled on the ground.
‘That was wild!’ said Dylan, breathing heavily. He patted the various parts of his body, checking that he was still in one piece, before looking up. ‘And we survived!’
‘Thank you again, friendly creature,’ said Ling-Fei.
‘Yeah, thank you,’ said Charlotte with a curtsy.
‘Seriously. The biggest thank you ever,’ added Billy.
‘I never thought I’d be talking to a mountain, but yes, thank you!’ said Dylan.
The cave didn’t respond, but Billy suspected it understood them.
They looked up at the red dome towering above them. Eight plumes of purple smoke rose from within.
‘What now?’ whispered Dylan.
‘We go into the red dome and we find our dragons,’ said Billy. He could sense that Spark was close. He hoped she felt it too, and that their dragons knew Billy and his friends were coming. ‘Then we stop Dimitrius and the Noxious from bringing back the Dragon of Death.’
‘Oh, sure, as if it’s that simple,’ said Dylan.
‘Do you have any other ideas?’
‘Oh, come on!’ Charlotte whisper-shouted. ‘We’re wasting time.’ She pushed ahead and tromped through the thick purple grass.
It was like entering an alien jungle. The grass rose to their knees and giant purple trees blotted out the sun and stars above them. Prickly cactus-like plants grew all around, bearing strange black fruit on their spiky branches. As they passed an especially big cactus, one of the fruits fell and rolled towards Billy.
He leaned down and picked it up.
‘I wouldn’t touch that,’ said Dylan, backing up.
‘Just checking it out,’ said Billy. ‘I’m not going to eat it or anything.’
It had a fuzzy, sticky shell with bright purple veins covering its surface. It looked like an aubergine’s evil twin.
Billy rapped on it. ‘Sounds hollow,’ he said. And then, exactly where he’d rapped, the fruit cracked open and hundreds of beetle-like insects poured out, crawling up Billy’s arms and down his back.
‘Ahhh!’ yelled Billy, dropping the fruit. ‘Get them off! Get them off!’ He frantically swatted at his arms and legs. The beetles had sharp pincers and pointy little legs and he was terrified one was going to burrow into his skin. ‘Help me!’
Together Charlotte and Dylan swiped as many beetles off him as they could.
‘What are these things?’ Charlotte asked.
‘I don’t know,’ said Billy. ‘Just get them off!’
‘I’m trying! I’m trying!’ said Charlotte. ‘Stay still!’
‘Watch out for the needles on the bushes!’ cried Ling-Fei. ‘I’m getting a bad feeling about them!’
Billy swerved, but it was too late. One of the needles snagged on his palm. Blood welled instantly, and a stabbing pain shot from his palm all the way up to his neck.
‘Guys,’ he said, staggering back. ‘I don’t feel good.’
His vision blurred and his knees buckled.
‘Billy!’ Charlotte shouted, darting forward.
Billy reached out for her, and then crumpled in a heap in the long grass.
The Red Dome
When Billy opened his eyes, the first things he saw were his friends’ faces peering over him.
‘He’s not dead!’ said Dylan.
‘We knew he wasn’t dead,’ snapped Charlotte. ‘He was breathing.’
‘How do you feel?’ asked Ling-Fei.
Billy blinked and rubbed his eyes. ‘What… happened?’ His brain felt fuzzy and his head hurt.
‘Oh, no, what if he has amnesia?’ said Dylan. He got closer to Billy’s face. ‘Do you know who I am?’
Billy sat up and pushed Dylan away.
‘I don’t have amnesia,’ he said. ‘You are Dylan O’Donnell. We’re in the Dragon Realm. But I don’t remember what happened just now.’ He gestured around at the flattened grass where he’d landed.
‘You opened that rotten fruit, which was a terrible idea, then these horrible beetles came out of it, and then you panicked and ran into another plant that apparently was poisonous and knocked you out,’ said Charlotte.
‘How long was I out for?’
‘Just a few minutes,’ said Ling-Fei. ‘We didn’t know what we were going to do if you didn’t wake up!’
Billy looked around him and saw the purple spiky plants everywhere. He pointed at one. ‘That’s what knocked me out? The needles?’
His friends nodded.
‘Now I can sense that the plant has sleep-inducing properties,’ said Ling-Fei. ‘Sorry I missed it before – I was too focused on the red dome.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Billy. ‘We can’t expect you to sense everything around you all the time.’ Then he started to grin. ‘I’ve got an idea.’
* * *
After gathering as many of the needles as they could and putting them in Dylan’s backpack, they carried on through the foliage towards the red dome, careful not to touch anything else. As they got closer, Billy saw that the dome looked as if it was breathing. Its translucent surface was covered in twisted red veins and it rose and fell in a gentle rhythm.
‘Do you think it’s alive?’ asked Dylan. ‘What are the chances this dome could attack us?’
‘Ling-Fei?’ asked Billy.
Ling-Fei tilted her head to the side, staring at the dome. ‘It feels… powered by something. But not alive. The whole thing stinks of dark magic. No wonder the evil dragons are called the Noxious.’ She wrinkled her nose.
‘There’s only one way to find out if this thing is going to kill us or not,’ said Charlotte. She reached out towards the dome. Her hand passed straight through, as if it was air. She pulled her hand back and inspected it. ‘It looks safe to me,’ she said as Dylan and the others joined her, examining the hand she was holding out. ‘The issue is that we can’t get through here.’ Charlotte pointed back at the dome.