James took a deep breath and was about to step out from behind the tree when Mister Six suddenly turned around and looked up into the air, searching the sky in every direction. James looked up too, until he saw what appeared to be the small shadow of something black with a long tail and wings coming down through a bundle of clouds. It almost looked like a bat, but no bat could fly that high. In fact, it almost looked like a…"That's impossible," James whispered.
Mister Six saw the shape and let out a sudden, screeching yowl that made Prospero and Herman both clutch one another in surprise. Mister Six took off running and leapt for the nearest tree, landing momentarily on the trunk like a jaguar, then sprang off it toward the heads of the two men with his claws extended. Mister Six landed on Herman's shoulder, growling ferociously and scratching every piece of exposed skin he could reach. The sorcerer screamed in terror at the cat's sudden attack, shouting, "Herman, protect me from that thing!"
James was so astounded he almost did not look up in time to see his little sister come fluttering down to the ground, sitting atop what appeared to be a small black dragon with stars on its wings.
It would have been less amazing to James if she had landed in a spaceship driven by aliens wearing cowboy hats, but there she was, little Alana, holding tightly onto the back of a not-so-mythical beast.
Prospero's head popped up from the cat attack and he bellowed, "There it is! Get the net, Herman! Get the net!"
Herman clenched Mister Six by the sides and hurled him as far as he could. The cat went soaring through the air like a flying squirrel into a thick tangle of bushes and weeds. Herman's face was covered in fresh red scratches that stung but he ignored them as he reached down inside his shirt and pulled out what looked like a heavy, hand-stitched softball. Herman charged out of the woods with the ball over his shoulder like a shot putter, ready to throw it as hard as he could at Alana and Star.
James came racing out of the woods flapping his arms in the air, shouting, "Look out! Look out! Get out of the way!"
Star turned around to see James running at them from one direction and Herman from the other and then he saw the object in Herman's hand and he realized what was about to happen. "You have to get off of me, Alana, right now," Star said.
Alana pulled on Star's wings, trying to get him to take off again, "Let's go, get us out of here! We have to leave!"
"There isn't time," Star said, watching Herman run closer and closer. James was doing everything he could to outrun the fat man, trying to reach them first, but there wasn't enough time. Star looked back at Alana and said, "Everything will be fine if you just get down."
"Do you promise?" Alana said quickly.
"I promise."
Alana slid down and said, "Now what?"
"Stay there," Star said. He ran forward and leapt into the air directly in front of Herman, flapping his wings so that he hovered in front of Alana, protecting her. Herman looked up at the dragon with a stupefied expression, unable to believe it was just offering itself to him.
"Use the net!" Prospero cried out.
Herman threw the ball as hard as he could at Star's exposed belly and there was a sudden explosion of white smoke and a loud pop!
Alana screamed as Star fell through the cloud, his wings and snout and all four of his legs bound tight in what looked like a fisherman's net. Star collided with the ground hard enough to make a loud thud and both Herman and the sorcerer jumped and whooped and shouted with victory.
Alana ran toward Star, screaming that she would get him free and that nobody would hurt him, and this brave little girl very well may have fought them off but her big brother grabbed her in mid-stride and threw her over his shoulder, carrying her as fast and as far as he could, until she was safe.
Chapter Six: The Mysterious Mister Six
Alana pounded her brother on the back as he ran, yelling at him to put her down. She could see the horrible sorcerer and his fat, stupid assistant struggling to pick Star up. The dragon was small, but still heavy enough that they grunted with effort, made all the more worse by Prospero's nagging at Herman to, "Lift more on my side, you idiot!"
"We have to go back for him!" Alana demanded over and over, "Put me down, James! Put me down!"
James stumbled behind the shed and set Alana down in the grass, sweat pouring off of his face as he struggled to catch his breath. Alana jumped up to try and run back but he grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her down beside him. "We can't…not like this…," he gasped. "What was that thing you were riding? Was that a, uh, a, you know?"
"A dragon, you big lummox and yes it was! Now that horrible sorcerer is going to turn him into ingredients!"
James held up his finger to tell her to be quiet as he leaned over the wall of the shed to peek back at the field, but there was no sight of the men or the dragon. "They're gone," he huffed. "Listen, I don't know what the heck is going on, but Mom is going to freak out when she finds out you were flying around on the back of that…of that…thing."
Alana grabbed her brother by the shoulders and shook him, "She's not going to find out because you aren't going to tell her because you are going to help me get him back! What part of 'ingredients' don't you understand?"
James shook his head in confusion and said, "Let's just go in the house, tell Mom what's going on and ask her to call the police. We'll say those guys stole our dog or something."
Alana let go of her brother and said, "Fine. You stay here."
"You're staying too," James said.
"No I'm not!" Alana shouted. "And don't tell me I am because you're not Dad. That's my friend and those bad men took him so I'm going to go find him. You can either stay here or come with me, I don't care."
"Alana, come on," James said.
She pushed his hands away and ignored him, hiking up her pants to her waist as she left the shed and headed into the tall grass, ready to fight to get her friend back, no matter what. "Alana!" James called out. "Alana?" James gritted his teeth and said, "Darn it," even as he got up and chased her.
Alana did not look as James hurried up beside her. "This is a bad idea," James said.
"I don't care." Alana's hands were balled into fists and her jaw was set. There would be no discussion. She stormed toward the edge of the woods only to stop at the sight of their cat, Mister Six, sitting calmly in the grass, waiting for them. "Go home, Mister Six," Alana said.
"Rawrrrr," Mister Six responded, opening his mouth wide to speak as loud as he could.
James stomped his foot on the grass to scare the cat off and said, "Go home!"
The cat did not move.
"You know, he was doing something really strange before you showed up," James said. "He was stalking those two weirdoes and when they saw your…your friend…the cat went crazy and attacked them. It was almost like he was trying to protect you guys."
"Maybe he was," Alana shrugged. She walked over to the cat and said, "Mister Six, do you want to help us look for Star?"
The cat looked up at her and did not nod, but instead his tail went straight up into the air and bent slightly to point into the woods. The tip of the tail pointed again and again, until James said, "I think he wants us to go that way."
"Okay, Mister Six," Alana said. "Let's go."
The two children charged into the woods behind him and Mister Six stopped suddenly and wiggled his tail at them, like a finger wagging no. He looked back with mild annoyance and crouched low, lifting his legs slowly to show them how he wanted them to move carefully over the branches and leaves and sticks littering the ground without making any noise.
James and Alana both nodded that they understood and they walked much more carefully after that, trying to be as quiet as possible. Mister Six seemed to be following some sort of trail, but it was unlike anything Alana had seen before. She thought of how dogs followed trails on cartoons, sniffing the ground like a vacuum cleaner until they finally found a gigantic soup bone or the boot of the person they were looking for. Mister Six, instead, would
pause and look around, then stop suddenly, and his ears would twitch in different directions. His long whiskers quivered slightly and he might lift one of his paws and give them a long lick, but then he'd be back on the hunt, creeping along the ground.
They went farther into the woods than either of them had ever gone before, far beyond any of the homes of Brumbleton and soon they were so far into the woods they would be lost without Mister Six guiding them. Even worse, it was beginning to grow dark.
"Mom has surely called for us to come inside by now," James said worriedly.
Alana felt uneasy about their mother not knowing where they were. It was one of Mrs. O'Neil's cardinal rules that the children could never stay outside when dinner was ready or to not answer when she called. Alana thought about the task ahead, about confronting the mean sorcerer, and found that her early burst of bravery was nearly spent. As the woods grew ever darker all around them, she was actually beginning to get scared.
James looked down at his sister and took her hand in his, squeezing it tightly. "We're too far in to turn back now," James said. "I'll figure out a way to explain it to mom. You'll see."
The cat stopped and looked back at them sharply, it's tail straight up in the air like an exclamation point ordering them to stop. James and Alana bent their knees and James whispered, "Sorry, we'll keep quiet."
Mister Six nodded and continued on, creeping farther and farther until finally, they were both squinting to see him. His grey fur seemed to blend into the shadows and soon, they could only make out the tip of his tail as it bounced along. Alana smelled something unusual and lifted her nose into the air to get a better sniff of it, then recoiled at the foul odor. It was barely there at first, but then it got stronger as they went and she whispered, "Do you smell that?"
"Smell what?" James said. He sniffed a few times and said, "Yuck! What is that?"
"It smells like boiled cabbage or something rotten," Alana grimaced.
Mister Six stopped behind a tree, his tail straight up in the air once more. When Alana and James crouched down behind him, his tail bent into an L shape and pointed directly ahead. The children looked into the darkness and saw the soft glow of a fire through what looked like a log cabin's window. Above the fire was a large iron cauldron, and both children gasped as Prospero the sorcerer came into view and stood over it.
Within the cabin, Herman studied the shelves lining the walls. They were filled with vials and jars and tubes and bowls of all manner of creatures and insects of shapes and sizes. It was a vast array of things that slithered, crawled, hissed, squirmed, flew, or simply waited for an unsuspecting human to put their hands too close, in which case, they bit. "Uh, was it eye of frog and toenail of newt you wanted, boss?" Herman said.
"No!" Prospero said angrily as he stirred the goop inside the cauldron. The goop was yellow and green slime that oozed and bubbled, sizzling the rust off his long iron spoon. "I said I need the snakeskin peel and the toe jam of a garden gnome. The snake is on the bottom shelf beneath the piranha bowl and the garden gnomes are to the left of the sprites and butterfly jars."
"Okay," Herman said slowly as he bent down to inspect the snake's cage. It was a long, black snake with a thick body and narrow, pointed head. It hissed angrily at Herman the closer he got, daring him to lift the lid and try to retrieve even the littlest bit of discarded skin. Herman scratched his chin as he looked at the snake and then back at the sorcerer. He was about to ask the sorcerer how to get the snakeskin out, but decided it was better to try and figure it out on his own.
At the cauldron, Prospero took a long sniff of the rancid goo inside and smiled with satisfaction, "Almost finished." He looked at the small dragon lying on the floor and said, "Would you like to taste some?"
Star's eyes watered from the fumes but he could not speak. The net was too tight around his snout to even open his mouth. The sorcerer had left him bound on the floor near the front door where he would be out of the way, kind of like a rolled up carpet.
Prospero spat his long, silvery hair out of his face and said, "Actually, I couldn't let you taste it even if you wanted to, you see, the final ingredient hasn't been added yet. You do know what the final ingredient is, don't you my dear boy?"
Star looked up silently as Prospero grinned and said, "The final ingredient is you."
James and Alana watched Mister Six creep up to the cabin and leap onto the front window, silently padding across the wooden sill as he inspected the room within. The cat saw Star, bound in the net directly in front of the door, and jumped back down. Mister Six slowly curled his tail at the children and they bent down as low as they could and quietly approached the cabin.
Alana was anxious to get up to the window and see what was happening, and she moved away from James to head toward the cabin, but he grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her back. "Stay in the shadows," James whispered.
"Why?" Alana said.
"Because they're dark!" he hissed.
"Okay, stop yelling at me," Alana said.
Mister Six turned around and stared at them so directly, with such apparent annoyance that both of them immediately fell silent and whispered, "Sorry."
"I can't believe I just told a cat I'm sorry," James muttered.
Mister Six pointed his tail at James and directed him around the back of the cabin, toward the rear window, waving for him to stay low. He then pointed at Alana and curled his tail for her to come closer. The voices of the sorcerer and his assistant were very loud now, and the stench of the cauldron was overwhelming, making Alana's eyes water from their acrid fumes. She covered her mouth and nose and looked in the direction Mister Six was pointing, and saw Star.
It was a good thing she already had her hand over her mouth and nose because she instinctively called out his name.
Everything stopped inside the cabin, and Prospero said, "What was that?"
"Duh, I didn't hear anything, boss."
"Of course you didn't hear anything, you oaf, because you were too busy blabbering."
Finally, the sorcerer began to stir the cauldron again and Herman resumed trying to remove the snakeskin from the cage without getting bit. Mister Six looked at Alana and his tail went straight up in the air, the sign she already knew meant, "Wait."
Mister Six crept around to the side of the cabin where James was crouched, told him to wait, and took off running into the woods. "What is that dumb cat doing?" James muttered, hearing Mister Six rummaging in the dark not too far away, but unable to see anything.
When the cat returned, he was covered in a thick layer of mud. He looked like a pair of pointed white eyes moving in the darkness by themselves.
James scowled as Mister Six jumped up onto his lap, leaving muddy streaks and paw prints across his shirt and pants and said, "What the heck did you do that for?"
Mister Six turned and looked up at the window where Herman was standing and James said, "Oh. So he doesn't start to sneeze. That's actually kind of smart."
Mister Six shrugged and batted James's right hand with his paw to get it to move to the window. "You want me to open it for you?" James whispered.
Mister Six nodded and James lifted the cat carefully and peeked through the glass, nearly coming face to face with Herman.
Luckily, Herman soon bent over, frowning at the snake cage as he struggled to lift the lid. The long black snake inside of it was hissing and showing its fangs, daring Herman to expose one of his fat, sausage-shaped fingers even the littlest bit. "Now you be a good snakey-wakey," Herman said. "I'm just gonna clean out your cage a little, okay?"
The sorcerer looked over his shoulder at Herman and said, "What is taking so long? I need that snakeskin now before the rotted fungal worm starts to go bad!"
Mister Six looked at James and nodded, and James took a deep breath. It was time.
Chapter 7: Dragon-Sized Hearts
Alana could not bear to watch as James ever-so-delicately pressed his fingers against the window and began to lift it. Herman was directly under th
e window, trying to get the lid free, and all it would take was for the assistant to look up and see James for the entire plan to be ruined.
James looked pale and sweaty as he worked the window, at first getting it up just a little bit, but then enough so he could stick his fingers under the frame and move it another inch.
Mister Six was on the ledge next to him, bent down impatiently waiting for the window to get open just a little bit more so that he could squeeze through. Alana had no idea what she was supposed to do once the cat was inside the cabin, but she felt certain of one thing, it would become plain soon enough.
The window stopped moving and James's face contorted with effort, straining as much as he could to get it unstuck without making any noise. At that same moment, Herman had finally pried the lid from the snake's cage and was using a long wooden spoon to push the creature back while he delicately reached in to retrieve the loose skin.
The sorcerer bent down to the cauldron and closed his eyes to take a long, deep breath of it, and said, "Almost ready. Soon, I will possess all of the powers of the ancient world and no one will be able to stop me."
The window wiggled upwards a little more and Mister Six stuck his head through the opening, using his body to help James lift, bracing himself against the window's wooden frame. Finally, they got it open just enough for the cat to squeeze himself through, pouring through the narrow opening with a series of feline twists and turns until Mister Six was inside the cabin, and had not been seen.
"You did it!" Alana whispered, covering her mouth with her hands in excitement. She leaned up to chance a look at Star. He looked miserable on the floor, completely tied up, unable to move or speak. He was just lying there with his eyes shut, waiting for the worst to happen.
Mister Six jumped up to the highest shelf along the walls and inspected the contents, passing by the jars of butterflies and worms, then stopping at a large container of buzzing green insects labeled "Locusts."
They looked like oversized grasshoppers, and as soon as Mister Six quietly slid their glass lid off, they immediately jumped out of the jar and began bouncing around the shelves. Mister Six ducked out of their way and leapt to the next shelf, flying past the sorcerer's head just in time to reach a rectangular tank with nothing inside it but a piece of fake wood. Or so it seemed. Mister Six paused in front of the tank and hesitated as he reached up to move the lid, touching it several times and retreating before finally knocking it back far enough open it. The cat immediately sprang out of the way as a long, slithering lizard popped its head out of the tank and began flicking its tongue all around. The reptile was called a Gila monster, Alana knew it because she'd read about them, and it slowly climbed out of the tank to reveal all of the shiny, pink spots on its beaded skin, its long claws tapping against the tank's glass surface.
Tiny Dragons 1: The Sky Dragons Page 4