The Northern Frights

by Derek the Ghost

  The trolls, ogres, vampires, witches, werewolves, zombies, and monsters pushed past her as they exited through the gates, defeated and downtrodden, unable to bear watching their school being destroyed behind them.

  Jason saw Hubert in the crowd and shouted, “Come on, Hubert! Not you!”

  Hubert looked like he wanted to stay, but his snowkid friends pushed him forward. He lowered his head and followed them through the gate.

  The Ice Dragon laughed. “Ha-ha! No one can stop me this time. And after I’m finished turning Scream Academy into rubble, my next stop will be Scary School!”

  The Scary School kids gasped. If they let the Ice Dragon win, all of their friends at Scary School would face the wrath of the Ice Dragon without any warning. They looked at one another, knowing that as brave students of Scary School, there was no way they were going to let the Ice Dragon succeed without at least trying to stop her.

  Once again, it was all up to them. But this time, they had no plan whatsoever.

  20

  Just Winging It

  As the dragon continued smashing the wolf’s head to pieces with her tail and blowing jets of snow at Scream Academy’s bridges and towers, the six Scary School students huddled together.

  Fred said, “Looks like we’re the only ones left to stop the dragon. What an awesome dream, right, guys?” No one dared tell him it wasn’t a dream so he wouldn’t chicken out. They needed their class hero now more than ever.

  Jason said, “We must get the Sword of Fire back. That’s the one thing that can stop the Ice Dragon.”

  “But how?” said Petunia. “The sword is still in the belt around its neck. That’s like, a thousand feet high.”

  “I have an idea,” said Wendy. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a jar of bright green liquid.

  “Is that dragonfly potion?” asked Charles.

  “Yep. I made some this morning. It was going to be a present for my brother.”

  “But I thought you weren’t paying attention when Ms. Coven taught us how to make it,” said Fred.

  “Duh! Of course I was paying attention. I just wasn’t going to admit it in front of all those hungry monsters.”

  “Yes! Let’s do this!” exclaimed Jason.

  “I’m in!” said Fred.

  “Me too,” said Petunia.

  “And me,” said Charles.

  Lattie simply nodded, her eyes burning with anticipation.

  Wendy applied the potion to everyone’s backs and then put some on herself. Dragonfly wings sprouted from their shoulder blades and they each took flight, heading in a straight line toward the dragon’s head.

  Lattie led the team. She turned to them and said, “Flank the dragon’s head to distract her while Charles and I get the sword.”

  The team nodded in agreement.

  Lattie grabbed Charles and pulled him by her side as she flew toward the dragon’s neck.

  Jason pulled out his hockey stick and flew to the dragon’s left side. Fred pulled out his silver hammer and flew to her right. Petunia took perhaps the bravest course of all. She flew directly in front of the dragon’s face, knowing her purple coloring would be a distraction.

  Petunia hovered in position, rising in front of the dragon’s nose. She thought, So this is what it feels like to be one of the bugs that buzz around my hair.

  The dragon roared, seeing Petunia floating in front of her face. “Have you gone mad, purple girl?”

  “This is madness,” said Petunia. “Stop this destruction, or else!”

  The dragon laughed. “Or else what?” she said, spewing a stream of snowy ice toward Petunia. She dodged it with the agility of one of her bumblebee friends. Her time spent observing their flight technique was unexpectedly paying off!

  The distraction had worked brilliantly. The dragon was so busy firing snow blasts at Petunia, she had no idea Lattie and Charles had landed on her back and were inching their way toward the belt.

  When Petunia looked to be in trouble, Jason and Fred buzzed past to draw the dragon’s attention. The entire time, Wendy was hovering nearby, punching numbers on her calculator. She called out to her friends, “According to my calculations, she can shoot an ice blast only every eight point six seconds. Plan your strikes accordingly!”

  So the friends focused their taunting in short, eight-second bursts, then took cover as the dragon fired a wild snow blast. Then they dove back in.

  Meanwhile, Lattie and Charles had made it to the belt, but the dragon was thrashing so wildly they were using all their strength just to hang on.

  Millie the Millipede crawled out from Lattie’s sleeve, slinked onto the belt, and loosened the sword from its encasement.

  Lattie reached out and pulled on the sword, but alas, the sword felt as heavy as a house in her hands, and it slipped through her grip, plummeting toward the ground.

  Charles leaped off the dragon’s back and flew after the sword, but in the midst of his flight, the dragonfly spell wore off, and Charles’s situation turned from a downward flight to a hopeless free fall in an instant.

  Well, here I am plummeting toward certain death again, thought Charles.

  One by one, the dragonfly wings on each of the students disintegrated, leaving Lattie stuck to the dragon’s back, Jason and Fred clutching tightly to the dragon’s ears, and Petunia holding on for dear life to the dragon’s snout. Wendy was already back on the ground, trying to come up with a new plan.

  The Sword of Fire landed blade-down in the snow, but it didn’t matter because when Charles landed, he was going to end up a mangled mess.

  He closed his eyes, sure this had to be the end.

  21

  A Good Day to Die

  Charles suddenly felt himself in the arms of something furry. He slowly opened his eyes, not sure if he was still alive. A blue furry face with long banana teeth and a big bushy unibrow was looking at him.

  “Don’t worry. I got you,” said Rory.

  Beneath the blue monster was one of the polterbears, and sitting behind the blue monster . . . was Penny Possum!

  “Penny!” exclaimed Charles. “What are you doing here?”

  Penny smiled, then pointed to her left. In a flash of light, two polter-bears entered through portals. On the back of the first one was Johnny the Sasquatch and Ramon the Zombie, and on the second was Peter the Wolf, Cy Clops, and Hubert the Snowkid.

  “Hey, Nukid,” said Johnny. “Hubert told us you needed some help, so we all volunteered.”

  “Snowdy!” said Hubert. “I wasn’t gonna let you face the Ice Dragon all alone. I just had to make the others think that so I could sneak off and grab the polter-bears. I’m with you guys all the way.”

  The polter-bears disappeared and all seven fell into the snow.

  “What’s the problem?” said Ramon. “Is there a troll that wants to smush you? We’ll take care of him!”

  “Um . . . it’s a little bit bigger than a troll,” said Charles. He pointed to the Ice Dragon, which was in the middle of spewing another ice blast at a Scream Academy tower, sending it tumbling to the ground.

  His friends’ eyes became as big as grapefruits, then they glared at Charles.

  “Seriously, Nukid, what is it with you?” said Peter the Wolf. “Every time you go someplace it ends up getting attacked by something unbelievably horrifying!”

  Charles could only shrug his shoulders as the blue monster set him down in the snow.

  “My name is Rory,” said Rory. “I not afraid to help you. What the plan?”

  At that moment, Lattie, Jason, Fred, and Petunia were still hanging on to the dragon’s head for dear life. She roared, “Foolish humans are nothing more than fleas!” She thrashed and whipped her body to shake them off but only succeeded in tiring herself out.

  Lattie took the opportunity and whistled to the others to follow her. She let go and slid down the dragon’s tail like a slide—the longest, most slippery slide ever! Jason, Fred, and Petunia ran across the dragon’s head, jumped on to
her back, and slid down after Lattie.

  “Whoooa!” they shouted, zipping down the neck, speeding down the spine, and skidding down the tail. The tip was curled upward. They slipped between the spikes and were sent airborne, crashing into the snow next to their friends.

  The dragon turned her attention to them. Her eyes glowed a frightening white with rage. “Where is the Sword of Fire?” the dragon bellowed.

  The sword was still planted in the snow, just a few feet in front of Charles. He stepped toward the sword, lifted it out of the powder, and as he held it aloft, the blade ignited in flames. The friends’ jaws dropped in unison.

  The dragon laughed at Charles. “Ha-ha-ha! You are no dragon slayer. Look at you! It’s a miracle you can even hold up the sword. But I am not without a heart. I will give you this one chance. You and your friends must turn away and leave, and I will spare your lives. Otherwise, you will not survive this day.”

  Charles turned to his friends.

  “I don’t think we’re going to get a better deal than that,” said Ramon.

  “Yeah, I say we take it,” said Peter. “We gave it our best shot. It’s not even our school.”

  Charles retorted, “No! The dragon said after this will be Scary School, and then the rest of the schools—Bloodington, Wolfsbane, Zombie Tech. They all could be gone if we don’t make a stand right now.”

  “It’s your call, dude,” said Fred. “You’re the dragon slayer.”

  “We’re behind you no matter what,” added Jason.

  Charles was still unsure. He knew Marlin’s prophecy foretold certain death if he faced the dragon. Could he really walk straight into it? Or was this the moment of truth when he could make a different choice and change the future?

  Petunia and Lattie each put an arm on his shoulders. Petunia said, “You are the dragon slayer, Charles. Who else could survive Dr. Dragonbreath’s class?”

  Lattie added, “Fear is the dragon within. Conquer your dragon.”

  But it was Penny’s words that affected him the most. “(Silence),” said Penny, and he knew exactly what he had to do.

  Charles stepped forward, looked the dragon straight in the eye, held up the fiery sword and proclaimed, “We are not afraid of you, Ice Dragon! If we must die to stop you, then today is a good day to die! Chaaarge!”

  With the fiery sword shining like a beacon before them, the brave students charged toward the Ice Dragon. The dragon reared back, took in a deep breath, and blew an avalanche of snow at the students—enough to bury them alive in a mountain of snow, never to be seen again.

  But the Sword of Fire had a different plan. The flames began dancing on the blade, and before the avalanche could hit, the flames leaped into the air and formed a wall of fire around the students. The wall of fire was so hot that when the snow hit it, it sizzled and transformed into harmless steam.

  Oh my goodness, thought Charles. If I had dropped the sword and run away, that snow blast would have buried us alive!

  The Ice Dragon grew alarmed. Covered by the impenetrable wall of fire, the students rushed under the dragon’s belly as Charles climbed onto the dragon’s tail and exclaimed, “Rule breakers must be punished, fiend!”

  The dragon ignored the other students and focused her attention on Charles. She uncoiled her long neck toward her tail and started snapping at him, but he swung wildly with the sword and the dragon recoiled, afraid of the sword grazing her face. So the dragon whipped her tail, sending Charles flying through the air and the sword flying out of his hands.

  Charles screamed, “Aaaagh!” as he soared through the air, desperately reaching for the sword, but it landed in the snow a hundred feet away from him, extinguishing its flames.

  Charles got up and tried to run to the sword, but he immediately fell down in agony. His ankle was badly sprained. He couldn’t put an ounce of weight on it.

  Charles was alone on the ground, holding on to his ankle, trying to rub the pain away. The Ice Dragon was laughing again, moving closer toward him.

  The other Scary School students were trying to distract her, but the Ice Dragon focused her attention on Charles and blew a wall of ice around him. He was trapped. His friends couldn’t break through to reach him.

  “Any last words?” asked the Ice Dragon in the sorceress’s cold voice, licking her chops in anticipation of a Charles Nukid meal.

  Charles tried to think of something memorable to say, but nothing came to mind. Then the answer fell from the sky. A wrapped box flew over the wall and landed in his lap.

  “What’s this?” Charles said aloud.

  “Your last words are ‘what’s this’? Okay. It’s your gravestone.” As the dragon opened her mouth, Charles felt her icy breath all over his body. He patted his hair and straightened his polka-dot tie, ready to meet his fate.

  22

  The Last Meal

  When Charles opened his eyes a moment later, he was absolutely shocked that he had not been eaten.

  The Ice Dragon had halted mid-bite and was looking at him strangely.

  “What’s that in your hand?” the dragon asked.

  “It . . . it looks like a present,” Charles answered, a little confused.

  “From who?”

  Charles saw a note on the box that said, From Penny. “Oh! It’s from my friend!”

  “I’m not without a heart,” said the dragon. “You may open your present before I eat you.”

  Charles carefully unwrapped the paper. It was a box of Possum’s Hot Peppers. He lifted the lid, and inside were dozens of bright orange peppers. The death peppers.

  Great, thought Charles. Some last meal.

  “Well? What is it?” asked the dragon.

  That’s when Charles had the idea of a lifetime. However, it would require him to break a rule and tell a fib. Charles was mortally afraid of breaking a rule. But he pushed aside his fear, figuring it was his only hope.

  “Umm . . . it’s a box of chocolates,” Charles said to the dragon.

  “Chocolates! My favorite!” said the smiling dragon. “Tell you what, if you feed me the chocolates, I won’t chew you for too long.”

  “It’s a deal,” said Charles.

  The dragon opened her mouth wide and grinned in chocolaty anticipation.

  Charles chucked the entire box of orange peppers into the dragon’s mouth. In her excitement, the dragon instantly chewed and swallowed all the peppers.

  The dragon’s expression slowly changed from joy to horror as steam blew out of her ears.

  “Those weren’t chocolates!” the dragon choked.

  “Oops,” said Charles, showing her the box of hot peppers with Mr. Possum’s photo on it.

  The dragon roared and started running around. She tried to blow a stream of ice from her mouth, but all that came out was a stream of fire. The Ice Dragon plunged her face into the snow to extinguish the heat, but the ice just turned to water and spread the heat all over her insides.

  Now the dragon was in real agony. As the peppery heat coursed through her veins, all of the ice that formed the dragon’s scales started melting. Fuming with anger, the dragon shot a desperate blast of fire at Charles, but Charles ducked out of the way. The fire melted the ice wall that trapped him!

  With the ice wall down, Lattie pulled Charles out of the way, and they joined Petunia, Jason, Fred, and Wendy, who had taken cover behind a large rock.

  The dragon was thrashing about, causing her icy body to melt all the more quickly. Then the sorceress’s magic wand, which the dragon had been grasping in her claws, flew through the air and landed in the hand of Petunia.

  “Please,” begged the dragon, “Shout ‘milkus eruptus.’ It will shoot a jet of milk into my mouth.”

  Petunia thought about it. Well, even though she’s evil, I guess it’s the right thing to do.

  Petunia raised the wand and shouted, “Milkus—”

  But before she could complete the spell, the wand was snatched out her hand. The students turned. Only Charles recognized who had s
natched the wand.

  It was Marlin the Fizard.

  “Little girl,” said Marlin, “there are rare occasions when doing the right thing is not the right thing. This is one of them. Charles, I hope you remember the dragon’s weak spot.”

  Charles nodded. He pulled the Sword of Fire from the snow and limped over to the shrinking dragon. He held the sword up toward the dragon’s nose and barely touched it. Fire exploded from within the dragon’s gut, melting the rest of the ice, and leaving only the sorceress Mortazella standing, defeated and without her wand.

  Marlin approached Mortazella, still gripping her wand.

  “Marlin!” exclaimed Mortazella. “How did you escape the ice?”

  Marlin pointed with his sword nose. “This boy freed me from your spell.”

  “He must be a very powerful wizard,” said Mortazella.

  “No,” said Marlin. “He’s just a brave kid with some good friends.”

  The twelve students smiled at one another.

  “Please,” she said. “I’ll give anything for a glass of milk.”

  “I know just what will cool you off,” said Marlin.

  “No! Wait!” shouted Lattie. “She has to tell me where my master is!”

  But it was too late. Marlin had shot an ice blast from the wand, and in an instant, Mortazella was frozen in a block of ice. “That ought to keep you cool for another few hundred years, sorceress. In fact, I know it will! I’ve seen you there!”

  Realizing the Ice Dragon was beaten, the students of Scream Academy stormed back through the gates. They rushed toward the Scary School students as fast as they could.

  The trolls lifted Charles up on their shoulders, chanting, “Noodle-neck! Noodle-neck!” The ogres lifted Lattie, the yetis lifted Jason and Fred, and the witch girls gave Wendy a broom to fly on. Rory released a bloodcurdling roar that knocked everyone over and surprised even himself.