Flame of the Dragon

by Tommy Donbavand

  “What are you doing?” hissed Resus.

  “I can’t stand by and let it suffer,” Cleo called back. “I have to help it.”

  “It’s dangerous!” cried Resus. “That thing has demolished half of Scream Street!”

  But still Cleo advanced on the creature as it scratched limply about on the ground, plumes of black smoke pouring from its nostrils. “It’s OK,” she said softly, cautiously stepping up to the beast and running her hand over its scaly throat. “I won’t hurt you.”

  The dragon pulled back slightly, but it seemed to sense that Cleo meant it no harm. Normals and residents watched nervously from around the square.

  “I’m going to take that nasty bolt out now,” Cleo told it calmly, sliding her hand towards the wound. “It might sting a little, but I promise it will stop the pain…” Then she grabbed the bolt and yanked it free.

  The dragon let out another screech and pumped its wings, getting slowly to its feet. It padded forwards, then launched itself into the air. Luke and Resus could barely watch as it circled back towards Cleo and began to dive – only to pull back up as it passed over her, eventually coming to land on the roof of one of the few undamaged houses. There it sat and began to clean the blood around the wound with its tongue.

  Luke and Resus raced over to Cleo. “You did it!” gasped Luke.

  “I knew she would,” grinned Resus. “Didn’t I just say she would?”

  Then Mr Crudley suddenly pointed a muddy finger in their direction and said, “I thought those children had been banished to the Underlands!”

  Resus was the first to register. “Hey,” he exclaimed, looking down at his fingers. “There’s skin on my hands again.”

  “And the scabs and sores have all vanished from Luke’s face,” said Cleo, touching the bandages around her own eyes.

  “It’s the gutweed,” said Luke. “It’s worn off.”

  “YOU!” The trio spun round to see the head of G.H.O.U.L. throw down his empty crossbow and stomp towards them, a trail of soggy footprints in his wake. “You’ve ruined everything – and now you’re really going to pay!”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Truth

  “How did they get back?” cried Sir Otto.

  “Have they been away?” asked Dixon blankly. “They might have sent a postcard!”

  “It doesn’t matter how they got back,” snarled Belcher, slapping a gloopy palm against the skull of another Mover. “They’ll never go anywhere ever again…”

  Within seconds, the trio were surrounded by Movers, all aiming their crossbows directly at them.

  “Don’t you dare!” came an indignant voice from across the square. Resus looked up to see his mum and dad racing towards them.

  Luke’s parents were just behind. “Stop!” cried Mr Watson. “Luke!”

  Niles Farr strode into Acrid Belcher’s line of vision. “If you harm them, I will not be responsible for my actions,” he warned.

  “Stay back, freaks!” spat the swamp beast.

  “There’s only one freak around here,” snapped Cleo, “and that’s you!”

  At this, Belcher raised his hand and slapped the mummy hard across the face, knocking her to the ground. Luke, Resus and Niles all darted forwards, but before they could reach the slime beast, the baby dragon, forgotten in all the excitement, let out a furious shriek and launched itself off the roof, its eyes fixed firmly on him.

  Luke and Resus grabbed Cleo by the hand, pulled her to her feet and ran, closely followed by their parents. The Movers, too, dropped their weapons and raced away, dodging around Dixon as he dragged Sir Otto to safety.

  Alone in the middle of the square, Acrid Belcher stumbled backwards away from the dragon, his swampy hands raised as it flew straight for him.

  “N-no…” he glugged. “NO!”

  A mighty flame erupted from the dragon’s mouth – a flame that engulfed Belcher completely. When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the head of G.H.O.U.L. was a bubbling puddle of green liquid.

  “Talk about melting under pressure,” quipped Resus, seconds before his parents grabbed him in a bear hug.

  “You’re safe!” Bella Negative cried.

  Mr and Mrs Watson did the same to Luke, hardly able to believe it was really him, and Niles Farr swept Cleo up into his powerful arms.

  Luke finally disentangled himself from his parents’ embrace. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he promised. “We need to do something first…” He scanned the devastated square for the other children and spotted Kian. “We need to get the rest of the normals out of here,” he said. “Can you help?”

  “Of course,” smiled Kian. “I’m a vampire!” He skipped into the middle of the square and shouted, “Hey, normals – this way!” Then he leapt into the air, whipped his cloak around himself and turned into a tiny bat.

  One by one, the normals emerged cautiously from their hiding places. Ryan and Finn dashed among them, cutting the ropes around their wrists and pointing to where Kian hovered above the small orange doorway out of Scream Street. Soon, their neighbours were hurrying over to help – Dr Skully, Eefa Everwell, Doug and Berry, Twinkle, the Crudleys and even Dixon.

  Luke, Resus and Cleo stood by the doorway, wishing everyone well as they crawled back to their own world. Finally, only three normals remained: Ethan, his uncle and his cousin, Arran.

  “You kept Ethan safe,” said his uncle, shaking each of them by the hand. “Thank you so much.”

  “It was nothing,” smiled Resus. “We do this sort of thing all the time!”

  Arran and his dad crawled through the doorway, leaving Ethan alone with his new friends. “I guess I won’t see you guys again,” he said.

  “I don’t suppose so,” said Luke. “But make sure you don’t forget us!”

  “Who could ever forget Scream Street?” Ethan grinned. Then he was gone.

  “Right,” said Luke to Resus and Cleo. “Let’s do it.” The trio raced across the square and into the garden where Favel was still watching over Samuel Skipstone’s werewolf. Luke took the glue and the claw from the banshee.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Ready!” said Resus and Cleo together.

  Resus held the pot while Luke smeared glue over the length of bone that stuck out from the claw. Then he pressed the relic back into place on the sleeping werewolf’s paw.

  Instantly, there was a burst of orange light above the square.

  “Come on!” yelled Resus, dashing for the gate. The trio ran back into the square just as the final section of the doorway to Luke’s world exploded in a shower of orange sparks and disappeared, sealing Scream Street off for ever.

  “Well,” said Luke, “we did it!”

  “I was never in any doubt,” grinned Resus.

  “Simple,” smiled Cleo.

  “We knew you could do it!” cheered Mrs Watson, and Alston Negative gave his son a proud pat on the back.

  However, their celebrations were interrupted by a slow handclap. “Oh, how touching.” Sir Otto Sneer, a fresh cigar jammed between his teeth, was sauntering over. “So, you’ve closed the doorway and saved Scream Street – no, make that the world! – from the slimy green madman. And now we can begin to rebuild the houses and start life anew.”

  “What do you want, Sneer?” Luke asked warily.

  “What do I want?” Sir Otto growled. “Where should I start? You’ve cost me everything! The money I earned from allowing normals to tour this place, the cash Belcher gave me so he could turn them into Movers…”

  Behind the landlord, as if to punctuate his words, the upper storey of Sneer Hall collapsed onto the already burning ground floor. “And my home!”

  “That wasn’t us,” cried Cleo. “That was the dragon!” She gestured to the majestic creature, now sitting calmly among the ashes of Everwell’s Emporium. “And plenty of other people lost their homes today too,” she added.

  “All thanks to you three,” growled Sir Otto.

  “I don’t think so,” snappe
d Resus. “If you hadn’t started bringing normals to visit Scream Street, none of this would have happened.”

  “He’s right,” said Tibia Skully bravely. “It is Sir Otto’s fault!”

  “It was Sneer wot caused all this,” agreed Twinkle.

  “The dude has been messing with our karma for years, man!” added Doug.

  Sir Otto looked up to see the residents of Scream Street all gathering round and fixing him with angry glares. Luke grinned at Resus and Cleo. “They’re standing up to him!” he hissed.

  “You’ve treated us like animals!” shouted Bella Negative.

  “Worse than animals!” yelled Molly Aire.

  “Stay back!” Sneer barked. “You don’t know what I’m capable of…”

  “Er … Uncle Otto?” interrupted Dixon, scampering up to the landlord. “I don’t think this is a good time to upset people.”

  “You imbecile!” roared Sneer. “It’s always a good time to upset people. A firm hand is the only thing these freaks understand.”

  “I think you could be underestimating them,” came a distant voice. Sir Otto jumped as a Hex Hatch sprang open in front of him. Zeal Chillchase clambered through, accompanied by his Chinese friend, Icus. As the pair stepped into Scream Street, a furious leprechaun flung itself at the Tracker, pulling his hair and biting at his ear.

  “Get back to Dead End, Rooney!” roared Chillchase, tearing the struggling leprechaun from his head and hurling him back through the window in the air. Icus quickly muttered a spell and the portal snapped closed. “Now…” said the Tracker, smoothing down his long leather coat. “Where will I find Acrid Belcher?”

  “Er … you’re standing in him,” said Resus.

  Chillchase looked down at the green puddle on the ground. “That’s Belcher?”

  “It was them!” said Sneer, pointing an accusing finger at the trio. “They brought a dragon here and murdered Acrid Belcher.”

  “A dragon?” asked Icus, scanning the square until she spotted the creature among the ruins of the emporium. She threw her head back and screeched.

  “That sounds just like the dragon’s cry!” exclaimed Cleo.

  “Hardly surprising,” said Chillchase. “She is half dragon after all.”

  The creature responded with a screech of its own, then it took to the air.

  “It’s not going to start burning things again, is it?” asked Luke.

  “Not at all,” smiled Icus. “I just asked the little fellow where he lived.”

  “It’s a boy?” asked Cleo.

  Icus nodded. “And a very handsome boy at that! Now, I think it’s time to send him home…” She began to mutter a spell, and the largest Hex Hatch the trio had ever seen opened in the sky above Scream Street. On the other side, Luke, Resus and Cleo could just make out the cave where they had first found the egg, together with the head and neck of the mother dragon. With a final shriek, the baby flew through and the portal snapped shut behind it.

  “Sorted!” beamed Icus.

  “It most definitely is not sorted,” barked Sir Otto. “I want to know what punishment G.H.O.U.L. will be handing down to these three troublemakers.”

  Zeal Chillchase pondered Sneer’s words for a moment before answering. “As G.H.O.U.L.’s head Tracker,” he said, “I was second in command to Acrid Belcher. I must therefore assume his duties now that he has left us.” He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the green goo from his boots.

  “WHAT?” spat Sneer. “He was your superior!”

  “He was evil,” insisted Icus.

  “He wanted to turn the normals into Movers!” Twinkle the fairy pointed out.

  “And lock the rest of the world away so people like us could rule,” added Mr Crudley. “Not that I agreed with any of that nonsense, of course…”

  Chillchase removed his mirrored sunglasses and fixed Sir Otto with a hard stare. “It appears that you are in the minority when it comes to your appreciation of Belcher’s plans,” he said.

  There was a crash behind them as the last section of Sneer Hall succumbed to the flames. “Sir Uncle Otto,” peeped Dixon, “I think the fire’s reached the wine cellars…”

  Everyone turned to watch as the remainder of the landlord’s ancestral home collapsed in on itself.

  “He’ll be whining about that next,” quipped Alston Negative.

  “Never mind, Sir Otto,” said Berry. “You can stay in our spare room until you find somewhere else. We’d love to have you for dinner!”

  “I’d be careful if I were you,” commented a gargoyle. “I bet he’d give you terrible indigestion.”

  A ripple of laughter spread through the crowd.

  “That’s it!” rumbled Sneer. “It’s finally time to teach you freaks some respect!” The landlord closed his eyes and gave a bizarre, animal snarl. Then, strangely, his body began to change. The crowd looked on, open-mouthed, as the landlord’s bones snapped noisily and he began to grow.

  “What’s happening?” exclaimed Mr Watson.

  Sir Otto roared as his muscles tore apart, knitting back together in stronger configurations. And still he continued to expand, becoming taller and wider by the second.

  “He’s… He’s transforming!” gasped Luke. It was true: Sneer’s face was beginning to twist and contort, the skin stretching outwards.

  “He can’t be,” cried Resus, unable to tear away his gaze.

  “He is!” exclaimed Cleo. “After all these years of calling us freaks, he’s just the same. He’s one of us!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Battle

  Sir Otto yelled in pain as the bones in his hands snapped and fused back together, the nails spreading to coat the stumps and form thick hooves. The leather of his shoes burst open as his feet did the same. Coarse, brown fur sprouted all over his body and his hair flopped out in a long mane down his back while his ears slid up to sit at the top of his head.

  By now he towered over the crowd and they looked like toys beside him. The landlord opened his mouth and roared, and as he did so his teeth lengthened and twisted into two vicious tusks. The white scarf fell away from his throat, revealing the ragged mess of torn skin hidden beneath.

  “Wh-what is he?” stammered Cleo.

  “I don’t know,” replied Luke.

  “I think I do…” gulped Resus.

  Sir Otto growled deeply and glared down at the trio. Luke could feel the sound reverberating in his stomach. Then the landlord gnashed his teeth, his thick tongue flicking around until the growls began to sound like words.

  “This … is your … fault,” he rumbled.

  “He can speak!” gasped Resus.

  “This is … YOUR FAULT!” bellowed Sneer.

  “Of course it isn’t,” Cleo retorted bravely.

  The warthog snorted, the flaps of skin at its throat vibrating. “You made me this!” it growled.

  “We had no choice!” shouted Resus. “You lost a lot of blood when the yeti attacked you. Cuffy sent me to find a bottle of animal’s blood to replace what you’d lost, and I chose … I chose warthog.”

  “WHY?” thundered Sir Otto. “WHY WARTHOG?”

  “It was the biggest bottle there!” protested Resus. “I wanted to be sure Cuffy had enough to help you.”

  “You made me a MONSTER!”

  “You’ve spent years making life as miserable as possible for the people who live here,” said Luke incredulously, “yet all along you knew you were no different. Maybe you’re right. Maybe you are a monster.”

  Resus watched thick tendrils of drool drip from the warthog’s mouth. “Still,” he said, “at least we didn’t make him any uglier.”

  With a bellow of rage, the warthog sprang forward and dipped its head. Catching Resus with one of its tusks, it tossed him across the square.

  “Stop it!” yelled Cleo. “You can’t—”

  A heavy hoof caught her in the side of the head and knocked her to the ground.

  “I’m warning you,” snarled Luke. “Y
ou’re making me angry.”

  “That’s the idea!” boomed Sir Otto. “It’ll be so much more satisfying to squash you when you’re in your little doggy costume!”

  Luke’s own transformation happened almost instantaneously, and for once he almost revelled in the pain of his twisting bones and tearing muscles. As his snout lengthened and sharp teeth pushed out through his gums, he tossed his head back.

  HOOOOOOOOWWWWLLLL!

  The crowd watched in terror as the two creatures began to circle each other in the centre of the square. Luke’s dad went to step in, but Zeal Chillchase stopped him. “Stay out of the way,” he ordered.

  Luke’s werewolf bared its teeth and growled at the beast towering over it.

  “Time to die, mongrel!” thundered the warthog, raising its front hooves and bringing them smashing down towards the werewolf. But Luke’s werewolf deftly rolled out of the way and the thick hooves crashed onto the concrete.

  Luke flipped over and lashed out with a paw, ripping at Sir Otto’s throat with his claws. The warthog roared with pain and flicked its head to the side, catching Luke’s injured knee with its tusk and ripping the stitches open.

  Luke’s werewolf fell to the ground with a yelp, blood running down its leg and soaking into its thick fur.

  “Time to finish this!” hollered Sir Otto’s warthog, raising its hooves once more. The werewolf tried to drag itself clear, but it couldn’t quite…

  Then a flash of blonde fur shot past as a second werewolf pounced, sinking its teeth into one of Sir Otto’s front legs and sending them both tumbling backwards.

  “It’s Luke’s mum!” gasped Cleo.

  The warthog’s head smashed against the ground with a sickening thud, and the creature lay there for a moment, stunned – just long enough for Luke’s mum’s werewolf to spin round and bare its teeth, ready to strike at Sir Otto’s throat.

  But the warthog was faster. As the blonde werewolf lunged forward, Sir Otto caught its flank between his own massive teeth and bit down hard. The warthog shook the wolf around like a ragdoll, eventually tossing it into the ruins of the emporium. Then it turned back to Luke, who was still lying in a pool of blood.