The Secret Dragon

by Ed Clarke

  Griff manhandled Dylan to the ground and picked up another egg, smashing it down and breaking it apart. He dragged himself painfully across the rocks to crack another and another.

  ‘Stop it!’ yelled Mari. ‘You’re going to hurt them!’

  All she could think about were the vulnerable little animals flopping and flapping around them in the dark like baby turtles.

  ‘I’m giving birth to them!’ cried Griff. ‘I, Dr Griff, am giving them life.’

  Mari reached down into the water to scoop up a tiny dragon that was struggling to stay afloat. ‘But they can’t swim! They’ll drown in here with us!’

  ‘Then that will be my legacy,’ cried Griff, with a sparkling madness in his eye. ‘They will find my bones next to the remains of a brand-new species. And they will surely name it after –’

  ‘Mari,’ announced Dylan, knocking Griff out cold with the rock he was now holding.

  ‘Dylan!’ yelled Mari. ‘What did you do that for?’

  ‘He was going crazy,’ he said. ‘He was going to drown all the dragons.’

  ‘And smashing him over the head with a rock is the answer?’

  ‘Well, it’s an answer …’

  ‘You’re as bad as each other, you boys. Thank goodness Gweeb is a girl. We might actually have a chance of getting out of here alive.’

  Chastened, Dylan leaned down to feel Griff’s pulse. ‘He’ll be fine. I didn’t hit him very hard. He’ll have a bit of a sore head, that’s all.’

  ‘Help me collect up all the dragons,’ said Mari. ‘We need to get them as far away from the water as possible.’

  Working quickly, Dylan and Mari picked up the confused and frightened reptiles and popped them carefully into his backpack. A few flapped their wings as if they wanted to fly, but they were too dazed from their hatching.

  ‘You do realize you’ve got a whole species in your school bag?’ said Mari as she slipped the last one in.

  ‘It’s not even a very big bag.’ Dylan smiled. ‘Now what?’

  ‘We wait for Gweeb,’ replied Mari. ‘That’s all we can do.’

  The water was considerably higher in the cave now. Mari could no longer stand up without hitting her head on the roof. She wriggled out through the hole to look for any sign of help, but only got a mouthful of sea spray for her trouble. The waves were crashing just below the opening – and, what was worse, she could see the powerful current dragging some of the loose material away from the rockfall. Any minute now the pile of stones that was holding them up above the waves might collapse and throw them headlong into the sea.

  Mari squinted through the rain at the empty horizon and felt a lump rise in her throat. She watched a fork of lightning crack into the sea in the distance. She realized it no longer made her flinch – though it still made her think about her dad. About all those times she’d wished he were with her. But now she knew that he could have been if he’d wanted to. It was almost too much to bear.

  She scrunched her eyes up tight to hold back the tears, and for once it wasn’t an image of her dad that came into her mind. It was an image of her mum in their kitchen, holding a cup of tea in both hands, staring out of the window at the beating rain, worrying where her daughter was. She would be fearing the worst, just like she always did. And this time she would be right.

  More like a prayer than a plea, she whispered, ‘I really need you, Mum.’

  A distant grumble of thunder cut her imagining short, but still she dared to believe that Gweeb would find Rhian, and Rhian would find them. Because they had to.

  Thinking of her mum reminded Mari of something, and out of her pocket she pulled the crumpled photo of Dylan and his family she’d found among the ones of Gweeb. She ducked back inside the cave.

  Griff was still unconscious, only his head and torso now above the water. Dylan was huddled on the last tiny patch of dry rocks, clutching the backpack of dragons to his chest.

  ‘Here,’ Mari said, handing him the photo. ‘This is what I wanted to give you this morning. It was on the roll of film in your dad’s camera.’

  Dylan stared at the photo like it was a priceless treasure. He took a deep, shaky breath.

  ‘It’s your mum, right?’

  He nodded. ‘She died when I was little. I never really knew her. It hurts Dad too much to talk about it and I don’t have many pictures of her.’

  Mari nodded. She knew how he felt. Or at least she used to know.

  ‘I thought I knew my dad,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think there could be anything worse than him having died. But now? Now I’m not so sure.’

  Dylan put a hand on her shoulder. Mari looked down at the water lapping against her feet.

  ‘I don’t suppose any of it matters any more,’ she said.

  But then, out of the deluge, a tiny dragon swooped into the cave and crashed into her chest.

  ‘Gweeb!’ cried Mari.

  The note was missing from her tail. Surely that meant …? Mari swung round to look out to sea, but there was nothing. No sign of rescue, only waves smashing against the rocks below.

  Mari began to laugh and cry at the same time. However grateful she was to see Gweeb, she knew now that their last hope of rescue was gone. She looked over at Dylan, and she could tell that he knew it too. She glanced down at the tiny red dragon nestling in her hands, panting heavily with the effort of flying against the storm.

  ‘I know you did everything you could, Gweeb,’ said Mari. ‘Thank you.’

  She lifted her up to the weak light filtering in from outside, and remembered the moment she had first held her, marvelling at this creature and everything that her existence meant for the world, for herself and for her dad. But that wasn’t important any more. She certainly didn’t care about Latin names, or what her dad would have thought. The only thing that was precious to her now was life. And even if hers and Dylan’s were lost, there was no need for this beautiful animal to perish with them. Above all else she wanted her to be safe. She wanted Gweeb to be where she needed to be.

  ‘I think we found what you’ve been looking for,’ she said to the dragon.

  Dylan unzipped his bag to reveal the mass of little red, winged reptiles inside. He laid it gently down on the rock so that they could crawl out.

  Gweeb’s head pulled up sharply when she saw what was happening, like a dog seeing a squirrel scamper across its path. Mari slowly lowered her down to meet her relatives.

  ‘It’s your family, Gweeb,’ she said.

  Gweeb edged forward, her snout sniffing the air. Another dragon with a yellow stripe above its eye crept forward to meet her until their noses were almost touching. Mari and Dylan watched awestruck as the dragon’s long tail curled round towards Gweeb. Gweeb’s own tail slid along the rock to meet it, until one began to entwine with the other, twisting round and round until they were locked together in a reptilian embrace.

  And then, as quickly as they had made the connection, their tails untwined in the same way. Gweeb, transfixed by her double, remained rooted to the spot. The yellow-striped dragon turned to see the others streaming out of the bag, and began to stretch its wings – slowly at first, then with more power, testing their strength. It began to lift off, pointing its snout towards the light, and then, with a flick of its tail, it flew through the hole towards the sea. The dragons that had followed it out of the bag instantly gave chase. One by one they streamed out of the hole until only Gweeb was left. The tiny dragon looked up at Mari, as if asking for permission.

  ‘It’s OK, Gweeb,’ she said. ‘They’re your family. You should be with them.’

  Gweeb picked her way across the little patch of rock towards Mari, and twined her tail around her finger. Their eyes met for a moment, then Gweeb turned to face the light. She crouched down, preparing to spring off and away.

  ‘No!’ A hand clawed around Gweeb, pinning her down. ‘You’re not going anywhere! This is my discovery. My legacy!’

  ‘Let her go!’ yelled Mari, desperately trying to prise Griff
’s fingers off Gweeb’s body. Dylan joined in, wrestling him from behind.

  ‘I. Won’t. Let. Go!’ growled Griff through gritted teeth.

  ‘You will!’ Mari yelled back. ‘She is no one’s discovery! She deserves to be free!’

  Then suddenly a lot of things happened at once: the almighty swell of a wave, a grating, sucking noise as rocks were pulled across rocks, the ground shifting under their feet, and an inrushing of light as the stones beneath them fell away. The sea was taking back the cave. There was no stone beneath them now, only water, rushing, swirling, pushing them.

  Gweeb sprang into the air as Griff loosened his grip – though she couldn’t leave Mari and Dylan to their fate, and stayed, hovering above them, too small to help. Mari struggled to keep her head above the surface as she was sucked under, then spat back up, then sucked under again. There wasn’t time to think, only a welcome flash of understanding that Gweeb was safe.

  Mari tried to swim to safety, but the current was too strong, the waves too angry and the rocks too jagged. She caught sight of Dylan, rising and falling in the swell next to her, a look of panic in his eyes. She managed to stretch out and touch his hand, just for a second, before a wave swung him out of reach. Too late. It was all too late … She was going under.

  ‘Mari!’

  Mari couldn’t see where the voice was coming from, but she recognized it instantly. Was she dreaming, or was it real this time?

  ‘MARI!’

  It was her. It had to be her.

  A surge of energy lifted Mari up, and she saw a small rigid inflatable lifeboat coming round the headland with two people on board.

  ‘MUM!’ she screamed back, kicking towards the boat with every ounce of strength she had.

  But the boat was rising and falling in the swell, and Mari was still sinking. The noise and colour of the world disappeared and it wasn’t returning. There was no way to get back, only sucked-under nothingness.

  And then, at her last breath, a hand was gripping her arm, and the strength of it was pulling her up out of the sea. Rhian.

  Her mother was saving her life.

  ‘I’ve got you,’ was what Mari heard her mum telling her. And with it Mari felt relief, and love, and regret.

  ‘I’m … sorry,’ she spluttered.

  ‘No,’ said Rhian, drawing her daughter close. ‘I am.’

  Mari and her mother held each other tightly. Enough to try and wring out all the hurt.

  ‘Dylan!’ It was Gareth, at the front of the boat, hauling his son out of the water.

  Mari and Rhian rushed to help pull the soaking boy from the sea. He was slippery and heavy with the weight of the water, but in a second he was in the boat with them.

  ‘Help!’ Griff was still in the sea, struggling to stay above the waves with his shattered leg.

  Rhian manoeuvred the boat towards him, and together they all managed to lift him in. He cried out in pain as his leg was dragged over the side, but he didn’t thank anyone for rescuing him. He only had eyes for the creatures in the air above them. It was the dragons, whirling and folding and swirling in the sky like a flock of starlings.

  Griff rooted awkwardly around in his pocket to pull out his phone, desperately trying to get his camera to work. But the waterlogged machine was useless. He threw it into the sea with a cry of frustration.

  The dragons were beginning to turn away, flying out to sea. Only Gweeb was hanging back.

  Mari and Dylan looked up at their little winged friend. With a final mischievous nod of her head, Gweeb banked and swooped and soared away with the others. Mari smiled. A broad, proud, loving smile. And a tear too. A happy tear.

  ‘Please,’ begged Griff. ‘Follow them!’

  He shook Rhian by the shoulders. ‘FOLLOW THEM!’ he roared.

  Rhian just stared back, implacable. ‘We’re going home,’ she told him.

  Gareth gunned the engine, and the boat swung round, speeding towards the safety of the shore. Mari and Dylan and Griff all gazed back up into the sky to watch as the little flock of dragons disappeared out over the open sea.

  ‘Hey now,’ said Gareth, peering at the drenched figure huddled in the front of the boat. ‘Aren’t you that bloke off the TV?’

  Griff dropped his head into his hands and began to weep.

  Epilogue

  The sun was setting majestically over the sea as a battered Land Rover pulled up in the car park next to the beach.

  ‘So,’ said Rhian as she and Mari climbed out, ‘where’s the best place to find fossils then?’

  They started strolling towards the water’s edge.

  ‘Maybe this time I’ll just look at the sunset,’ said Mari.

  Rhian put her arm round her. ‘You won’t stop doing what you love, will you, Mari?’ she said. ‘Because of what your dad did?’

  Mari squeezed her mother’s hand. They watched the waves crash against the shore as they had done for millions of years.

  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you …’

  ‘I just wanted him to be proud of me, Mum.’

  ‘I know, Mari. I just wanted you to be proud of me too.’ Rhian stopped and turned to face her. ‘Maybe we should just be proud of ourselves. What do you think?’

  Mari smiled, and buried her face in her mother’s knitted jumper. It felt soft and warm. It felt of home.

  ‘The world is waiting for you to be you,’ said Rhian. ‘Whenever you’re ready. I won’t hold you back.’

  ‘You weren’t, Mum, really you weren’t,’ whispered Mari. She looked up at her mother. ‘Maybe I’ll stick around here for a bit longer though. If that’s OK …’

  ‘Well, yes,’ said Rhian with a wry smile. ‘Especially now you’re so good with animals.’

  Mari punched her mum playfully on the arm. ‘Well, I learned a bit about one animal,’ she said. ‘Though the main thing I found out, if I’m honest, is that she was better off by herself.’

  Rhian shook her head. ‘I don’t believe that for a second, cariad.’

  Mari was staring out at the orange sun slipping beneath the horizon when she noticed something odd. A dark speck in the middle of the sun. The speck became a dot, and the dot became a tiny silhouette. A flitting shape was coming towards them.

  Rhian turned to follow Mari’s gaze. The shape was getting closer, and now Mari could see it had wings, and an undulating body with a long tail following after. And then Mari could see that it was red, a bright ruby red, with a crest reflecting rainbows in the dying rays of the sun. At the last moment Mari saw two points of sparkling emerald before Gweeb careered into her chest.

  ‘Gweeb!’ she exclaimed. Gweeb raised her tail and spiralled it around Mari’s finger. ‘What are you doing here? Are you hurt? Has something happened to the others?’

  Rhian looked closely at Gweeb. ‘I can’t see anything wrong with her.’

  ‘Then why has she come back?’ asked Mari.

  ‘Maybe she’s decided she’s better off here,’ said Rhian. ‘With you.’

  Mari looked back at the little dragon, hardly daring to believe that it might be true. Gweeb lifted her head, opened her mouth and, by way of approval, sent forth a little jet of flame.

  ‘Ha!’ said Mari delightedly. ‘How are you doing that, now?’ she asked, peering into Gweeb’s jaws to get a closer look.

  ‘Maybe she’s just growing up,’ said Rhian.

  Mari smiled, and raised Gweeb up so that their eyes were fixed on one another. ‘In that case,’ she whispered very softly to the dragon, ‘welcome home.’

  Acknowledgements

  The Secret Dragon is a book that is very close to my heart, because it is set in a place much like the one my parents live in, on the coast of South Wales. I’ve walked the cliffs and the beaches there, just like Mari does, for over twenty years, and though I’ve never really lived there myself, it has always felt like home. So as these are the acknowledgements, I have to acknowledge just how much I’ve been inspired by the Heritage Coast of the Vale of Glamorgan, and th
ank my parents – John and Lynda Clarke – for their love and support. I hope that the people of the Vale will take Gweeb to their hearts, just as I have the beautiful place where they live. And I’d also like to thank my Welsh friends whose names I have slightly borrowed for a lot of the characters (you know who you are), and Reg Noyes for a little local lingo!

  There are, however, two people without whom this book would not exist at all. Firstly, my editor, Ben Horslen at Puffin, who had always been on the lookout for a book about a dragon, but had never really expected it to be so little! Ben’s faith in the story, trust in me, and excellent guidance throughout have literally made it all possible. Thanks too go to the incomparable Claire Wilson and her assistant Miriam Tobin at Rogers, Coleridge and White. Claire always knew the right home for this story, always gives the best advice and glides effortlessly like an agent swan, never revealing how hard she must be paddling beneath.

  Thanks also to my fabulous cover illustrator, Ben Mantle and the interior artist, Simone Krüger, for bringing The Secret Dragon to life with such vibrancy and character; to Emily Smyth for creating the book’s wonderful look and feel; to Shreeta Shah and Sophie Nelson for making sure it all made sense; and to the whole team at Puffin for supporting Mari, Gweeb and me out in the big wide world. It really is an honour to have my name on such a beautiful book, and to be published by a company whose stories lined my own shelves as a child. And now my book will sit on the shelves of my own two daughters – Miriam and Rose – which warms my heart more than anyone will ever know.

  Most importantly, I’d like to thank my sometime copy-editor, frequent sounding board, and always wife, Rachel. She has enabled me in so many ways to take the time I need to write and promote my books, and without her constant encouragement since I first put pen to paper, you would not be reading this.