Bentwhistle the Dragon Box

by Paul Cude

  "It's okay to ask. It's no big deal, not to me anyway. My grandfather owns and runs one of the biggest plantations in the South Pacific. He always supplies me with enough to be going on with. He's one of the most down to earth dragons you could ever wish to meet, and while you are right about the lau laus being considered a delicacy, in times gone by they were freely available to the likes of you and I. My grandfather keeps me supplied for that very reason, knowing that I can let ordinary dragons get a taste of these delightful fruits."

  "Sounds like a top dragon... your grandfather."

  A faraway look of days gone by came across the vendor's face as he tossed and turned the spluttering fruity mixture on the griddle.

  "A top dragon... that would be an almost perfect description," agreed the vendor.

  Taking a quick peek in the oven, the dragon quickly realised the bready concoction had finished cooking. Pulling it out, he expertly sliced a huge hole in the middle. Peter thought the bread looked similar to naan bread that he had tasted on many outings with Tank and Richie to their favourite Indian restaurant in Salisbridge. Using the bread itself as a kind of shovel, the vendor scooped up the fruity ingredients into the hole, proceeding then to pour a white dressing all over it.

  "There you go Sir. Hope you enjoy."

  Peter could feel the heat of the bread and its contents almost burning the fake skin from his hands, but was only interested in the fastest way to get it into his aching stomach.

  "Thank you very much. I hope to see you again," said Peter, momentarily looking up from the gorgeous smelling snack.

  The vendor gave Peter another toothy grin and a short bow as he started to clean the griddle for the next customer.

  Walking across the plaza, weaving in and out of commuters, Peter used his hands to lift the bread towards his mouth and gobble furiously on its contents. The 'Charcoal Surprise' was easily the most amazing thing he had ever tasted. Cooked to perfection, the fruit was so sweet and tangy, while the bread melted in his mouth as the occasional fizz of charcoal laid waste to his tongue, causing an almost perfect combination. Passersby in both forms were craning their small human and enormous dragon necks around to give him very curious looks. He didn't care one iota, imagining he looked a right sight at this very moment.

  Leaving the monorail plaza, he headed towards the centre of Purbeck Peninsula. Halfway there, he stopped and sat on a seat carved into the dark brown rock. Expecting the feeling of cold, hard rock on his human shaped bum, it came as something of a surprise to get a surge of heat passed on to him by the seat. Examining the rock closely, he found tiny rivulets of molten lava running just beneath the surface, with little plumes of steam rising from the entire length of the seat, something he hadn't spotted before he'd sat down.

  'Wow,' he thought, 'some fancy pants has designed the seats with built in heat from the lava running beneath the city. It's just one pleasant surprise after another today.'

  Taking ten minutes or so to let his stomach soak up the delightful snack that he'd so greedily gobbled down, all the time making the most of the comfortably warm seat that just seemed to melt away his worries, eventually, and very reluctantly, he got up and continued heading into Purbeck. With his stomach content, his thoughts turned to where he should head next. He'd already had a great time, and didn't really have a destination in mind.

  While trying to decide, he spotted an information terminal on one side of the path up ahead. Strolling purposefully over to it, he began to look at the display. Terminals like this can be found dotted around dragon communities all over the world. They can be used for very simple tasks such as looking up a dragon's address or getting directions, or more complex tasks such as contacting Council officials, checking on the latest construction work anywhere in the world, or if the area should allow it, boosting a mobile phone signal here underground. Found mainly in the more modern parts of the underground world, information terminals are commonplace in and around station plazas and the centre of towns and cities, unlike the area where the Mantra Emporium was located where the nearest would have been quite some way a way.

  Looking at the different headings on the LCD touch screen, Peter stumbled across one entitled 'Purbeck and Surrounding Area Covert Entrances'. Scrolling down the screen, he looked at the information available. Basically it was a list of all the public surface access points into and out of Purbeck Peninsula. During their time in the nursery ring, young dragons learn all about how to access the surface discreetly and how to enter the dragon domain from any number of concealed entrances. While they aren't given the exact details of every entrance to the dragon world, they do have access to anything they want to know, either via the information terminals, the dragon libraries or telepathically.

  A big grin spread across Peter's face. When this part of the curriculum had hit his nursery ring, he, Tank and Richie had developed a game that they had played for some weeks. It was all such a long time ago, but with his eidetic memory, he could remember it as though it were only yesterday. The idea of the game was to find all the concealed entrances in and around Purbeck Peninsula and use as many as possible, with the winner being the one who found either the most fun to use entrance, or the most bizarre. Tank and Peter had spent days at the library (unusually for Peter, not so much for Tank) looking up all the access points. All their hard work, however, turned out to be in vain. As was normally the case, Richie was way ahead of them both. Not only did she find the most bizarre entrance, but two others that were so much fun, the three of them constantly used them over and over again.

  Located topside at a children's park right in the centre of Swanage, the bizarre entrance was perfect for a dead of night attempt in the middle of a very humid August. Most of the other entrances Peter had come across up until that point had seemed relatively simple to him, hence he was intrigued as to why they were skulking around in the pitch black. His opinion changed forever after that very night. All three friends sneaked into the park, easy really, with just a three foot fence surrounding it. After that, Richie showed them the sequence for unlocking the entrance. Peter and Tank were both blown away, not believing a word of it at first, assuming that it was one of her infamous practical jokes. However, she was telling the complete truth. Petals of four separate flowers in three separate flower beds all had to be folded so that they pointed down towards the ground. Finding the flowers was going to be impossible, or so Peter thought. Richie managed to find them all first time, without damaging any of the nearby blooms, even though they were surrounded by hundreds of flowers that looked exactly the same.

  Next, three small children's spring mounted rides had to all be twisted around to face a northerly direction. As if that wasn't enough, the next stage of the operation was time dependant. The children's roundabout had to be spun at more than twenty revolutions a minute. After that it would be a case of sprinting to the far end of the playground to the giant yellow enclosed spiral slide. With the flowers and the rides in position, a small gap would open up about halfway down the slide, just above a wide metal support that held part of it in place, for only as long as the roundabout managed to stay turning faster than twenty revolutions a minute. Richie bounded up the yellow ladder, leaping feet first into the slide. Tank followed next, his gigantic frame a tight squeeze to say the least. Peter knew he had to hurry, because the roundabout was slowing down all the time. Grabbing the rail above his head, he hurled himself down into the dark after his friends. Turning one of the sharp corners in the dark, he suddenly felt the surface disappear beneath him. He fought the urge to scream, knowing that his friends before him hadn't made a sound. Almost as soon as the falling sensation had started, it stopped with a very wet THUMP.

  In the pitch black, even with his enhanced dragon senses, he could still not see his friends, who he assumed were still somewhere in front of him. Sitting up to his tummy in freezing cold, flowing water, after only a few seconds he started getting swept along. He could feel the water behind him building up more and more, making hi
m move faster and faster along the twisting and turning underground stream. Twice he banged his head on the ceiling as he was carried along, only just managing to hold back some very bad curses. Just as he was about to call out to his friends to make sure he was still travelling in the right direction, again the world beneath him fell away and he found himself falling in a shower of cold water in the pitch black. Tumbling wildly, he noticed a small cavern with a body of water rushing up to meet him. With a huge SPLASH he found himself dumped unceremoniously into the small, shallow lake. Sitting up, he was assaulted by roaring laughter from his friends that echoed around the cavern. Shaking themselves dry on the water's edge were Richie and Tank, curled up with mirth. Getting to his feet, Peter waded over to his friends, the smiles on their faces causing him to laugh, which in turn made the other two laugh again. All three of them looked a right sight, soaking wet, freezing cold, bursting with laughter. Peter couldn't recall that incident without chuckling out loud. To this day, it was still the most unusual entrance to the dragon domain that he'd ever come across.

  Of the two fun entrances, one was a sinkhole, a little offshore from one of the beaches at Sandbanks, just East of Swanage. Hardly ever used as far as he could remember, it was designed to be accessed by boat, but it was possible to swim there, as it was only about three hundred yards from the shore. A discoloured old buoy marked the sinkhole's position. Had any humans dived in that particular area (they shouldn't have as it was marked out as being a site of special scientific interest), all they would have found was the wreck of a small ship, with absolutely no defining features. Something utterly uninteresting. However, a dragon would know that the sinkhole lies directly below the small wreck. He remembered fondly how Richie had led him and Tank out into the night, much in the same way as she had to the park in Swanage. Way too many people would have been here to do it any other time than late at night under the cover of darkness. Three swimmers going out that far and then not returning would definitely arouse suspicion in the daytime on the usually crowded beach. Shrouded by the darkness, the three had a leisurely swim out to the wreck, changing into their dragon forms halfway, a new experience for Peter, having never done it underwater (steady!) before. He wanted to laugh madly at the overwhelming tickling sensation which was the only way to describe the very different experience, from his point of view anyway. Diving down to the bottom on occasion on the way, to swim among the delicate but stunningly beautiful seahorses and other marine life, the three weren't sure who was more surprised: the three of them to see the vast array of unusual aquatic creatures, or the creatures at seeing three prehistoric monsters larking about, blowing bubbles and just generally having a good time in the warm, late summer water. On reaching the wreck, Richie found an old steel bar lying on the bottom, no doubt part of some far reaching mantra, which she used to lever up the old ship's corpse from beneath. As she did so, water and sand started to disappear at a tremendous rate into the gap that she'd created. Richie indicated to Tank and Peter that they should dive through the narrow gap and into the darkness. Tank didn't need a second invitation and dived through, once again just making it due to his oversized dragon frame. Reluctant to throw himself into the darkness, Peter closed his eyes and propelled himself forward, knowing that Richie was becoming more and more impatient. Using his enhanced dragon senses, just like Richie and Tank, Peter was capable of holding his breath for more than half an hour, something he concentrated on now more than ever. Finding himself surrounded by a dizzying array of bubbles, suddenly something hard smashed into his shoulder, sending him tumbling head over tail. It was all he could do to keep holding his breath, as Richie's graceful form plummeted past him. Telepathically, she sent him a short apology for bumping into him, just managing a brief wave before a huge plume of bubbles engulfed her. For someone, or something, that was used to doing acrobatics (normally, of course, the aerial kind) he found himself having a great deal of trouble controlling his urge to throw up. He felt as though he'd been whisked up in a raging underwater vortex, spinning round and round at a positively dizzying rate. Imagine, if you will, the biggest, most amazing waterslide, only underwater and at the speed of a bullet. That's the only way he could think of the experience he was currently suffering. Still tumbling wildly out of control, concentrating on holding his breath and not throwing up (which in his mind only added to the building sense of panic, as he assumed that if he opened his mouth to throw up, then he would probably drown. No pressure then!) he could just make out Tank in the distance, being tossed around like a rag doll, seemingly loving every second of it. Richie had by now turned her uncontrollable descent into something of an art. Having stopped tumbling, she'd made her slim dragon form resemble a kind of torpedo shape, and was currently zipping in and out of the giant bubble columns at a jaw dropping angle. As he watched his friends, it dawned on him that just maybe he was approaching the journey all wrong.

  'Perhaps enjoying the experience is key to surviving it,' he thought. With this in mind, he spread out both his wings in an attempt to gain more control over his ungainly drop. Rushing water and bouncing bubbles caressing the membranes in his wings made him want to... giggle. It tickled. It really, really tickled.

  Not able to tell whether things had gotten better or worse, on the plus side he'd forgotten about wanting to throw up, but the desire to laugh out loud was overwhelming, which again made him think he might well drown, only this time from laughter. Panic once again started to rise from the pit of his stomach, but before it had a chance to take hold he found himself tangled up in a mass of slimy, dark green seaweed. It was everywhere, preventing him from moving, let alone getting himself untangled. He looked around for his friends, but they were nowhere in his eye line. Abruptly the seaweed contracted, nearly forcing open his clamped shut mouth. With a vice like grip on him, the seaweed spun him around and around, hurling him straight towards a bright orange, oversized starfish which, unbelievably, used one of its arms to bat him away in a totally different direction. Things were getting weird now, even for the dragon domain. Unable to change his trajectory even in the slightest, Peter now found himself heading for the wide open mouth of a monstrous giant clam. Looking back on it, he could certainly see the funny side, but at the time he had no idea if this was what was supposed to be happening. Hitting the back of the clam's mouth at considerable speed, its massive structure slammed shut, leaving him alone in the dark. Lying trapped, concentrating on holding his breath, he could feel everything all about him move, in an upwards direction he thought. After what seemed like an hour, but was actually only a few minutes, the clam's mouth opened, revealing the inside of a well lit chamber. Swimming gently out of the clam's mouth, careful not to touch the sides for fear of being swallowed again, he broke the surface to be greeted by his friends’ laughter. Richie and Tank were desperate to go again, and come to think of it, now that Peter knew what to expect, so was he.

  'The other fun entrance, well that's... that's... hmmm. That's only a short walk away,' he thought. Indecision set in, well at least for a split second. It was a bit childish to want to use the concealed entrance just for the fun of it, wasn't it? Especially as he was on his own.

  'What the hell,' he thought, heading off in the direction of the nearest way to the surface.

  It turned out the closest access point was only a few minutes' walk away and would bring him out in one of the arcades in Swanage itself. This worked out quite well because the 'fun' entrance he was planning to use to get back was only a little further along the seafront, in the guise of a beach hut.

  Turning off the main walkway he'd been on since exiting the monorail station, he headed up a steep flight of rocky stairs. Climbing roughly three storeys, he turned a corner and found himself in a small circular chamber, entirely carved out of rock. In the middle of the chamber was a round glass cage with a circular metal pad at the base of it. Warning signs were plastered on either side of the cage's door. White writing on a red background warned 'ONLY USE IN HUMAN FORM' and 'NARROW IR
IS IN USE. DRAGON BODIES WILL NOT FIT'.

  Sliding the glass door aside, he stepped onto the metal pad. A tinny voice came out of a small speaker beside his head.

  "Keep your body within the circumference of the pad. Be prepared for human interaction."

  The glass door in front of him closed automatically, encasing him fully. Bending his knees slightly, he prepared to be shot upwards at high speed. The lights dimmed, before a staggeringly loud 'WHOOSH' sent him straight up into the air, through a hole in the top of the chamber and up into total darkness. Crouched ever so slightly, he could see the rock as it raced by only inches from his face. The noise from the ascent started to die off as the pad slowed. He craned his neck to look up. He was close enough now just to make out the metallic surface of the iris, able to make out the seams where it would split to let him through.

  Only moving at about a metre a second now, Peter's eyes were suddenly dazzled by the bright light shining through the now open iris. Familiar sounds of arcade machines reverberated all around him as he came to rest in the middle of a group of slot machines. Having stopped moving, the pad looked just like any other part of the surrounding floor. Ducking down on coming through the iris, he was now looking for the opportunity to sneak through the very narrow gap between two of the machines. Right on cue, one of the two penny machines down at the far end of the arcade made a loud paying out kind of sound, followed by the ching-ching-ching of coins falling out of the bottom. With everybody's attention focused elsewhere, Peter squeezed through the gap and nonchalantly stood up.

  Nobody in the arcade had witnessed his arrival, with the exception of the woman behind the change counter opposite: a seemingly middle aged woman with long, dark hair, part of which was tied back with a stripy bandana. She gave Peter a long stare, before breaking into a smile and giving him a surreptitious wink with her right eye. He returned the gesture before casually leaving by the seafront entrance.