Bentwhistle the Dragon Box

by Paul Cude

  "It's the right tunnel as that's the direction that both of them are pointing in."

  "Are you sure little one?" asked the old dragon, hesitantly. "Sure enough to bet our lives on it?"

  Of course there was no way he could be sure, and he was most certainly not willing to bet their lives on his... best guess.

  "Not entirely," he coughed up.

  "Good!" exclaimed the master mantra maker. Leaning down, he whispered gently in Peter's right ear. "The eyes my boy. It's all in the eyes."

  Instantly he checked the dragon statue's eyes. Both of them were looking towards the left tunnel.

  'But weren't they doing that before?' he thought. As if reading his mind, the old dragon moved the nose once again through a series of rotations, and unbelievably, the eyes of the dragon did shift, almost imperceptibly. The movement was so subtle, and of course on a couple of occasions they didn't move at all, but sometimes they did and that was all he needed to know. So with the correct nose in position, Peter turned and announced,

  "So it's the left tunnel we need to take?"

  With a tiny nod of his head, the shopkeeper answered,

  "That's correct."

  Taking a step forward towards the left hand passageway, suddenly a gigantic, bony, tattered and just basically old, wing, swung round and blocked his way.

  "We must walk directly to the entrance, but on no account go any further than the first waterfall."

  'Oh... things are just getting better and better,' mused the young hockey playing dragon. Choosing to walk in front of the master mantra maker, he tentatively padded his way across to the entrance of the left hand tunnel which surprisingly, to him anyway, still remained pitch black.

  Standing at the cusp of the entrance, he watched as the other two tunnels faded into nothing, a wave of relief washing over him. Hoping fervently that all the action he'd seen today was behind him, he stepped into the darkness.

  Letting out an almighty yawn, due mainly to the fact that he spent about ninety-nine percent of the time huddled away inside his Mantra Emporium, this was the most action Gee Tee had seen in quite some time, probably since unleashing the ice salamander, the one that young Flash had given so much in getting rid of, the one from which they were still clearing up.

  Clumsily he strode past Peter and through the entrance to the remaining tunnel. All of a sudden, the entire vista before them lit up, totally taking Peter's breath away. It was the single most amazing sight he could ever remember witnessing. Trailing off into the distance as far as he could see, the tunnel was a sight to behold. Four or five yards in front of him a stream, two or three yards across, with shallow, crystal clear water disappeared over a little waterfall, which rippled, tickled, tumbled, swirled, flowed and lapped at the grassy banks on either side of it. Peter stood transfixed; never in his life had he seen water move in such a magnificent way. Abruptly, an overwhelming need to touch the water, move into it, drink from it... started to consume him. He became so distracted that he failed to notice some other key features of the enchanting and rather deadly environment he found himself in with the old dragon. You see the stunning stream, scattered with tiny weaving bends, waterfalls measured in inches and thick twisting branches looking like they'd fallen perfectly across it in places, was really something special... particularly if you looked up, something he hadn't done yet. But if he had, he'd have seen an exact copy of the stream, mirrored in every way, running along what he considered to be the ceiling of the tunnel, its water seemingly glued there, gravity somehow defying belief. Between the two impossible streams running up the curved walls of the almost circular tunnel, a stunning looking layer of perfectly cut grass interspersed with the most beautiful wild flowers complemented the running water perfectly. The flawless grass was besieged by swathes of daisies, most of which had a shield of Goldilocks buttercups surrounding them. Towers of pink and yellow snapdragons stood up proud from the river bank, protruding from the ceiling and the bowed walls of the passageway. Ironically, yellow dragon's teeth blooms were dotted about everywhere, almost splattered like paint flicked from a brush. Pink evening primrose, creeping forget-me-nots, bluebells, snowdrops, daffodils and cowslips melted seamlessly into the picture perfect landscape, if that's how it could be described. Honeysuckle and clusters of stunning red poppies beset the curled, enclosed rock walls, making it look as though it were under attack in some places. This faultless vision was set off with common spotted orchids plaguing sections of the river bank and tormenting pockets of the surrounding rock wall, almost covering it in a jacket in places, their white petals imprinted with perfect patterns of purple, looking like some kind of textbook tie-dye production. It was an idyllic scene. But still, Peter found himself focused on the running water, finding it very hard to resist. Before he could move towards it, the very same wing as before moved out in front of him, blocking his way.

  "Fight it child!" the old shopkeeper ordered, referring to Peter's urge. "It wants you... wants you to touch it with any part of your body. It's part of the vault's defence system. SNAP OUT OF IT!"

  Blinking furiously, the young dragon shook his head, almost as though he hadn't realised what was happening.

  Figuring that his young friend needed a practical demonstration of what would have happened, the master mantra maker folded his wings back behind him, closed his hands together, held them up to his prehistoric jaw before mouthing a few words into them. Sparkling bright light shone through the gaps in his fingers momentarily, before disappearing completely. Taking one step forward, Gee Tee threw open his hands and released an exquisite looking dragonfly that he'd just created out of thin air. Transparent wings fluttered gracefully as it cut through the air, heading straight for some of the reeds that lined part of the shallow river's banks. About halfway there it seemed to become confused, almost as if it were battling to understand which way was up and which way was down. Both dragons looked on, one in fascination, the other knowing full well what was about to unfold. Having gotten a grip on gravity, or perhaps it should be reality, the striking looking insect perched precariously for a few seconds, before almost sliding down a reed towards the water. The second its body came in contact with the breathtaking liquid, it froze... INSTANTLY! Coming to rest, it looked like some kind of miniature statue erected on the surface of the river. Staggered, Peter took a step back, bumping straight into the outstretched scaled belly of the shopkeeper. It was only then that he really took in his surroundings, and the rest of the tunnel that he had little choice now but to traverse.

  "It... it... it... it looks so beautiful," he mumbled.

  "Beautiful but ultimately DEADLY! If you take one lesson away from today... it should be that. So much of the world we live in is nothing like we actually perceive it. And that's certainly more true at the moment with the threat we face than probably at any other time in history. REMEMBER that at all times," exclaimed the old shopkeeper, rapping Peter gently on the forehead.

  Nodding, he wondered how on earth they were going to traverse the simply perfect looking vista. Eventually, when the silence between the two dragons had grown unbearably uncomfortable, the younger of the two once again piped up.

  "How do we cross it?"

  Stepping past him, leaning down as he did so, the master mantra maker whispered,

  "Watch... and learn!"

  Standing with the talons of his right foot only a few inches from the entrance side of the first tiny waterfall, the old dragon raised his head, spread his arms and wings, and in a much more powerful voice than Peter would ever have given him credit for possessing, shouted,

  "SPERMA REDIMIO."

  Before his slower than normal brain could grasp the rough translation, which was something along the lines of, "Seeds surround," a maelstrom of activity in front of the two dragons spun up from nothing. Flowers and their stems coiled and warped, writhed and squirmed, extended and retracted, some with their heads spinning like washing machines on full cycle. The picturesque scene ahead of the two dragons looked li
ke a full on horror movie, particularly to any hay fever sufferers. Amongst the mayhem, vicious whirlpools, eddies, waves and what looked like treacherous currents threatened to tear the shallow streams apart, with what passed for gravity between them warping before their very eyes. It lasted seconds, ten, twelve maybe at most, but it would be engrained in Peter's consciousness forever, featuring in only his most dire nightmares. Looking on, with the brief nightmarish vision all but over, the young dragon noticed a couple of very subtle, and not so subtle, differences. The first was blatantly obvious. Across the well manicured grass two twisting and turning parallel lines, made up from tens of thousands of dark seeds, wove their way along the tunnel, climbing up the arched walls, raking across the ceiling next to the river there, crossing some of the ideally placed branches that littered the streams and waterfalls, always moving deeper into the passageway, resembling fully the outline of a path. Noticeably, the patches of earth where the dandelions had been growing still had the plants there, but instead of the bright yellow flowers, in their place stood their seeds in clusters of two hundred or so, forming stunning looking puffballs that swayed gently in the virtually non-existent breeze, puffballs that every little child and toddler has at some point picked up and blown off the stem.

  "So we follow the path the seeds have marked out for us," announced the hockey player, feeling rather pleased with himself.

  "We do," agreed the old dragon. "Only it's not quite as simple as all that!"

  "Of course not," whispered Peter under his breath so that only he could hear, whilst at the same time slapping his forehead with the palm of his right hand, the 'thwump' sound echoing off down the tunnel in front of him.

  "You see," continued the old dragon, "we do indeed need to follow the seed path, but at the same time we need to pay attention to two other things."

  Listening eagerly, knowing that his life almost certainly depended upon it, Peter stood and took it all in.

  "One, because of the gravity anomaly, we need to keep as low to the ground as we possibly can, while all the time staying on the grass path between the seeds. At times the gravity will try to push and pull you in the wrong direction. And two, as we move along, the seeds from those dandelion puffballs will be released into the air. On no account must you let any hit you. If even one does, there's nothing I, or anyone else on this earth can do to save you from a frighteningly painful death."

  It was at this point he waited... waited for the DA NAAA, the smile, the little, "Gotcha!", or his preferred favourite... the wink from the master mantra maker, hoping to hell this was all one big wind-up. But it never came, with the old dragon being as serious as he'd ever known him to be. Feeling that he was once again in some other dragon's nightmare and that fate was confusing him with someone else, Peter couldn't help but think that it was the whole Manson thing all over again. All he wanted was a quiet, uneventful life and with that in mind he blinked his eyes furiously, hoping against hope to wake up. It wasn't to be.

  Taking a step forward with one of his giant feet, the sharpened points on his talons piercing the ground beneath the finely trimmed blades of grass as he did so, Gee Tee simply stated,

  "Follow me exactly. Try to step only in my footprints... and keep balanced. That's very important!"

  So off they set, the old shopkeeper plodding off very tentatively, if that is at all possible, with the youngster following exactly in his footsteps (a relatively easy task given that he was in his human form, with his footprints being about a fifth the size of his friend's). It didn't take the young dragon long to figure out that the biggest problem he faced was going to be his stomach, and the urge to heave again. Coping with the odd bubble of gravity trying to either push or pull him off the path was no trouble at all... he was actually quite nimble when he chose to be, and that skill combined with just the tiniest hint of dragon strength meant that all this was really a piece of cake. Currently the seed path had nearly doubled over on itself and both dragons were effectively walking along the wall, nearly at the point it reached the ceiling again (although they felt they were the right way up) which was really freaking Peter out. Of course he understood how it all worked, but whenever he glanced up from the path... nothing was where it should be. The stream he knew to be running along the ceiling was now mere inches away from his feet, the walls were upside down, although it was impossible to tell, and just the fact that he knew made his stomach grumble and gurgle terribly. It didn't help that he continued to look back over his shoulder, he wasn't sure why, but when he did he could of course see the route they'd already taken and how, in fact, they'd traversed the tunnel's circumference once already.

  Out of the blue, the master mantra maker stopped sharply. They hadn't been moving at much of a pace, but it was all Peter could do not to walk straight into him. It was then that he noticed why the old dragon had come to a halt. Just across the other side of the stream (the ceiling one), a dandelion puffball had just dispersed all its seeds into the air, which were now heading in their direction. Hairs on both Peter's arms all stood up as if a cold breeze had run along them, as all the time the tiny little seeds drifted ever closer, despite the lack of any discernible current of air. Instinctively, Peter zipped through every different type of vision he possessed, until he came to the one he thought of as bionic (he'd seen some re-runs of the Six Million Dollar Man) and very quickly zoomed in on the innocuous looking seeds of floating death that were rapidly heading their way. On close inspection he could see that despite appearing all fluffy and lovely, the way that normal dandelion seeds do, every part of those drifting menaces was in fact razor sharp, with some of the heads looking as though they were coated in a very ominous, thick, oozing liquid of some sort. Swallowing nervously, he switched back to his normal vision and tried carefully, without moving his feet, to lean round and see what his friend was up to, as it was only now that he'd realised the old dragon had been totally silent all the time they'd been standing still.

  Eyes closed, Gee Tee concentrated, having of course played this game before, albeit long ago, knowing only too well that the seeds that were drifting ever closer were attracted to life of any kind and were, to some extent, almost sentient. They were using tiny funnels of flowing air to make their way every closer, intending to surround and then close in on their target. Outsmarting them long ago had been child's play looking back on it, but he knew from experience that they seemed to almost learn from one time to the next and remember how they'd been tricked previously. So far, he'd tried altering the currents of air, hoping to take the lethal seeds back down the passageway towards its entrance, but to no avail. Next he tried telepathically to alter their instructions, their target if you like. That had worked long ago, but not today. And only a few seconds ago, he'd cast a mantra that had produced a perfect replica of a sparrow, right smack bang in the middle of the seeds, something that in theory at least should have attracted all of them, in one big go. But they just ignored it and carried on floating over the shallow stream with the crystal clear running water, gliding ever closer. Up until now, he hadn't been concerned with this part of getting to the vault, but at this point he was starting to worry.

  "Uhhhh... we seem to be in a bit of a sticky situation, youngster," announced the old shopkeeper.

  "What do we do about the seeds?" enquired Peter, trying not to sound concerned.

  "They're attracted to life, a living thing of any sort. As it stands I've tried everything I know to deflect them away from us, but nothing is having the desired effect. I'm struggling to come up with a solution."

  'Blimey,' he thought to himself, 'it must be bad if Mister Know-It-All Shopkeeper doesn't have the answer.'

  "Can't we just turn round and go back?" he asked gingerly.

  "They'll just follow us."

  "We could just run or fly as fast as we can. Surely that would work?"

  "That would just pique their interest, and maybe just attract more of them. We wouldn't make it back to the alcove. Besides, to get out of here we have
to make it to the vault proper, as that's the only place you can reset all the tricks, traps and deceptions and set up the way back out," whispered the old dragon, a concerned look on his face as he looked back over his shoulder.

  Putting his head in his hands, shaking in despair, he wanted to say, "It's the first time I'm hearing all of this," but knew that being sarcastic to the old shopkeeper now would do more harm than good.

  Pulling his hands away from his face, Peter stood almost nose to nose with the grinning old dragon leaning down, his smile clearly betraying the fact that he'd just come up with a solution to their ever impending doom.

  "You... my young friend, are full of surprises," uttered the master mantra maker, lifting his head up. "If you wouldn't mind, perhaps you could just turn and face the other way for a moment, careful to stay standing still in my footprints."

  Confused, he did as the old dragon asked. For his troubles, he could hear his friend suddenly become very excited.

  "Ohhh... yes, this is excellent. Perfect!"

  And with that, Peter could feel the old shopkeeper's hands running down his back, and along his shoulders.

  "Okay. You can turn around now."

  Turning round, he nearly jumped out of his skin (given that it's not really his skin in the first place... that's more than a little difficult to do, which gives you some idea of the severity of the shock he found himself in), and more importantly, out of his friend's footprints. Gee Tee was standing in front of him holding two handfuls, about six in total, of dinner plate sized spiders, which had all sneakily hitched a ride on his back, all the way from the alcove. Not able to believe what he was seeing, particularly when one or two of them started snapping at the old dragon's fingers, it was all Peter could do not to faint. It was a good job he didn't, otherwise he'd have missed Gee Tee performing the most precise throw in the world, in which one of the very bemused, very snappy spiders spun through the air, ending up in the middle of the highly toxic seeds. As the spider whipped through them, the seeds as one formed a globe like enclosure around it before pouncing without any warning at all, darting into the unsuspecting and, by now, most disturbed spider. The poor thing died instantly (even Peter didn't like this... and he harboured a real dislike for spiders) with the darts piercing its hairy flesh in almost every spot, allowing the deadly neurotoxin to perform its function.