“I’m wearing a white hat,” he said, his voice no longer shaking. He sounded sure of himself and Drake felt relieved. You could always count on his dad to solve a puzzle. He couldn’t pull himself up a wall but he could solve any riddle.
“That’s right,” said the old witch, also sounding relieved. “Off you go then.” The witches stood aside and let them walk through.
“Stop!” said the short witch sharply and they all did. “Could I have the hats back, please?” Drake breathed again and all three whipped off their hats and raced off down the path. Once they were a safe distance, Drake tapped his dad on the shoulder.
“How did you know what colour hat you were wearing?” he asked.
“Because you didn’t solve the riddle. If I’d been wearing a red hat like Juniper, you would have immediately known that you were the only one wearing a white hat.”
“Ah, of course!” said Drake, still impressed.
“You were right about witches being real, Juniper,” Donny said to her.
“You know what, Mr Dramco, I don’t think they really were witches. I think they’re pretending to be to scare people away. They really didn’t seem to be genuinely nasty and it was all a bit too much like a fairytale storybook. Don’t you think, Drake?”
“I don’t know about the fairytale bit because I’ve never read any but I definitely trust your judgement on people,” answered Drake.
Drake was deep in thought for the rest of the walk out of the cavern. A lot had changed in the last week and he needed to sort his head out. Dragonland had turned out not to be the only city in the world and his dad had turned out to be just another dragonfolk dad and not the superhero that he’d thought he was. Drake could still see his strengths. He was creative and clever. But he could now also see his weaknesses. He was obsessive and was always so focused on his latest invention that the world around him disappeared, including Drake and his mum.
They reached the end of the cavern and stepped out into the forest at the edge of Dragonland. Drake looked at Juniper and his dad and breathed out heavily. They were back in familiar territory. Drake finally felt safe. The carefully controlled environment inside the force field was optimised to be super comfortable for dragonfolk. Drake had never noticed this before but it became very obvious after leaving and coming back. The slight burning sensation on his skin had disappeared. A hot stinging sensation he’d felt as he breathed the harsh ape-city air had gone. The air gently lapped into his mouth like water up onto an ocean beach.
“It’s still a long way back from here,” said Juniper. “We should just fly back … land in the oval at the school.”
“What time is it?” Drake asked Donny.
Donny looked at his watch. “Half past six,” he said. “Why?”
“We can land on the school oval and no-one will be there.” Juniper nodded in agreement. She still wanted a landing spot with a bit of space. Landing was definitely the hardest part of flying. Drake sighed to himself as Donny climbed onto his back. He was definitely going to get his dad to shout him a massage. His muscles were going to kill him tomorrow. Juniper darted up into the sky and Drake and Donny wobbled after her.
As they flew into the orange evening sky, it was only minutes before the oval came into view but it wasn’t empty, as they had planned. It was full of people, large vehicles, and tents. Drake sidled up next to Juniper.
“Do we still land there?” he asked. By this time someone had looked up and was pointing at them in the sky. Soon all the faces on the oval had turned upwards and the excited chatter buzzed up into the sky.
“Yes,” said Juniper. “We had better just fly down and land. I think I can see my mum and dad.” Drake could see his mum too and couldn’t wait to get down there and into her arms. He had only just realised now how much he had missed her. She might be a bit overprotective and she might treat him as if he were a baby, but she was always there for him. As they flew down towards the oval, circling closer and closer, Drake heard a group of kids talking.
“Is it a bird?”
“Maybe a plane?”
“No way. Look at the red boots and the cape …”
“No, it’s not a bird or a plane … it’s Dragonboy,”
Drake heard Barry Reed say. He could see him looking upwards with his puffy mouth wide open. Drake no longer needed his dad to be a super hero. He could just be a dad, with strengths and weakness like any other, because Drake was now a super hero himself.
Drake the Dragonboy Page 7
