Dragon's Flight

by S. R. Langley

  Roger nearly fainted in complete shock. He frantically groped around the bottom of the Pond, but still no Egg. Then all at once a sudden burst of giggling laughter rang in his head.

  “Ha-ha – fooled you, Wodger! Look behind yoos. Ha-ha-ha!”

  Roger looked and saw there, hovering in mid-air right behind him, the Dragon’s Egg!

  “What are you doing, Regor!” Roger hissed aloud in fright. “Someone might see you!”

  “There’sh no one here but us toos, I can tells, Wodger. Look, I can levitashe me own Egg, but it makesh me vewwy sleepy if I doos it for too long.”

  Roger was not at all pleased and Regor could tell that he hadn’t behaved as he should have. “I’m sowwy, Wodger, I didn’t meansh to scares yoo!”

  Roger mentally accepted his apologies and took hold of the hovering Egg and placed it safely in his rucksack. “Right, now let’s be off, Grannie Maddam will be waiting outside for us.”

  Just then the distant church clock struck twelve. Roger quickly pulled the garden-wall door open and stepped outside to … freedom, fortune and an unknown fate.

  However, Grannie Madden wasn’t there!

  Roger started to feel the rising tide of panic in his stomach again but somehow managed to calm his fraying nerves.

  “She’ll be here,” he kept telling himself, “it’s only just passed twelve o’ clock; she’ll be here any second, just wait and see.”

  A slow, painful minute ticked on by. Then, suddenly, there she was. Way down the path that ran along the garden wall, he saw Grannie Madden wobbling along on a strangely shaped bicycle. As she got nearer he could see that it was in fact two bicycles. One though was slung over the handle-bars of the one she was riding on and this was causing her to ride very erratically. But she was here at last. Grannie Maddam had arrived.

  They set off for the Hospital straight away. “Sorry for the slight delay, dearie,” Grannie puffed at him, as they rode along, “juss ‘ad to arrange the transportation yer know,” she winked slyly.

  They got to the Hospital in plenty of time. Then Grannie found a place in the Hospital grounds where they could hide their bikes in a clump of trees.

  “You stay here with Regor an’ the bikes, an’ I’ll slip in an’ get Mary. I’ve brought her a change of clothes an’ I’m sure I can ‘fluence the nurses an’ anyone there, enough anyways ter get her safely out an’ back here pronto. OK, Roger?”

  “OK, Grannie,” Roger replied. “We’ll wait right here. Don’t be long though.”

  “I won’t, Ducks; I’ll be in an’ out quicker than a frog can spit in a fishes eye!”

  With that she left. Then Regor piped into his head. “It’s alwight, Wodger, I can keeps in contact wiv Grannie as long as she don’t goes off too far.”

  The time ticked by once more. Roger found himself looking at his wristwatch again and again.

  Ten minutes ticked by, then Regor again piped up in his head. “Wodger, there’sh sumfin’ wrong. Me thinks Grannie’sh in twubble!”

  Roger decided in an instant, no more waiting around. He rushed off with Regor safely hidden in his rucksack slung on his back, towards the part of the Hospital where Mary’s Ward was. He hurried as fast as he could, but still being careful not to attract any unwanted attention. He soon found the Ward and entered the building, straight into the corridor that led to the twin glass doors of Mary’s Ward.

  Then, all of a sudden, there was an almighty, blood-curdling scream!

  Roger ran towards the Ward doors and there inside he saw Grannie Maddam yelling and cursing, with her arms flailing around in the air and the form of a large woman lying cowering on the floor at her feet. It was Matron McCracken. Her face seemed to be bubbling with boils!

  Roger rushed in and could see that Grannie Madden was very, very angry. She turned toward him, breaking off from her colorful stream of invective she’d been hurling at the fallen Matron.

  “That damned, evil bitch has done the dirty on us, Roger … out of sheer spite she’s changed Mary’s transfer date to the Orphanage, from tomorrow to today! Mary’s been taken away already and she’s on her way there now. We’ve just missed her!”

  Roger gasped with alarm and cried out, “No, she can’t have!” But it was true. He looked over to her old hospital bed and could see that it was now empty. Mary was no longer in the hospital. She had been kidnapped!

  CHAPTER 5:

  CAT OUT OF THE BAG

  “Quick Gran, we’ve got to run for it!” Roger yelled.

  Grannie Maddam looked at him, her eyes welling with tears of grief and rage. She nodded at him dumbly and then stepped over the cowering Matron and took him by the hand, moving quickly out of the Ward, just as various orderlies and security people were starting to arrive.

  “I knows where they’re taking her, Roger, we have ter follow and rescues her somehow, whatever it takes, my boy? No more hiding an’ sniding fer us now. We iz who we iz! An’ now we gotta do as we iz! Yer understanz me don’tcha?”

  Roger wasn’t at all sure that he did, but he could tell that Grannie Maddam was now filled with grim and dire determination. He’d never seen her looking so angry or formidable before.

  “I sure wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of her when her dander’s up!” he thought.

  “Meez too!” piped Regor in his head.

  They ran down the corridor just as the Ward doors flew open behind them and several burly security guards came crashing through and chasing after them. They were flourishing batons, blowing shrill whistles and yelling at the top of their voices for them to stop.

  The usual peaceful Sunday Lunchtime at the Hospital had been well and truly shattered.

  Gran and Roger burst out the door they’d gotten in by and ran as fast as they could towards their hidden bikes. Just then a loud klaxon alarm went off from somewhere inside the Hospital. The whole Hospital complex and everyone in it was now on the alert for the fleeing fugitives.

  They now dived into the thick covering of bushes that ran along that side of the Hospital. Heads down, they darted on towards the bikes. The security men were running along the path past them, not having seen them darting off into the undergrowth.

  “Gwannie, Wodger, I cans reach hers now. I knows wheres our Mary iz!” Regor cried out suddenly, telepathing to them both, as they pounded across the lawn towards the tree grove.

  “Where?” gasped Roger.

  “Sheesh beein’ puts in an Amboolance wight nowsh! Jush rounds the sides of the Hoshpital over theresh.”

  Roger and Grannie immediately understood where the Ambulance and Mary were as Regor transmitted the clear mental map he had in his head to them both.

  Just then the air was once again shattered with another loud and persistent noise. This time, it was the raucous and repetitive wailing of an Ambulance siren. They at last reached their bikes and pedaled madly away through the trees and bushes towards the road where the Ambulance was leaving the Hospital.

  “That’s the wunsh!” cried Regor. “Sheesh in that amboolance fer shaws. Buts I finks sheesh been dwugged an’ twied up!”

  “Those damned, useless, half-wit Psychonomists!” hissed Gran. “That McCracken bitch ‘fessed ter me she’d recommended our Mary be kept in the Guvverment’s special facility for wayward children. They’re takin’ ‘er ter the ‘Shortshanks Orphanage Fer Troubled Youths!’”

  “Is that bad?” asked Roger.

  “Bad, bad! I should say so, dear. It’s called ‘SOFTY’ fer short. Their motto is ‘Better off Dead than Soft in the Head!’ They call the kids in there the ‘Softy’s.’ It’s juss over in Sadcup Village, not too fars off; but we’ll hav ter speed ups a bit if we’re gonna catch ‘em now.”

  “Haven’t you got some witch’s brooms we could use?” Roger asked, half joking.

  They were now out on the road outside the Hospital and Mary’s Ambulance was speeding away from them with its siren blasting out in cacophonic glee. No way were they going to catch that on their bikes and Grannie knew
it. Also, she could see that the security men from the Hospital had now spotted them and were spilling out of the Hospital Entrance onto the road, brandishing their batons and whistles and chasing after them.

  “Nope,” she said, “but ize got sumfin just as good!”

  She rummaged around in her bag in the bike’s basket. Then finding what she needed, pulled out two glass jars about the size of a tin of beans.

  “Quick now, Gran!” Roger cried. “Whatever it is, do it quick or those guards’ll get us!”

  “OK, dearie, here we are, the very fings we needs right now!”

  One of the jars was labelled ‘Quick-Sand’ and the other ‘Slow-Worms.’ Grannie quickly pulled the stopper off the Quick-Sand jar and carefully sprinkled some of the glittery, gold powder inside it over the wheels of hers and then Roger’s bike. She screwed the lid back on and stuffed it away in her bag and put the other jar in a pocket in her jacket, ready for use later.

  “This ain’t what you knows of as yer normal quicksand, Roger, this stuff’s the real thing. You’ll see. Now peddle like the wind!”

  Soon, Roger did see. As he pedaled away like mad, his bike sped along faster and faster. Very soon they were leaving the chasing security guards far behind and catching up on the speeding Ambulance. The bicycle’s wheels were a fizzing, revolving blur of golden light. Quickly Roger found that he couldn’t keep up with the speed of the pedals so he held his legs away from them, now tearing down the road legs akimbo and just holding on for his life ‒ and Mary’s too.

  Luckily, it being Sunday, there was very little traffic. Although these days not that many people could afford to own a motor car anyway. The recent ‘War in Foreign Franse’ had seen to that.

  (Or the WIFF as it was called in the History books.)

  Both Grannie Maddam and Roger were now rapidly closing up behind the ambulance. “Can yer get ‘er to understand that we’re ‘ere?” Gran telepathed to Regor.

  “Yesh, I thinksh sose!” Regor answered her. “She’s vewwy gwoggy though. She knowsh that we’re heres, Gran; sheesh vewwy happy but sheesh stwapped down still. I can get her fwee though, jush holds on a bits!”

  “OK, Regor, tell me as soon as she’s free, right?”

  Regor now put into operation what he had practiced so long and hard in his ‘garden pond’ days. It was up to him to get Mary freed from the straps and the two brutish orderlies now guarding her. It was time for some real Dragon Magic!

  Inside the ambulance, Mary was slowly coming around. She could hear Regor in her head more and more clearly now. She knew she was strapped to the trolley bed by three, thick leather straps. There was one around her chest, one around her middle and one around her legs. All buckled on very, very tight. There were also two ambulance orderlies sitting right by her, one on each side.

  She was not in a very good position for escaping at all.

  “Don’t wowwy, Marewee. Jush keep calmsh while I helps yoos,” Regor mentally told her.

  He then concentrated very hard. He tuned all the magical ability he could muster into moving the three leather straps. Soon they were writhing and twisting on Mary’s body and then one by one Regor managed to slip them free of their buckles. They were now writhing around in the air on either side of her like six flailing tentacles or snakes.

  “What the bloomin’ bleepers is going on?” one of the orderlies yelled out in horror.

  “There’s snakes in the ambulance Pete, that’s what,” cried the other, terrified. “We’re bein’ infested wiv ‘orrible, bloomin’, blasted snakes!”

  The orderlies just couldn’t believe that it was just magic or simple telekinesis, if they had heard of such a thing – which they hadn’t. To them it was just unbelievable, so what they thought they saw, was half a dozen writhing, brown snakes, furiously lashing out at them.

  “Well if itsh shnakes you sees then itsh shnakes you gets!” Regor thought. With that he concentrated even harder and using his newly realized mind-manipulating ability, he had the two orderlies totally believing and actually seeing six brown snakes, hissing and biting and seemingly intent on eating them both alive for their Sunday dinner.

  It was too much. The two orderlies panicked and wrenched open the Ambulance door and flung themselves out, each in a screaming fit. The Hospital was going to have two more unexpected patients very soon. Meanwhile the Ambulance sped on with Grannie and Roger right behind it.

  “Shee’sh fwees now, Gwan,” Regor loudly telepathed.

  “Tell ‘er to get ready, Regor, fings are goin’ ter get a bit bumpy now!”

  With that Grannie Maddam dug into her coat and with a smile pulled out the jar of Slow-Worms. She pulled the stopper out with her teeth and scattered a few of the tiny grey worms onto the Ambulance’s back wheels, first one side and then the other. Immediately the ambulance started to skid and swerve as the worms dug into the tires. There were horrible groaning and screeching noises as the ambulance chassis began to twist and buckle.

  The Slow-Worms were slowing the back wheels down but not the front ones. The Ambulance was tearing itself apart!

  Behind him, Roger could hear that the Police had now joined the chase. Several police cars were wailing away in the distance, but getting nearer, their purple lights flashing and their ‘wah-wah’ sirens waking up the whole neighborhood. People were coming out from the nearby houses to see what all the noise and commotion was about.

  “Better get a move on, Gran, the cops are onto us now!” he warned. “Let’s get Mary and get out of here!”

  The Ambulance now slowed and skidded into the pavement, and with the sudden teeth-grating screech of shredding tires and ripping metals and plastics, it finally ripped itself into two halves. The front half went careering into a nearby garden where the driver jumped out just before it smashed into the front of the house there. The back half sat crumpled on the pavement, revealing a beaming Mary, standing in front of the smoking wreckage. She was totally unharmed.

  Regor had used his levitation skills as well. As the Ambulance broke up, with great effort he had lifted Mary into the air and held her in a bubble of protective blue flame. Then he’d lowered her to the ground, safe and sound. He was now though totally exhausted.

  “Are you all right, Mary?” Roger called to her, as he leapt off his bicycle and ran towards her with a very worried expression on his face.

  “Yes, Roj, I’m a bit shaky but I’m fine really. I’m so happy to see you – my one true Knight Irritant - and Regor and Gran too!” she answered, leaping from the wreck into his arms. “That Matron MacCracken came this morning and had me drugged up with something nasty,” she continued, trembling as she held on to him tightly. “They were going to put me in a really horrible Home for Orphans, or something, Roj. I was really, really scared.”

  Roger just held her. He found he couldn’t voice his feelings, he really didn’t know what to say, so he just held on to her and let her talk, so very happy that she was safe and alive.

  “Ello, Marewee, I’m so vewwy glad wees could wescue yoo,” Regor yawned in her head. “I won’t lets anyones hurts yoos, Marewee, but I’m so vewwy tired.” With that he yawned again and then muttered sleepily, “Wees are all famlee wees are.” Then he fell silent, fast asleep.

  “Come on now, you better share Roger’s bike, Mary,” smiled Gran, “but be quick now, we’ve only got mere seconds ter get away now, those police cars are getting nearer!”

  But it was too late!

  Even as Roger picked up the bike and got on, with Mary perched precariously on his lap, he saw that just up ahead of them was Josh the Cosh and his Cold Arbor Gang, bearing down on them fast, on their own bikes. Gran’s and his magic-powered bikes could probably out pace them but there were just too many of them to avoid. They were fanned out and blocking the road ahead.

  “What are we going to do, Gran?” Roger yelped. “Regor has blown a fuse or something. He needs to recharge, so we’re on our own. What can we do?”

  Then before Gran could answer, t
he first police cars arrived. Three came screeching to a halt with their sirens still blaring. They too were now blocking the road. There was no going forward and no going back. Gran and the two children were well and truly trapped!

  “’Old on, Ducks!” Gran replied coolly. “We’re not done yet, not by a long chalk. Juss give us a tick. Let me juss sees what I’ve gots in me bag ‘ere.”

  “Well by Newton’s Nobbly Knees, it better be something good!” Roger wryly thought.

  As Grannie Maddam grappled with the contents of her mysterious bag, the Police Chief got out of a police car, parked about forty feet away, and started bellowing at them through a Bullhorn.

  “Come along quietly now, you ‘orrible lot. You are all under arrest. For the wilful destruction of Hospital property, obstructing the Queen’s Highway and disturbing the Police!”

  Then another police officer quickly whispered something in his ear. The Police Chief coughed and looked embarrassed. “Ahem, I, er, I mean, disturbing the peace.” He finished lamely.

  “Well, in for a pound, in for a penny!” Grannie then loudly exclaimed, turning toward the Police Chief. She had her hand hidden inside of the bag on her bike. Ready to unleash whatever dastardly magical weapon she had found there.

  “So you all knows by now that I’m a Witch don’t yers, but if yer don’t, no worries – I’m not hiding it anymore ‒ coz now, the Cat is definitely out of the bag!”

  At her last words she yanked her hand out of the bag, pulling into view … a very disgruntled looking tabby cat!

  “See?” she hissed at them. “The cat’s out of the bag now – I’m a Witch an’ this is my cat, my familiar, Jericho – an’ I’m not afraid to use him!”

  “W-w-what do you mean?” squeaked Roger. “How’s your p-p-pet cat going to help us? He’s just a common house cat.”

  The Police Chief and his fellow policemen all chuckled and looked very amused indeed.