by Bach, Shelby
So I turned to Lena. “Why were they talking about me?”
Lena sighed. “We were hoping you could tell us.”
“Was it because of my parents?” It would not be a good sign if even the adults running Ever After School got excited over Mom and Dad.
“Why?” asked Lena. “Are they Characters?”
I stared at her blankly, wondering if “Character” was a code word in role-play speak.
“Your dad’s not an Aladdin, is he?” Chase asked darkly.
That had to be the single weirdest question anyone had ever asked me about my father.
“His name is Eric,” I said hesitantly.
“That name sounds familiar. . . .” Lena said. For a second, I thought she would make the connection and ask, Eric Landon, the director? But she just looked thoughtful.
Maybe, just maybe, nobody here knew anything about my parents.
Most people couldn’t tell just by looking at me. Everyone recognized Mom. She was the petite, elegant blonde they’d seen on magazine covers. I looked more like my dad—athletic and on the tall side, with wavy brown hair so thick that it went everywhere no matter how tight my ponytail was. The only part of me that came from Mom was my eyes—hazel with dark, arching eyebrows.
“Sometimes parents don’t talk about it,” Lena added with a sympathetic smile. “They don’t want to get your hopes up—in case you don’t turn out to be a Character.”
But if these kids didn’t know— Well, it made this role-play deal look a lot more promising.
I wanted to ask what a Character was, but then Chase nodded to his left where three boys with light brown hair and brown eyes walked with flashlights. “These are the Zipes brothers—Conner, Kyle, and Kevin.”
“Nice to meet you,” one of them said.
“We’re triplets,” said another.
“Fraternal,” added the last.
“So you can tell us apart,” said the first.
“Great,” I said. Maybe it was the dim light, but they all looked identical to me—except that maybe one was a little taller and one had darker hair.
Triplets were tough. I had been friends with identical twins a couple schools back. Erna and Erma were always nice to me, but every once in a while, they would completely forget I was there and start talking like they had a secret language. If these guys were fraternal, they might not be like that, but I would have to wait until I could tell them apart to be sure.
Lena pointed to the girl in the green silk dress, who was walking ahead of us and hadn’t once looked back. “And that’s Adelaide.”
“Charlotte Adelaide Eleanora Radcliffe,” Adelaide corrected.
“What’s her problem?” I whispered to Lena.
“Her grandmother is a grand duchess or something, so she thinks she can act like a princess.” Then Lena rolled her eyes so hugely that I saw it even in the dark, and we both grinned.
I liked Lena.
That hallway seemed longer than hallways in a building should be, but maybe it only felt that way when it was crowded with students shuffling along in the dark.
My elbow brushed the wall, which was cold, like wet stone, and it smelled a little like rotten eggs. I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
“All right, own up,” said an older boy. “Who farted?”
“That’s sulfur, dummy,” replied one of his classmates, and several people laughed, including Chase.
Lena shivered and started counting on her fingers. “Besides fire, weapons include teeth, claws, tail—”
She seemed way more into the role-play deal than I was. I sighed, but another step in making friends was developing shared interests. “So, where are we going again?”
“Yellowstone National Park,” said Chase.
“Oh. I’ve never been there.” Yellowstone was thousands of miles across the continent, not just a short walk down a creepy corridor, but I played along anyway. “Are there other rules I should know before we start the game?”
“Uh-oh.” Lena stared at me. “You didn’t have your orientation yet, did you?”
“There was an orientation?”
Lena gasped. “Oh, my gumdrops.”
“This should be fun,” said Adelaide.
The triplets behind us laughed.
I ignored them. Lena looked like she might have a panic attack any second. “What problem are we supposed to be looking for?” I asked.
“Nobody tell her,” said Chase quickly. “It’ll ruin the surprise. Who wants to bet we have a screamer?” Someone patted my head in the dark.
“Hey!” I swatted at the hand. The other kids were really laughing now. My hands curled into fists, but I didn’t lose my temper. I just told myself that this was better than the usual gossip, even if I wasn’t totally sure that was true.
“I don’t think I’ll tell you either,” Lena said, more worried than teasing. “You’ll either freak out or not believe me.” There was a light up ahead. We were almost outside. The air felt cooler than it had in the courtyard. “I just hope that we don’t see anything bigger than a buffalo.”
We stepped out into a forest. I blinked in surprise. It looked nothing like the woods outside my school. No oaks, no maples, no roads, either—just hills covered in pines as far as I could see.
“None of them waited?” Lena said, horrified. “The Director specifically said that someone would be stationed outside in case we had any problems.”
“I’m sure it’ll be okay,” I said, a little distracted by the exit. It looked a lot like the mouth of a cave.
Lena pulled me to the side. “We’ll just wait here.”
“Do what you want,” Chase said, leading Adelaide and the triplets over a small stream. Part of me wanted to ask who put him in charge, but I bit my tongue.
“Wait!” Lena called after them, but none of the sixth graders looked back.
Apparently, it was also against the rules to stay there alone.
Tagging along behind the others, Lena comforted herself by repeating all the rules that the Director had told them before I arrived. I tried to pay attention, but I couldn’t stop staring at the tall, skinny pines and the yellowish hills with hidden pockets of melting snow.
“Travel in squadrons of no less than seven,” Lena said, huffing a little as Chase started up a ridge. We passed a sign that said OLD FAITHFUL—15 MI. Ever After School really went all out with this role-playing deal. “If we see any signs of the beast, we’re supposed to send up a flare and wait for one of the high school squadrons to reach us.”
One of the triplets pointed over the ridge. “There’s one.”
“Where? Is Hansel with them?” Lena rushed up to look.
When I saw the drop, bile rose to my throat. I stumbled back behind the others, hoping that no one could tell that I’d broken out in a cold sweat. Heights aren’t my favorite thing in the world.
After a few steadying breaths, I made myself peer over the ridge with everyone else.
A hundred feet below us, a herd of buffalo grazed on a plain of short yellow grass, steam billowing around them. Smaller figures—the teenage squadron—passed just beyond them. One of them playfully swung a long, pointy thing that looked suspiciously like a sword. “What’s that he’s carrying?” I asked.
“One of these.” Chase lifted a short silver sword. It had a blue-colored jewel on the hilt and his name etched on the blade.
The triplets looked impressed—and kind of jealous.
That was about the time I started to feel like I was dreaming.
“Oh,” I said. A bald eagle soared in and landed directly opposite us in the top branches of a pine tree.
“You weren’t supposed to bring that!” Lena cried.
Chase shrugged. His grin took up half his face, and he had a dimple in his right cheek.
Mom always said to be careful of someone with dimples. They usually know how cute they are, and they’re used to getting away with stuff. Of course, my dad had a dimple too, on his chin, and since the divorce, s
he’d been a little biased.
“Need to be able to defend any damsels-in-distress.” Chase looked over at Adelaide and me.
Adelaide smiled in a syrupy way, and I liked her even less.
Lena eyed Chase’s sword like it was going to come to life and bite somebody. “The Director said that we aren’t supposed to attack it ourselves. She said if we—”
“Shut it already.” Chase slid his sword back in its sheath. “We were all there. We know what she said.”
Lena looked hurt. If we were going to be friends, I couldn’t let anyone talk to her like that.
So, even though I was kind of tired of hearing about it too, and even though I felt the blush creeping up again, I said, “Well, I missed it. And I think it’s important to know what’s going on.”
Chase only rolled his eyes and started over the next ridge, but Lena smiled gratefully. “Signs of the beast include fire, fewmets, scales—”
The tallest triplet pointed up ahead. “Does smoke count as a sign?”
A dark gray cloud rose in a plume to our right, and everyone perked up.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Lena stopped walking. “Quick—who has a flare?”
Chase shook his head and hurried toward the smoke. “The Director also said there have been a bunch of fires already. You don’t want to send up a false alarm, do you?”
Lena was obviously torn, but she kept quiet as we approached the smoldering tree—a smaller pine, charred gray. A little orange flame danced on one of the bottom branches, the only part still burning.
Chase blew it out.
“Well done,” said one triplet.
His brother examined the golden embers glowing through the trunk. “That fixed it.”
“Hey. Only we can prevent forest fires,” Chase said, and they all cracked up. Even Lena smiled tremulously.
I stared at the smoking tree. If this wasn’t a dream, and if Ever After School was setting fire to trees, then they took the role-play game really seriously. I could get in a lot of trouble. If the wrong people found out about it, I could get my parents into a lot of trouble. I edged away, wondering if I could find the way back by myself.
My foot found a hole in the ground, and I almost tripped. It was about the size of a manhole, but it had five jagged points, like claw marks. A few feet away, there was a groove in the yellowish chalky soil.
Lena noticed it too. “The Park digs trenches to contain the forest fires.”
“But aren’t they supposed to be bigger than this?” The groove was only a foot deep and a couple feet wide, but it stretched from the burning tree all the way across the ridge and down the slope.
“Look,” I said, pointing.
Beyond the spot where the groove disappeared over the hill, smoke rose in another cloud, much bigger and darker than the one above us.
Maybe it would’ve been smarter to make a hasty escape, but I was curious. Chase sprinted toward it, and I ran after him.
“Flares! Who has the flares?” Lena shouted.
“The Director would want visual confirmation of the target, Lena!” Chase yelled back, just as we reached the top of the hill.
I took one look into the valley below and screamed.
alled it!” Chase smirked as the others joined us.
I froze dead in my tracks and stared below us, too stunned to be annoyed.
Below the smoke, there was a dragon—or at least it looked like a dragon. It had to be a robot or something, but it seemed so real. It stalked two hundred feet away against a backdrop of burning trees and black smoke. One of the giant pines cracked and fell in a flaming arc. It landed across the dragon’s back, but the robot thing shook it off like a twig.
“Smaller than the one last fall,” said Adelaide.
“I don’t know—I think it’s about the same size,” said one of the triplets.
“We’re bigger though,” said his tallest brother.
“No wings. We’re in luck.” Lena’s voice quivered a little bit, but she seemed calmer now that we had found what we were looking for. “We don’t need to worry about it flying away before the others find our position.”
“So, who does have the flares?” Chase asked.
No one answered.
Okay, role-play didn’t cover it. This was insane. And these props and special effects were good enough for one of Dad’s movies. I had no idea how an after-school program could afford them. The dragon lumbered in our direction, dragging its tail on the ground. It didn’t see us, but as we watched, it blew a long thread of fire. Another tree went up in flames. Watching it burn, I felt a little hypnotized. Pyrotechnics, maybe?
“Flares? Anyone?” Chase said. When nobody spoke up, he added, “Did anybody think to grab one?”
“I thought you were getting it,” one triplet said to the tallest one.
The tallest triplet looked at the one with darker hair. “I told Kyle to take one.”
“Don’t look at me,” said Kyle.
“Wow,” Adelaide said. “Great teamwork, everyone.”
My brain kept telling me that robot or not, I should be freaking out. But no one else seemed that upset, so the dragon thing had to be fake, right?
“It’s fine,” Chase said. “We’re far enough away that we can watch it without getting in danger. We’ll split up. Half of us will keep an eye on the dragon, and the other half will go find a group that actually remembered their flares.”
The others nodded, but Lena repeated, “Travel in squadrons of no less than seven.”
“Come off it, Lena,” Chase said. “Now, who wants to—”
Then someone else screamed. It wasn’t one of us—it came from the valley below, but it made me feel a little better about screaming myself.
“Oooh, is it the fifth graders?” Adelaide said, scanning the horizon.
“I don’t see anyone,” said one of the triplets.
She screamed again, and I saw her—a girl down there, about fifty feet from the dragon and a hundred feet from us. Her legs were tangled in a mass of hot pink. She tried to stand, but she couldn’t shake herself free of the neon canvas.
“Wow,” said one of the triplets. “That’s a really bright tent. How did we not see that?”
“Do we know her?” Chase asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Lena. “That’s a campsite.”
The dragon took a few steps closer to it.
I swallowed hard. “Um, Lena . . . there’s like a remote or something to stop the robot, right? To make sure that no one gets hurt?”
The other sixth graders glanced at each other uncomfortably.
“Rory, it’s not a robot,” Lena said, slowly and carefully. “The Director sent us to find the dragon before it burned down Yellowstone—well, more of it, anyway.”
If it had been anyone besides Lena, I would have thought that she was pulling my leg. I wanted to believe her—it just didn’t make sense.
“But—” I said stupidly. “How did we get to Yellowstone?”
The dragon was even closer to the girl now, head to the ground. It looked like it was smelling her out. I was suddenly sure it would eat her if it found her, and the thought shook me out of my daze. “Shouldn’t we do something?” I said.
Everyone looked at Chase, like he was supposed to know.
“Uh.” Chase sounded nervous for the first time since I’d met him. “Hope the dragon doesn’t notice her?”
The girl screamed again, and this time, the dragon spotted her. It blew another stream of flame triumphantly and walked forward.
If someone didn’t act fast, we were going to watch this girl die.
“Oh, my God,” Adelaide said horrified.
And without really deciding to move, I started to run.
Down the hill.
Toward the dragon and the trapped girl.
This is why my mom says I don’t think before I do stuff.
Lena shouted, “No, Rory!”
Chase rushed after me, yelling, “Wait!
”
But I didn’t stop until I reached the campsite. Half the trees around us were already burning. I was so close that all I could see of the dragon was a giant green backside, a tail covered in gold and green scales, and black blood streaming out around a spearhead stuck in its rump. The girl noticed me first. Her eyebrows rose, and her mouth opened.
This was where the rock came in.
It hit the dragon in the back of its head.
It whirled away from the teenager it had been about to barbecue. Which was a plus, considering that was what I hoped it would do.
Unfortunately, it turned toward me, which was not so good.
It looked me up and down with yellow eyes, each as big as my head, and let out a long, hot breath. The smell of sulfur seared my nostrils. I took a step back and stumbled on a loose rock.
“You idiot,” Chase said behind me.
Then the dragon opened its jaws, showing off teeth half a foot long, and let out a noise like twenty Mack trucks honking at the same time.
“Run!” Chase yelled.
I didn’t have time to be afraid.
We turned and sprinted back. Seeing us head their way, the others at the top of the ridge took off in five different directions. Lena was the fastest of all, which made me rethink that try-to-be-friends thing.
A ball of fire sailed over Chase’s head, and the trees in front of him ignited in a swirl of blue and orange, cutting us off.
We weren’t going to make it. We could never run up the incline fast enough.
I turned a sharp right and dashed through a dark opening at the bottom of the cliff.
“Not here!” Chase ran in behind me. His voice echoed around us.
For a second, while my eyes adjusted to the light, I had no idea what he meant. Then I saw what was inside—mounds of glittering gold, taller than Chase and me combined. Crowns were scattered around the cave like dirty socks in a kid’s bedroom. Gold dishes, silver shields, and armor encrusted with jewels lined the cavern walls.
An enormous shadow crossed the entrance behind us. The dragon had followed us. Then it inhaled in a way that sounded even more threatening than the roar.
