Knight-napped!
Page 6
“These dragons don’t seem to be quite dead,” said Freddy’s grandfather.
Danny tensed. Wendell said, “Eeep!”
Freddy jumped in front of Spencer. “We had a fight, Granddad, you saw it! Now leave him alone!”
“But the dragons are still alive!”
“And they’re going to stay that way!” said Freddy’s sister. “She stepped in front of Danny and folded her arms. “Mom is not going to be happy about this!”
“Our traditions are in danger of dying out. We have to do whatever we can to preserve them. Your mother understands that,” said the castellan, but Danny thought he sounded worried.
The two knights flanking him certainly were.
“Uh,” said one.
“Do we have to tell her?” said the other.
“Oh yeah!” said Freddy. “I’m gonna tell her everything! In fact, I could call her right now—”
“And I’ll back them up,” said Christiana. “Nobody cuts my friend’s head off!”
“But in the old days, you had to slay a dragon to become a real knight—”
“Actually,” said Wendell off-hand, “stylized battles between combatants have replaced actual combat in a number of cultures as genuine bloodshed becomes less and less practical . . .”
“But it’s not good enough!” said the castellan. “It’s fake!”
Freddy drew himself up. “So are the heads in the library! And I am the one who just fought a dragon, not you, so as a knight, I technically outrank you, Granddad, because you never fought a dragon! And I say it’s good enough!”
“So do I!” said Christiana.
“Does the dragon get a vote?” asked Danny. “Because I’m okay with knights and dragons having fake fights. I think it makes a lot more sense, now that we’re both endangered species.”
The castellan looked to his supporters.
“They’re endangered?” said one, horrified.
“Oh man, Aunt Olivia is gonna be ticked! You know how she feels about endangered species!”
“But—dragons—!” Freddy’s grandfather said—and made a grab for Spencer.
“Aaauggh!” shouted Danny’s cousin, ducking.
“Granddad!” yelled Freddy.
“Our traditions are sacred!” yelled the castellan.
Just then a savage cooing came from above his left eye and Fluffy launched himself at the castellan’s head.
“Ack!” cried the castellan, batting at the enraged pigeon. “Get it off! Get it off!”
“Really, Granddad?” said Freddy’s sister. “You want to slay dragons, and you can’t handle a pigeon?”
“COO!”
Spencer whistled. “Down, Fluffy! Good pigeon!”
Fluffy settled his feathers, pooped firmly on the castellan’s head, and flew back to Spencer.
Freddy’s sister turned to the two knights. “Just . . . take him up to his room or something. He’s gotten all worked up and he probably needs to take something for his heart. And if you do exactly what I say, maybe I’ll forget to tell Mom about how you threw these kids in the dungeon.”
“Yes’m,” said the knights meekly, and led the castellan, now dripping with pigeon poop, into the castle.
Freddy jogged down to the bus station with them in the dark. “I’ll see you at after-school, right?”
“Sure!” said Spencer. “Maybe next time you can come over to my house, though?”
“That’d probably be a good idea.”
“Coo!”
“What are you going to do about your mom?” asked Danny. “I mean, you got kidnapped . . . I know you said not to tell her . . .” (Frankly, he thought this was the only thing Spencer had gotten absolutely right, since Spencer’s mom would be freaking out and suing everything in sight, and dragonish secrecy would go out the window.)
“I’ll just tell Mom the sleepover ran long,” said Spencer. “But . . . um . . .”
Danny waited for it.
“It’s a pigeon,” said Christiana.
“I know! Isn’t he great? Mom’s allergic to fur, but he doesn’t have fur! And if she won’t let me keep him in the house, he can live in the tree outside and I’ll bring him birdseed every day and we’ll be best friends!”
Knights and dragons (and one iguana lackey) looked at each other.
“Well . . .”
“I mean . . .”
“It’s not like they’re endangered . . .”
“I think you should probably plan for him to live in the tree,” said Wendell. “But you can always open a window and let him into your room.”
“Although I’d housebreak him first,” added Christiana.
The bus rumbled up in the dark.
“Oh, don’t tell me,” said the bus driver grimly. “Another Seeing-Eye Pigeon, right?”
The bus drove off into the darkness. Wendell leaned against the back of one of the seats and prepared to take a nap, since their “sleepover” hadn’t involved much sleep.
Danny leaned over the back of Christiana’s seat.
“I’m not good at ‘cool,’” Christiana said. “I think I need a different wardrobe for that.”
“No,” said Danny. “You and me. I mean, the fire-breathing, and the swords and all. And I guess even the Super Skink underwear.”
“Oh, that. Yeah. We’re cool.” She made a fist and held it up. It took Danny a second to realize that Christiana (Christiana! Of all people!) was giving him a fist bump.
He gave her a fist bump back.
“So you believe I’m a dragon now?”
“Well, you did breathe fire. So I guess I have to. Or believe I’m crazy.” She leaned back against the seat. “And don’t think I don’t kind of want to dissect you and see how you do it, and write a paper on it.”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” said Danny. “You saw what happens when people find out there are dragons around . . .”
“Mmm. Yeah. There’s that. But you’ve got to remember something . . .”
“I,” said Christiana, “am now officially a knight.”
Danny blinked.
“So you better keep on your toes, Danny Dragonbreath,” said Christiana, newly knighted. “I’m a certified dragon slayer. And I know where you live.”
Danny rolled his eyes. “I’ll so roast you if you try anything.”
She grinned.
After a minute, so did he.
The bus rolled on through the dark, away from the castle, toward home.
Ursula Vernon (www.ursulavernon.com) is the award-winning creator of the Dragonbreath series. She lives, draws, and acts quite chivalrous in Pittsboro, North Carolina.
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