The Tale of the Dragonstone

By G. L. Wright

The Parker children; Lucy (12), Millie (14) and Tom (15) live with their parents in a small village at the lower end of a quiet, wooded valley.
Lucy is very ill and needs an operation that can only be performed in America.
While out in the woods one day Millie is taken to a dragons lair where the dragon tells her that it knows of Millies love for her sister and that it will cure Lucy. This it does.
The next year, in the early spring, the youngsters are asked by the friendly dragon to help get its dragonstone back. ( A dragonstone is the centre of a dragons magical powers.) The young Parkers go to the strange world of Eldos and on their quest they meet elves, dwarves and many strange creatures.
They make quite a number of friends, and after many strange adventures and a battle on dragon back with an Inner Kingdom border patrol, they make their way back to this world and home, bringing with them the dragonstone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Aug 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481776028

Book preview

2013 by G. L. Wright. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/08/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-7601-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-7600-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-7602-8 (e)

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

1.   The squirrel

2.   Healing Lucy

3.   A Cry For Help

4.   Bertha’s Bedroom.

5.   The Walk to Corbella

6.   The Gathering

7.   Rumours and Reasons

8.   Preparing To Leave

9.   Mist and a Mudsucker

10.   Kylon Market

11.   The Forest of Bollba

12.   Zephyr and Moonlight

13.   On to Remna

14.   The Purple Parrot and Ivor Chestikov

15.   Leaving Remna

16.   Getting Closer

17.   The Entrance to

Sholl Castle

18.   Into the pit

19.   Back in the pass

20.   Out of the dark

21.   The ferryman’s house

22.   At Last

23.   Freedom in Chains

24.   Marbles and

dragons don’t mix

25.   Death of a Hero

26.   Revenge

27.   The Flight From

The Valley

28.   Weary and Worried

29.   The Arrival of Megron

30.   Sad Goodbyes

31.   Back in our World

32.   Home at Last

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wife Janet and our daughter Alison, who have patiently (and sometimes impatiently) listened to me waffle on about ideas for the story.

*    *    *

No real elves, dwarves, gnomes or dragons were killed or injured in the writing of this book.

G. L. Wright

CHAPTER 1

The squirrel

S he was fourteen when it all started.

Millie Parker lived in the small village of Saggie Bottom. (Whoever gave it that name never thought what torment the villagers would go through when asked where they lived.)

The village snuggled down at the lower end of beautiful narrow, wooded valley and took its name from the river Saggie that ran gurgling and splashing down the middle of the dale. It was not really a river, more of a wide stream.

Not many strangers came to the village because you could easily miss the lane which led from the main road, over the tree covered hill, into the top end of the valley, where the six houses of Great Saggie stood hidden from Saggie Bottom by a narrow band of oak trees. It did not help when no one replaced the fingerpost with the village names on it, after it was blown down in high winds one winter a few years before Millie Parker was born. Time and the world seemed to have passed the valley by since grass and weeds overgrew the old signpost.

Millie was liked by almost everyone in the valley. She was well mannered and seldom got into any real trouble, even though she was a bit of a tomboy. She lived with her twelve year old sister Lucy and their brother Tom, who was fifteen, in their parent’s cottage at the farthest end of the village.

The lady next door, Mrs. Thackeray, used to let Millie help her bake cakes, tarts and pies, and would always let Millie take some home. It was Mrs. Thackeray’s way of helping Millie and her family. You see Millie’s twelve year old sister Lucy was very ill and needed an operation that could not be done in this country. Lucy would have to go to America for treatment.

This was going to cost thousands of pounds and there was no way that her parents could save that amount. The villagers had organised many different events; functions, competitions, jumble sales and quiz nights to help raise the money, but they had not collected nearly enough yet.

Time was running out fast for the little girl. Lucy was getting worse. All she could do now was sit in a chair and watch television or read her books all day. She was unable to walk unaided and was getting steadily more frail as the weeks stretched into months.

Her parents were getting desperate and Millie was heartbroken at her sisters condition. Some nights Millie would cry herself to sleep. She loved her little sister so much, and felt so helpless because she could not help her.

Millie stayed in a lot of the time to be with Lucy, trying to entertain her and giving her comfort by just being there for her when she became lonely.

Occasionally Millie would go out into the fields or woods just to be on her own for a short while. One fine day in the summer she went for a walk to clear her mind and think of ways to help Lucy.

She wandered aimlessly through the long grass in the fields and eventually came to an old wooden style at the edge of the woods. Climbing over the style she was soon in the cool shadows of the tall trees. She wandered further into the wood, her mind completely focused on raising more money for her sister.

She suddenly stopped and looked around. All was quiet as though the trees and bushes were holding their breath. She was not frightened by this feeling. She was happy being alone in the woods so this quietness was not unusual, just a little strange. It was as though the wood was excitedly waiting for something to happen.

Without warning a grey squirrel appeared on the track in front of Millie. It looked up at her and she could have sworn it winked at her, or maybe it just blinked. She was not sure.

It flicked it’s tail and ran off along the track in front of her, then it stopped a few yards further on and looked back, flicked it’s tail again and ran on looking back over it’s shoulder as though it wanted her to follow.

Is it only my imagination? she whispered to herself.

The squirrel sat patiently watching her. Millie moved forward and the squirrel did the same. She began to follow it and when she could not keep up it sat waiting, cleaning it’s whiskers, until she caught up. After about five minutes of following the squirrel, Millie saw it disappear into the base of a dead, hollow tree.

She waited for what seemed an age but the squirrel did not reappear, so slowly she approached the tree. She crouched down and looked into the hole where the squirrel had disappeared. It was a fairly large hole. Almost large enough for her to crawl into, but the small animal had vanished. Evidently it had climbed up the inside of the tree trunk.

Millie felt round inside the hole but all she could feel was wet mossy wood. As she withdrew her arm some of the dried leaves just inside the tree trunk moved and she noticed something glinting where the leaves had been lying. She reached in and picked up a small bottle which had been uncovered. The bottle was full of a clear green liquid, and a label was fastened to the neck by a thin gold thread.

The label was blank, but as Millie twisted and turned the bottle to examine it, lettering in a scrawling spidery writing began to appear on the card. It read:-

Just pour the liquid from this bottle

Into this old tree.

After just a little while

A surprise you then will see.

Millie pulled the stopper out of the bottle, knelt forward and sprinkled the contents of the bottle over the leaf covered floor of the tree, then quickly moved back to watch what would happen—if anything. She was just beginning to think that she was wasting her time when she noticed slight movements among the leaves.

The floor began to sink slowly and the leaves began to stretch and form a staircase leading down into the deeper area in the far side of the hole.

Millie watched wide eyed as the movement speeded up. The hole deepened and widened. The leaves slowly began to transform into very worn stone steps. The opening into the tree trunk began to expand to the size of a small doorway. All these changes took place in an eerie silence.

When all the movement seemed to have stopped there was a series of small popping sounds and the whole of the staircase and cavern was filled with warm shimmering light from torches burning in metal brackets on the walls.

She looked down as she noticed a slight movement near her right foot. It was the squirrel looking up at her, it’s small black eyes sparkling in the warm light from the torches. With a twitch of it’s tail it ran down three steps and stopped. Realising it was safe to do so, Millie moved cautiously forward.

She descended the long flight of steps and noticed how worn they were; almost to a smooth ramp in places. The walls were also worn smooth, as though something had rubbed against them until they were polished in some areas. She reached the bottom of the stairs and saw, stretching away from her, a large cavern with a flagged floor. There were no torches lighting the far end but something glittered and twinkled in the darkness.

The squirrel sat patiently on the bottom step, watching, as Millie walked to the far end of the cavern. As she drew closer she began to realise what it was in front of her.

A huge treasure hoard filled the dark end of the cave. Millie could not tell how far back the mound of treasure went, but it was evidently a long way.

Mixed in with the enormous mountain of gold coins were gems of every colour and size; pearls, loose or strung as necklaces, golden statuettes, golden helmets encrusted with gems, caskets brimming with every kind of jewel, trinkets and much more.

Millie suddenly felt very frightened. Who or even what did this gigantic treasure belong to? What if ‘who or what’ came back and found her here? What would ‘who or what’ do to her?

She did not like stealing, but she felt that the squirrel had brought her here to help her sister, but what to take? Gems and jewellery would be difficult to exchange for money, and even more difficult to explain ownership of. Even Millie understood that.

Then she remembered that not long ago her father had mentioned to her mother that old Tom Bagshaw had given up farming and gone to live a life of luxury in a land somewhere over the sea where the sun shone all year round. He had dug up a large number of gold coins that were worth a fortune from his bottom meadow.

That was it then. She would take some gold coins and bury them in the back garden, then dig them up and tell everyone that she had found them while making a special flower patch for Lucy.

She looked round to find something to carry the gold coins in. There, near the base of the treasure mound, lay an earthenware pot. Diamonds, rubies, opals and amethysts spilled from the mouth of the pot. She shook out all the gems and replaced them with gold coins. Then she turned, and carrying the pot in both hands, ran back toward the entrance.

It was not until she had almost reached the bottom of the stone steps that she realised that the squirrel was almost as big as she was. Second by second the squirrel grew larger and it began to