The Dragon Hunt Goes Back In Time

By MacKenzie Keeble

This is the second book in the Jackson Chronicles. This series is perfect for children of all ages and will be enjoyed by the older family members as well. The reader's imagination is transported to a world of magical creatures, where the children are the heroes and the monsters are friendly but there is no horror in this world of enchantment. The author hopes these stories will inspire young minds to develop a love for books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MacKenzie Keeble
• Release date: Sep 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780995790643

Book preview

Chapter 1

A RESTLESS NIGHT

It was the middle of the night and Jenny was tossing and turning in bed. She was asleep but her head was filled with dreams of goblins and dragons. The images in her head weren’t frightening her. She had met these creatures and they were friendly enough. But she had made some decisions which were going to affect the future of the family for many years to come. As their mother, she not only deeply loved her three children, but she knew she was also responsible for them and was scared she might have made a wrong decision. So, she tossed and turned in her sleep, dreaming of all these magical creatures.

The next day was a Saturday and she had planned, in the morning, to take her children to a cave where they were going to try to hatch a dragon egg. And if it did actually hatch, her children would be responsible for that dragon for the rest of their lives! That must be madness, wasn’t it? At any rate, that egg was supposed to be one thousand years old! Did dragon eggs really last that long? These were the sort of questions she had been asking herself when she fell asleep. Was it any wonder she was tossing and turning in her sleep?

Well, the morning arrived. The earth had carried on turning, the sun had come up and the world seemed to have continued as normal and had no regard for problems with goblins and dragons. When Jenny had woken up, she had decided that as the decision had already been made, she wouldn’t worry about it. Nothing was certain. The egg may not hatch at all. It may not have a dragon inside. She had decided not to worry about it, not even think about it. She would go along with the plan they had made and see what happened. Jenny shook the tiredness out of her head and gave the children breakfast.

Jenny, the mother

So, they had climbed into their old Ford Focus car and left for the mountain. The mountain was about two miles north of where they lived, a Welsh village called ‘Cwmtyr’. The name of the village was in Welsh, of course, and was pronounced ‘coom tear’ and means the valley of the river Tyr. They travelled to the mountain because at the top of this mountain was a cave, which was the source of the river Tyr and the home of the last surviving dragon in the whole world.

The Jackson children: Katie, Adam and Jacqui

Chapter 2

THE STORM

It was August, the children’s summer holidays, but you wouldn’t have known it from the weather. It was real Welsh weather; heavy rain and driving wind. Jenny had the windscreen wipers working hard to keep the windscreen clear. The whole family were in the car. Katie, the oldest of the children at 15, Jacqui at 13 and the youngest, Adam, at 10. They were constantly wiping the inside of the windows to keep them clear so they could see out. The old Ford did not have air conditioning. If they wanted air conditioning they wound down the windows and flapped their hands about. They felt lucky they had a car and that it had survived the move from Hastings to Wales.

After breakfast they had helped their mum pack two bags which were now in the boot of the car. One bag had picnic things; food, flask of hot chocolate, cold drinks, crockery, cutlery for four and Katie’s torch and spare batteries. The second bag was much bigger and had a lot of firewood, together with firelighters and matches.

The road that led them to the bottom of the mountain was a very narrow country lane getting steadily steeper as they approached the mountain.

Jenny had to drive slowly and carefully. She was aware that a bus used this route and was worried how she would cope if she met the bus coming towards her. The lane was hardly wide enough for two cars to pass each other. But the drive went well, she didn’t meet a bus or even another car. When she arrived at the bottom of the mountain she carefully parked the car off the road, on a grass verge, where she had parked before. It should be safe there, she thought, as she and the children took the bags from the boot.

They crossed the country lane and started the slow, uphill climb. There was a sort of path up the mountain. It followed the mountain stream which was to the left of the path. The stream came from the very cave they were travelling to and was the source of the river Tyr. The path up the mountain got steeper as they climbed, and they had to be very careful because there were a lot of stones and loose rocks which could cause them to stumble and fall. They each wore a wet-weather coat and hat, but the heavy rain made the pathway wet and slippery, and the stones treacherous to walk on. They took it in turns to carry the bags, even Adam carrying his