The Three-Headed Dragon and the Golden Keys

By Charles Young

"The Three-Headed Dragon and the Golden Keys is an adventure story about
four young students who fi nd adventure in todays world and in medieval times.
Gordon, Alita, Carlos, and Louis have formed a little club they call the Daredevil
Detective Agency. These fourth and fi fth graders will try to solve the problems
of a mine shaft collapse, an unruly wizard, and an enemy Golden Knight. But
their biggest dilemma is a fi re-breathing, three-headed dragon that would like
to possess the golden keys to the kingdom. You will also meet an unusual
collection of people who help these young detectives survive their quest while
they are in the medieval world."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453597842

Book preview

CHAPTER #1

The Mine Shaft Discovery

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I can’t believe it! I exclaimed as I pulled my bike into a clearing alongside the overgrown mountain trial we were exploring today. My friends and I call ourselves the Daredevil Detective Agency, but we are really a bunch of fourth and fifth graders out looking for some adventure. Sure, we have solved some cases for our family members and other people in our small town, but we have never made any money or charged anyone for our services. But all that was going to change today.

We have just discovered an abandoned mine shaft, I added, and it may still have something valuable inside. In our area of the country there are some active mines and also many inactive ones that have been abandoned by the mining companies. Most of the mines contain coal but in a few some gold has been discovered. All of the inactive mines are supposed to have the entrance way boarded up or completely blocked with piles of rubble. This is to insure that no one will get hurt and that the company will not be sued. The shaft we had just ventured upon must have been so old that the boards over the entrance way had rotted and fell apart.

You know we are not supposed to go near the mines, Gordo, exhorted Alita. She was usually the logical one while I was a bit more daring. My friends started to call me ‘Gordo’ after Carlos explained to them that ‘gordo’ meant fat in Spanish. It also seemed appropriate to Carlos because my name was Gordon. Everyone liked my new nickname. After all I was a little chubby and the name seemed to fit me. I didn’t mind. My whole family is a little chubby even though my mom is always on some kind of diet.

Carlos and his family had just moved into our town this year from Mexico and they were all taking lessons to learn English. Sometimes Carlos would miss our Friday night adventures because he was at language class with his family at the local YMCA. Carlos was very hard-working in school and also was one of the biggest boys in the fifth grade. He was a year older than the rest of us because he changed schools so much. His dad told him that he would be in our school until he graduated. I sure hope so. He is a good friend. Carlos is also a big help on many of our adventures because he was so strong. He has helped us get out of many predicaments.

Louis on the other hand is a bit less daring than I am. He is constantly analyzing every situation carefully. I think he is just about the smartest kid in our school. His parents named him Louis in honor of the great heavyweight boxer, Joe Louis. Since his last name was Joseph, he was Louis Joseph. His parents thought this was pretty clever and I do, too. Louis may have a similar name and is also African-American, but he is not a fighter or very strong physically like the great boxer. Louis is a thinker. He also remembers just about everything he reads or hears. My mom says he has a photographic memory. As you can see, our little group is quite a combination of races and cultures but we all get along quite smoothly.

We better check this out carefully before we venture inside, Louis recommended. Let’s get the flashlights out of our backpacks and examine the entrance way and the support timbers.

Good idea, agreed Carlos. I remember when some kids got hurt a few years back when they got trapped in an abandoned mine. I don’t want that to be us.

We parked our bikes and got our flashlights out of our backpacks. We always came prepared for emergencies and adventures. In our backpacks we carried a first aid kit, bottles of water, snacks, flashlights, extra batteries, matches, a compass, maps, small shovels, small picks, and rope. Of course, we had a cell phone for emergencies, but the phone was useless inside the mine. We hurried over to the entrance to examine the situation. We let Louis do most of the examining and were willing to take his recommendation on whether to enter the mine shaft or not.

CHAPTER #2

Entering the Mine

After Louis tested the support beams and ceiling beams, he felt confident that the wood was solid. He said this interior wood had not been exposed to the elements like the wood placed across the entrance had been. We moved cautiously over the rotten timber pieces and aimed our flashlights into the unknown. The path inside sloped gently downward and looked relatively clear.

Alita led the way. She was the tallest member of our group and she would tell us if we had to duck because of sagging roof timbers or rock outcrops overhead. She was a good leader. Her mom called her a tomboy and the description fit her perfectly. Besides being a tomboy, she was very pretty. At least that’s what all the other boys said to us. They were quite jealous and also confounded why she hung around us nerds. I was a bit confused myself, but it all probably stems back to the time when she moved in and I was the first kid she met. We hit it off immediately. We were together in kindergarten and every grade since. Our friendship has grown even stronger over the years.

It is amazing the things you may find in a mine if you are lucky. We have already found the pickaxes we have in our bags, lanterns, miners’ hats, and other mining apparatus. Many times we have talked about discovering the next big vein of coal or even . . . gold.

Finding gold was the topic of many of our conversations. Since all of our families struggled to make ends meet, we all dreamed that someday we would be millionaires and owners of the largest gold find since the gold rush of 1849. We would be the modern day forty-niners and rich. Maybe today was our day.

CHAPTER #3

Taking the Right Shaft

As we made our way deeper into the mine, the path became cluttered with rocks and boulders. So far we did not see any coal or gold. We were starting to understand why this mine had been abandoned. We all were wearing our backpacks, so we didn’t have to worry about supplies. We continued deeper into the mine. As we progressed the ceiling seemed to be getting lower and the sides narrower. Maybe we are nearing the end of the shaft, Alita said. I tried not to act too discouraged. I was hoping we would find something interesting.

Then Alita came to a sudden halt and said, The mine shaft divides here. We have to make a decision.

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Let’s take the right channel, I proposed.

"We all want to take the right channel, but can the left one be the right or