Dragon Scales: Dragon World Trilogy Book One

By Brendan Hudson

Some doors should never be opened. So when Emily steps through a doorway into another world, she never considers the consequences.

For Emily Sutton, being thirteen years old is difficult enough. Now she has dragons to contend with.

A world of mystery and adventure is waiting for her to explore. But she quickly discovers there is a reason for her being there, and that some dragons are not happy about it.

With lies clouding the truth and danger around every corner, Emily must fight to save the dragon world and herself. The only problem is - who can she trust?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Aug 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477156650

Brendan Hudson

Brendan has worked most of his life as a chef, but has always had a passion for writing. Spending years involved in creative and performance arts led the way to write stage plays and begin his writing journey. He lives in the Gippsland region of Victoria in Australia with his wife and daughter, and his dog Buddy.

Book preview

One

T he trees swayed in protest as the sudden rush of wind disturbed them from their peaceful state, forcing dozens of leaves to break free and litter the ground.

The large creature moved through the air quickly, keeping close to the tree-tops. Its broad wings were beating fast to move its plump body. It was constantly stealing glances behind it and looking around nervously, as if expecting to see something.

The creature was a dragon, and this particular dragon was gold in colour and a little bit fat, because it was usually fairly lazy. Normally it would just be sitting around hoarding precious stones and gold, being greedy and selfish, thinking only of itself.

Although this dragon was capable of breathing fire and being quite terrifying, at the moment it was frightened and it had good reason to be. It was being stalked by another dragon, a fearsome creature that knew no fear. It was also larger and meaner than the golden one, and was currently in a very bad mood.

The golden dragon flew lower, its chubby belly brushing the thick canopy of the forest as its eyes frantically darted this way and that desperately searching for a place to land, and ultimately a place to hide.

*     *     *

On the forest floor, a young girl named Emily Sutton was standing amongst the trees looking up trying to see through the thick canopy, listening intently.

She had seen the golden dragon fly across the tree-tops a few moments earlier, but hadn’t seen where it had gone. She gave up looking skyward and continued walking.

All the leaves and grasses were a vibrant green, and the temperature was quite mild, with just the slightest smell of rain in the air. She guessed that it was possibly springtime, but she couldn’t see any flowers, and hadn’t noticed any animal life either; not even the tiniest of bugs that would usually be so abundant in a forest like this.

Although the trees were sparsely placed in this section of the forest, they were enormous. They were bigger than anything Emily had seen before. Their branches were reaching out to its neighbour trying to close all of the gaps in the canopy.

Not too far ahead of her, Emily heard the sound of breaking branches followed by a loud thud, as though something had crashed through the trees and onto the ground.

She crept silently in the direction of the strange sound to investigate.

The forest was becoming denser, with a more prehistoric feel. The ground was damp and soft because of the thick layer of moss and rotting organic matter covering the forest floor.

An enormous fallen tree lay across the ground in front of the young girl completely blocking her view. This wasn’t what had made the noise. Emily could tell that it had been there for a very long time, as its top edge was covered in moss and there were huge fungi growing all over its side.

Emily inspected the fungus a little closer. She grabbed hold of one piece and tried to move it. It wouldn’t budge, it was very solid.

Very carefully, Emily placed her foot onto the giant fungus and stepped up. To her relief, it held fast. She continued climbing until her head protruded over the top of the tree-trunk.

Ahead of her, hiding behind some particularly large trees Emily caught a glimpse of the golden dragon. It appeared to be quite frightened, looking around nervously in every direction. She watched the creature for a few moments, staring wonderingly at its beautiful colour. Its scales were glinting in the thin streams of sunshine filtering through the trees in this darker section of the forest. She had only seen two types of dragons in this world so far, and neither of them were golden ones.

There was a loud crack from above, and as Emily looked up she saw an enormous red shape come crashing through the treetops almost directly above her. She gasped in horror, but didn’t dare move as the giant, fierce looking red dragon landed on the ground just on the other side of the tree-trunk with its back to her. Debris fell all around the dragon, some of it crashing onto the log Emily was peering over tearing off huge chunks of moss.

While watching nervously, Emily thought she had heard a voice. She quickly glanced around the area, not wanting to take her eyes off of the two dragons for too long, but she couldn’t see anyone there.

She heard it again, but then suddenly realised that it seemed to be coming from inside her own head. Emily quickly dismissed that notion as ridiculous, but she couldn’t ignore what it was saying. ‘Run! Get away! Hide!’

The large red dragon looked around for a moment, breathing slowly and studying its surroundings. It caught a glimpse of something gold in the distance and ran straight for the golden dragon baring its teeth and snarling furiously.

‘What are you doing here?’ the golden dragon whimpered, cowering before the angry beast. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you.’

‘I bet you weren’t, you snivelling coward,’ the red dragon hissed and lunged forward, growling deeply. ‘You are in serious trouble, Radek,’ the red dragon warned.

‘What do you mean?’ the golden dragon whimpered quietly, its body trembling uncontrollably.

‘We know you were eavesdropping on our little conversation.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Diallo,’ Radek said turning away, unable to look the angry dragon in the eye.

‘Liar!’ Diallo roared and slashed his claws across Radek’s body.

The golden dragon winced at the pain, and three thin lines of blood emerged on his golden scales.

‘I swear I didn’t hear anything,’ Radek pleaded.

‘I hope for you sake you are telling the truth,’ Diallo warned. ‘I would hate for anything bad to happen to you.’ Smoke and flames licked the edge of Diallo’s mouth as he sneered menacingly at the cowering dragon.

Emily involuntarily let out a small scream. She quickly cupped a hand over her mouth and ducked down, balancing precariously on the large, slippery fungus.

Diallo’s head snapped around, his evil eyes squinted as he glared into the forest. ‘Who is with you?’ he demanded to know from Radek.

‘No one,’ the golden dragon tried to reassure his aggressor unconvincingly.

‘Do you have someone spying on me?’ Diallo snapped. The dragon stepped forward preparing to strike another savage blow when he was distracted by another noise.

Emily slipped from her perch and landed heavily onto the ground below after unceremoniously bouncing down the huge fungus steps. She was very grateful for the thick covering of moss on the forest floor for cushioning her fall.

Two, red, clawed feet appeared at the top of the fallen tree, followed quickly by a spiky head.

Emily squealed and desperately scrambled backwards to try and escape the fearsome looking creature.

Diallo smirked and almost laughed at the terrified, pathetic form before him. He breathed in preparing to expel a large stream of flame towards the young girl.

Emily screamed again and frantically clawed at the ground attempting to escape certain death.

The flames sprayed from the dragon’s mouth scorching the ground and surrounding trees, causing violent hisses of protest from the damp forest. When the flames finally disappeared, there was no sign of Emily.

*     *     *

Emily opened her eyes. She was at home standing in the middle of her bedroom floor, still in her pyjamas. She was breathing heavily and her forehead was beaded with sweat.

Emily had been experiencing these strange occurrences for the past couple of months. She was unsure of what they were. They weren’t dreams; visions were the only way she could describe them. But she wasn’t just seeing them, she was experiencing them also.

Emily’s vision had disappeared because her concentration had been broken. It took her a moment to regain her senses, but when she did she realised that she was being poked in the side by her annoying little brother.

‘Stop it, Matthew,’ Emily snapped at the four year old.

‘Mum said get ready for school,’ he told her, looking up at her with a cheeky smile.

‘I am,’ she said annoyed, and pushed him out of her room shutting the door in his face.

She wiped her brow and studied her fingers, which were now wet with perspiration.

‘That was intense,’ Emily admitted to herself.

In the past few weeks, Emily had learned to focus her thoughts and could see into this world of dragons whenever she chose to. But they still sometimes occurred unexpectedly.

‘Get ready for school! Get ready for school!’ Matthew chanted from the other side of the door.

‘Go away you little brat,’ Emily yelled through the closed door.

‘Emily, be nicer to your brother,’ her father instructed her as he hurried past her room, adjusting his shirt, late for work again.

‘But he’s so annoying,’ she whined.

Matthew was a constant nuisance as far as Emily was concerned. When she was younger, she nagged her parents for a baby brother or sister. She thought that having one would be fun, someone to play games with all the time. But when Matthew came along it wasn’t at all like she had imagined. Crying all through the night, smelly nappies, and constantly getting into her things. She regrets ever having asked.

‘Emily,’ her mother called from the kitchen. ‘Hurry up.’

‘I’m coming she called back as she emerged from her bedroom now dressed in her school uniform and hurriedly brushing her hair.

She entered the kitchen and sat at the table opposite Matthew. There was a bowl of cornflakes and a glass of apple juice in front of her. Emily watched Matthew munching on a piece of toast smothered with peanut butter as she ate. She glared at him with disgust. ‘Gross,’ she said when she noticed that there was more peanut butter on his face than on the toast.

‘Eat up,’ her mum said sweetly.

Emily watched her brother smear the last of his peanut butter toast around the outside of his glass of juice, all the while concentrating intently. She lost her appetite.

‘You have to eat something,’ her mum almost insisted as she stood in the kitchen sipping her coffee.

‘I’m not hungry,’ Emily mumbled, and removed herself from the table scraping the chair across the tile floor.

‘Emily, please lift the chair,’ her mother complained as she winced at the noise.

‘Sorry,’ Emily replied quietly, not really meaning it. ‘I’m going to school.’

She didn’t care much for school; in fact Emily didn’t care much for anything, except for being alone. At the moment she was too preoccupied with what was going on with her visions.

Emily retrieved her school bag from the hallway and exited the house, deliberately allowing the front door to slam shut behind her.

*     *     *

The first few hours of school dragged on, as they usually did. Emily just sat quietly in the classroom trying to pretend that she was interested in whatever subject this was. She was too busy thinking about what she had experienced in the dragon world.

Time seemed to be moving slower than ever today. She tried to focus on what the teacher was saying, but couldn’t quite grasp it. She remembered now, she was in history class. Emily hated history. Who cares about what happened in the past, hundreds or even thousands of years ago? It was all just too boring.

Emily stared at the blackboard at the front of the classroom trying to focus on the names and dates scrawled all over it, but she just couldn’t muster enough interest.

Emily felt a cool breeze on her face and then felt a couple of dry leaves gently fall onto her head. The teacher faded away and was replaced by a large tree. She looked around the classroom. The other students were also fading one by one, being replaced with trees or large rocks.

Emily once again found herself standing in the dragon world, in the very same part of the forest where she was earlier. She quickly located the burnt area where she was almost incinerated.

She climbed up the fungus steps cautiously, peering over the top of the tree-trunk, holding her breath in anticipation.

Emily sighed with disappointment when she saw nothing. The two dragons were gone, and there weren’t any signs indicating what might have happened.

The forest shimmered and became blurry. Emily stared, trying to figure out what was happening, but found herself staring at the blackboard instead.

‘Emily,’ the teacher said in a raised voice while staring at her with a very stern expression, very unimpressed with the lack of attention he was receiving.

Emily quickly looked around the classroom. All eyes were on her.

‘Well?’ the teacher asked. ‘What is the answer?’

‘Emily didn’t even know what the question was. ‘Um…’ she began.

The loud high-pitched ring of the bell echoed throughout the school, it was the end of class, much to Emily’s relief. Within a few minutes there were hundreds of children swarming from every possible doorway ready for their second favourite time of the day, lunchtime. The favourite being home time.

After a very serious talking to by the teacher, Emily headed to the farthest corner of the schoolyard to try and get some privacy. As she walked, she began eating the peanut butter sandwich that her mum had so graciously made her, not because she liked it, but because she was hungry, having skipped breakfast. Every mouthful reminded her of the gross mess her brother was making this morning. After managing to eat half of it, she threw the rest in the bin as she went past. She gulped down some drink from her drink bottle and found a secluded spot behind a tree. Looking around, she was satisfied that she shouldn’t be disturbed. She closed her eyes, concentrated, and in no time at all she was back in the dragon world. She was hoping to be back where she had seen the dragons, but she wasn’t.

Emily stood at the mouth of a cave looking out. The cave was high up in the side of the mountain. She breathed out releasing a long, loud, disgruntled sigh. From there, all she could see were tree-tops and mountains. Looking down she could see the denser section of the forest where she had been earlier, and that was where she was planning on heading now and try and discover the fate of that golden dragon. She hesitated for a moment, listening. It sounded as though there were dragons not far from her having a bit of a scuffle. There was groaning, growling, and branches being broken. There was a dull thud and a giant tree shook losing some of its leaves.

A dark shadow ran amongst the trees, and Emily caught the briefest of glimpses of a long green tail emerge from the tree-tops.

It was several minutes before the offending dragons moved their scuffle to another part of the forest. It was silent once again, but Emily was still hesitating.

She was curious as to why she could only ever appear in this particular cave. No matter how hard she tried she only ever appeared in this world at this exact place every time, except for when the visions occurred beyond her control, and then she could end up anywhere.

Just as Emily was about to step forward to brave the forest, a giant dragon swooped down the mountainside from above her. The wind it created as it flew by almost caused her to lose her balance. Her hair blew around wildly and she had to put her arms out to steady herself. She had received quite a fright and her heart was beating hard and fast.

She watched the dragon that had just startled her with great anticipation, studying it carefully. It was her friend, Mirkala.

The dragon turned and headed back towards the cave. Emily waved her arms wildly, letting the graceful creature know that she had seen her.

With her large wings spread wide, the dragon glided silently towards the cave and the excited young girl.

Emily ran backwards into the cave watching the dragon as it approached. Mirkala lowered her tail and angled her wings to slow herself down. Her clawed feet hit the ground flicking up stones and dirt, and in one smooth movement her large leathery wings folded in against her body and she entered the cave. The dragon smiled at Emily as she walked towards her, her teeth showing. Although they had become friends recently, Emily always felt nervous when she was this close to Mirkala. Just one tooth was as big as Emily’s hand.

‘Emily, it’s lovely to see you again,’ Mirkala said sweetly.

Emily was about to speak, when suddenly she disappeared. The dragon blinked at the surprise, but then went about her own business, not at all concerned about what had just happened.

‘Ow!’ Emily yelled. She was back at school. There was a lot of noise caused by children running around playing games, making the most of the short amount of free time they had. Something had hit her, breaking her concentration.

‘What are you doing over here?’ This is where we hang out,’ a short scruffy looking boy told her.

‘I can go anywhere I want,’ Emily told him defiantly.

‘She must be talking to her dragon friends again?’ a chubby boy with greasy hair said laughing at her. ‘Oh, Mirkala, I love it here in the dragon world. I wish I could come here for real,’ he mimicked mockingly.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Emily replied unconvincingly.

‘We’ve heard you before,’ the short boy said.

‘Everybody has heard you,’ laughed the chubby boy.

Emily went silent. She never realised that when she was visiting the dragon world she was actually talking out aloud.

The third boy of the group stepped forward. Sebastian Kent was much taller than the other two. He had a thin build, messy hair, his school uniform was dirty and tattered, and he reeked of body odor.

Although the two boys he was with called him friend, they feared him and quickly moved out of his way.

Sebastian stared down at Emily with dark, penetrating eyes. ‘Can you really talk to dragons?’ he asked seriously.

Emily wasn’t sure what to say. She feared that she was going to be in trouble no matter what she said. ‘Yes,’ she finally said weakly.

‘Can you prove it?’ he asked in a very calm voice as though he was genuinely interested in whether she could or not.

This made Emily even more uncomfortable than if he was just openly aggressive.

‘No,’ she replied, wishing desperately that at this point she was somehow able to prove it.

‘Only a baby would believe something like that,’ Sebastian said evenly. ‘You must only be a little baby. Do you still wear nappies?’ The slightest of sly smiles crossed his face, and then suddenly, with an action that completely belied his demeanour, Sebastian thrust his arms out and slammed his hands onto Emily’s shoulders, propelling her backwards onto the ground. ‘You stupid baby,’ he laughed hysterically.

All Emily could do was lie on the ground and stare up at the boys as they laughed at her chanting, ‘Baby! Baby! Baby!’

Eventually they got bored and left to find someone else to terrorise.

She sat up but remained on the ground feeling defeated and humiliated.

Emily was nearly fourteen years old. She was a normal girl. Slightly smaller than average height, average weight, long, straight medium brown hair, blue eyes and did okay at school. She wasn’t a genius, and she wasn’t particularly good at sports, but she was very creative and had the ability to think outside the square.

Sebastian was the school bully, the biggest and meanest of them all. He was sixteen years old and always looked untidy. He had never done well at school, and he couldn’t care less about it. He only went because he had to. He was a troublemaker, and was always causing everybody grief.

Rumor had it that Sebastian’s father was very strict and old fashioned in his thinking, and imposed very severe discipline upon his son. Then he just mysteriously disappeared, and shortly afterwards Sebastian’s mother also disappeared, leaving him to live with his grandparents.

From then on his bullying steadily worsened, making every child’s life in the school an absolute misery. He was completely out of control and the teachers couldn’t seem to be able to stop him.

‘Are you all right, Emily?’ called a small voice that came from an even smaller girl.

‘I’m fine,’ Emily replied as she stood up and brushed away the dirt.

The small voice belonged to a tiny little girl named Jess, she was a year older than Emily, but her size made her appear several years younger. They weren’t actually friends, but Jess was always friendly towards her. In fact Jess was always trying to be Emily’s friend, and it was becoming quite annoying. She was always following her around trying to make conversation, wanting to play with her. She just wouldn’t leave her alone.

‘They’re just bullies,’ Jess said. ‘Do you want to play with us?’ Half a dozen girls stood close by waiting for an answer. ‘No, I’m fine,’ Emily replied bluntly.

Jess smiled, a little disappointed, but she was getting used to that with Emily. She re-joined the group of girls waiting for her, leaving Emily by herself as usual.

As Emily wandered through the crowded schoolyard, giant trees started appearing in spasmodic flashes, and the children were all slowly fading away. Emily’s vision of the dragon world was returning.

‘Argh! Stop it!’ she screamed. ‘Not now, this is so annoying.’ She concentrated to try and force the vision away.

It worked. The vision vanished, but Emily was now left standing in amongst fifty other students, being stared at and regarded suspiciously for her sudden and peculiar outburst.

*     *     *

The final bell rang, indicating that school was finished for the day. Children were running everywhere to catch buses that would take them home, or to meet parents who were waiting for them. The ones who lived close enough ran off by themselves to get home as fast as possible to return to their fun and games and forget about school for a while.

Today there was particular excitement in the air. It was Friday and would normally be the end of school for two whole days. But this weekend was special; it was a long weekend, giving the children three whole days at home and an extra day for parents to contend with bickering and boredom.

Emily didn’t care that it was a long weekend, because that just meant she had to put up with her annoying little brother for an extra day. But she was happy to be away from school to escape the bullying.

Emily dawdled along the footpath, kicking at stones and plucking leaves and flowers from plants that were hanging over the front fences of people’s yards. She walked slowly and silently down the path, ignoring the cheery hellos from the people she knew as she passed their houses; her thoughts were miles away.

She was taking the long way home today. She was going via the local park with the intention of visiting the dragon world one more time before she went home.

There was a scuff of shoes on the footpath behind her. She glanced over her shoulder only to discover that she was being followed by Jess. Emily let out an annoyed groan, she knew where Jess lived, and walking this way was also out of her way.

Emily spun around. ‘Why are you following me?’ she asked the small blonde girl rather harshly.

Jess stopped in her tracks at Emily’s tone, and balanced precariously because her school bag was nearly bigger than she was. ‘I’m not following you,’ Jess squeaked, and nervously fumbled with the straps that were dangling from her bag.

‘Your house is the other way,’ Emily reminded her.

‘So is yours,’ Jess replied. ‘Do you want to go to the park together,’ she added after a few moments of uncomfortable silence.

‘Who said I’m going to the park?’ Emily asked snidely.

‘Why else would you be walking this way?’ Jess retorted.

Emily didn’t know what to say, Jess was right. ‘Just stop following me,’ she snapped, and continued walking.

‘I just want to be your friend,’ Jess called, watching Emily walk down the path and around the corner out of sight. Jess stood there with a determined look on her face, wondering why Emily was so standoffish. A hint of disappointment crossed her face as she turned the other way and headed home. ‘You look as though you could use a friend,’ she said quietly to herself.

Emily reached the park; it was deserted, the children were still on their way home eager to begin their long weekend, and not interested in the park at the moment.

She found a suitable spot and put her bag down beside her. The grass in the park was short and patchy; it wasn’t coping with the wear and tear it receives, turning a lot of areas into dirt. But the dull greenish brown of the grass contrasted quite well with the vibrant colours of the play equipment.

Within a few seconds Emily was back in the dragon world, standing inside Mirkala’s cave.

The inside of the cave was quite homely, with shelves full of dusty old books and glass jars filled with strange and colourful liquids. A huge fireplace dominated the centre of the cave and there was a giant steel cauldron hanging over it. The cauldron had something bubbling out of it filling the air with a putrid smell.

At the far end of the cave was a large area that had been very well worn, with small rocks circling it; Mirkala’s bed. There was a stone table next to it, which was scattered with more books. Emily thought that cave dragons must love reading. She also noticed a smaller cauldron at that end of the cave. This one appeared as though it used to be polished and shiny, but years of neglect had reduced it to just being another uninteresting object stuffed out of the way.

On the walls were iron lanterns; their flames burning away slowly at whatever the fuel was that was keeping them alight. One of the flames began dancing in the breeze that had found its way into the cave. The lanterns showed wonderful craftsmanship, their sides finely etched with decorative patterns. Emily just stared at them for a moment, realising how little she knew about this place and its inhabitants. There was so much for her to learn here, and this was only one cave; she still had a whole world to explore.

By the fire stood her friend Mirkala, she towered over Emily, being about four metres tall, but an average size for a dragon. Her scales were dark brown for the most part, with slightly lighter shades of brown around her wings and face, and on her underside. They were diamond shaped with large protruding ridges on them, making her body appear quite bumpy. She had a solid body with a long tail and large protruding scales along the length of her back. Her neck was long and thick and her back legs were slightly larger than her front ones. She had four toes on all four feet that ended in long claws, and Emily noticed that her front toes were quite a bit longer than the back ones, to make it a little easier for her to hold things. She was slowly stirring the contents of the cauldron.

The dragon looked down to see Emily standing there. ‘You’re back. You gave me quite a surprise before, disappearing like that,’ Mirkala said still stirring.

‘Sorry, I got distracted and lost my concentration.’ Emily sniffed at the cauldron. ‘Argh! That smells disgusting,’ she added, changing the subject.

‘Don’t you like the smell of my cooking?’

‘No, I don’t,’ Emily replied holding her nose. ‘What is it?’

‘Children,’ the old dragon replied nonchalantly. ‘One hundred pesky children boiled up to make soup.’ Mirkala stared at Emily licking her lips. Then they both started laughing. ‘This is my healing potion,’ she said still giggling to herself. ‘When it is finished it will be able to heal dragons of almost any illness or injury,’ Mirkala said as a matter of fact.

‘Is it nearly finished?’

‘Oh no,’ the dragon said, and took a big sniff of the potion. ‘I think about three more years should do it.’

‘Three years!’ Emily almost shouted. ‘That’s forever.’

The dragon laughed quietly. ‘When you can live for ten thousand years, three years isn’t very long. Good things take time, Emily. You can’t rush potions; they must be made with patience and precision. One wrong measurement and the whole batch could be ruined,’ Mirkala explained as though she was giving her a lesson.

Emily was already beginning to feign interest when a smaller dragon about Emily’s height and half again came running in from outside, shouting. ‘Em, Em, Em!’

‘Bolo!’ Emily replied excitedly and stretched out her arms to give him a hug only to be knocked over by the excited creature.

‘Bolo, calm down,’ Mirkala told him.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said stepping back allowing Emily to remove herself from the dirty ground.

Bolo was still a young dragon, and pure white, which Mirkala explained was very rare. In fact she said that she had never seen a white dragon in her lifetime.

His body was smooth, and he had no ridges or spikes. He was just covered in tiny round white scales, and his legs were all the same size. His head seemed small compared to his body, and it reminded Emily a little like a snakes head, almost blending into the size of his long neck.

‘I haven’t seen you for ages, Em. What are you doing here?’ he asked excitedly.

‘I just needed to get away.’ Emily said quietly.

‘Having a bad day are you?’ Mirkala asked. The wise cave dragon was well aware of Emily’s feelings and the trouble she was having at school. Emily spoke about it quite often. ‘You shouldn’t be trying to escape from your problems, Emily. You should stand up and face them, no matter how difficult it may seem,’ the dragon sighed.

‘I know. But I like it here. I don’t get bullied or laughed at, or annoyed by little brothers,’ she explained looking at Bolo who was staring at her inquisitively. ‘I wish I could stay here.’

‘Don’t be silly. You know you can’t. This is the dragon world. You belong in the human world.’ Mirkala continued stirring her potion, quietly concerned about Emily. She seemed to be becoming less and less happy with her own life and was escaping more regularly as a result of it.

‘Don’t worry, Em,’ the little white dragon said quietly, ‘I get picked on and bullied too, because I’m different.’

Emily sat on a rock near the bookshelf watching the flickering lanterns. ‘I’m nobody in my world.’

Mirkala dropped the huge spoon. ‘Don’t say that. You’re special. Emily, look at what you can do. You can move between worlds. Do you think anyone else from your world can do that? I wouldn’t think so.’ The dragon picked up her spoon and continued stirring.

‘But I get picked on for doing it, and I don’t really have any friends.’

‘Are you trying to make friends?’ Mirkala lowered her head, looked Emily in the eye and spoke softly. ‘You are very special and don’t let anyone tell you differently. And don’t turn your back on those who want to be your friend.’

Emily smiled at the beautiful dragon. ‘Okay.’ She sat quietly for a moment thinking about what Mirkala had just told her. ‘Why can I only come here?’ she asked suddenly. ‘I’ve tried appearing other places in this world, but I always keep ending up in this cave.’

‘I’m not sure, there is so much in this world to learn about, Emily, it would take you a thousand lifetimes to learn it all.’

‘And it’s starting to get difficult to control. I often find myself coming here against my will. And when that happens, I can appear anywhere.’ Emily was keeping her emotions in check, but it was obvious that she was distressed about it.

Mirkala wasn’t sure how to answer her. She wasn’t completely sure of that herself. She had some theories, but was still trying to find the answers. But even if she did know, she wasn’t sure if she should tell her. Also, she wasn’t sure if she should be encouraging Emily’s visits. There must be a reason why Emily could do this, but it hadn’t revealed itself just yet. ‘You had better get back to your world now Emily,’ she said, wanting to change the subject, ‘and I must get going too, I have to collect more ingredients for my potion.’

‘Do all dragons make potions?’ Emily asked.

‘No, just us cave dwellers. Every type of dragon has its own special skill.’

‘What can the red dragons do?’ Emily asked innocently.

‘Red dragons?’ Mirkala asked concerned. ‘How do you know about them?’ She stole a glance at Bolo who was also looking quite concerned.

‘I saw one outside in the forest.’

‘Really?’

‘The red dragon was very unhappy about something the golden dragon had done,’ Emily explained.

‘Did they see you?’ Bolo asked nervously.

‘Yes, the red one tried to kill me. But I disappeared just in time,’ Emily laughed dismissingly. ‘Does it matter?’

‘My goodness,’ Mirkala gasped. ‘You need to be much more careful, Emily. And it would be best not to let too many other dragons know of your presence here,’ she said with a forced smile, so as not to worry the young girl. It was just that the red fire dragons could be particularly dangerous, and they were not to be trusted.

Mirkala didn’t like lying to Emily, but she didn’t think that it would be wise to tell her about the turmoil the dragon world was in. Although she couldn’t help but wonder if Emily’s arrival in this world was somehow related. Mirkala walked to the cave entrance quickly, not wanting to pursue that line of conversation any further. ‘Goodbye Emily, I must collect my ingredients.’ She spread her mighty wings and flew into the sky. ‘Come on Bolo,’ she called back.

‘I’m coming,’ he called, ‘Em, come back tonight. I want too show you something, but don’t tell Mirkala.’

Before Emily could say anything else, Bolo was running towards the opening of the cave.

‘See you tonight,’ Bolo called as he spread his wings and flew after the cave dragon.

Emily wondered what it could possibly be that Bolo wanted to show her. She thought that it must be something good if she had to keep it a secret. Now she was becoming excited.

Emily stood still with her eyes closed and concentrated, and after a few moments, she was back in her world.

Emily removed her drink bottle from her bag and adjusted her hat as she took a long drink. She was about to head home when she heard a familiar voice.

‘What are you doing here, dragon girl?’ the chubby boy shouted.

‘Where are your dragon friends?’ shouted the short boy.

‘Don’t be stupid, she doesn’t have any friends.’

Emily ignored them and walked away. Suddenly, her hat just disappeared from her head.

‘Hey!’ she yelled, and turned to face the boys.

Sebastian was holding her hat smiling smugly, but he was nowhere near her.

‘How did you do that?’ Emily demanded to know. But of course he didn’t answer. She noticed that in his other hand he had a length of rope with a small weight on the end. With a flick of his wrist, the rope shot forward like a spring, wrapped around her drink bottle, and then snapped back to him.

‘Give that back! It’s mine!’ Emily demanded.

‘Come and get it then,’ Sebastian challenged.

Emily strode towards the group of boys with forced courage hoping to get her things back, when Sebastian’s rope sprung out again and wrapped around her ankle. He pulled hard and she fell flat onto her back with a thud. She cried out and the boys laughed as they ran away leaving Emily by herself on the ground.

She just laid there fighting back the tears. Emily began to realise that she was quickly running out of places where she could feel safe. The park was now becoming just as treacherous as the school ground, with Sebastian running around unchallenged, doing whatever he wanted.

Emily just stared at the sky. She desperately wanted to go back to the dragon world and stay there forever.

Two

I t was late that night, and Emily was in bed staring at the ceiling trying desperately to stay awake.

She sat up feeling that she was beginning to doze off, and quietly slipped on some shoes and a jacket. She looked quite funny wearing long silky pink pajamas with black school shoes and a brown woolly jacket. But Emily didn’t care, no one from school, or any of her family were going to see her, and she was pretty sure that dragons didn’t have any fashion sense.

She paced around her room impatiently, she could still hear her mum and dad in the next room talking, and getting ready for bed. She wanted to wait until they were asleep; taking into account the revelation she received earlier that day that she could be heard talking when she was talking in the dragon world.

Emily moved to the wall that joined her parent’s room and pressed her ear up against it to listen. It wasn’t comfortable, because she had to lean right forward with her feet at least a large step away, because of all the mess in there. There were clean and dirty clothes, toys, books and her school uniform and bag piled up against that part of the wall, as it was the only piece of wall in her room that didn’t have some sort of furniture up against it.

The voices of her parents were muffled, but she could still understand them well enough.

‘I’m concerned about Emily,’ her mum said.

‘How come?’ her father replied in a tone that indicated that they had had this conversation many times.

‘She seems to be isolating herself more and more, and it’s getting worse. She has no friends and she hates her brother.’

‘Well that’s understandable, he is only four, and she’s nearly fourteen,’

‘I thought she might play with him more,’ her mum said sounding disappointed.

‘There’s too much of an age difference. What would