Saving Sharptooth: How to Feed a Dragon and Not Get Eaten Yourself

By SL Cantor

When Minnie finds a huge dragon hiding in a cave, starving to death, she knows that, terrifying though he is, she has to do everything she can to keep him alive. He needs food and lots of it. He says he’s a vegetarian but his teeth are very sharp. Is he telling her the truth? At first it doesn't matter; he's too weak to eat anyone, but what will happen when he gets his strength back?

It's not easy finding enough food for an enormous dragon, not when the bullies at school take her pocket money every week. No-one can help Minnie either, because she's promised not to tell anyone in case they put him in a cage. But Minnie isn't the only one with a secret. The dragon has a secret too, and Minnie must find out what this secret is. It's the only way to save his life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Dec 21, 2021

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Copyright © SL Cantor

Illustration © Raphael Quek

Cover Design © Gregg Wagstaff

Published by SL Cantor

© 2021 New Zealand

SAVING

SHARPTOOTH

How to feed a dragon and not get eaten yourself

SL Cantor

CHAPTER 1

SMUGGLERS

She could blow them up. A stick of dynamite under Jo Robb’s bike seat; BANG! Or, she could pick him off like a WW1 sniper; she and Gem hiding on the school roof, propped up on their elbows, rifles poking over the top; Bang! – a quieter bang this time.

Or, up in the Castle turrets, looking down on the brothers picking on Lee, the new boy with the cast on his leg, aim through the arrow slits; Whizz Ping, Aaargh! Right in the crease of his armour! Down the dirty dog goes, two fingers up to Jo Robb who won’t be firing his bow again. Then, watch his cowardly brothers run away.

Or, let them in! Into the castle, onto the lower level, and then, fling rocks through the murder holes! Pour down the boiling water!

Or, she was Captain of the Ship HMS Justice, Gem was First Mate, and the Robb brothers were in the brig. Cat o’ nine tails and walk the plank! Oh, look, sharks!

Actually, she was Robin Hood. Gem was Friar Tuck. Ambushed in the woods, the brothers bleat for mercy. She and Gem seize their ill-gotten gains, their blood-stained money bags, and send them on their way. She’d spare their lives but they’d never dare steal from them all again.

It was no use. Every day, Minnie murdered the Robb brothers in her mind. She blew them up, she peppered them with bullets and arrows and fed them to sharks. But the next day at school; there they were.

And now where was she? She’d come too far, out of the village, onto the outskirts of the town. This was where they lived! Her stomach lurched. She was in enemy territory; she was on their patch. Her eyes scoured the beach for the three red-headed boys.

Then she relaxed. The brothers wouldn’t be at the beach! She snorted derisively, as she had seen her father do. The Robb brothers would be at home playing computer games called Death something or other.

In fact, there wasn’t even a dogwalker in sight. She gazed down the long curve of the coastline. Was that smoke she could see at the far end of the bay? Were the Robb brothers smoking their cigarettes?

No, it wasn’t like cigarette smoke, it was more like mist. As she got nearer, she saw that it was coming from the other side of the large outcrop of boulders that separated Tyner Bay from Tiny Bay, a deserted little bay that Minnie knew could only be reached via these boulders or a boat.

The lower boulders were under the sea at high tide but at the moment they were navigable. She began to scramble over them. She reached the point where the boulders and rocks gave way into the smaller curve of the next bay and then she stopped.

Something was wrong. She’d been very young when she last climbed these rocks but she still remembered them and something was different.

That was it! Where was the cave?! It had disappeared! Then she knew, with a jolt, that the rocks she was standing on were actually rocks blocking the entrance to the cave. Someone had blocked it off! Someone was hiding in there!

And then, she saw the smoke again. It was almost imperceptible – a hazy grey smoke filtering through the rocks under her feet. She jumped down to the sands of Tiny Bay, backed up a bit and called out.

Is anyone in there?

There was no answer.

She called again, I can see smoke. Are you alright?

Silence.

She got up close to the rocks to see exactly where the smoke was filtering through. There were some small cracks at her eye level so she pressed her face against them. All she saw was darkness at first.

And then slowly, through the gloom, she made out a shape. It was a rectangular shape with ragged edges. Just a piece of driftwood. But there was something written on it. Silvery letters gleamed before her.

Staring until her eyes hurt, she made out the letter G and then the letter A. It got easier. There was a W and a Y. G _ _ W _ Y. She jumped back. GO AWAY.

Her first thought was that it must be Jo Robb. Jo Robb and his brothers hiding out with pirates. No, smugglers! That was how they got those iPhones. They were four hundred pounds in the shops. Even with all the money the brothers took off the kids at school they wouldn’t have enough to buy them. Jo Robb must be dealing in stolen goods.

Minnie turned and ran. She kept thinking though, and halfway across the bay she stopped. There were no smugglers in Tyner. Smuggling happened on a much bigger scale these days than a few people holed up in a cave.

Whoever was in there must know they’d been discovered, as they’d have heard her shouting. They must think she’d just ‘Go Away.’ At this thought, Minnie felt hot. She liked to be taken seriously and if she was to ‘go away’ she would like to be asked politely.

After all, she was being very ‘civil-minded’, as her father would say. For all she knew there were people trapped in there burning to a crisp with only Minnie to move the rocks and save them.

She walked with slow deliberate steps back to the cave. Whoever was in there could show themselves, or at least say something. She pressed her eyes to the crack again. She could make out the driftwood quicker this time because her eye knew what it was looking for. But the message was different. ‘I _ _ AN _T.’ She strained her eyes, made out ‘M’ and ‘E’. ‘I MEAN IT’!

Minnie gulped. Her heart thumped. She kept her eyes fixed on the crack. The driftwood disappeared. She stared and stared.

Another piece of wood appeared in her line of vision. ‘CLEAR OFF’ it said, but Minnie didn’t read it. She was transfixed by something else. She was transfixed by the dimly emerging shape of whatever it was that was holding the sign. It was like the tail end of a thick snake, muscular and scaly!

Sweat ran down Minnie’s back and her legs turned to jelly. She backed away, tried to move fast but couldn’t, like in a nightmare. She wriggled over the rocks on her belly , weak with fright. On the other side, at last, her legs firmed up and she ran.

CHAPTER 2

HUNGRY

That night, sea monsters and snakes writhed through Minnie’s dreams. Some of them were laughing at her, their mouths gaping, their teeth sharp.

The next day after school she was back at the cave. Her teacher, Mr Rogers, had threatened her with detention for daydreaming and now, standing in front of the pile of rocks which guarded the cave, Minnie wondered if she had been imagining things. There was no sign of life at all.

"Well, no harm if I move some