Authors: Kate McMullan

Double Dragon Trouble (4 page)

BOOK: Double Dragon Trouble

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Wiglaf clenched his teeth. He gave one last mighty yankâand his hand came free of the rope. He tossed it off and began to untie Angus.

THUD! THUD!

“Hurry!” cried Angus. “The dragon's coming closer!”

The footsteps grew louder. Another cloud of putrid yellow smoke whooshed out of the tunnel.

Wiglaf worked furiously. The twins were terrible spellers, but they sure tied good knots.

“Got it!” he cried at last. He flung the rope from Angus's wrists.

Angus and Wiglaf struggled to stand. Their ankles were still tied together, so each one threw an arm around the other's shoulder. They began walking fastâas if in a three-legged raceâtoward the rear of the cavern.

THUD!

“Who's messed up the cave?” said a low, growling voice. “Why, this place is a disgrace! A disaster!”

Wiglaf and Angus ducked behind the nearest pillar. Wiglaf had never heard a dragon use such big words before. He felt himself trembling with fear. Or maybe it was Angus trembling. Tied together as they were, he couldn't tell.

“There is only one way into this cave,” growled the dragon. “So I know you're here.

Show yourself!”

Wiglaf heard clanking. He glanced over his shoulder. There, crouching behind a fat stalactite pillar, were Bilge and Maggot. They were giggling, which made their rusty armor clank.

Wiglaf gathered his nerve and peeked out from behind the pillar. By the flickering fire, he saw a huge red-scaled dragon. Purple earsâa she-dragon. Her bright orange eyes searched the cave. A dainty yellow crest sat atop her head. Wiglaf was surprised to see that around her long red neck she wore a double strand of pearls. In one front paw she clutched a very large red purse.

Wiglaf ducked back. A dragon with pearls and a purse? She didn't look terribly mean. But he had learned one thing about dragons: Never judge them by their looks.

“You asked for it,” called the dragon. “Here I come!” The dragon's footsteps came closer and closer to Wiglaf.

“Yikes!” he cried as the dragon's huge face appeared right in front of him.

“Zounds!” cried Angus.

“Schoolboys!” exclaimed the dragon. “I might have known.”

The dragon hooked her claws neatly under their DSA tunics. She picked up Wiglaf and Angus and dangled them in front of her face. Up close, Wiglaf caught a whiff of lilac. Was the dragon wearing perfume?

“Are you knights-in-training?” the dragon asked.

“S-s-s-sort of,” said Wiglaf.

The dragon sighed. “Real knights would never make such a mess inside my cave.”

“Wasn't usâ” Angus began.

“Wasn't us!” the twins chanted in singsong voices. Then they began snorting with laughter.

The dragon whirled around. “Who said that?”

“Who said that?” taunted the twins.

The dragon lunged toward where the snorts were coming from.

Angus and Wiglaf swung wildly from her claw.

“Can't get us!” cried the twins. They dashed out of the dragon's reach, then whirled around to face her.

“Chaaaaaarge!” cried the twins, waving their stalactite daggers.

“My stars!” exclaimed the dragon, leaping back.

Bilge and Maggot both poked their stone daggers into the dragon's back legs. They stuck her over and over.

“Ow! Ow!” the dragon cried. “Stop that, you naughty lads!”

But Bilge and Maggot didn't stop.

The dragon dropped Wiglaf and Angus down on the cave floor.

Wiglaf and Angus tried to make a run for it. But with their ankles tied together, they only toppled down in a tangled heap.

“Nonny nonny poo poo!” Bilge and Maggot shouted at the dragon. “We're not scared of you!”

“No?” said the dragon. Twin clouds of angry black smoke puffed out of her purple ears. “I can fix that.”

Wiglaf and Angus watched in horror as the dragon's yellow crest rose up on her head until it looked like a huge sail. Orange sparks shot from the dragon's eyes. Her pearls began to glow like globes of red-hot lava. She swiped at the twins with a long, hooked claw.

Bilge and Maggot dodged her and took off running. They zoomed across the cavern and into the tunnel.

The dragon opened her jaws and then spewed out a huge tongue of orange flame. WHOOSH! Then she put down her purse, dropped to all fours, and raced down the tunnel after the twins.

“We have to get this rope off,” said Wiglaf. He bent over and yanked off his left boot. Angus did the same with his right. Both lads wiggled their feet out of the rope. They pulled their boots back on and jumped up.

“How do we get out of here?” cried Angus. “The tunnel is the only way out!”

“Come on!” said Wiglaf, running toward the tunnel. “If the dragon comes, we can duck into one of the side passages.”

Keeping close together, Wiglaf and Angus felt their way along the damp cave wall. They had not gone far when they saw a light ahead. They heard clanking. And giggling.

Wiglaf and Angus crept up on the twins. Bilge had Erica's mini-torch and was waving it around.

“Shhhh!” cautioned Wiglaf when he reached them.

“Are you lunatics?” whispered Angus.

“Laughing and yucking it up when an angry dragon is after you? Be still!”

“Be still!” mimicked the twins.

“Why did you not run out of the cave and escape when you had the chance?” asked Wiglaf.

“Why should we?” said Bilge.

“Yeah,” said Maggot. “It's our cave.”

“Not really,” said Angus. “That dragon will be back any minute. Come on!” He grabbed Maggot by his rusty chest plate.

“Hey!” yelled Maggot. “Cut it out!”

THUD! THUD!

Wiglaf grabbed the torch from Bilge and tamped it out.

The dragon's approaching footsteps echoed in the dark tunnel. She was heading back toward the cavern.

“Wait until she passes us,” Wiglaf whispered. “Then we'll make a break for it.”

The four lads huddled together. For once Bilge and Maggot kept still.

The dragon's footsteps thundered louder and louder. She galloped past them, heading toward the cavern, and then the thuds began to fade.

Wiglaf lit the mini-torch. “Come on!” He led the way out to the tunnel. Angus was right behind him. Bilge and Maggot followed.
Why do they have to be wearing that old armor?
Wiglaf wondered.
It clanked like crazy!

The four lads ran for the mouth of the cave.

“Daylight ahead!” cried Wiglaf at last.

“Coming through!” yelled Bilge. The twins elbowed their way past Wiglaf and Angus and sprinted ahead.

Wiglaf and Angus ran right on their heels.

“Almost...there!” panted Wiglaf.

Then something blotted out the daylight at the mouth of the cave. Something huge.

The dragon! She stood before them, blocking their way. She breathed out a long tongue of flame. WHOOSH!

“Yikes!” cried all the lads. They whirled around and started running back into the cave.

How had the dragon gotten to the mouth of the cave? Wiglaf hardly had time to wonder as he and the others zoomed through the tunnelâaway from the flaming dragon. They rounded a bend andâ

There she was in front of them!

WHOOSH!

“Egad!” shrieked the lads.

Once more they spun around and ran out the other way.

But no sooner had they started running thanâ

WHOOSH! The fire-breather was in front of them!

The lads turned and ran straight in the opposite direction. Wiglaf was confused. Was he running into the cave? Or out of it? He didn't know. He only knew he was running for his life.

WHOOSH! There she wasâin front of them.

They spun around andâ

WHOOSH! There she was again!

Dragon in front. Dragon in back. Wiglaf felt dizzy. Was he seeing double?

“There are two of them!” cried Angus.

“Twin dragons!” shouted Bilge and Maggot.

Wiglaf saw that it was true. Oh, no! They were really in trouble now. Double dragon trouble!

Chapter 7

B
ilge's eyes grew wide. He pointed at the cave ceiling. “Cave-in!” he yelled. “DUCK!”

“My stars!” cried the dragon twins. They covered their faces with their front paws and fell to the cave floor.

Angus and Wiglaf threw their arms over their heads and hit the dirt.

But the twins squeezed past one dragon and took off running down the tunnel.

“Suckers!” Bilge and Maggot shrieked as they ran. “Suckers!”

Wiglaf scrambled to his feet. “Angus, get up!” he cried. “We can escape!”

But the dragon twins quickly leaped up.

“Don't even think about it,” one dragon snapped. She turned to the other dragon. “Those little guttersnipes ran back into our cave, Ethelred. They'll be hiding out in one of the passages. We can get them later. In the meantime, roll the boulder and seal the entrance.”

“All right, sister,” said the dragon Ethelred. She lumbered off toward the mouth of the cave.

“Prisoners!” said the remaining dragon to Wiglaf and Angus. “Hands up where I can see them. March!”

They raised their hands and marched in front of the dragon back to the cavern.

“Sit.” The dragon motioned to the stone bench.

Wiglaf and Angus sat.

The dragon sat down opposite them. As they watched, her yellow crest shrank down until it was only a dainty ridge on top of her head. Her pearls cooled to a silvery white.

“I shan't tie you up, prisoners,” said the dragon. “No point. The entrance is blocked. Nobody can get out.” She looked around and sighed. “Our poor wreck of a cave!” She took a lace hankie out of her big red purse and dabbed at her eyes.

“Don't weep, Lucinda,” said Ethelred, coming back into the cavern. Her crest was no longer a huge yellow sail. And her pearls no longer glowed. “I'll help tidy up.”

“Thank you, sister,” said Lucinda. “But first let us have a talk with these intruders.”

Ethelred sat down beside Lucinda, facing Wiglaf and Angus.

“Our family has dwelt in this cave for seven centuries,” Lucinda told them. “In all that time, not one of our ancestors ever broke a stalactite or a stalagmite.”

“Now half of them are stumps!” said Ethelred sadly. “It will take years of dripping for them to grow back to their former beautiful shapes. What a pity!”

“Our great-granddaddy started a collection of antique armor,” Ethelred said. “He found priceless, one-of-a-kind items. We add to it as best we can. And we display our finds on the natural ledges all over the cave.”

“Now most of our precious armor has been knocked onto the floor,” sniffed Lucinda. “Broken and dented! And those two little pip-squeaks are wearing the rest of it! Oh, it is just too much to bear.”

“We are sorry your cave got wrecked,” said Wiglaf.

“But we didn't wreck it,” said Angus. “It was those other two. Here's what happened.” And he told the dragon twins about Mordred and the ransom note.

“We had no idea it was a fake,” added Wiglaf. “We thought we were coming on a rescue mission.”

“Bilge and Maggot say this is their cave now,” Angus added. “They don't want to leave it.”

Lucinda shook her large red head.

“The nerve!” she exclaimed. “One weekend at the East Armpitsia Antiques Fairâand we come back to find that our cave has been snatched!”

Wiglaf heard running footsteps. “Shhh!” he said. “Listen.”

Angus and the dragons held still.

The footsteps grew louder, and Bilge and Maggot sprang out of the tunnel. They burst into the cavern, waving what looked like moldy cabbages over their heads.

“Get out of our cave!” shouted Bilge.

“My stars!” exclaimed Lucinda.

“Good grief!” cried Ethelred.

“Get out now!” cried Maggot. He tossed a piece of parchment onto the cave floor. “Or we'll give you more of
this
!”

The lads slammed their cabbagelike balls onto the cave floor. The crash split them open. Out flew old bones, bat doo, snake heads, and moldy garbage.

Wiglaf clapped a hand over his nose. Oooh, it smelled
awful
.

Bilge and Maggot ran back into the tunnel, laughing and shouting: “Gotcha with a stink bomb! Stink bomb! Stink bomb!”

Ewwwww! Wiglaf could hardly breathe.

Ethelred and Lucinda held lacy hankies over their noses as they swept the mess into a trash bin.

BOOK: Double Dragon Trouble

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