Drake the Dragonboy (9 page)

“They can't be harmless if they drugged and kidnapped my dad. We'd better be careful.”

Daisy grinned. Drake could tell that she was a bit like Ronan in that she really liked excitement.

“Ronan and I'll go up and pretend we're staying on the floor — you know, looking for a bit of romance.” She winked at Ronan. Juniper and Drake nodded in agreement and Daisy and Ronan disappeared into the lift, hand in hand. Daisy had snuggled her head into Ronan's chest. She came just up to his armpit. Drake sighed. No girl his age ever came up to his armpit. Even the shortest girls around were the same height as him. Drake and Juniper sat on the couch silently and waited. They both seemed to be deep in thought. A few minutes later Daisy and Ronan returned.

“What's the story?” asked Drake, rushing over to them.

“The guards are, like, ninety years old. They're both quite deaf and one of them is blind. I don't think this will be as hard as we thought.”

“Especially as I've already stolen the room access card from the blind one,” laughed Ronan.

“My hero,” said Daisy, still holding his hand. You could let it go now, thought Drake.

Ronan handed Drake the key. “Let's go and do it. You two get into the room. I'll pretend I'm having a fit and distract them,” said Daisy. “Ronan, you back me up.”

Drake and Juniper followed Daisy into the lift. Daisy punched the button labelled twelve and the lift jolted upwards. Drake and Juniper had been in lifts in Dragonland but never up twelve floors. Six floors was about the highest they had in their city. Drake was worried that Daisy was underestimating the kidnappers. He didn't think ninety year olds would be able to manage his dad. He might be a bit out of shape, with one of those pregnant-looking bellies older men get, and maybe his eyesight wasn't that good and he was a bit clumsy … but still, he could look after himself.

The lift doors flung open and Drake and Juniper immediately recognised the two old men. It was Gerry and Hubert, two of Dragonland's oldest and most respected elders. Juniper and Drake looked at each other bewildered but didn't get time to think any further as Daisy threw herself on the ground pounding and screaming and throwing her arms and legs into the air. Ronan ran over to her and joined in the commotion, yelling and screaming and jumping around.

“Quick,” said Drake and grabbed Juniper's arm leading her to the room. He swiped the access card and they both quickly slid into the hotel room, closing the door promptly behind them. Drake turned to see his father sitting at a table near the window staring at him.

“Drake? How did you get here?”

“Dad, are you okay?” He ran over and fell into his father's arms.

“I'm fine,” Donny Dramco said, holding his son tight and patting his back. “But are you okay? These kidnappers are likely to be dangerous … I don't want you to get hurt.” Donny ran his hands through a grey version of Drake's spiky out of control hair.

“Ummmm, Mr Dramco,” interrupted Juniper, “they don't seem to be dangerous … it seems that Gerry and Hubert kidnapped you.”

“What? Why would they do that? How would they do that?”

“They drugged you, Dad, and I guess between the two of them dragged you into the car and then here. I've no idea about the why,” said Drake.

The door burst open and Daisy and Ronan pushed Hubert and Gerry into the room all tied up in ropes.

“It's okay! We got them! What do you want me to do with them?” she asked punching her small fist into the air. Ronan stood next to her looking handsome and heroic.

“Sit them down on the chairs over here,” said Donny. “Be gentle. They're old … although they do deserve a bit of pay back for the bruises all over my body.”

Hubert and Gerry sat obediently in the chairs. Hubert's hands were shaking. Gerry had tears in his eyes.

“We are so sorry, Donny. We didn't know what else to do,” said Hubert with a tremor in his voice.

“We are old fools,” added Gerry.

“Drake, could you untie them?” asked Donny. “They're not going anywhere.”

“And if they try anything, I've got the door,” said feisty Daisy, showing them her fist.

“Who is that girl?” asked Donny, looking Daisy up and down.

“A friend,” said Drake. “We couldn't have found you without her.”

“Then I'm pleased to meet you, Daisy,” said Donny, smiling at her. She smiled back. “So why have you done this?”

“We discovered that you'd travelled out of Dragonland and were about to ruin everything that we'd created to keep you safe,” said Hubert.

“We did it out of love,” croaked Gerry.

“Let me explain everything,” said Hubert.

“Are you sure that's a good idea?” asked Gerry.

“I don't think we have a choice now, Gerry. Get comfortable everyone. It's a long story.

“Seventy years ago, Dragonland was founded,” started Hubert.

“But what about Gordon Starpower Dragonfolk?” asked Juniper, who was now sitting cross-legged on the bed with Daisy next to her and Ronan perched with one bottom cheek on the edge of the bed. Drake and Donny were on a couch opposite Gerry and Hubert.

“The monument is a big fake. We created it to make you think that Dragonland had a long history and there was nothing outside Dragonland. Seventy years ago the dragonfolk lived among the ape people … well alongside. We had our own little city within the ape people city. Ape people came to visit, mostly for dinner and during our special celebrations. We went into their city … we had little enclaves within their suburbs where we lived … dragonfolk were part of the city but we also stuck together … but then an illness struck that seemed only to affect dragonfolk. Many millions of dragonfolk died. Yes, there were millions of us back then.

“The sickness made dragonfolk aggressive so that they would breath fire out of control…” Juniper went red. “Affected folk would burn the skin off ape people for no reason before they went off by themselves and died painful deaths. Needless to say, the ape people became very suspicious of us and some even started to hunt us down and kill us. Something had to be done. So, with the help of the ape people leaders, dragonfolk created an isolated city and any folk who hadn't been infected by the virus — you could do a blood test to see — were sent to Dragonland to build a new civilisation.”

“What happened to the folk with the disease,” asked Juniper looking horrified, and letting out a tiny little fire burp as she spoke.

“It was a very sad time for all of us. We all had family who were affected. Folk with the virus were taken to a government facility, which was very comfortable with lots of great food and television to watch, where they waited for their disease to come on. It happened very quickly …”

Juniper, Drake and Ronan all looked sick. Donny's expression didn't change, as though he already knew this. Daisy smiled sweetly at them, with an ever so slight frown forming between her green eyes.

“That's why we wanted to protect you from this and Juniper you know your little Tourette issue is nothing to do with this,” interrupted Gerry, seeing their faces. Juniper looked slightly less sick. Hubert continued with the story.

“So we created this city and everyone who lived there decided that they wanted to protect their children from the truth and create a kind of Utopia. We created the monument and wrote our own history books, with stories about the world being small and flat. Of course the world is round.”

“Actually, it's an oblate spheroid,” interrupted Gerry. Hubert shrugged and continued.

“We closed ourselves off from the outside world. They didn't want us, anyway. And they did the same thing. They wrote us out of their history books … as though we had never existed. For a long time, Dragonland was guarded by ape people. The Quintas were released to fly through the desert and keep people out. They were pretty effective. And then ten years ago we got Donny here to create a force field.”

“But mostly we kept people away from the edges by telling stories … by making up stories about how dangerous it was,” added Gerry.

“So you clipped our wings … you put blinkers on us,” Drake yelled angrily, standing up. “You treated us like mushrooms, put us in a dark room and fed us on …”

“Drake!” interrupted Donny Dramco. Drake sat down again, pouting.

“I know,” agreed Hubert. “We tried to preserve the dragonfolk and instead we pickled their brains. Folk like that moron Peter Roche are running the place. Idiots. Non-thinkers. The IQ of the entire dragonfolk civilisation has dropped by 10 per cent.”

“So why did you kidnap me?” asked Donny.

“We are old fools,” said Hubert. “We found out you've been travelling in and out of the city and panicked. We got your secretary to help drug you — we've done her a favour recently and she owed us. That coffee she made you had a little something special in it. Then she helped us to get you down to the car and we drove you to the city.”

“Is this true, Dad?” asked Drake, bitterly. “If you knew there was a city beyond Dragonland, why didn't you tell me?”

“I figured it out while I was working on the force field. I was still deciding what to do with the information,” said Donny with little emotion in his voice.

Suddenly all the anger Drake had pushed away each time his dad had disappointed him came bubbling to the surface. He put his face up to his father's, almost nose to nose.

“You could at least sound sorry!” he yelled. “You lied to me. You put your work before me. Again and again and again and you made me feel as if I just wasn't good enough. And I felt like I wasn't good enough for anyone. If I wasn't good enough for my dad to hang out with, then why would anyone want to hang out with me? It's all your fault. It's your fault I don't have friends at school. It's your fault I'm short too. Look at you!” Drake suddenly stopped in the middle of his ranting and stood silently, mouth open. He realised he sounded just like his mother and suddenly he understood her. He realised that he'd blamed her for the divorce when it was at least equally his father's fault. He wasn't ever there for either of them. Donny went pale and looked as though he wanted the earth to swallow him up.

“What happens now?” asked Juniper, staring intently at the two old men, and taking the opportunity to distract Drake and Donny. Drake noticed Gerry give Hubert a little nod and show him a little device he was holding. Drake swallowed hard. He had figured out that they had activated a kind of security device. At the same moment as his realisation, the door swung open and two huge men stormed through the door. The man on the left had an enormous, long face and a very fat neck. With his neck the same width as his face, he looked like a giant sausage. Drake nicknamed him Sausage-head. The man on the right was covered in muscle and had a round red face with a squashed little mouth that was all wrinkled up like a monkey's bottom. Drake nicknamed him Monkey-bottom-face. Sausage-head and Monkey-bottom-face looked menacing and when Sausage-head spoke it was a growl.