When Your Novel Strikes Back

  Chapter the Twelfth – Back to Reality?

  “Alright, we’ll burst in and surprise them,” Heather said. “But don’t kill anyone.”

  She looked at the three dragons, making sure they understood. They were perched on top of the castle, directly above the throne room if Dan’s estimations were correct.

  “Okay everyone, on the count of three,” Heather said, raising a hand.

  The dragons all raised their front feet, ready to pound on the roof and break through. Everyone was clinging tightly to the dragon’s scales, trying not to slide off their backs.

  “One, two, three!”

  There was a loud crash and a large cloud of dust surrounded them as they fell to the floor. To everyone’s surprise, they had landed in the throne room, Dan had been right. They waited until the cloud cleared slightly and then the dragons stared menacingly at the King.

  “Is everyone okay? Nobody’s killed anyone, have they?” Heather asked, glancing around.

  “Umm… I’ve squished a couple, does that count?” Deborah asked, raising her feet to reveal several squashed knights.

  Heather hit her palm against her forehead once more but shook it off.

  “You! King!” she shouted, pointing to the King who was now cowering in his throne. “Release our friends or more of your knights shall perish!”

  “Alright! Alright!” the King shouted, holding out his hands and cowering behind them. “They’re in the next room, take them and go!”

  “Nice!” Dan shouted. “That was easier than I’d expected.”

  Ayesha slid off the dragon and made her way over to the door that the King had pointed to. Crast and Clay were inside the slightly smaller room enjoying tea and crumpets. They glanced up as Ayesha entered.

  “Really! Can’t we just stay somewhere nice for a change?” Clay asked, putting down his cup of tea and sighing as he and Crast joined Ayesha.

  “Stop your moaning, you know you like this adventure,” Ayesha said.

  She led them back to the dragons and they climbed onto Deborah with her.

  “Alright Ally! Take us away!” Ayesha shouted, throwing the laptop over to Ally.

  “Okay… let’s see,” Ally said, flipping the laptop open and beginning to type. “The dragons rose gracefully from the castle throne room and flew high up into the sky. They already knew where they would go next, somewhere peaceful and quiet that they had always enjoyed. Unfortunately, it was only so they could drop their human passengers off before returning home to their cave.”

  Everyone held on tightly as the dragons swooped through the air, flying gracefully between the clouds as they passed over vast forests and country sides. A lilac pillar soon swooped around them and the group found themselves being lifted from the dragons. They turned to wave sadly as the dragons disappeared out of sight, leaving the group alone in the tornado.

  The group landed with a small bump on soft ground. They looked up and saw nothing but blue skies and sea. Heather dug her hands into the ground and let the sand slip through her fingers as she lifted them out again.

  “A beach?” she said.

  “Someplace quiet and relaxing,” Ally sighed, breathing in the sea air.

  “Where are we supposed to stay?” Dan asked, looking around.

  Ally didn’t reply, instead she turned her attention back to the laptop.

  “A small wooden cabin was hidden just around the bend on the beach, Dan’s insistence that they have somewhere to stay had blinded him to the building right in front of his eyes,” Ally said, somewhat bitterly, she was still angry at him over what happened to Fluffy. “The group made their way to the cabin, closing the door behind them and welcoming the familiar sights of technology.”

  It only took them a few minutes to reach the cabin and they had all instantly reached for the television the moment the door had closed. Heather and Ayesha were wrestling over who got control of the remote while Ally perched at the table with the laptop.

  “This is a nice place,” Dan said, looking into a few of the rooms. “How’d you think it up?”

  “I built a house like this in a game once,” Ally shrugged.

  “Oh.”

  The group found some food in a large freezer and the fridge and made themselves a feast, it had been a while since they’d eaten anything. They spread everything out on the table and dug in. No one spoke as they ate, they were all too busy stuffing their faces. Dan was about to take a large bite out of a piece of chicken when a large amount of salad was thrown at his face. He scrunched his eyes closed as it hit him and waited for the food to fall off his face again. He placed the chicken back on his plate and wiped the remainder of the food from his face.

  “Who did that?” he asked, looking around the table.

  No one said anything, they just threw curious looks at each other, even though they all knew exactly who had thrown it.

  “That wasn’t funny, I…” Dan began but was silenced by a large amount of jelly attacking his face.

  Dan wiped the jelly from his eyes and turned his attention to Ally, who had another handful of jelly wobbling in her hand, aimed and ready to strike.

  “What was that for?!” Dan shouted, ducking as she threw more food at him.

  “Fluffy!” Ally shouted, catching the back of Dan’s head as he attempted to duck under the table.

  As though a buzzer went off, everyone started grabbing food and throwing it at each other. Most of it was aimed at Dan but they couldn’t resist throwing some at each other too.

  Three hours later and the room, and everything in it, was covered in food. They had all slumped around the table again, exhausted but happy. Dan rose from his chair first and made to step towards the stairs.

  “Where do you think you’re going, mister?” Ayesha said.

  Dan turned to see Ayesha pointing a water gun at him, he was confused as to how she got it but rolled his eyes all the same.

  “I’m going to the bathroom, to have a bath,” he replied.

  “I don’t think so,” Ayesha said, pretending to cock the gun. “You ain’t the only dirty kid on the block.”

  “Seriously? Can’t I just go and get cleaned up?”

  “No! For Fluffy!” Ayesha shouted and squirted a red liquid out of her gun which splattered all over Dan.

  As it turned out, Ally and Heather had water pistols filled with tomato sauce too and they pointed them at Dan too.

  “We all need baths, so we’re going to do this the right way,” Heather said. “Sudden death!”

  “Oooooooo,” Ally and Ayesha provided the necessary sound effects.

  After some preparation, the group found themselves sitting at the table once more. A chalkboard had been found and their names had all been written upon it. They were doing a tomato roulette, their version of Russian roulette.

  “One gun is empty, the other loaded,” Heather explained as Dan and Clay sat down to face each other first. “Whoever gets hit with the sauce is out, last man standing gets to bath first and then we go in order of who won.”

  The game took them about an hour, Ayesha coming out victorious overall. She skipped happily off to take a bath while the others waited. Dan ended up being last and had to take a cold shower as there was no hot water left. He emerged from the bathroom, bright red and shivering.

  “Well, I’m going to bed,” Dan said, heading up the stairs and entering one of the bedrooms there.

  There was silence as the girls sat watching random TV shows for a while. Ally was typing up random things to do with Clay and Crast, who she had sent for a walk further along the beach to a lovely hotel where they would spend their Honeymoon and then they were free to do whatever they pleased.

  “You know, without Dan, Clay and Crast in the room,” Heather said, turning to look at the other two. “I could almost believe that we were normal again.”

  “We were never normal,” Ayesha stated, taking the opportunity to steal the remote away from Heather.