EarthFlight Two: Dragon's Quest

Wabbit piloted Dragon over the lemon butter lake, its piquant smell making her nose twitch, then they banked away from the solar storm until at last they glided in a thermal updraught. Wabbit relaxed her grip on the reins and sat back on her carpet saddle.

  Wabbit basked in her skilful flying. Dragon had warned her about solar storms during her training and until now she hadn’t experienced one. Earth’s sun experienced a constant cycle of solar storms which at their peak caused interference with Dragon’s auto-pilot.

  Dragon’s eyes had glazed over and he sat with his hands on his great lizardy belly explaining geomagnetic storms. Wabbit and Dragon had camped in the desert and toasted cactus tails in the fire, having had to escape an electric current that pushed out the boundary between the magnetosphere and the solar wind. As Wabbit nodded seriously and said ‘I see’ in all the right places, a beautiful display of light danced beyond them, sort of wispy like coloured candy floss as it whirled around the stick but before it stuck fast to it.

  ‘Dwagon! Look!’ Wabbit pointed to the sky.

  ‘Ah, yes,’ said Dragon. ‘A particularly fine example of a luminous atmospheric phenomenon caused by charged particles from the sun entering the earth’s magnetic field and stimulating molecules in the atmosphere.’

  Wabbit was awestruck, not merely by the lovely auroral display but by Dragon’s formidable knowledge. But Dragon was not all text book and dictionary. Wabbit noticed the sparkle in his eyes as he gazed upon the night sky and he couldn’t suppress a smile.

  It was very clever of Dragon to alert Wabbit to the impending danger of the solar storm and very clever of Wabbit to find such a fine thermal to glide in.

  Suddenly the air went all wibbly wobbly; sort of like being caught between venetian blinds and coming out the other side as sliced bread. Wabbit noticed her fingers and toes stretched. She gasped and reached for an ear. It too had got longer. Dragon hadn’t mentioned this side effect of solar activity.

  She bent to Dragon’s ear, which surprisingly had shortened so it sat squat against his head like the dog ear of a paperback page.

  ‘What’s happening, Dwagon?’ Wabbit asked.

  ‘We’ve gone through a portal to another dimension,’ Dragon explained.

  ‘Which one?’ Wabbit asked.

  Dragon yelped as his rump felt the sting of giant red dragonflies aerodynamically configured to act like arrows.

  ‘Looks like the forgotten dimension,’ he replied.

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Because I’d forgotten all about these dragonflies.’

  Wabbit’s eyes grew bright. ‘Dragonflies? Oh, Dwagon, that’s wonderful.’

  ‘Ouch, ouch. Quit doing that,’ Dragon roared. He spun about quickly and snapped at his tail. His ears popped back to their original size, as did Wabbit’s fingers, toes and ears. She breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Why are they attacking us?’ asked Wabbit. ‘And why has it got so hot?’ She fanned her hands in front of her face. ‘I can barely breathe.’

  Dragon’s wings were slowing in the oppressive heat and he snapped so much at the incoming ammunition he couldn’t possibly answer.

  ‘Perhaps they don’t mean to hurt us at all, Dwagon,’ Wabbit suggested. ‘Maybe they don’t speak Dwagon, or Wabbit, and want us to visit. You must be related. You must be!’

  Suddenly Dragon felt the pull on his reins as Wabbit veered him to starboard and they began to descend. Now they could see what was below them; a great swamp. It teemed with life; or to be more correct, eyes and noses. As Dragon approached Wabbit saw enormous insects hopping from nose to nose and eye to eye. Some even walked on the water, their legs splayed out as far as possible supporting a round body in the middle.

  At the edge of the water was an army of frogs fully kitted out holding Lee Enfield rifles and rucksacks slung over their left shoulders.

  Wabbit shivered. ‘I’m not sure we should land here, Dwagon.’

  Dragon rolled his eyes. ‘Now you tell me!’

  Too late Dragon scraped his soft belly on a tree and set a swarm of insects buzzing around them, which was momentarily helpful as the dragonfly arrows dispersed. Dragon and Wabbit bumped to the ground landing at the bottom of the tree.

  Wabbit slid off Dragon and straightened her dress. Dragon smoothed his belly scales. They found themselves the centre of a great deal of attention as the frog army hopped to greet them, followed by a swarm of trilobites. Behind them the red arrow dragonflies stood sentinel between them and the swamp.

  Dragon furrowed his brow before clearing his throat. ‘Is anyone in charge?’ he asked.

  The entourage exchanged blank looks but no one spoke or came forward. This gave Wabbit courage.

  ‘We wonder if you might know of Dwagon’s clan,’ she explained. She strained her neck to address the dragonflies. ‘You dragonflies may be related to Dwagon.’ She waved her arm regally as she presented Dragon.

  Dragon ah-hemmed and politely shook his head. ‘Wabbit,’ he whispered. ‘I’m not related to dragonflies.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ she whispered back.

  ‘Quite sure. I could be related to the eyes and noses in the swamp.’

  Wabbit was dumbfounded. She laughed nervously and peered into the swamp. The eyes and noses crept to the edge of the water and great lizardy bodies followed. She gasped. The frog army, the trilobite swarm and the sentinel of dragonflies parted as the creatures hauled ashore.

  The lead eyes and nose clapped his jaws together then set them wide open giving Wabbit a good look at his teeth. She stepped back, pressing hard into Dragon’s side.

  ‘Greetings,’ said the eyes and nose dipping his head politely.

  Dragon similarly dipped his head. ‘How do you do, Mr. ?’

  ‘Alli Gator,’ replied the eyes and nose. ‘I apologise for the bumpy landing, Mr. Dragon, and for the undignified entry into our dimension.’

  Wabbit gasped. ‘How do you know Dwagon’s name?’

  ‘It is foretold,’ Alli Gator explained. ‘Ancient lore speaks of a visit from a Dragon King from a dimension beyond this one.’

  He smiled most kindly so that all seventy four teeth sparkled in the dewy light. ‘We have never been visited so before, so you are surely the one.’

  Wabbit casually placed a hand on Dragon’s side to see if his heart was beating as fast as hers and said out of the corner of her mouth, ‘Are you the one, Dwagon?’

  ‘Does your legend give the purpose of the Dragon King’s visit?’ asked Dragon.

  ‘Why you are to be our king of course,’ replied Alli Gator.

  Wabbit pursed her lips to show Dragon she was miffed. ‘You’re a king, Dwagon? You might have said.’

  Dragon cleared his throat. ‘I’m afraid my provenance is not so grand. I grew up as a boy at a time when the earth was little more than space dust spiralling as giant wings across the universe. Quite without warning I found myself breaking out of my shell. I remember it clearly. I shrieked to gain my mother’s attention; it was dark in the egg. Then she pecked the hard shell from above and I pecked from within and I soon emerged into the world.’ Dragon looked around and waved an arm. ‘It was a world not unlike this.’ He smiled. ‘You’ve got it very nice by the way.’

  Alli Gator smiled. Dragon continued.

  ‘I wasn’t the only dragon born of course. There were more than thirty siblings yet to hatch. I was the first and therefore mother’s favourite. Dragon got a faraway look in his eye. ‘She had such hopes for me.’

  ‘How did you get from a boy to a dwagon, Dwagon?’ It was Wabbit, who hung on every word.

  ‘I put to sea when I was a nipper. I could see my family couldn’t afford to keep me, so as soon as the moon rained white rabbits I set off to make my way in the world. Oh, the places I’ve been and the things I’ve seen. I found myself beached on hot orange sand. Presently there washed up a beautiful lamp. I rubbed it of course. A magnificent genie dressed in the purple gauze of a thousand silk worms appeared out of it in a puff of blue and pink
smoke. When I explained my predicament she offered a way out that she said would guarantee that from then on I would always be able to get myself out of trouble. Being an independent lad I readily accepted.’

  ‘Why would she do that for a complete stranger?’ asked Wabbit.

  ‘She was a benevolent genie,’ Dragon replied.

  ‘So she turned you into Dwagon?’ she asked.

  ‘In a manner of speaking,’ said Dragon.

  ‘Oh, Dwagon,’ Wabbit gushed, giving him a big hug. ‘Thank you for sharing your story.’

  ‘So you see, Mr. Gator,’ Dragon continued. ‘There’s nothing in my destiny to be your king. I fear you have latched onto the wrong dragon.’

  Alli Gator set his lips into a straight line, then edged towards Dragon and muttered under his breath. ‘You couldn’t pretend for a while could you? I feel a bit stupid.’

  He looked back to the sentinel of dragonflies, the trilobite swarm and the rest of the eyes and noses who all blinked expectantly.

  Dragon cogitated until he felt a tug on his ear. Wabbit threaded loose strands of her golden hair behind her ears and smiled her prettiest smile. ‘I could be your queen, Dwagon. Just for a while.’

  As Dragon had nearly weighed up the pros and cons of being an imposter and just about decided it could be more trouble than it was worth, he caught the beatific face of Wabbit. Suddenly he agreed, throwing all reservations to the wind. She would make a wonderful queen even if he wasn’t sure he’d make a wonderful king.

  ‘What would I have to do?’ asked Dragon.

  ‘Oh I should think you