Dragon Rider

“So what d’you think you’re doing in here?” snapped one of the men.



“Looks like a runaway to me,” said the other man.



“No, I’m not!” cried Ben. “Let me go! I haven’t done anything — nothing at all!”



Looking anxious, the dragon stretched his neck farther forward.



“Firedrake!” Sorrel tugged desperately at his tail. “Firedrake, come on! You have to get out of here.”



“But the boy may need help.” The dragon took another step. The men’s voices grew harsher and Ben’s more and more uncertain. “He’s afraid,” said Firedrake.



“He’s a human!” hissed Sorrel. “And they’re humans, too. They won’t eat him. They won’t stuff him, either, but they’ll stuff you and me if they catch us and no mistake! So will you for goodness’ sake come on?”



But Firedrake wouldn’t move. His tail was lashing the floor.



“Hey, watch out, he’s trying to make a break for it!” yelled one of the men.



“I’ll get him!” shouted the other.



Feet scuffled on the ground and there was a sound of running footsteps. Firedrake inched a little farther forward.



“Got him!” shouted the man.



“Ouch!” cried Ben. “Let go! Let go of me, you great toad!”



Then Firedrake sprang. Like an enormous tiger, he shot across the cellar of the factory. Sorrel ran after him, cursing under her breath. The human voices grew louder and louder, until the dragon suddenly saw two men standing with their backs to him. One of them was holding the struggling Ben.



Firedrake uttered a low growl. Deep and threatening.



The men whipped around — and dropped Ben to the floor like a sack of potatoes. He scrambled up in terror and ran toward Firedrake.



“You were supposed to get out of here!” he shouted. “I …”



“Climb on,” the dragon interrupted, without taking his eyes off the two men. They were still standing there as if rooted to the spot. Ben, his legs trembling, clambered up onto Firedrake’s back.



“Go away,” the dragon commanded. “This boy is mine!” His low voice echoed through the dark cellar.



The men staggered and fell against each other in alarm.



“I’m d-dreaming!” one of them stammered. “That’s … that’s a dragon!”



But still the pair of them didn’t move. Then Firedrake opened his mouth, roared, and spat blue fire. His dragon-fire licked over the dirty walls, the black ceiling, the stone floor, and filled the room with leaping flames. Terrified, the men retreated and ran away screaming as if the devil himself were after them.



“What’s up? What’s going on?” Out of breath, Sorrel caught up with Firedrake.



“Quick, the canal!” cried Ben. “If they come back they’ll bring twenty more with them.”



“Climb on, Sorrel!” Firedrake said, listening uneasily to the fading echoes of the men’s footsteps. When Sorrel was finally on his back, the dragon turned and strode back to their hiding place.



Bright sunlight was still pouring through the open hatch. Cautiously Firedrake put his nose outside.



“It’s too light!” Sorrel moaned. “Much too light. What are we going to do?”



“Come on!” Ben grabbed the brownie’s hand and pulled her off the dragon’s back with him as he clambered down. “Firedrake must swim alone. That way he can dive beneath the surface and they won’t see him. We’ll take my boat.”



“What?” Sorrel distrustfully flinched away from the boy and pressed close to Firedrake’s scales. “Must we really separate again? How will we find each other?”



“There’s a bridge.” Ben turned to the dragon. “Swim down the canal on the left and you can’t miss it. Hide under it until we arrive.”



Firedrake looked at the boy thoughtfully. Finally he nodded. “Ben’s right, Sorrel,” he said. “Take care of yourselves, both of you.”



Then he forced his way through the hatch, dived deep into the murky water, and disappeared from sight.



Sorrel anxiously watched him go, and without turning her head she asked, “Where’s this boat of yours, then?”



“Here.” Ben went over to the stacked cartons and pulled them aside. A red-painted wooden boat came into view.



“Call that a boat?” said Sorrel, horrified. “It’s not much bigger than a toadstool!”



“If you don’t like it you can swim,” said Ben.



“Oh, drat it all!” Sorrel listened. She could hear agitated voices far, far away.



Ben quickly crawled behind the stack of crates where he’d been hiding when they’d first met and came out again holding a large backpack.



“Coming?” he asked and pushed his boat over to the hatchway.



“We’ll drown, that’s what,” Sorrel muttered, staring with disgust at the filthy water.



But she helped the boy launch the boat into the canal.



7. Waiting for Dark



No one saw Firedrake as he made his escape along the canal. Twice, boats came toward him, but they were chugging through the water so noisily that Firedrake could hear them a long way off and was able to dive in good time — deep down to the bottom of the canal, where garbage got stuck in the mud. As soon as the dark shadows of the boats had passed over him and disappeared, the dragon came up again and let himself glide on. Gulls circled over his head, screeching, until he shooed them away with a soft growl. At last, he saw a bridge beyond some tall willow trees. Their branches hung low, floating on the water.



Broad and massive, the bridge spanned the river. Traffic noises drifted down from it, but the shadow it cast was as dark as the mud on the bottom of the canal and offered the dragon shelter from prying eyes. Firedrake raised his head from the water and looked around. There was no one in sight on either the water or the bank. The dragon crawled up on land, shook the dirty water off his scales, and settled among the blackberry bushes growing in the shade of the bridge.



He licked his scales clean and waited.



Before long he was half-deafened by the noise overhead, but even worse was his anxiety for Sorrel and the boy. Sighing, Firedrake laid his head on his paws and looked at the water, which reflected the gray clouds overhead. He felt lonely. It was an unfamiliar feeling. Firedrake had not been alone often and never in such a strange, gray place. Suppose Sorrel didn’t come? The dragon raised his head and looked back along the canal.



Where could they be?



It was odd. Firedrake let his head drop to his paws again. He was missing the boy, too. Were there many human beings like Ben? Firedrake thought of the two men who had grabbed the boy, and the tip of his tail twitched with anger.



Then he saw the boat.



It came drifting down the canal toward him like a nutshell. The dragon quickly stretched his long neck out of the shadow of the bridge and breathed a shower of blue sparks on the water.



When Sorrel saw him she hopped about in such excitement that the boat swayed perilously, but Ben paddled it safely to the bank. Sorrel jumped out onto the slope and ran to Firedrake.



“Hey!” she cried. “Hey, there you are!” Flinging her arms around his neck, she nipped his nose affectionately. Then she dropped to the grass beside the dragon with a sigh. “You’ve no idea how awful I feel!” she groaned. “All that rocking about! My tummy’s churning as if I’d eaten a death cap mushroom.”