immediate instinct was to duck, but I stood firm beside Harkat and we both raised our oars defensively. The dragon didn’t pull out of its dive this time, but swooped even lower than before and barrelled into us with its hard head and shoulders, wings tucked in tight. We jabbed at it with our oars, but they snapped off its hard scales without causing the slightest bit of damage.
The dragon collided with the raft. The force of the blow sent us flying clear of the raft, deep under water. I came up gasping and thrashing wildly. Harkat was several metres adrift of me, also winded and bruised from the encounter. “Got to … make the … raft!” he shouted.
“No use!” I cried, pointing at the wreckage of the raft, which had been shattered to splinters. The dragon was hovering overhead, almost perpendicular to the sea, tail curled up into its scaly body. I swam to where Harkat was bobbing up and down, and we gazed up fearfully at the flying lizard.
“What’s it waiting for?” Harkat wheezed. “We’re at its mercy. Why isn’t it finishing … us off?”
“It seems to be puffing itself up,” I noted, as the dragon closed its mouth and breathed in through its widening nostrils. “It’s almost as though it’s getting ready to…” I stopped, my face whitening. “Charna’s guts!”
“What?” Harkat snapped.
“Have you forgotten what dragons are famous for?”
Harkat stared at me, clueless, then clicked to it. “They breathe fire!”
Our eyes locked on the dragon’s chest, which was expanding steadily. “Watch it closely,” I said, grabbing hold of Harkat’s robes. “When I say ‘dive’, power for the bottom of the lake as hard as you can, and stay under till your breath runs out.”
“It’ll still be here … when we come up,” Harkat said dejectedly.
“Probably,” I agreed, “but if we’re lucky, it only has one burst of fire in it.”
“What are you basing that … judgement on?” Harkat asked.
“Nothing.” I grinned shakily. “I’m just hoping.”
There was no time for further exchanges. Above us, the dragon’s tail curled down and back, and its head swung towards us. I waited until what I deemed the last possible instant, then, “Dive!” I screamed, and together Harkat and I rolled over and dived down deep, thrusting hard with our hands and feet.
As we descended, the water around us lit up redly. It then grew warm and began to bubble. Kicking even harder, we swam clear of the danger zone, down into the darkness of the deeper water. Once safe, we stopped and looked up. The lake had darkened again and we couldn’t see the dragon. Clinging tight to each other, we held our mouths shut, waiting for as long as our breath would hold.
As we floated in silence and fear, there was a huge splash and the dragon came slicing through the water towards us. There was no time to evade it. Before we knew what was happening, the dragon hooked us with its claws, dragged us deeper down into the lake, then turned and struck for the surface.
Bursting free of the water, the dragon screeched triumphantly and rose into the air, Harkat trapped in one of its claws, me in the other. It had hold of my left arm, gripping me tightly, and I couldn’t wriggle free.
“Darren!” Harkat screamed as we rose higher into the sky and surged towards shore. “Can you … get loose?”
“No!” I shouted. “You?”
“I think so! It only has hold … of my robes.”
“Then free yourself!” I yelled.
“But what about –”
“Never mind me! Get free while you can!”
Harkat cursed bitterly, then grabbed hold of the back of his robes where the dragon had caught him, and tugged sharply. I didn’t hear the ripping over the sound of the dragon’s wings, but suddenly Harkat was free and falling, landing with an almighty splash in the lake beneath.
The dragon hissed with frustration and circled around, obviously meaning to go after Harkat again. We were almost over land now, at the very edge of the lake. “Stop!” I roared helplessly at the dragon. “Leave him alone!” To my astonishment, the dragon paused when I shouted, and gazed at me with a strange expression in its giant yellow eyes. “Leave him,” I muttered desperately. Then, giving way to blind panic, I screamed at the beast, “Let me go, you son of a –”
Before I could complete the curse, the dragon’s claws unexpectedly retracted, and suddenly I was dropping through the sky like a stone. I had just enough time to worry about whether I was over the lake or over land. Then I hit hard – earth or water? – and the world went black.
WHEN MY eyes opened, I was lying in a hammock. I thought I was back in the Cirque Du Freak. I looked over to tell Harkat about a weird dream I’d had – full of black panthers, giant toads and dragons – but when I did, I saw that I was in a poorly built shack. There was a strange man standing close by, studying me with beady eyes and stroking a long curved knife.
“Who are you?” I shouted, falling out of the hammock. “Where am I?”
“Easy,” the man chuckled, laying his knife aside. “Sorry t’ trouble ye, young ’un. I was watching over ye while ye slept. We get an awful lot o’ crabs and scorpions here. I didn’t want ’em getting stuck into ye while ye was recovering. Harkat!” he bellowed. “Yer wee friend’s awake!”
The door to the shack swung open and Harkat stepped in. The three scars from his fight with the panther were as prominent as usual, but he didn’t look any the worse for wear otherwise. “Afternoon, Sleeping Beauty,” he grinned. “You’ve been out for … almost two days.”
“Where are we?” I asked, standing shakily. “And who’s this?”
“Spits Abrams,” the stranger introduced himself, stepping forward into the beam of sunlight shining through a large hole in the roof. He was a broad, bearded man of medium height, with small eyes and bushy eyebrows. His black hair was long and curly, tied back with coloured pieces of string. He wore a faded brown jacket and trousers, a dirty white vest, and knee-high black boots. He was smiling and I could see that he was missing several teeth, while the others were discoloured and jagged. “Spits Abrams,” he said again, sticking out a hand. “Pleased t’ meet ye.”
I took the man’s hand – he had a strong grip – and shook it warily, wondering who he was and how I’d wound up here.
“Spits rescued you from the lake,” Harkat said. “He saw the dragon attack … and drop you. He dragged you out and was … waiting for you to dry when I waded out. He got a shock when … he saw me, but I convinced him I was harmless. We carried you here, to his … home. We’ve been waiting for you … to wake.”
“Many thanks, Mr Abrams,” I said.
“’Tain’t nowt t’ be thanking me fer,” he laughed. “I jest fished ye out, same as any other fisherman would’ve.”
“You’re a fisherman?” I asked.
“Of a sort,” he beamed. “I used t’ be a pirate ’fore I ended up here, and ’twas people I fished fer. But since there ain’t much grows round these parts, I’ve been eating mostly fish since I came—and fishing fer ’em.”
“A pirate?” I blinked. “A real one?”
“Aaarrr, Darren lad,” he growled, then winked.
“Let’s go outside,” Harkat said, seeing my confusion. “There’s food on the fire and … your clothes are dry and repaired.”
I realized I was only wearing my underpants, so I hurried out