The Land of Dragons

Chapter 26

After Chapter 25

Seb brought food and utensils and put them on the table. There was some bread, butter, cheese, ham and also some jam, along with a few options to drink. The youngsters moved around, everyone finding their seats. Lando was still a little pale, he almost vomited after eating the slimy, dribble-covered fish, but still the pride of having completed the challenge was radiating from him. As he found a seat, he spotted a glass bottle on the table and his face lit up.

"MILK!" he exclaimed and immediately porued himself a glass. He drank it in one gulp and instantly refilled his glass.

"Well, now Lando's totally fine!" Carlos said, grinning, and the others laughed with him.

Everyone sat down. They were eager to eat as they still felt the effects of not getting any food for four days.

"What will we do after breakfast?" Pierre asked.

"Today you can stay here in the Land of Dragons to get to know your dragons a bit more and decide whether you want to be Dragonriders or not." Lewis said. "The plan is to go out into the forest with you and your dragons. We have some games and challenges for you."

"Doesn't it occur to someone back home that we are nowhere there?" Max asked.

"Well, that's a hard question." Lewis said, pausing to gather his thoughts. "So, if we go back to Earth today evening, we will have spent five days here. That's almost a full day on Earth. But the strange thing is, that no one seems to notice that we've disappeared for a day or two. It's as if everyone has forgotten to look for us for that time." he explained.

Strange, Max thought. But everything in the past few days had been so strange that he was starting to get used to it.

"Still, we try to be back for big events such as races, because we don't know how many people can be distracted like this. So it's fine if we miss a few factory days, but to miss a race, we need some real reason. This is pretty obvious, but I just wnated to make sure you get the point." Seb added. "Also, your work doesn't happen to be done when you are not there, so you have to be careful with that."

After breakfast, Seb and Lewis quickly cleaned off the table. Max and Julunggul went out to the ledge in front of the cave opening. The scene was beautiful, the rays of the sun illuminating the tiny drops of water from the previous day's rain on the plants so that they shone like small crystals.

"There's the clearing where I hatched!" Julunggul exclaimed, standing up in Max's hood and resting her front paws on Max's shoulder. A smile found its way onto the Dutchman's face. It felt funny to have that little creature on his shoulder. He still had to get used to the fact that it is a dragon though. And that she can speak, too, despite not being anything near human.

Max gazed at the land below. Do I want to be a Dragonrider?  he thought. What would happen to Julunggul if I said no? Lewis and Seb had said nothing about that topic, but he suspected no good. If I stay, I will have to face the Devils again. Anger flared up inside his chest. As a Dragonrider, he could take revenge for his capture. Then he remembered the spiders. His forearm started to itch again and he shivered as he thought about encountering the huge, hairy beasts again.

"What are you thinking about?" Julunggul asked. She had felt Max shiver.

"Oh, nothing really" Max tried to get away with a simple answer. He didn't want to talk about the spiders.

"But why did you shiver?" Julunggul asked again.

"I'm cold."

Julunggul climbed on top of Max's head, and hanging her head down in front of his face, she looked at his would-be rider upside down with her huge eyes.

"Are you sure?" she asked. Max knew she knew he had been lying.

"I remembered the terrible huge spiders which we encountered at the Devils'cave!" he snapped. Julunggul didn't reply, but he stored the information away.

After a few moments of silence the others joined Max outside.

"Are you ready?" Seb asked, smiling.

"Yes!" the youngsters, both human and dragon, chorused.

"Then let's go!" Seb said, and led the way down the stairs and then towards the forest.

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Edited 16.04.2024