The Land of Dragons

Chapter 27

After Chapter 27

Pierre noted the slightly visible trail where they had arrived to the cave on the previous day. However, this time they turned left on the clearing and followed Seb on another trail. It seemed like he and Lewis knew their way around there, and Pierre wondered how much time they spend in the Land of Dragons.

After some zigzagging between the trees, they reached a clearing about the same size as the one at the cave. The sun shone brightly at first, but then something blocked the light. However, it hadn't darkened the clearing, but had rather turned everything to a reddish-yellowish colour.

As everyone looked up at the sky, they saw a big dragon hovering above them, the sunlight shining through his wings.

"Wow, that looks nice!" Charles said, staring upwards. It didn't seem to occur to him that the dragon was about to land and he was standing exactly under him.

Fortunately, the dragon was careful enough. He suddenly closed his wings and landed elegantly next to Seb. Now it was visible that his scales were of a green colour like fresh grass and he had a furry mane from his nose to the tip of his tail that was bright yellow like a lemon. The most noticeable thing about him was his huge grin, streching almost literally from ear to ear and his mischievous, cheerful eyes.

He gazed at the youngsters and gave a weird noise, which Pierre took as a greeting.

"He said 'Hello, I am Whiro.'" Pierre heard from behind himself. He was startled at first, then realised that the speaker was his dragon sitting in his hood.

The green dragon said something else and Tarasque began giggling.

"What did he say?" Pierre asked.

"He says finally there's someone who will help him play tricks and pranks on Seb!" Tarasque replied. "Well, actually he said 'the mother hen who calls herself his rider'." he added.

Pierre smiled and looked at Lando. He's going to get along well with Whiro, he thought.

Seb rolled his eyes at Whiro's last sentence.

"All right. We've made a treasure hunt for you guys and this clearing is the first place." he said, changing the topic. "Whiro has the map you need to find the treasure. You will have to get it from him. When he faces away, you can move freely, but as soon as he turns back and looks at you, you have to freeze in whichever position you are. That applies to everyone, dragons included." Seb shot the dragonets some warning glances. Whiro growled and Tarasque started giggling again.

"He said he will fry us for lunch if we move!" he translated it to Pierre.

"Hey, Whiro, don't scare them!" Seb scolded him, but it was of course useless.

"So, if Whiro sees any of you moving, you all have to come back to the start line marked by this rope here." Lewis said from the edge of the clearing, where a long rope had been laid down in the grass.

"Everyone got the rules?" Seb looked around, and the youngsters nodded. "You too, Whiro?" he looked at his dragon. "No frying anybody and no frightening of the younger, right?"

Whiro nodded with a perfectly innocent face.

"Well then, we have nothing more to do here!" Lewis said and disappeared into the forest along with Seb.

"What should we do now?" Lando asked the others.

"I suppose we try to get the map from Whiro," Carlos replied, looking at the green dragon.

The others followed his gaze, just as the dragon, who had been facing away from them, turned around.

"You all moved! Get back to the start line!" the dragons translated his message.

The drivers walked to the rope line and tried again. Pierre felt Tarasque climb out of his hood straight on top of his head, posing like a hero. Whiro chose exactly that moment to turn around. Tarasque managed to freeze just in time. He probably looks like some strange ornament on a hat, Pierre thought. He heard Lando behind him trying hard to hold back his laughter and he realised his guess had been fairly correct.

As Whiro turned away again, they continued walking, Tarasque still sitting on Pierre's head. They were making good progress, but then the inevitable happened and Tarasque lost his balance. Pierre reached out to catch him, but Whiro saw it and sent everyone back to the start line.

This time Tarasque stayed on Pierre's shoulder, and the other dragons, who had been behaving similar to Tarasque, had also calmed down. The drivers managed to reach the map and Max picked it up from the ground just behind Whiro.

"You have to take it back to the start line the same way you came," Whiro said. "You can pass it to each other, but if I see you move or you drop it, you have to start all over again."

The drivers started walking slowly backwards. Charles stumbled on a tuft of grass, but fortunately Whiro wasn't looking. The Monegasque then turned around to see where he is going.

"You won't see if Whiro turns!" Tharion warned him.

"Oops. That's a problem." Charles replied and turned again, resuming walking backwards.

Whiro tried to catch the youngsters unaware, but they were on their toes and didn't fall for anything. Max passed the map to Carlos, who gave it to Alex. He was almost back at the starting line. A few minutes later he stepped over the rope.

"We're done!" Carlos called. Lando and Helios danced around Alex, who held up the map for Whiro to see.

The green dragon shot some flames towards the sky and wished them good luck as he rose into the air, disappearing above the trees.

The youngsters gathered around Alex, who unrolled the map. As they were trying to understand it, Pierre got a flashback of deciphering the secret messages at the Devils' cell. Just then Tarasque sneezed into the back of his neck. The Devils can't get to us now, Pierre thought, grateful for Seb and Lewis and their rescue mission.

After some talking they finally agreed on a route to follow and set off. The trail was thin and zigzagged a lot and sometimes they couldn't see further than a metre or so.

After a sharp right turn, they arrived on a round clearing with a huge and old oak tree with thick branches.

"That is a big tree," Lando said, gazing upwards.

They stopped under the leaves to look at the map. Everyone gathered around Carlos, who was holding the paper. Suddenly they heard the rustling of leaves, snapping of branches and loud rattling.

The youngsters glanced up, gazing at the edge of the clearing, looking for the source of the noise.

What they saw were  fully armed Devils emerging from the bushes, their swords posed ready for attack.

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Next chapter here :)

The rest of the story is already written, so the whole thing will be out in a few weeks. Before that, I will go through the whole story and correct spelling and tiny logical mistakes, so don't be suprised if you get a lot of notifications about updating - the next real update will be Chapter 28.

Edited 16.04.2024