Stuck in the Land Of Dragons

CHAPTER FIVE

The portal closed with a crack. Theo was stuck. Stuck in the land of dragons. Now he was left all alone to face the frightening dragon and her babies. They advanced on him. Theo was sure this was the end. At least he would die in a dangerous way; he wasn't eaten by a giant dandelion or something. He lowered his head and squeezed his eyes shut. There was a shout, and the sound of wails filled the air. Theo opened his eyes to see a girl about his age clinging onto the mother's neck and a boy about Alex's age fighting the babies. Theo's glance travelled back to the girl on the mother dragon. The girl was carrying a wooden spear with a sharp stone end. Realising the girl was there, the dragon started shaking its head and the girl clung on for dear life. She stabbed the spear under one of the dragon's scales, which started to bleed. The dragon screeched with pain and started rolling around, trying to squash the girl. But the girl was too quick for that. She jumped onto the dragon's belly; the dragon stood up quickly, but again the girl was ready. She climbed up the monster, using scales as steps. Once she was sitting on the dragon's neck again, the girl shoved a spear through the mother's throat and the beast fell.

The girl did a flip, landed on two feet and charged towards the mini dragons to help the boy. The girl did the same thing that Theo had done; launched himself onto a baby dragon's back and wrestled it to the floor. After stabbing it with her spear, she got up and wrestled the next one. The boy was slashing their heads off with a sharp wooden sword that was dripping with blood. There were three remaining, and they had the sense to run away to who-knows-where. The girl shook her hair and walked towards Theo. The boy started talking in a different language, as if warning the girl about something. "Muchana" The girl said, which Theo recognised as 'shut up' in his village language.

She held her hand out to Theo, who was on the floor, sweating with fear, and helped him up. The girl had shoulder length brown hair, a small pigtail was tied up on each side of the part, the rest of her hair was left down. She was wearing a faded blue shirt and black leggings, but no shoes. "I'm Willow," the girl spoke in perfect English. "And this is my brother, Wickley," she said, waving a hand, indicating to the boy. "I saw what happened with your friend. I didn't even know there were other people out there. I thought it was just Mama, Daddy, Me and Wickley."

Theo managed to speak. "Are there other dragons in this place?"

"Yeah, there's heaps. Loads of them are dangerous, but a few aren't. The dragon you want to be scared of is Atholia. She's the ruler of all dragons, huge and scary and evil."

"What were those?"

"Them dragons? They're called spitatalas."

"You better come with us to our cave," Wickley finally spoke. "Mum will be happy to take care of you. What's your name anyway?"

"Theo."

"Mama would like to hear about how you got here as well," Willow added. "Follow me."
Willow offered her rough, bloody hand to Theo. He took it, and soon found his own hand drenched in the monster's green blood. He had nowhere else to go, so Theo followed the children. They walked past lots of mountains, and saw quite a few strange creatures around Theo spotted a group of small birds with long necks and four small legs. Willow noticed him staring at them. "Those are pecktors. Don't get too close or they'll drag you down and peck you to death," She warned. Theo backed away a bit, and they continued walking. Theo stopped and stared at the biggest mountain he had ever seen. There were lots of small caves in the sides, but at the top was a huge cave. Theo heard a roar come from the depths of the cave. "What the heck was that?"

"That cave belongs to Atholia. She must've been punishing a dragon that had betrayed her," Willow said.

"How does she punish them?"

"She kills them," Willow said simply.

"Woah," Theo said under his breath.

"And... here! We're home." Willow came to a halt at a mountain: it wasn't as big as Atholia's, but it was still big. Theo looked up and down the sided they were staring at, seeing nothing but grass, sand and stone. Willow and Wickley took a few steps back. Then they ran forward, their hands stretched in front of them, and rammed towards the stone mountainside. Their hands met with the stone, but instead of their hands breaking like Theo thought they would, the stone fell inwards to reveal a large cave.

"Mama! We're home!" Willow called.

"And we brought someone with us!" Wickley added. Willow beckoned at him to come, so Theo followed the two siblings into the cave. It was circular, and quite big, with two high ledges. The cave was lit by flickering torches and a singular lantern, which sat in the middle of the stone table. Next to the lantern lay some old, worn gloves. Willow jumped up onto one of the high ledges. A thin rug lay there, accompanied by a pile of soft sand, which had been placed at the edge of the ledge. The pile of sand had been covered by a huge leaf; bigger than any leaf Theo had ever seen.

"Where did you find that leaf?"

"It's the leaf from a credioley tree." Willow replied. Seeing Theo's curious expression, she continued. "The credioley tree grows on the top of this mountain. It's the biggest tree ever. The leaves are really soft. That's why we used them to cover our pillows." Theo nodded and tried to climb up the wall to get to the bed. But as the wall was smooth, he couldn't, so Wickley needed to fetch him a ladder.

"Thanks," Theo nodded at Wickley when he came back with a wooden ladder. Theo climbed onto the ledge Willow was sitting on.

"This your bed?" He asked.

"Yup. I sleep here and Mama sleeps there," Willow replied, pointing to the other ledge. "The boys sleep on the floor. Daddy's a caveman. He thinks Wickley should learn the hard life, starting with sleeping on the floor." Theo snickered. The he looked around the cave to find that Wickley had disappeared. He came back a second later, followed by a tall, short haired, pale woman.