Stuck in the Land Of Dragons

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Theo walked back into the cave at precisely 6:00 the next day. He was dead tired, and fell right onto his bed and slept for three hours without even greeting Willow. When he woke up, Willow was sitting outside, doing her dragon watch. Theo got up, and decided how he would pose is question. He decided to come flat out and ask. He pushed back the boulder and stood next to Willow.

"Um, hi," Theo said awkwardly.

"Hi."

"I need to ask you something."

"What's up?"

"Um... canwegotoatholia'scave?" He said in a rush.

"Huh?"

Theo swallowed. "Can we go to Atholia's cave? I think Locksharti is still alive, and I think we can rescue him and get the stone. And he said he had figured out the theory in his letter. So I thought maybe-"

"Yeah, I've been thinking about Atholia's cave too," Willow said to Theo's surprise. "It's..." Willow glanced at the sky. "It's quarter-past-nine. She leaves at ten and comes back at ten-twenty. In that time, all we could do is get past the guards. But," She raised her voice in triumph. "I read about this dragon who can stop time. Apparently if you squeeze its neck and demand for it to stop time for a certain amount of time, it will do what you wish. The only trouble is... it's really fast. And really hard to catch. We'll have to tempt it into our cave and then corner it. And we'd better start now." She pulled the dragon guide off the table. She went to the category 'Magic Dragons' and flicked to the page titled 'The Time-Stopping Dragon'.

"This is what it looks like. It's really fast, so we'll have to try and corner it. You stay inside, and when I signal to you, you need to hide and be ready to help me corner this dragon. Once I have it trapped, you jump in and squeeze it's neck. Then, demand him to stop time for an hour. Then look outside to see if anything is moving. If nothing is, drop the dragon and we will climb into Atholia's cave."

"OK. Let's go."

Theo headed back inside the cave, and ducked behind the bench. He watched Willow station herself behind a bush not to far from Atholia's mountain. Then he waited. It was after what seemed like hours that Theo looked up and saw Willow waving at him. The signal. He ducked behind the bench, sprawled flat on the ground so he couldn't be seen. Then he peeked around the corner. A small flash of red rushed right passed him, followed closely by Willow's feet. 'This dragon must be tiny!' He thought. He stood up and silently stepped towards Willow, who had the tiny dragon cornered. Then he pounced on it, and, squeezing its neck, he stood up and demanded haughtily

"I demand you to freeze time for one hour!"

Then he turned and look out the window. Dragons were still carrying on with their day. Theo looked back down at the dragon stuck in his fingers.

"I said, freeze time for one hour!" He looked back. Everything was frozen.

"Good." Theo dropped the dragon, who scampered off. He looked at Willow.

"Let's go."

The pair walked out the door, staring at their frozen surroundings. They arrived at the foot of the mountain. Looking up, Theo said

"This is going to be harder than I thought."

"No it's not," Willow said, pointing to a set of stairs leading right up the mountain. They climbed up those stairs with no difficulty, and arrived in front of the cave belonging to the most terrifying dragon in the world. Willow grasped Theo's arm. He looked at her, and she let go, embarrassed.

"Let's go inside," Theo said.

The entered a cave full of jagged rocks and stones. There were a few different tunnels, which Theo assumed lead to other rooms. The room they were in seemed to be Atholia's bedroom. It had a large nest in the middle of it, and a few stray sticks strewn across the room. A desperate howl rumbled through one of the tunnels.

"I think that's where she keeps her prisoners," Willow whispered. Theo followed the brave girl as she walked into the tunnel.

"Locksharti! Locksharti, are you there? Are you alive? Locksharti!" They called as they walked through the tunnel. They came out into a room full of cells in which Atholia's victims moaned and howled. Theo turned and came face to face with a human skeleton. Above the limp skeleton, written in blood, were the words 'Locksharti Lies Here'. Willow looked as if she were about to cry. Next to Locksharti's skeleton were his clothes. Theo saw something sticking out from the pocket of Locksharti's pants. He slowly edged closer to the pants, and was about to grab the piece of paper when a terrifying, deafening roar thundered right through the cave.

"THEO!" Willow screamed above the noise. "IT SAYS HERE THAT THE TIME-STOPPING DRAGON CAN ONLY STOP TIME FOR 20 MINUTES!"

And then Atholia came back. Theo and Willow dived into one of the empty cells. The ground shook vigorously with every huge stomp Atholia took. Atholia's ugly face appeared from the tunnel. All of her prisoners started to whimper. Atholia surveyed the room and when she saw that no one had escaped, she turned and walked into another room. Once Theo was sure Atholia had gone into one of the other tunnels, he grabbed Willow's arm and they ran for their lives.