BENEATH THE DRAGON'S TALE
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Rayner was out of breath by the time he had reached his classroom. He wanted to collapse onto his desk, but he dropped his backpack by his chair and headed towards the back of the class. Rayner had been playing soccer with his pals. The school bell had not rung yet. Rayner stopped playing and arrived early so he could see the new addition to the classroom.
His jaw dropped open in amazement. It was a huge, new glass terrarium. It was over one hundred centimeters long and fifty centimeters high. It was so big Rayner thought he could lay down inside it. It had a lid and it was quite dark inside.
"Is it here? Is it here?" a voice broke the silence.
Rayner recognized that voice and turned around just in time to watch his best friend Keef fly into the class. Keef didn't even try to take his backpack off. He slid past his desk and bounced towards the rear of the room.
"WOW!" exclaimed Keef, "It's even bigger than I imagined. Do you think the counter can hold it?"
"I think Miss Darby would make sure it was safe," answered Rayner.
"Can you see it?" asked Keef as he cupped his eyes with his hands and leaned into the glass.
"No it's too dark," said Rayner.
The noise in the hall began to build from the students entering the school.
"Can we turn on the light?" asked Keef.
"The light is on a timer," answered Akiko as she entered the class. "It should turn on by itself."
No sooner had Akiko mentioned the timer, than the light flicked on and illuminated the terrarium and its contents.
"LOOK! LOOK! LOOK!" shouted Keef, "There he is!"
"Shhhh!" responded Akiko, "Don't scare him."
Rayner leaned in closer and gave a small two fingered wave as he whispered, "Good morning, Sandfire."
The bearded dragon moved ever so slightly and looked back at the children with what looked like to be a very slight smile. Sandfire is almost sixty centimeters long. He had grown too large for his old terrarium.
"Miss Darby got all new stuff for Sandfire," said Akiko.
"Yeah," agreed Keef, "There's a big new warming stone and a large piece of mopani wood for Sandfire to climb on."
"He's got a bigger water dish and shade area," said Rayner.
"I think he looks a lot happier," said Akiko.
"What's he holding onto?" questioned Keef.
They all moved in closer to look. They each moved around to see what Sandfire had in his grasp.
"I think it's just a thin branch or driftwood of some sort," said Rayner.
"It's almost as long as he is," said Akiko.
The stick starts at his chin and goes well beneath the dragon's tail," shared Keef.
"It's not just a stick," said Rayner. "There's some fancy carving and a band of metal at the thick end. I think it's a handle of some kind."
"Let's get it out and take a closer look," suggested Keef.
"Give Sandfire some lettuce and a bug or two," said Rayner. "He'll be happy to give up a stick for munchies."
Rayner positioned himself to lift the lid, Keef volunteered to reach in and get the stick and Akiko agreed to feed the snack to the bearded dragon. As soon as the lid was lifted, Sandfire seemed to understand what was happening. He arched his back and reached up with his mouth wide open. He moved aside and didn't show any care when Keef picked up the stick. The snack was served, the lid was returned and the kids were passing the mysterious stick around.
"It's shimmery," observed Akiko.
"Not just that," declared Keef. "It's tingly too."
Rayner reached over and touched the stick and reacted, "Wow! It feels powerful."
Keef took hold of the carved handle and asked, "Is it powerful enough to move something?" He jokingly pointed the stick towards Akiko and demanded, "Fly!"
Akiko was shocked when she realized her feet were no longer on the floor.
"What are you doing?" questioned Rayner.
"Put me down!" shouted Akiko.
"Down!" directed Keef and Akiko dropped to the floor. "I'm sorry I didn't think that would happen. It was supposed to be a joke! Here, you take it," and Keef handed the stick over to Akiko.
"OK! You fly!" directed Akiko and pointed the stick at Keef.
But Keef did not fly. A bunch of books just behind Keef went zipping across the room and smashed into the wall. The noise attracted Miss Darby's attention from the hall. The kids saw her shoe stepping through the doorway.
"What do we do?" panicked Keef.
"I don't know," shrugged Rayner.
Then without another thought Akiko whirled the powerful stick around in a circle, point it at each of them and whispered, "Make us three invisible!"
"We can still see each other," whispered Rayner.
"Shhhh!"
Miss Darby stepped into the class and looked around. The children froze still. She saw the books on the floor. She didn't understand how they got there. As she continued to glancing around the room she looked right at the three huddling students, but did not see them. Then Miss Darby picked up the books, placed them on her desk and left the room.
'We're invisible!" celebrated Keef.
"Is that a good thing?" asked Rayner.
"I'm not sure," said Akiko, "but we have to stay invisible until we can get out of this classroom and past Miss Darby."
"Then what?" asked Rayner.
"I don't know," said Keef.
The three children turned back towards the terrarium and noticed that Sandfire the bearded dragon was watching them and seemed to be enjoying the whole thing. He had a twinkle in his eye and a gentile small across his face. It looked like he knew something the children didn't.
Keef and Rayner with Akiko still holding the dragon stick, slowly and quietly snuck out of the classroom and into the hall. Suddenly the school bell rang and the hall instantly filled with students and staff rushing to their classes.
The three friends locked arms and started to work their way into the crowd. They were swept away as if they had jumped into a river. Everyone kept bumping and bouncing off of them.
"We have to get out of here!" called out Rayner.
"No one can see us," said Akiko.
"Keep moving with the crowd," instructed Keef.
The crowd of students pushed the three classmates further down the hall. Akiko was having trouble holding onto Keef's arm. She was starting to fall.
Akiko called, "Help Keef, I can't hold onto the dragon's stick any more!"
"Don't drop that stick!" called back Keef.
Rayner, Keef and Akiko were being pulled in all different directions. They could barely hold onto one another. Then someone knocked Akiko's arm and she could feel the dragon's stick falling out of her hand.
"STOP!" she shouted and everything came to a halt.
Every staff and student in that hall stopped in their tracks.
"Wow!" said Keef. "That was a swift move."
"We were lucky that we were still holding hands," said Rayner.
"Now what are we going to do?" asked Akiko.
"Let's get out of the hall," said Keef.
The three kids moved to the side of the hall and found a quiet place to stand. Akiko gave Rayner the dragon's stick and then the three of them held hands.
Rayner called out, "GO!"
The hallway became a buzz and everyone was back to rushing to their classrooms.
"Boy, do we have to be careful with this thing," said Akiko and the two boys nodded their heads in agreement.
Akiko asked Rayner for the dragon's stick and made a sudden decision. She raised the dragon stick, swirled it around them and lifted it towards the ceiling, then pointed it out the open exit doors.
"Quick, hold hands," Akiko called out as she held out her hand.
The two boys reacted immediately and grasped each others hands. The three children instantly found themselves floating above the entering students and heading down the hallway, then outside. The school doors clicked shut behind them as everyone else had entered the school and the monitors had let go of the handles.
"We're locked out!" groaned Raynor.
"We'll have to go around to the front doors", replied Keef, and we'd better hurry before the late bell rings."
Akiko swirled the dragon stick and called out "Make us visible and put us down."
The three instantly were back on the ground and headed to the front of the school. Buzzzzz! went the late bell. As they made it to the front door and opened it to go in, Mr. Bookbore the principal was standing in the entrance hall. "Are you three late again?" he barked, "March to the office immediately!"
Keef, Raynor and Akiko slunk towards the office as Mr. Bookbore stopped to talk to a parent in the hall. Keef turned to the others and, cupping his hand to his mouth, whispered "I wonder if the dragon stick would allow us to travel back in time?"
Akiko whispered back "Where would we go?"
Raynor replied softly "If we could go back 20 minutes that would be bacano!"
"Bacano? What's that?" asked Keef.
"Sorry, I'm studying Spanish because our family is planning a trip to Mexico in December. Bacano means cool." replied Raynor.
"Okay, Ray, we'll try it." Akiko whispered. She held the stick up, waved it around the three of them and whispered "Take us back in time 20 minutes. Bacano!"
Suddenly the air turned cold. There was a smoky white cloud swirling around the children like a lasso which lifted them off their feet and plunged them into what appeared to be a dark tunnel. All three felt as if they were going down a giant water slide without the water. Bump! Bump! Bump! Whumph! Keef, Raynor and Akiko emerged into bright sunshine and tumbled onto an icy slope which they slid along until their sudden stop in a snow bank. Akiko shook her head, looked up and squinted at a humungous dark hairy object in front of them with two enormous tusks.
"G..g..guys! Do you see w…wh..what I see?" she stammered.
"Ya!" declared Keef, "That’s a fa-fa-furry ma-mammoth! It’s older than twenty minutes and his home is not ‘cool’, it’s COLD! COLD! COLD!
"It looks like we’ve gone back to the ice age!" realized Raynor.
"And it’s not the movie!" shouted Akiko.
"Quick Akiko," insisted Keef. "Wave the Dragon’s stick and get us out of here!"
"I don’t want to do it again. Here, you do it this time," pleaded Akiko as she held out the stick for someone else to take.
Raynor grabbed the Dragon’s stick and said, "I’ll do it, but what should I say?"
"We need to return to the school," said Keef.
The mammoth began to move. It took two huge strides forward. Its feet crashed into the hard packed snow and ice just missing the kids. Akiko, Keef and Raynor huddled tight together. The mammoth stood directly over them.
"The next step, we’re goners!" hollered Keef.
Raynor raised the dragon’s stick up in the air and shouted, "Take us back!"
"Take us where?" asked Akiko.
Before Raynor could answer a smoky white cloud began to swirl around the children.
They grabbed each others hands just as their feet lifted off the ground and they were flung into that tunnel looking slide. Flump! Clump! Bump! Slump! The three children landed belly-flat on the ground. They were all starring at a big brown leg.
"Ahhh!" yelled Raynor. "We’re still under the mammoth!"
"It’s not a mammoth!" said Keef.
"I hope I’m not a mammoth," said a deep voice from above.
"I know that voice," declared Akiko. "It’s Mr. Bookbore.
"You’re right! So tell me why you’re hugging my ankles," asked Mr. Bookbore. I thought I told the three of you to go to the office."
"We were on our way there," said Keef. "When we saw you we thought we would ask you to let us go to class."
"You were all late," said Mr. Bookbore.
"We were checking out the Bearded Dragon," said Akiko. "And we found something strange."
Keef elbowed Akiko in her side.
"Ouch!"
"It’s nothing that strange," said Keef.
"As much as I really like to hear about strange things, I don’t have time for it right now," replied Mr. Bookbore.
If you’re really busy Mr. Bookbore, We shouldn’t bother you any more," suggested Raynor.
"Tell you what guys," said Mr. Bookbore. "I’m going to close my eyes and count to ten. When I open my eyes You all will have disappeared. 1, 2, 3 . . .
Akiko grabbed Keef and Raynor’s arms.
"Come on guys," whispered Akiko. "It’s time for us to leave."
"But Mr. Bookbore told us to disappear," said Raynor.
"No!" shouted Akiko. "We’re walking not using the stick. Now come on."
Akiko pulled the two boys down the hall and didn’t let them go until they had disappeared around the corner.
As the three entered the classroom Miss Darby looked up.
"Where have you three been?" she asked.
"We’ve just been to the Ice Age and saw a Wooly Mammoth!" blurted Keef.
"That’s impossible!" exclaimed Miss Darby, "Why would you say such a thing?"
Akiko and Raynor answered simultaneously, "Because it’s true! We can prove it to you!"
"And how will you do that?" laughed Miss Darby.
Raynor slowly pulled the stick out of his left pocket and answered, "With this!"
Miss Darby took a deep breath and her eyes opened very wide. "Where did you find my father’s stick?" she gasped.
"Where did your father lose his stick?" Akiko asked.
"My father has been missing for years. I haven’t even had a post card or email from him." Miss Darby replied. "I haven’t seen my father or his stick in three years. I had forgotten about the stick!"
"We found it in the terrarium! It was under Sandfire!" exclaimed Akiko. "If you didn’t put it there, who did?"
“I did!” boomed a voice from the classroom door. Everyone froze for they all recognized that voice. It was the voice of Mr. Bookbore. “I put it there for safekeeping. I guess that wasn’t a very good hiding place. I’ll take the stick now.”
Ms. Darby’s face reddened. “Mr. Bookbore, I don’t understand. How did you come to have the stick?”
“Miss Darby,” Mr. Bookbore replied sternly, “If you ever want to see your father again, you’ll give me the stick right now!”
He began to move quickly towards Raynor.
“Wait, Raynor! Don’t give him the stick!” shouted Keef. “Throw it to me!”
Mr. Bookbore grabbed Raynor’s left arm but Raynor still managed to toss the stick towards Keef. Keef missed the catch and the stick bounced and landed next to Akiko’s foot. Mr. Bookbore let go of Raynor’s shirtsleeve and turned towards Akiko. Akiko grabbed the stick and held it out towards Mr. Bookbore.
“Thank you, Akiko.” smiled Mr. Bookbore as he held out his hand expectantly.
“Freeze!” cried Akiko, and Mr. Bookbore instantly became a smiling statue.
“What is happening?” Ms. Darby gasped.
“It’s the stick!” replied Keef, “It will do whatever you ask it to do. We weren’t kidding when we were telling you about traveling back in time.”
“I’ll bet we could go back and find out what happened to your father, Miss Darby,” suggested Raynor. “I think Mr. Bookbore had something to do with this.”
They all turned and stared at the motionless figure facing Akiko.
“Oh my!” exclaimed Miss Darby, suddenly sitting down on a desk, “What is happening?”
Raynor looked at her and asked firmly, “Miss Darby, when and where was the last time you saw your father?”
“I remember very clearly. It was March 4th three years ago. Daddy was a research scientist. I went to his laboratory and met him for lunch. I had to get back to school and I left him at 12:45 p.m. He was waiting for someone. He told me that he had a 1:30 appointment. He didn’t come home for dinner at 6:00 that night. He never missed dinner….”
“That’s it!” shouted Keef excitedly, “Akiko, Take us back to March 4th three years ago at Professor Darby’s laboratory at 1:30 precisely! Quick, everybody! Hold hands!”
Akiko grasped the stick firmly and gave the exact commands. White smoke swirled around them and the four began to tumble down a dark tunnel. Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! The four figures landed in what appeared to be some low green bushes under an open window along the outside wall of a small red brick building.
“Ow!” groaned Keef.
“Shh!” motioned Raynor.
They could all hear two loud voices coming from inside the building.
“Buford, I tell you that this stick won’t work for you. It will only work for certain people. It has been in my family for a long long time!”
“That’s Daddy’s voice!” whispered Miss Darby excitedly.
“Give me the stick now!” shouted the other voice.
“I know who that is!” whispered Akiko, “It’s Mr. Bookbore, our principal!”
“I didn’t know his name was Buford!” exclaimed Raynor.
Suddenly there was a loud crash and a thud inside. The four slowly got up and peeked in through the window. In the middle of the room was an overturned chair and an unconscious figure lying on the floor. Buford Bookbore was kneeling over the figure and holding a stick in his hand.
“Disappear!” he called. There was silence and nothing seemed to be happening. “Disappear!” he called out again. Again nothing appeared to be happening. Then Mr. Bookbore placed the stick back into the other person’s hand and called out, “Make me a Wizard!”
White smoke immediately filled the room. There was the sound of coughing and then a loud groan. As the smoke cleared they could see Buford Bookbore standing looking down at where the unconscious figure had been. In its place was a small bearded dragon sitting on top of a stick.
“Daddy!” gasped Miss Darby.
“Sandfire!” exclaimed the children.
“We need to get out of here right now!” whispered Miss. Darby.
“But what about your dad, er, Sandfire?” asked Raynor.
“We can’t change the past.” replied Miss Darby, “Perhaps we can change the future!”
“Everybody hold hands!” whispered Keef. “Akiko, make it happen!”
Akiko whispered: “Take us back to April 1st three years from now, in this classroom.”
Smoke began to swirl around the four time travellers. Suddenly they were lifted into the tunnel-looking slide again and in no time landed together at the same time with one big ‘bump’. Everyone looked at each other and then at the clock on the wall. It read 9:18 am – the same time as when they had left.
There was Sandfire staring at them from the inside of the terrarium. There was Mr. Bookbore frozen in mid-step with his hand held out.
“I’ve lost the feeling in my butt!” groaned Raynor.
“Yah!” agreed Akiko, “You’re right! Time travelling really hurts my bottom too!”
“I agree with both of you but we need to focus on what we should be doing right now.” added Miss Darby, “The rest of the class is due to come back from Music class in twelve minutes and we need to decide how to handle Mr. Bookbore and see how we can help my dad change back from his present form.”
“First priority, change Sandfire into your dad,” Akiko suggested.
Rayner gave the magical stick to Miss Darby. She rushed over to the clear terrarium and swirled the precious twig over the bearded dragon. Almost instantly, a bellowing swarm of clouds started to circle around the rectangular house. Sandfire’s bumpy scales deceased and turned into smooth skin. A body started to emerge from the terrarium, limb by limb. Before their eyes, stood Professor Darby. Miss Darby set her arms up for a bear hug.
“Daddy!” Miss Darby said. “I missed you so much!”
“Finally, you figured it out,” Professor Darby exclaimed. “I want to get back at that Buford Bookbore for turning me into a mustached lizard.”
“I have a fabulous idea!” Miss Darby boasted. She bounded down the hall into the lost and found room. “Everyone, search for the stinky pair of long johns,” she giggled.
After a few minutes, Mr. Bookbore was frozen in mid-step with his hand grasping a faded purple teddy and a pair of smelly polka-dotted long johns stuck on his head!
“Here comes the class, brace yourselves!” Keef warned.
Clunk, swish swish! A swarm of students shuffled into the classroom. All the students gasped to see that Sandfire had disappeared then they froze in amazement and burst out laughing hysterically. The professor asked for the stick and unfroze Mr. Bookbore.
Mr. Bookbore was confused and asked, “What is going on here?” He then realized it was him they were laughing at and he was so embarrassed he started to cry. He ran out of the room hollering and sobbing, “You’ll pay for this!!!”
“Wait! Time out!” called out Professor Darby after quickly grabbing the stick out of his daughter’s hand, “Kids! Is that it? Is that all you want to do to Buford Bookbore? Smelly Long johns and a teddy bear? We can do better than that!”
“Well, he yells a lot in that big booming voice of his. It scares me sometimes,” answered Akiko.
Keef and Raynor nodded to each other. “We agree!” added Raynor.
“Anything else?” queried the professor.
“I think he needs to be kinder, Daddy. It wasn’t nice what he did to you!” Miss Darby replied in a quiet, emphatic voice.
“Done!” stated Professor Darby. “I’ll be back!” And he ran out of the room with the stick in his hand in search are Mr. Bookbore.
Miss Darby tried to settle the class down so she could explain what was going on and to start her science lesson. But before Miss Darby could even get her students back to their desks, the Professor had returned with Mr. Bookbore with his long johns and teddy. The Professor pointed the dragon stick at Mr. Bookbore.
“Buford, when you awake from your frozen state, you won’t remember anything that has happened, but you will be kinder, more empathetic and even tempered, with no booming voice! Let it be so!” the Professor commanded.
Once again white smoke swirled around everyone.
“What? What’s happened?” squeaked an unfamiliar voice. “Darby, what are you doing here? Oh my! I seem to have lost my voice. Excuse me please; I need to get to the office!”
With that Mr. Bookbore began to exit the classroom oblivious to the long johns and purple teddy.
“Just before you leave Mr. Bookbore,” requested the Professor. “It would be great if you could do us all one big favour.”
“What would that be?” asked Mr. Bookbore.
“DANCE!” hollered Prof Darby. “Dance like nobody’s watching!”
Immediately Mr. Bookbore flung the long johns off of his head and raised both hands high in the air and whirled the teddy bear and underwear in a huge circle. He stomped his feet and twirled, jerked, jumped and spun.
“Wow!” declared Akiko. “Bookbore is dancing like no one’s watching!”
“Yah!” agreed Keef. “I’ve never seen another human being move like that!”
Everyone began to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” asked Mr. Bookbore.
Before anyone could answer, Professor Darby called out, “EVERYBODY DANCE!”
Without hesitating all of the students joined right in and DANCED and everyone laughed and laughed and laughed! Even Mr. Bookbore was laughing.
Finally Mr. Bookbore whirled over to Professor Darby and pleaded, “Please, stop me from dancing. I can hardly keep my breath.”
“If you want to stop dancing,” answered the Prof, “then stop!”
“But you are forcing us to dance with the magical stick!” declared Mr. Bookbore unable to catch his breath.
“I didn’t use the dragon stick,” declared the Professor. “You are dancing because you want to dance.”
Mr. Bookbore stopped dancing. Then everyone else stopped dancing. Then Mr. Bookbore started dancing again as he swirled towards the door.
“This is way too much fun to stop,” celebrated Mr. Bookbore. “If anyone wants me I’ll be in the office,” and he left.
The students started dancing.
“Nice try, people, but it’s time to start some learning!” announced Miss Darby.
“Ahhhhhhh!” groaned everyone.
“We can dance later,” suggested Miss Darby.
“But what about the dragon stick?” asked Raynor. “What is it and where does it come from?”
“I guess I can answer that,” said the Professor. “The dragon stick has been in my family’s possession for hundreds of years. It has been handed down from generation to generation. Our family was given a great gift and even greater responsibility. The dragon stick would give its powers so long as we protected it from miss use.”
“I became a research scientist and three years ago I took the dragon stick to work to try to find out some of its powerful secrets. I had an assistant who found out about the dragon stick and he stole it from me.”
“Who was the assistant?”
“It was M-“
“It’s OK Raynor!” interrupted Professor Darby. “I think he’s learned his lesson.”
“So, what happened?”
“I’m not sure,” said the Professor. “After that, everything becomes a little foggy, but I will tell you what I do know. That dragon stick is much more than a stick. It’s the very tip of the tail of the last known dragon. The dragon’s tail is very important because that’s where everything comes together. Its power, strength, wisdom, experience and life force all come together at the end of its tail. This tail has been twisted and turned and dried out so it no longer resembles anything like a dragon’s tail or any other creature for that matter. It looks like an ancient stick of gnarled and knotted wood, but this dragon’s tail is very powerful. It can do wonderful and magical things so long as its power is respected and protected. It can also be very dangerous when not used properly. And that is why I have to find a safe place to keep it.”
“You could keep it in my desk,” volunteered Keef.
“Thank you, but I think I know exactly where it should go,” said the Professor as he carried the dragon stick over to the terrarium.
Professor Darby held the dragon stick over the terrarium and the let it drop into the sand as he declared, “Take this dragon stick safely back to where it belongs!”
One final time the white smoke billowed and swirled around everyone. There was a magnificent glow of light that grew from the terrarium and when everything settled, something new was in the tank. It was alive. It was a very long lizard looking creature. It was almost too big for the terrarium. Its marking ranged in colour from ruby to emerald to gold and its tail had a very special colouring and texture. It was very, very long and twisted back and forth many times.
The students crowded around the terrarium.
“The stick is gone!”
“It wasn’t a stick; it was a dragon’s tail.”
“OK, then the dragon’s tail is gone.”
There was a long moment of silence as all of the students brains whirred with the new information.
“Hey! Does that mean that the lizard isn’t really a lizard? It’s a dr-“
“Miss Darby!” interrupted the Professor. “I think that the students won’t have any trouble come up with something to write about in their journals.”
And each of those journal entries is another story.
The End
