Chapter 26 - Get to know your Dragon.
Back at Blaenoraid, the three of them sat around the table. In one corner of the room was Tom’s treasure chest, diagonally opposite was Jon’s chest. They must be worth millions of pounds if not trillions. Well, they would be back home, but they had absolutely no idea what they were worth here.
“So, dad, all those jewels, all that gold, silver, diamonds and stuff. Are we now rich? I know we would be back home, but are we rich here as well?” Jon asked.
“Yes boys, you are both very wealthy here as well. One of the gold coins in those casks is about six months' wages in Trymyll, a large silver coin is a months’ worth, and you have thousands of gold and silver coins plus all the gemstones and other pieces of jewellery. You both have so much, you will never have to earn another copper coin for as long as you live and still have plenty over.”
“Where do we keep it? We can’t just leave it lying around here can we?” Jon added.
“Well actually yes, we don’t have banks as such here in Trymyll. But I’ll make you both a secret room where you can store your treasures, no doors, or windows and only accessible by you and me,” he said, tapping the side of his nose and winking.
“Awesome!” they both said in unison.
“We’ve got an hour before I fetch the others, so I’ll set to work on it straight after breakfast.”
Minutes later, the two little rooms were ready, they were not large, they didn’t need to be, they were about twelve feet in every direction. The walls, floor and ceiling were three feet thick and made of solid granite reinforced with cold iron rods which went every which way through the structure. They thought their dad had somehow made two twelve-foot hollowed out cubes of granite to the side of the room with cold iron rods for reinforcement out of thin air, and the twelve-foot cube of stone and earth which was there was now nowhere to be seen. And all without leaving the room.
“How did you do that dad?” asked Tom.
“Simple really, the rooms were already there when I set up the hideaway. There are several arranged around the perimeter of the structure. That’s where I keep my gold and silver. There was a couple of spare rooms, so I just opened them up for you two!” he said as he laughed, "You didn’t think I just made those two rooms in a few seconds, do you?”
“No, obviously not," Tom fibbed, “but how many rooms are there with your money in?”
“I have three, but there are six in total, so now there’s one spare just in case I get rich all of a sudden!”
“THREE! You must be well rich!” exclaimed Jon.
“Oh no, I am a wizard of most modest means really.”
“What?”
“Oh, alright then, yes I am quite wealthy actually, but I live modestly and never flaunt my wealth. And neither should you two,” he said looking straight at the boys.
“So why haven’t you sent any of your gold back to me mum?” asked Tom, “she’s as poor as a church mouse.”
“Prudent would be a better word to describe your ma.”
“Meaning?”
“She has plenty, probably the richest woman in Wales, and now with your two caskets, she’ll have even more. But she keeps herself to herself and discreetly helps others without making a fuss and without anyone knowing where the help comes from.”
“She gives it all away?”
No, not exactly all, she has far too much to just give it all away. She helps those in need but only to the extent that they need help, that way she will always have more than enough. It’s all in the bank. She basically just lives and gives from the interest and investments.”
“But she’s on benefits,” Tom said indignantly.
“No, she’s not, she just pretends to be and lives modestly so it would appear like she is. It’s her choice. I’ve often told her that she could afford far more and far better but she’s quite stubborn about it. She was born in a miner’s cottage and that’s where she’s staying. Anyway, enough of this, I’ll go and get the others.”
Llewellyn disappeared and two seconds later he was back with Flintock and Tryg.
Flintock looked around as if looking for something, eyeing the room from side to side and from floor to ceiling, "You’re going to need a bigger place now you’ve three dragons to keep.”
“Not really. I have come to an arrangement with them all, Howel can sleep in the dog basket over there, Ren has a perch over that side and Bevon can roost over there in that coup," he nodded over to a non-existent dog bed, perch, and roosting box.
“Yes, that will work,” Flintock said laughing.
“Of course not, they are nearby but not yet together. I think they need to get to know each other a little better before they all move in together. They are close by, so they will be able to come when needed and quickly if required.”
“So, spent all your money yet boys?” Flintock asked with a smile.
“Of course not. Do you want some, we have plenty?” Tom offered on behalf of them both.
“Thanks for the offer boys, but I also have plenty. Safely locked away in my home in Wrth y Môr I have a fortune to almost match your fathers, so thanks, I’m touched by the offer, but no thanks.”
“How come all you wizards are so rich but dress like....” Tom paused while he thought of a word..., "Worzel Gummidge?”
“Worzel who? Who’s Worzel Gummidge?
“Excuse my son. Worzel Gummidge is a fictional character back in their former world. He’s actually...," then Llewellyn had to think about how to phrase it without insult, “it’s a book of stories about a scarecrow who comes to life. He’s very jolly and kind to people, but he .... dresses differently!”
They all laughed at that most awkward of descriptions.
“Right all, let’s get down to business,” Llewellyn said to bring order back into the room.
“First, if you and your dragons are going to be any good to anyone, you two need to get to know them and they need to get to know you. If we want to fight effectively, then you must be in each other’s minds. Easy for a dragon, but not so easy for humans. So, go learn.”
“What if they don’t let us?”
“Don’t worry, they will.”
The boys disappeared and went to where they had left their respective companion dragons. Jon arrived at where Bevon was lodged.
“Hi Bevon,”
“Oh. Hi to you too Jonny boy," came the reply.
“Me dad says that I’ve got to come down and get to know you a bit so that we can be effective in battles and stuff. But I’ve been worrying about that. Can you fight? I mean a proper fight, or is it like slapping or handbags at dawn? Not wishing to be rude or anything, but you don’t sound like a fighter.”
“Oh! What terrible stereotyping! Of course, I can fight! I have already fought and won many an affray. Just because I’m cultured does not mean I cannot fight.”
“Well then, let’s go to my dad’s training room, he can conjure up some worthy opponents so we can have a sort of mock battle. I need to understand how you fight and you’ve got to understand how I fight. If we work together, we could be invincible.”
“I already am invincible and don’t you doubt it.”
“Alright, forget the training room, let’s go to the quarries and test out our power there.”
“Okay, if you insist,” Bevon sighed the sigh of a bored teenager and turned into a rather handsome cockerel. Jon picked him up and they apparated away to the quarries.
‘Pop’ and Bevon returned to his normal form of a ferocious looking Red Dragon.
“Okay Jonny, what do you want me to do out here in this wasteland?”
“Well, I don’t know how magical you are as a dragon. I know a lot about Howel...
“Oh! Don’t speak to me about Howel, isn’t he just such a snob?”
Jon was a little taken aback by Bevon’s little outburst, but he stuck with it.
“Howel is exceptionally good at mind-bending, spell weaving and incantational magic. What specifically are you best at then?”
“Well, I can’t pull rabbits out of hats or do card tricks, don’t really have the hands for it. Can’t apparate, but you know that. Only Golden Dragons can apparate. We have the ignominy of being carried like pets by our human hangers-on. Oops, did I say that aloud? Of course, I meant, our human friends,” he said with a mocking bow of fake respect.
“Never mind what you can’t do. What the hell can you do?” Jon was getting irritated; he knew they had a battle on their hands soon and Bevon was not taking things very seriously.
“Ooh, tetchy, Well, like you I can send out an energy blast which will blow most things apart, especially humans, they are so soft and squishy. Go on, pick a rock, any rock, any size, and I’ll show you.”
“What about that one over there?” Jon pointed to a rock about the size of a small car.
“Hmmm. Maybe something a little smaller? How about that one over there.” he said indicating toward a boulder the size of a large watermelon.
“No, I’ll demonstrate," Jon’s staff appeared, a bolt of energy flashed out towards the quarry face, and he blew a hole in it the size of a house, not a little miner’s cottage sized house but a large four bedroomed detached, two reception, double garage, with study and two en-suite bathrooms house. At the same time, he tapped his staff down and enclosed them in a force field as tonnes of rock and stone rained down around them from the blast.
“Ooh, impressive. Would not want to be on the receiving end of one of those. But can you do this?”
He belched out a long flame of fire that melted the huge pile of rock and rubble into a white-hot granite pool which then flowed down the quarry forming a stream of lava. The flames seemed to go on forever, even after about a minute, they were still coming out. This guy might be weird, but he sure could throw a flame when he wanted to.
“Ooh, impressive,” Jon said in his most pompous accent, "would not like to be on the receiving end of one of those," he said, imitating Bevon.
Bevon was highly amused and laughed aloud, "Oh, very good, I almost thought it was me then.”
“Now watch this," said Jon, water fell from nowhere, quenching the stone, sending up billows of steam forming huge clouds in what had been the bluest of cloudless skies.
Bevon pretended not to be impressed.
“How about some flying? Bevon suggested. Jon had not seen Bevon fly yet, but they launched off together. Bev was exceptionally fast, far faster than Howel and Jon thought he was fast. Jon was easily able to keep up with him. They then went into some aerobatics with all the normal loop the loops, barrel rolls and stall turns, they even flew at high speed towards each other narrowly missing just like the Red Arrows do on their displays. They both had the same idea at once and “Smoke on."
Up they went and formed a huge heart in the sky made from the smoke before landing and falling about laughing.
“Oh boy Jon, are we going to have fun. I was dreading being ‘sold into slavery’ as I used to call it because I knew the old witch Aelwyd was going to get rid of me at the first opportunity, but this is really not what I envisaged sitting all alone in my little cave, ostracised by the other dragons just because I was different. No, we are going to be the absolute best of partners, BFF in fact.”
He had hardly finished speaking when in the distance they could see a thunder of Blue Dragons heading their way. They had spotted all the antics of the explosions, the instant cloud formations and maybe even the aerobatic display.
“Quick,” said Jon, “rooster mode, then we can apparate out of here.”
“Not on your Nelly. You wanted to see if I could fight, let’s go fight.”
He launched up towards them. Jon, hard on his heels, well maybe not heels exactly, but you know what I mean.
“No stop, there’s about twelve of them, don’t be stupid.”
“Oh dear, well if you’re going all scaredy-cat, you can apparate off. I’m going for the kill.”
They sped off together heading straight for the thunder of dragons, they could easily outrun them if necessary, as Blue Dragons are not the fastest of beasts, they could outmanoeuvre them as they are not that agile either, but they couldn’t outnumber them. It was two against twelve. Jon had an idea suddenly form in his head. He conjured up a fire dragon, now it was twelve against three. The fire dragon sped on ahead of them straight into their flight path and then looped around them in a tight loop come barrel role manoeuvre. The Blue Dragons were completely disoriented, and their formation fell apart. One of them fell out of the sky in surprise and it was a thousand or more feet down before he found his wings again. They were scattered all over the sky. The fire dragon had done its work and disappeared into little wisps of flame. Jon struck first; a massive bolt of energy literally vaporised the lead dragon. Bevon belched out a massive lick of flame which burnt the patagium off the wings of the next beast and he plummeted down, no longer able to fly. Two dragons came at Bevon, both shooting huge plumes of fire. Bevon seemed to wallow in the heat, it did nothing, he then took one down while Jon blasted the other out of existence. ‘Teamwork!’ he heard in his head. Bevon was communicating with him telepathically. They both looped around the now reforming pack and took two more out from behind. One dragon managed to tailgate Jon and was just about to belch out his fire when Jon sent a few cubic metres of water from his emerald right into the throat of the dragon, his flame went out, and the weight of a couple of tonnes of water sent him spinning towards the ground. ‘Three more to go for a full set,’ he heard in his head.
‘Let’s get them’, he thought back, not knowing whether it was one or two-way communication.
The one that had plummeted down after the fire dragon startled him was now almost back up with the others. He then attacked another Blue Dragon, sinking his massive teeth into his neck and they both fell, ungracefully down, locked in a fight which would end in them both dead. ‘What the...?’ thought Jon. ‘Simple mind games, I suggested to him telepathically that we were his friends, so he turned on them. Stupid creatures really. I’ll let you have the honour of number twelve. Though you’ll have to be quick, he’s vamoosing it out of here fast’.
Jon turned, accelerated to his maximum speed, and blasted him out of the sky.
Back down on the ground, they sat for a while to catch their breath. Jon was curious about one aspect of the fight that they had just had.
“How come when the two Blue Dragons blasted you with fire, you seemed to just absorb it and the flames had no effect on you?”
“I have all the magic of a trygall, so I am also a fire-master. I can absorb the fire back into my body and release it at will.”
“Mmmm. Best if I don’t ask how you acquired those skills’” Jon quipped.
“I hope you don’t think I ate a trygall do you?” Bevon said feigning shock.
“No. I wasn’t suggesting......”
“Well, actually I did, and in case you’re wondering. They taste of sushi.”
“Yukky!”
“No, Sushi.”