Free Drake the Dragonboy by Rebecca Schultz

your little Tourette issue is nothing to do with this,” interrupted Gerry, seeing their faces. Juniper looked slightly less sick. Hubert continued with the story.
    â€œSo we created this city and everyone who lived there decided that they wanted to protect their children from the truth and create a kind of Utopia. We created the monument and wrote our own history books, with stories about the world being small and flat. Of course the world is round.”
    â€œActually, it’s an oblate spheroid,” interrupted Gerry. Hubert shrugged and continued.
    â€œWe closed ourselves off from the outside world. They didn’t want us, anyway. And they did the same thing. They wrote us out of their history books … as though we had never existed. For a long time, Dragonland was guarded by ape people. The Quintas were released to fly through the desert and keep people out. They were pretty effective. And then ten years ago we got Donny here to create a force field.”
    â€œBut mostly we kept people away from the edges by telling stories … by making up stories about how dangerous it was,” added Gerry.
    â€œSo you clipped our wings … you put blinkers on us,” Drake yelled angrily, standing up. “You treated us like mushrooms, put us in a dark room and fed us on …”
    â€œDrake!” interrupted Donny Dramco. Drake sat down again, pouting.
    â€œI know,” agreed Hubert. “We tried to preserve the dragonfolk and instead we pickled their brains. Folk like that moron Peter Roche are running the place. Idiots. Non-thinkers. The IQ of the entire dragonfolk civilisation has dropped by 10 per cent.”
    â€œSo why did you kidnap me?” asked Donny.
    â€œWe are old fools,” said Hubert. “We found out you’ve been travelling in and out of the city and panicked. We got your secretary to help drug you — we’ve done her a favour recently and she owed us. That coffee she made you had a little something special in it. Then she helped us to get you down to the car and we drove you to the city.”
    â€œIs this true, Dad?” asked Drake, bitterly. “If you knew there was a city beyond Dragonland, why didn’t you tell me?”
    â€œI figured it out while I was working on the force field. I was still deciding what to do with the information,” said Donny with little emotion in his voice.

    Suddenly all the anger Drake had pushed away each time his dad had disappointed him came bubbling to the surface. He put his face up to his father’s, almost nose to nose.
    â€œYou could at least sound sorry!” he yelled. “You lied to me. You put your work before me. Again and again and again and you made me feel as if I just wasn’t good enough. And I felt like I wasn’t good enough for anyone. If I wasn’t good enough for my dad to hang out with, then why would anyone want to hang out with me? It’s all your fault. It’s your fault I don’t have friends at school. It’s your fault I’m short too. Look at you!” Drake suddenly stopped in the middle of his ranting and stood silently, mouth open. He realised he sounded just like his mother and suddenly he understood her. He realised that he’d blamed her for the divorce when it was at least equally his father’s fault. He wasn’t ever there for either of them. Donny went pale and looked as though he wanted the earth to swallow him up.
    â€œWhat happens now?” asked Juniper, staring intently at the two old men, and taking the opportunity to distract Drake and Donny. Drake noticed Gerry give Hubert a little nod and show him a little device he was holding. Drake swallowed hard. He had figured out that they had activated a kind of security device. At the same moment as his realisation, the door swung open and two huge men stormed through the door. The man on the left had an enormous, long face and a very fat neck. With his neck the same