Free Drake the Dragonboy by Rebecca Schultz Page B

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    â€œJuniper,” he said to her hugging her, “I think of you like a sister.” Juniper’s mouth dropped from a smile to a fixed line. “And Drake, you know, you’ve become like a nerdy brother.” Drake wished he hadn’t added the word nerdy but smiled at him anyway and gave him a firm handshake.
    â€œDais’, you coming?” An obviously love-struck Daisy hugged them all goodbye, including Donny. Drake looked at Daisy closely and then looked at Juniper standing next to her. Daisy’s large green eyes were very pretty but they didn’t have the depth of Juniper’s brown eyes. Juniper’s face had so much expression. From compassion to horror, she hid nothing. Daisy on the other hand hid behind a sweet smile and Drake had no idea what she was really thinking. Drake was okay about Ronan and Daisy getting together and this surprised him. Drake noticed Juniper looking back at him and he quickly looked away. Ronan swooped Daisy onto his back and launched himself into the air. Drake watched as Ronan and Daisy disappeared into the distance.

    They looked into the sky, already tinged with an evening shade of pink, to see a hoard of Quintas circling around, swirling angrily in figure eights. Recent events seemed to have riled them up.
    â€œNow, I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but I’ve heard, and I saw it on a map when I was building the force field … there’s a cavernous section of the desert that continues right through to Dragonland. If we find it we can just walk through, sheltered by the walks of the rocky cavern. There’s no way the Quintas would be able to get into such a small space,” Donny said, rubbing his chin and nodding knowledgably.
    â€œI’ve heard about it in stories,” said Juniper, wide-eyed. “And I’ve heard that the pathway is guarded by witches.”
    â€œThere’re no such things as witches, Juniper,” Donny jumped in before she had even finished the word. His tone was patronising. Men of science like him did not believe in witches. Drake hadn’t even been read fairytales as a child because as his father had explained to four-year-old Drake, a young child’s mind has no way to distinguish between fact and fantasy. Instead he read him stories about boys on adventures in the wilderness. Four-year-old Drake had pointed out to his father that young dragonfolk boys didn’t go on adventures in the wilderness either, so that was also fantasy. Donny didn’t have an answer to that.
    â€œLet’s go and see what we can find,” said Drake. “We’d better get moving before it gets dark.”
    They trudged through the dry red sand using Donny’s pocket compass to ensure that they were heading east and not going around in circles.
    Before long, in the distance they saw the jagged edges of the rocky cavern. The sight of rocks in the distance quickened their pace, putting a visible skip in Drake’s step, and they made it to the entrance in minutes.
    Rocks at the entrance to the pathway were piled upon each other so you could almost imagine the plates of land colliding together thousands of years ago. They were stacked tall with an opening so high up that Juniper had to stand on Donny’s shoulders to crawl through. Donny then beckoned Drake to do the same.
    â€œDad, you’ll never be able to get up on your own. I can fly myself up and crawl through. You climb on my shoulders.”
    Donny shrugged in acceptance as Drake leaned against the rocks and Donny used his body as a stepladder. Drake grimaced as he felt his father’s full weight on his shoulders. It was the second time that day that he’d had to carry his father’s weight and his muscles ached. He was definitely going to do something to encourage his father to lose some lard once they got back to Dragonland. Donny shuffled into the hole and disappeared. Drake only used the smallest flutter of