Wizards (9 page)

"But you materialized outside my house without any kind of a hopscotch court," she protested.

"Well duh," I said sarcastically, "I'd never be able to go anywhere if there had to be a hopscotch court at the other end. I suppose I don't need the court to hop back, but I can't jump out without one."

"So how did you get to my house the night Fluffy came?"

"I hopped from the court in my room," I said even more sarcastically. Jenny's calm and superior tone was beginning to annoy me. She was sounding more and more like Princess Esmeralda.

"The same court your mother removed while you were away?" Jenny asked.

My mouth dropped open as I contemplated that particular fact. I never rolled up the carpet before hopping out because I know exactly where the court is under the carpet.

"You told me the wizard you fought in Salice hopped out without using a court," Jenny further reminded me. I'd told Jenny an edited version of what happened in Salice, removing certain kissing done by Esmeralda on my person. Well, it would only upset Jenny if I told her, and they were never going to meet so it seemed like a reasonable white lie to me.

"That was different," I protested. I was wracking my brains to try and remember what a wise-man told me when I was eleven.

"I've told you about wise-men, haven't I?" Jenny nodded.

"I met one when I was eleven on the side of a mountain. It was a pretty frightening place because I arrived on a narrow path running across a cliff face. I never went back to that planet because I was scared I'd fall off the next time. I walked down the path trying to find somewhere wide enough to draw a hopscotch court, and that was when I met this wise-man.

He spoke English though he spoke with a strange accent, a bit like Polish, now I come to think of it."

"There were very few Poles in Wales when you were eleven," Jenny pointed out. "You can't move for them now."

"He watched me draw the court and told me it was an invention of the Druids. According to him, all the important Druids left our world when the Romans invaded Britain and it was clear they were going to win."

"The Druids left Earth using hopscotch courts and the Roman commanders tried to get their troops to follow after them by hopping and skipping on the same courts. They never did manage to follow the Druids, but the hopscotch court became a training exercise for Roman soldiers in Britain and they took the practice all over Europe with them."

"He said that a full wizard like me didn't need one. It just helped my mind prepare for a special kind of step…, hop, skip and teleport. He told me I was using the court as a crutch."

"He sounds very wise," Jenny threw in, "What else did he say?"

My face turned red with embarrassment as I remembered the rest of the conversation.

"Well?" Jenny asked when I remained silent.

"I was eleven and he used the word crutch," I explained. Jenny raised her eyebrows and continued to stare at me.

"Crutch, crotch," I muttered in a whisper. "I started laughing because a grown-up had used a naughty word. He got annoyed when I wouldn't stop laughing, and he left."

"God, you are sad," Jenny said in total disbelief.

"I was an eleven years old. I'm not very bright, I'm afraid."

"Don't ever say that," Jenny said angrily and punched me on the shoulder. "Now if you said uneducated, I'd have to agree with that."

"Okay," I responded, but Jenny was no longer looking at me. She was looking in horror at something behind me.

I turned around and spotted what had upset Jenny. A man was reading a newspaper and held it so we could read the headlines.

He was holding the most popular tabloid in England and Wales and it had a picture of Fluffy in full flight on the front page.

'GOT THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST?' the headline read.

"Shit," was the best response I could think of.

"What have you got to say about this?" I shouted angrily at Fluffy, waving the newspaper in my dragon's face.

Fluffy raised his front legs off the ground taking up an almost human pose as he took the paper out of my hands. Fluffy's front legs are very like arms and his clawed feet are capable of delicate actions just like human hands. He lifted the paper into a reading position and looked at his picture.

"Meep, meep, meep," he replied and Jenny giggled.

"I don't care if it is a good picture of you," I said angrily. "You were supposed to be hiding in the cave."

"Meep, meep."

"He has a point," Jenny agreed irritatingly. "You can't expect him to stay cooped up in here forever, just on the off chance someone might snap a picture of him."

"It's been two weeks!" I shouted at Jenny. "Two weeks since Williams took photographs of the two of you. Is two weeks too long a time to expect Fluffy to lay low?"

"Meep," Fluffy replied simply, the plainest 'yes' I've ever heard him utter.

I sat down and put my head in my hands. In the quiet of the cave, I could hear the sound of microlights combing the valley beyond. At the very least, I could do something to protect the cave entrance from discovery.

I walked to the hole in the cliff face and extended the spell covering it. From now on, it would be invisible from outside. The side of the cliff would look whole and unblemished no matter what angle it was observed from.

"Bolting the stable door?" Jenny asked.

"Closing it off to outsiders. I don't want anybody interrupting us while we try and figure this out."

"Meep, meep, meep," Fluffy suggested as he finished reading the article. I taught him to read English when he was four. His comment upset Jenny who ran to him to put an arm on his neck.

"We are certainly not going to turn you in for the reward," she said.

The newspaper offered a million pounds reward for Fluffy. A lucky reader could get a hundred thousand pounds for his body if capturing him alive proved too difficult. The hills were already swarming with bounty hunters. Even reaching the cave unseen proved difficult, there were so many people walking about.

"We'll have to move Fluffy from here," I said resignedly. "If he flies out during the night we should be able to avoid the hunters."

"And take him where?"

"The Highlands of Scotland. There are plenty of places up there with nobody around. Not to mention there are plenty of sheep and deer. He could live up there for years without being spotted."

"You're running away from this, Jake," Jenny said angrily. "This is Fluffy's home."

"Do you have a better idea?" I replied equally angrily.

"Yes," Jenny said to my considerable surprise. I waited for her to explain, as I refused, on principle, to come out and ask her what she had in mind.

"Jake, hop back to your bedroom," Jenny commanded.

I started to walk towards the hopscotch court painted on the cave floor but she got up and stood in my path.

"Without the court, Jake. Hop straight to your bedroom and then back here without using the court or any of the silly skipping."

I wanted to tell her to 'get lost' as I couldn't see the point of any of this, but the look on Jenny's face made me take her seriously.

"Princess Esmeralda may be fat and ugly," Jenny said, "But she isn't stupid. You can do much more than you think you can, provided you allow yourself to believe."

The embarrassment associated with my earlier lie about how Esmeralda looked spurred me on to create the court in my mind and to mentally recreate my path across it. A second later, I was standing on the carpet in my bedroom. It took me three tries to get back to the Bat Cave, as I was so hyped up by my unexpected success.

"Now take me with you to your bedroom," Jenny said as she put her arms around my neck and linked her hands together.

"No sooner said than done," I said as I hopped us both to my room and dropped her onto my bed. I eased myself on top of her as she fell.

"Get off me, Jake," Jenny said as she laughed. "We don't have time for that. Well, maybe later. Take us back to Fluffy."

I rolled off my girlfriend and while she was in my arms, hopped us back to the cave. The rock floor was a little hard on my back, but it was worth it to see the look on Jenny's face.

"Meep, meep, meep," Fluffy said, laughing at the two of us. After a half-hearted attempt to pummel me, Jenny burst out laughing.

"Now we're ready," Jenny told us.

"Ready for what?"

"Ready to take Fluffy back to his mother."

"Meep?"

"You think I should fly out of this cave with Fluffy and hop us both back to the planet I stole his egg from?" I may be thick, but I'm not completely stupid.

"Not quite," Jenny said determinedly. "Fluffy will be carrying both of us when you do the hop."

"I can't. It's far too risky. Fluffy won't be able to carry the two of us," I prevaricated.

"You're a wizard," Jenny pointed out. "You can either strengthen Fluffy's flying magic or simply add your own. You'll also need someone to talk with his mother when we get there. She might decide to eat you for what you did to him."

"Meep, meep, meep."

"You won't need to protect him, Fluffy," Jenny said quietly. "Leave that to me."

"This just isn't going to happen," I told Jenny adamantly.

Jenny got on Fluffy so she rode him just in front of me. The smell of Jenny's hair intoxicated me and I wanted to kiss and cuddle, but after the long fight we just had, it probably wasn't a good idea. I was still getting used to the fact that fighting Jenny always resulted in me losing.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

The word 'yes' from Jenny and 'meep' from Fluffy merged into a single sound of assent. I imagined myself as light as a feather as Fluffy took a running jump out of the cave entrance with the two of us clinging to his back.

Fluffy went into his customary dive to build up speed and I didn't want to hop us away from Wales while we were heading downhill. As soon as Fluffy spread his wings and pulled us out of the dive I hopped us to the world he came from. I hadn't visited it since I was eight, but I recognized the smell of its air the moment we arrived.

Fluffy 'meeped' with delight as he swooped into the valley below us. The mountains in the distance were covered with snow. Jenny and I began to shiver as Fluffy took us higher. Then I remembered I was a wizard and cast a spell of warmth around us.

"Meep," Fluffy complained. I narrowed the warmth spell to cover just Jenny and myself as Fluffy complained I'd made him too hot.

The next half hour was delightful as Fluffy exulted in his new playground. This world seemed to suit him much better than Earth and he performed barrel rolls through the valleys in sheer joy.

"Come here!" a voice said loudly in my head. I looked around but could see no one. Fluffy ignored the voice and kept on playing.

"I have told you once, child. If you disobey me again your punishment will be painful," the voice said severely.

Fluffy sighed and banked to the right. I could still see no one around. Fluffy took us to a flat topped rock outcrop. It was of the kind you see in those American movies, the massive rock hills that go vertically upwards from a desert plain. No sooner had we landed than a giant dragon landed on the far side of the outcrop.

The dragon had a wingspan of at least sixty feet. Other than that he was the spitting image of Fluffy, except where Fluffy was orange this dragon was green and vice versa.

"Meep, meep," [Hello daddy]

"You are Fluffy's father?" I asked.

"Jake didn't mean to steal Fluffy's egg. He was just a child at the time and didn't know what he was doing," Jenny put in quickly.

The mountains shook with the sound of dragon laughter. Fluffy's father reared up in front of us as if to attack.

"I am Regore, sired by Ragnor," the dragon told us. "My son is Retnor, though he seems to prefer the name Fluffy. Do you think we would let a mere child steal the rarest of all things, a quickened dragon's egg?"

"But I did steal the egg," I said.

"We let you take Retnor with you. It's not quite the same thing."

"I don't understand."

"It was prophesied a child wizard would take Retnor's egg and the fate of the worlds would depend on that encounter," Regore said. "Human wizards often try to steal our eggs and we let them take the ones that will not hatch. Only once in a thousand years does a dragon's egg hatch."

"I still don't understand."

"It was our wish you take Retnor with you and that you should grow up together. It is good you have come to visit us. Sonsil, his mother, is flying to join us."

"It's more than a visit, sir," Jenny said, her whole body trembling as she spoke. We had got off Fluffy's back and stood only yards from Regore. "It's no longer safe for Fluffy to live with us on Earth so we've brought him back to you."

"What could possibly threaten a dragon?" Regore asked in a voice replete with astonishment.

I explained the situation as best I could. How Fluffy had been seen and now the area was full of idiots with gun and microlights, seeking to capture or kill him. Regore listened patiently before turning to Fluffy.