The Dragons' Call. Judy Hayman

again.

      The other three jumped guiltily as a voice came from above. “Where’s Ollie?” Oliver, frowning suspiciously, was standing at the top of the steps looking down at them.

      “Er... I swiped the ball over the fence by mistake,” Emily called hurriedly. “Sorry, it was a bit wild. Ollie’s just gone over to find it. He’ll be back in a minute. It disappeared into the bushes, so he may have had trouble finding it…”

      She was wondering how long she could keep suspicion at bay when the dark red figure of Ollie trotted casually round the corner, dribbling the ball. “Sorry, Dad – had to get this back,” he said. “I was only over for a minute.” Oliver stared hard at him, but then went back inside without further comment.

      Ollie winked. “Quick thinking, Em!” he said. “I was just about to tell one of you to send it over and give me an excuse to be out when the ball flew over and hit me! Thanks.” He seemed to have left his bad temper behind in the woods, Emily thought. It was rare that Ollie ever praised one of them, so she felt rather pleased with herself.

      “Nice to see you’ve quietened down a bit,” said Alice coldly. “Maybe you’ll think twice before swaggering again. And running away!” she added with her nose in the air.

      “Perhaps,” said Ollie, with a maddening smirk, “but if I hadn’t ‘run away’, I’d have missed a Human sighting. Course, if you’re not interested...”

      Emily gave Alice a prod with her tail. “’Course we are!” she said, and led the way through the passage and into their cellar, leaving the rest to follow. Alice, still disapproving, came last.

      Chapter 4

      Quarrels

      The four young dragons settled themselves in the girls’ cellar, and Emily produced a secret stash of bumblebugs. She hoped it would help to soothe the prickles between Alice and Ollie. “How far did you go?” she asked.

      “Not that far. I went to Ben’s Stone to start with,” Ollie said, referring to the huge boulder in the wood that Ben McIlwhinnie had rested on before starting the journey back to his glen. “Ben’s footprints have melted away, but you can see something big has been through the trees if you know where to look. Turned out it wasn’t much use as a look-out point, because of the trees, so I flew further on, low between the tree trunks keeping a good look-out. Nothing moving anywhere, apart from the odd wee bird, and not much snow left. I thought I’d head in the direction of that Human house, just to see how far it was.”

      Alice rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Why do you take such risks? You could just as well have gone the other way!”

      “Shut up, Allie!” said Emily, unexpectedly. “Go on, Ollie. Did you find it?”

      “It took quite a while to get to the edge of the wood,” Ollie continued. “When the trees thinned I dropped to the ground and crawled through the undergrowth. And THEN....” he dropped his voice conspiratorially and they all leaned closer, “I came to one of those hard tracks...”

      “A road?” said Emily.

      “Yeah, just a narrow one. Then I had a REAL fright!” He paused for dramatic effect.

      “What happened?”

      “One of those Human machines thundered past, right in front of me! It was a big one, bright colours, and I could see some Humans inside, looking out.”

      “Wow!” said Tom, lost in admiration.

      “You weren’t seen, were you?” Alice cried in horror.

      “Nah – it went by too fast. But THEN....”

      “Yes…?”

      “It stopped a bit further down the road-thing. And I saw two young Humans run out into the road and climb on. And guess who it was!”

      “Not Lisa?” Emily cried.

      “Ssshh!” said Alice, looking over her shoulder at the open doorway.

      “Lisa and that little one,” said Ollie triumphantly.

      “Charlie? The one who told me about football?” said Tom.

      “Both of them. They were carrying bags and when they had disappeared into the machine it went away round the corner, and I couldn’t see it any more. Pretty good spying though, eh?” He sat back, beaming in triumph, and allowed Tom to give him a High Four. Emily and Alice looked at one another.

      “I think the big machine might have been a… a ‘bus’,” said Alice thoughtfully. “Remember that story, Emily? In the book they gave us?”

      “Of course it was!” said Emily excitedly. “And I bet they were going to School, like we’ve read about. Where they learn things and have fun all together. They were carrying their School Bags! That must have been a School Bus. Wow, Ollie, you’ve seen an actual School Bus! You are SO lucky! I wish I’d seen it…”

      “Come out with me tomorrow if you like. It might come along again,” said Ollie, trying to sound casual, but obviously delighted with all the excitement he had caused.

      It was obvious that Emily was seriously tempted. Alice looked horrified.

      “Don’t be stupid! We can’t! You think you were lucky this time, Ollie, but you don’t KNOW some of the Humans on the bus didn’t spot something bright red in the undergrowth. What if they mention it and that wee Charlie lets something out about us? He might say ‘must have been a dragon!’ and Lisa would try to cover up and who knows WHAT the others would think. We might have search parties out in the woods. There’s no way we should risk it again.”

      It was obvious that she was deadly serious. And angry. Tom looked from her to Emily, wondering how to break the tension building up in the small room. “I’m hungry,” he said. “Let’s go and find a snack.”

      “Me too!” said Alice, and turned from the others to head upstairs. “Come on, Tom,” she added over her shoulder. Emily felt rather hurt and a bit upset by her attitude. After all, she had not taken Ollie up on his offer! But as she turned to follow them, Ollie touched her arm. “Find out all you can about School Buses from those books of yours,” he whispered. “Then we’ll sneak out and see it again. We’ll be careful. Don’t tell the others. Come on! You know you want to!”

      He gave her a wicked grin before he headed upstairs, leaving Emily in a very muddled state of mind.

      Things were rather tense between the four of them for the rest of the day. Ollie’s deliberately casual swagger was irritating Alice unbearably, and she was snappy with everyone and avoided Emily. Tom, obviously rather bemused by the atmosphere, practised Tail-Stane shots endlessly, annoying everyone, especially Aunt Angelica, who was never happy when the peace of her ‘castle’ was so rudely disturbed. Lily, sensing tension, decided to have a couple of her famous tantrums. Gwen was obviously still very worried, and Duncan was, equally obviously, itching to be back home in the glen. They all missed the cheerful presence of Des; nobody knew how long it would be before he returned, and there could be no news now that he was well outside the range of Huff signals.

      For once, Emily was glad when it was bed-time. She hoped that Alice had got over her bad mood and would become her cheerful and sensible friend again. At first this seemed likely as they settled down as usual on their beds. But then Alice spotted the book that Emily pulled from under the hay.

      “That’s the book about the children at school that Lisa and Megan gave us!” she hissed. “You’re reading up about School Buses, aren’t you? You’re planning to go out with Ollie!