The Golden Acorn - Catherine Cooper [56]
‘I doubt that very much,’ laughed Nora. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll be eating soon.’
It wasn’t long before Elan, Charkle and Gerda joined them.
‘Peabody must have been watching Jack all week,’ said Elan, ‘but I’m surprised no one saw him and sent word to us.’
‘There was someone in the bell tower under my roost last week,’ said Timmery as he flitted through the window.
Everyone looked at the tiny bat.
‘And you didn’t report that!’ croaked Camelin very loudly. ‘For the last few hours you’ve come to tell me about cows, cars and starlings, but you didn’t mention you’d seen someone watching the house!’
‘He was there in the daytime and you only said to report anything I saw at night. He didn’t disturb my sleep. He was very quiet up there.’
‘Well I’m glad you didn’t lose any sleep,’ Camelin grumbled. ‘Some of us hardly slept at all last night.’
‘Time for me to get back to the bell tower. Hope you all have a lovely day and I’ll see you all again at dusk.’
‘Out!’ croaked Camelin as loudly as he could.
‘Just being sociable,’ replied Timmery as he darted around the kitchen.
‘Well ravens aren’t sociable at this time of the morning, so unless it’s really important don’t come back.’
‘Some ravens aren’t sociable at any time of the day,’ laughed Elan.
Camelin frowned, hunched his shoulders and closed his eyes. He dozed on the window sill until breakfast was ready.
‘Are you ready to try flying today?’ Nora asked Jack.
‘Oh! I er… suppose so,’ Jack replied.
‘You’ll be fine, a natural if ever I saw one,’ Camelin said sarcastically.
‘Don’t worry,’ Elan said as she smiled encouragingly at Jack. ‘You will be fine. Camelin might be grumpy but he’s an excellent teacher.’
Although Jack was still apprehensive he was also excited. It would be great to try some real flying. He longed to be able to soar, swoop and dive. Camelin made it look such fun. He was about to find out if it was.
FLIGHT
‘Why didn’t Chief Knuckle say anything about Charkle?’ Jack asked Nora as they cleared away the breakfast dishes.
‘He won’t know for sure that he’s here. He’ll be safe as long as he doesn’t go down any tunnels.’
‘That’s exactly how I got caught in the first place,’ said Charkle as he hovered in front of Jack. ‘I was exploring a cave with my two brothers, Norris and Snook. We’d been a few times before and not had a problem until we found a dark hole and those nasty little creatures grabbed us.’
‘Did they capture Norris and Snook too?’ asked Jack.
‘Oh no! They were older than me and already breathing fire. I was just a baby and I couldn’t defend myself. Norris set two of the Spriggans’ felt hats alight and Snook scratched the other one with his talons but they couldn’t rescue me. I got taken down to their workshop and sealed in that lantern. They used me to light their candles once I started breathing fire.’
‘It must have been awful,’ said Jack. ‘I don’t know much about dragons; I thought they were all big.’
Charkle laughed.
‘Dragons are easy to understand. Dragonairs are red, Dragonors blue and Dragonettes green. You don’t want to go messing with red ones. They’re big, fierce and usually bad-tempered. Both the males and females breathe fire. The blue ones are about your size. They’re usually quite friendly and they don’t breathe fire at all, but they’ve got the sharpest teeth so it’s always as well to keep out of their reach just in case they haven’t had breakfast.’
‘Are all green dragons small?’ Jack asked.
‘Oh yes… we’re Dragonettes… small, friendly and very good-natured. Only the males breathe fire.’
Charkle stopped beating his wings and sank down to the table.
‘It’s been so long since I’ve seen my family. I’ve missed them so much.’
‘I can take you over to Westwood today if you’d rather not wait until next weekend,’ offered Nora.
‘No, thank you. If you don’t mind I’d rather stay here with all of you for a few days. It’s so long since I’ve had any company. I’m really enjoying being here.’
Nora smiled at Charkle before turning to Jack.
‘Do you understand now why I didn’t want you to go down the tunnel?