May Short Story Contest

“Homeschooling is fun, but I’m glad it’s over for the year, now we have time to explore the forest,” sighed Airen dreamily as he ran his finger through his black hair.

They were walking through the forest five miles away from their house on a sunny, hot day in July.

Airen’s sister Kate said, “Yes, me too.” She climbed up onto a giant boulder. She looked down at the boulder and said, “Hey, there’s a dragon symbol carved on the side of this boulder.”

“Look,” Airen pointed to a pile of broken glass. “This must be some kind of ruin. There are broken down walls and rotten floor boards.”

Then they saw more ruins.

“Wow, I didn’t know that this was here!” said Airen.

“What is that?” asked Kate, as she pointed to a big brown thing made of wood that was not rotten.

“I don’t know,” replied Airen. “It looks almost as brown as your hair.”

“Hey! Well, let’s go and see what it is.” She said, trying to change the subject.

“Okay,” Airen agreed. They saw a door that had vines all over it. Airen saw something shining on the ground. He bent to pick the pieces up.

“They’re shards of metal!” Airen observed. “This place looks old, these could be valuable. I’ll put them in my pocket.”

“Should we go through the door?” questioned Kate.

“Um… I guess we could, but we have to be back before supper, remember?” said Airen slowly as he touched the soft wood. He realized it had pictures of dragons carved into it.

When they went through the door they stepped into snow and saw tall, snowy mountain peaks stretching up around them.They were confused as to why they were not cold. A strong gust of wind caused them to look up.

“Dragons!” cried Kate. “They are so close that I can see their white scales!” She yelled as Airen cried,

“Quick! Hide!” he pushed her behind a snow bank.

After the dragons had flown out of sight behind a mountain Airen said, “let’s go up the mountain, I think there is something at the top.”

Kate agreed and they started up the mountain. As they went up Airen said dreamily, “Wow, I can’t beleve magic is actually real.”

“I know, right?” exclaimed Kate.

When they reached the top they saw a big castle with a big door and pointy red roofs and Kate said, “It looks like a castle. Let’s go inside,” she said as she looked at his blue eyes. He looked at her blue eyes too and said,

“As long as we can be back before dinner.” He pulled and the door opened with a creak. In the courtyard they were surprised that there were realistic statues of humans that looked older then either of them.

“Let’s go inside of the palace,” Kate said.

“Okay,” agreed Airen. So they went inside.They were astonished when they saw a dragon.

“I think it’s a statue,”said Kate.

“Phew!” said Airen. “Hey there’s a box under the dragon.”

“Should we try to open it?” asked Kate.

“Okay, but you must stand back.”

“Don’t be so protective of me. I’m ten years old, not a little kid any more!”

“Fine,” said Airen. He reached out for the box and the dragon lunged at him, teeth bared. Airen jumped back. He reached into his pocket to grab a shard of metal to protect himself, but instead he pulled out a whole dagger! Somehow the pieces had formed together. The dragon stopped in surprise.

“Where did you get that”? The dragon growled

“By a door in the Birch Tree Forest.”

“Ah it must be the Elcome door in the Great Wizard’s house. That dagger is a key to this box that the Great Wizard ordered me to guard until somebody brings me the dagger. It has been one thousand years, but I never thought it would be a little boy who brought it to me.”

“Well, can I open it?” asked Airen.

“Yes,” replied the dragon as he moved aside.
Airen spotted a keyhole on the front of the box. He carefully inserted the dagger and turned it. It opened with barely a whisper. Inside the box was a chain with a pendant on it.

“This is a magical artifact,” the dragon informed him. “It creates a force field and controls time. I haven’t seen the Great Wizard in many moons and the people of this castle have been stuck in time for many years.”

Then Kate remembered when they first entered the palace and exclaimed in surprise and excitement, “The statues! They’re real people!”

“Yes, and I need your help to free them and find the Great Wizard”.

“Okay,” agreed Airen and Kate at the same time. It sounded like the beginning of an adventure.

I walk towards the door, frightened – though I don’t know why. Why did it have to be today? I thought for the thousandth time. Then again as I always do I say to myself, You want to find out what happened to your father, don’t you?

“Luca,” the call echoed in the silent hall. “Time for lunch.”

“Yes, Mother,” I call back. I start down the hall then stop and look around. The door seems to be calling me. I shake off the notion and run down the hall.

“Luca, where have you been?” Mother asks.

“I – um – er – was…”

Just then Lila spills the milk, and I thank her silently for the distraction. Eating quickly, I bring my dishes to the bench and am about to leave when Mother says, “Not so fast, Luca! You need to help with the chores.”

I sigh. “Can’t Lila and Michelle help?” I ask.

“No, I want – ”

“But I want to do Luca’s chores!” Lila cuts in.

“No, Lila,” says Mother. “You need your nap.”

“Don’t want a nap! Me want to help Luca!” cries Lila. But Mother whisks her off to bed.

I slowly and carefully edge to the door. Once I’m out in the hall, I run until I reach the mystery door, as I call it. Now I walk towards it, and stop, wondering if Father would want me to do this. I think hard, trying to remember all I can about him, which isn’t much. He went away before I turned five; I don’t know why. But that’s what I want to find out.

I move toward the door. One step. Two steps. I’m there. I take hold of the door knob and twist it. The door swings open.

I gasp. In the middle of the room there’s a chest, and on the chest is a golden dragon. I take a step back in surprise, but then step forward again. It looks dead (I hope). I advance across the room, feeling watched, though by what I don’t know. Looking more closely round the room, I notice many doors set in the walls. Some of the doors look like they don’t have any handles. Some of them have many mysterious patterns and symbols, like the door I came through.

I look behind me to make sure the door I came through is still open. It is, but it is slowly closing. I run to it, but it’s too late. It slams shut. I bang my fists against the door. When nothing happens I flop down on the floor and lean my back against it. I think about crying but don’t, because for a boy of eleven I think it’s babyish. Crying is for people Lila’s age (three).

“I’m sorry,” a voice says. I look around me.

“Who’s there?” I ask.

“Only me,” the voice says.

“Who’s me?” I ask.

“Alden Lendal,” the voice answers.

“Father!” I cry.

“Luca, why are you here?”

“I came looking for you. Where are you? I can’t see you.”

“I’m in the cage to your left – at least, I think it’s your left.”

I look to my left, and see bars. And behind the bars is a tired-looking man.

“Be careful not to go too close to the dragon,” Father warns.

“Why” I ask.

“Now that’s a long story! But I may as well tell you if you’re to understand anything,” explains father. “So a long time ago, when you were eight, Michelle was five and Lila was just born, I felt restless. I was always thinking about my father and a story he used to tell me about a door, and a dragon. And, as I found later, the door he mentioned was the door at the end of the hall. So I decided to go on a quest to find out if there was a dragon behind the door, as the story said, and if it were dead or alive.

“I did not tell anyone where I was going. I left early in the morning when everyone else was sleeping. I walked down the hall and was about to go out the back door when I looked back down the hall and saw a door that looked like the one my father described in the story. I walk toward it and look at the mysterious designs on it. I opened the door and looked into the room beyond, and saw, to my surprise, that there was a dragon on a chest in the middle of the room. I walked across to it and when I reached it and gently touched the dragon, it suddenly sprung to life.

“The dragon got me down on the floor in a moment and dragged me across the room into a cell. And here I’ve remained ever since,” my father finishes.

“But how can I free you, Father?” I ask.

“There’s a key round the dragon’s neck, but you need to get to it without touching your skin to its scales. If you do touch it, it will wake up and throw you into a cell, and you’ll be just like me. Alone for years, with no way of escape.”

I look round for something I can use to get the key off the dragon and see a stick lying on the floor, next to the chest. I move quietly over and pick it up, sliding it gently under the chain round the dragon’s neck that has the key on it. Slowly, inch by inch, I lift it over the dragon’s head.

As soon as it’s off, I let go of the stick, catching the chain before it falls. I run to my father’s cell, fitting the key in the lock. As soon as I turn the key, and the cell door opens, the door I came through opens as well. Father runs out and hugs me, and we both run to the open door together and shut it behind us.

“Free at last,” says Father. “I need some coffee!’

Eyannah was nervous. It was her first day working in Sir Onaan’s magical museum. Her current task was tidying the Sculpture Gallery. Eyannah surveyed the room, trying to decide where to start.

Her gaze lighted on a statue of a golden dragon. Laying on it was a ragged cloak and a tarnished, dented compass. The dragon, covered with a thick layer of dust, was behind a small sign. Eyannah couldn’t read, so she ignored the sign and strode past it. She lifted the out-of-place items and began dusting the dragon thoroughly.

She was too busy to notice the statue’s claws twitching.

Once she finished the statue, Eyannah took the cloak and compass to the lost-and-found and began working on the other side of the room.

—————————————-

The next day, Eyannah found the museum in a complete uproar. A doorman told her that the dragon had come alive during the night and was burning parts of the city, and Sir Onaan wanted to speak with whoever had tidied the Sculpture Gallery.

Eyannah hurried toward the knight’s study and knocked cautiously on the door.

“Come in,” said Sir Onaan. Heart pounding furiously, Eyannah pushed open the door. The red-bearded knight sat behind a large wooden desk in the center of the study. Onaan wore a grave expression. “You’re the girl who cleaned the Sculpture Gallery, correct?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“There’s a sign in front of that golden dragon. Why didn’t you read it?”

Eyannah looked down. “I can’t read, Sir. But I will fix this mess.”

“Ah.” Sir Onaan sighed. “Removing the magical compass and cloak awoke the dragon, so to re-enchant the creature, you must place both around his neck. My son Iret will help you because he made the dragon angry so that it started attacking the city. He should be in the Portrait Room. Understood?”

Eyannah nodded.

“Then go.”

—————————————-

Eyannah had met Iret before, and she couldn’t believe he would be any help. Maybe she could use him as bait.

She found him sitting on the floor underneath a moving picture of a haughty-looking princess. “Your father says you’re to help me.”

Iret’s head snapped up. “What are you doing here?”

“Your father says you’re to help me,” Eyannah repeated. “Come on.” Iret followed, grumbling. They stopped by the lost-and-found to retrieve the magical items.

“What am I helping you with, anyway?” Iret asked.

“Saving the city,” she answered shortly.

—————————————-

The dragon was torching the eastern quadrant when they arrived. Eyannah had told Iret what they had to do on the way there. Now that they saw the dragon’s might, both were feeling quite a bit of trepidation.

“We could try talking to it,” Eyannah suggested.

Iret looked at her incredulously. “Are you crazy? Just walk up and say hello to that monster? No thanks.”

“It’s worth a shot. I’m going to try it.” She started walking toward the dragon, which was swooping above, flame pouring from its maw. Iret sighed and ran to catch up.

The dragon landed when it saw them, seemingly surprised to be challenged by two small, young creatures without weapons. Then it saw the compass and cloak they carried and hissed.

“Why do you seek my imprisonment, young one?”

“You’re hurting our city,” Eyannah said in response, surprised the dragon could speak. Its rough voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.

“I could leave, if that is the only reason.”

“That might be the best for everyone,” said Eyannah.

Iret gaped at her. “Did you just tell the dragon that it’s best for everyone if it hurts the city? That’s very, very wrong, Eyannah.”

“I didn’t say that. Weren’t you listening?”

“He cannot hear me, young one. But you have not given me any reason not to hurt those who trapped me.”

“We aren’t the ones who made you a statue. You’ve been in the museum longer than anyone can remember.” She turned to Iret. “Is it true you can’t hear the dragon speak?”

“You can?” he asked. Eyannah nodded. “Odd.”

“I do have a name, you know.”

“You haven’t told us – me, then – what it is,” she reminded.

“Brintle, at your service.”

“Eyannah and Iret at yours.”

Iret had been surveying the scene with frustration during the whole conversation.

“Can you tell this dragon to leave already?” he whispered to Eyannah.

“His name is Brintle,” she whispered back, “and you can tell him yourself.”

“Fine.” Iret raised his voice. “O Most Esteemed and Adored Dragon Brintle, I humbly beseech you to leave these mountains in order to preserve both your elegant living body and the remainder of our beloved city. If you would fulfill this request, both myself and my companion would be in your debt forevermore. Thank you for considering this proposal, even if you decide not to accept.”

Brintle turned an amused eye on the boy, and Eyannah could barely hide her giggles.

“Does he always talk like that?”

“When he wants to make a favorable impression,” she answered, fighting a smile.

“Tell him I accept his terms. I will leave, but I will eventually return for you both to repay your debts to me.”

Eyannah told Iret what the dragon had said.

“Farewell, young ones.”

And with that, Brintle flew higher and higher until he was nothing but a gold speck against the sky.

“I guess we owe a dragon a favor, then,” Iret said. “I’m not looking forward to that.”

They stared at each other.

Eyannah smiled. “That wasn’t as hard as it should have been.”

Iret nodded. “I wonder why you could hear him, but not me.”

“We’ll have to ask your dad,” Eyannah suggested.

“Yeah.” Iret paused. “What should we do with those?” He gestured toward the cloak and the compass.

“We could keep them,” she stated. “They might have some amazing undiscovered powers.”

—————————————-

Three years later…

A golden silhouette circled above the city, casting an enormous shadow below. Eyannah glanced up. “I guess it’s time.” She went to find Iret.