Werewolf versus Dragon (8 page)

UP IN THE OBSERVATORY, ULF WAS FLICKING
through
The Book of Beasts
. Tiana was sitting on the table by the window.

“Here we are,” Ulf said. “How to treat a fairy's sparkle.” He showed Tiana the page.

Tiana looked at the words. “They're all blurry,” she said.

Ulf read them to her: “If a fairy has lost its sparkle, it needs something sweet: a drop of honey, a blackberry, or a pinch of sugar.”

Ulf walked to the kettle in the corner of the room where Dr. Fielding made her tea. Next to the
kettle was an RSPCB mug and a bowl of sugar cubes.

He picked up a sugar cube and gave it to Tiana. “Here you are,” he said. “Eat this.”

The fairy held the sugar cube in her arms and licked it. “Thank you,” she said weakly.

Ulf stepped over to the window. He looked out over the beast park to Troll Crag, the biodomes, and the aviary. The Roc was still lying on the ground.

“What did the book say about the Roc?” Ulf asked.

“It needs an orchid,” Tiana told him. “There are some in the forest.”

Ulf saw Dr. Fielding driving her Jeep across the marsh, heading for the seawater lagoon. Sunset Mountain looked still and quiet, casting a shadow over the Great Grazing Grounds. The big beasts were feeding in their enclosures.

Ulf scanned the perimeter fence from the hills to the ocean. “No sign of any intruders,” he said.

Tiana didn't reply. She was busy licking the sugar cube.

Ulf looked across the room to the map on the wall. “Inspector Black said Marackai was a place in Africa.”

Tiana sat up, half a wet sugar cube in her arms. “I don't like Inspector Black,” she said. “He's not nice at all.”

The color was slowly coming back into her cheeks.

Ulf went to the big map on the wall and looked for Africa.

“Africa's miles away from here,” he said. He looked for the word
Marackai
. “Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Malawi, Mombassa…” There was no Marackai anywhere.

“Marackai!” Tiana shouted.

Ulf looked over.

Tiana was flapping her wings, trying to lift herself off the table. “Marackai! Look!”

Ulf ran to her.

She was sitting on the word Marackai. Ulf lifted her up.

Underneath her, on the table, was the newspaper clipping with the photograph of a man and boy watching a small dragon taking off from a garden lawn:

 

PROFESSOR FARRAWAY'S DRAGON

 

Next to the photo, Ulf read: “Lord Farraway, Professor of cryptozoology, and his son Marackai Farraway, releasing the RSPCB's first dragon, Aziza.”

Ulf looked at the photograph. “Marackai is the Professor's son!” he said.

“The boy?” Tiana asked.

“This photo was taken years ago. He'd be much older now.”

Just then, Ulf heard a tapping sound on the window. He looked up. Outside, Druce was hanging upside down, his nose pressed to the glass.

“Hello, Druce,” Tiana said.

The gargoyle put his finger to his lips. “Ssshhh,” he said.

“What do you want, Druce?” Ulf asked.

“Marrrrraaack-k-kai,” the gargoyle gurgled. “Wick-edest boy you ever saw. Face like a rotten apple core.”

Druce pointed at the newspaper clipping. Ulf looked closely at the photograph. The Professor's son was scowling. His face was screwed up and twisted.

Druce slid open the window and leaned in. “He kills beasts just for fun. Prods and pokes them till he's done.”

The boy in the photgraph was holding a stick. He was poking it at the dragon. The end had been sharpened to a point.

“Look at his hand,” Tiana said. The boy's little finger was missing.

Druce sucked on his finger, making a popping sound. “I bited him,” he said, grinning.

“You bit his finger off?” Ulf asked. “You bit Marackai?”

Druce giggled. “Nasty Marackai. Went away, he did. Good riddance.”

“He's back,” Ulf said to Tiana. “Marackai Farraway's got the dragon.”

“Ssshhh,” Druce said. The gargoyle's ears pricked up. He scuttled onto the observatory roof and stared up the driveway. He stuck out his tongue, then turned to stone.

Ulf heard an engine. He rushed to the north window. Inspector Black was driving down the driveway in his black truck.

Ulf grabbed the walkie-talkie from the table. He turned it on.

“Dr. Fielding!” he said. “Dr. Fielding! They're back!”

The sun was starting to go down behind Sunset
Mountain. Dr. Fielding was driving the Jeep through the yard to the courtyard.

Ulf watched as she pulled up and stepped out to let the Inspector through the front gates. She reached into her white coat and took out her walkie-talkie. Ulf heard a hiss and then a crackle, and then Dr. Fielding's voice: “Hello, Ulf. Good news. Inspector Black has captured the criminal. Orson has saved the dragon.”

ULF GAVE TIANA THE WALKIE-TALKIE AND
another sugar cube. She wasn't strong enough to fly yet. She waited by the window as Ulf bounded down the spiral stairs.

He ran to the courtyard. Dr. Fielding and Inspector Black were standing by the RSPCB helicopter.

“We should take the beast cradle, in case we have to bring the dragon back here,” Dr. Fielding said. She had her medical bag in one hand and her pilot's goggles in the other.

“What's happening?” Ulf asked.

“Good news,” Inspector Black said. He stood with
his hands on his hips looking very pleased with himself. “At this very moment, Orson has the criminal tied up in Furnace Woods.”

“I know who he is! It's Marackai Farraway,” Ulf said.

The Inspector's eye twitched. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

Ulf looked at Dr. Fielding. “Marackai Farraway is the beast hunter! He's Professor Farraway's son.”

The Inspector took hold of Dr. Fielding's arm. “Dr. Fielding, we should hurry. We need to go before it gets dark.”

“But—” Ulf tried to stop her.

“I won't be long, Ulf,” Dr. Fielding said. “I've just got to check that the dragon's okay. I'll be back in time for your transformation.”

Dr. Fielding opened the door of the helicopter and put her medical bag inside. “Ulf, please would you be helpful and fetch the beast cradle for me? It's in the kit room.”

“Come on, werewolf, I'll help you,” Inspector Black said. The Inspector took Ulf by the hand and walked him toward the yard.

“It's all right. I can do it myself,” Ulf said.

The Inspector gripped Ulf's hand tightly. He smiled and looked around. “Marvelous place you have here, isn't it?” he said. “Fresh air. Lovely views.”

Inspector Black's leather glove felt cold against Ulf's hairy palm.

“You must love growing up here. Mountains, lake, sea—you really have it all.”

They walked past the kit room.

“Where are we going?” Ulf asked. “The beast cradle's in there.”

“You even have your own little den,” Inspector Black said.

He dragged Ulf out of the yard, walking him along the paddock fence. The door to Ulf's den was open.

“Ah, look, Dr. Fielding's given you lovely fresh straw.”

Ulf tried to pull his hand away.

“In you go!” the Inspector said, pushing Ulf inside. Inspector Black slammed the door and turned the key in the lock. “Werewolves shouldn't be allowed out on the night of a full moon,” he said.

He pulled the key out and threw it into the paddock.

Ulf rattled the bars.

“Dr. Fielding!” he called. “Dr. Fielding!”

“Dr. Fielding can't hear you,” Inspector Black said.

Ulf heard the sound of the helicopter's engine starting up in the courtyard.

“She and I are going on a little…expedition,” the Inspector said.

He put his hand through the bars of the cage and stroked Ulf's head.

Ulf tried to step back but the Inspector gripped his hair.

“Such lovely thick hair. You'd make a good rug.”

Ulf bit the Inspector's hand.

“Ow!”

The Inspector's glove came off.

Ulf stared.

The Inspector's little finger was missing.

“You're not an inspector at all!” Ulf yelled. “You're Marackai Farraway!”

“That's
Baron
Marackai to you.” He smiled. A wide grin stretched across his face to his ears.

He threw his head back and started laughing. “Ha ha haaaa ha haa ha haaaa ha ha haaaa!”

As he laughed, his grin didn't move. Even when he stopped laughing, it was still stretched wide across his face.

It was stuck.

He pressed his fingers to his cheeks, pushing the corners of his mouth back into place. Then he took his hat off and dug his fingers into the skin on his neck. It was rubber, like a mask.

He pulled it up, and underneath, Ulf saw a face that was old and twisted with hatred like a rotten apple core.

He leaned toward Ulf. “I've been away. But now I'm back.”

He was scowling. It was the same scowl Ulf had seen on the boy in the photograph. His eye twitched. “My father was crazy to leave this place to beasts. It should have been mine.”

Ulf leaped at him, bouncing off the bars. “You shot the baby dragon! You've kidnapped Aziza!”

Marackai smiled, rolling his rubber mask back down, and slipped his glove back on.

“Where's Orson? What have you done with Orson?”

“I'd love to stop and chat,” he said. “But I have to go to Furnace Woods. I have a Ring of Horrors to attend. Dr. Fielding's in for quite a surprise.”

He hurried off toward the courtyard. “I'll be back for you later,” he called.

Ulf furiously rattled the bars. “Dr. Fielding! Tiana! Druce!”

He could hear the helicopter blades starting to turn.

“Help! Somebody help!”

Ulf looked up at the house. Druce was on the rooftop, as still as stone.

“Tiana!” Ulf called.

A sparkle came flying from the observatory window. It sputtered through the air, dipping and weaving.

“I'm coming,” her tiny voice called. Her sparkle was fizzing weakly. She fell down at Ulf's door.

“Let me out, Tiana!” Ulf said. “Inspector Black is Marackai Farraway. He's tricked us!”

“Where's the key?” Tiana asked.

“He threw it into the paddock.”

Tiana flew off to find it. “I can't see it,” she said, flying low over the grass.

From the courtyard, Ulf could hear the
thwock thwock thwock
of the helicopter blades.

“Hurry up!” he called. “They're about to take off. He's got Dr. Fielding!”

“Found it!” Tiana called, dragging the key across the grass to Ulf's den.

Ulf picked it up and unlocked the door. “We have to stop them!” he said.

Ulf leaped out of his den and raced toward the front of the house.

“Stop, Dr. Fielding!” he shouted.

But he was too late. The helicopter was rising above Farraway Hall. Ulf stood in the yard and watched as it banked, heading northward. He saw it getting smaller and smaller as it flew into the distance.

Tiana hovered beside him.

“Dr. Fielding's in danger!” Ulf said.

“Then you have to go after her.”

“But how?” Ulf asked.

“You'll have to fly,” Tiana told him. “Meet me by the Roc!”

TIANA SHOT OFF ACROSS THE PADDOCK TO
the Dark Forest, a trail of sparkles sputtering behind her.

Ulf ran along the track to the aviary. He sprinted through the mesh tunnel, past the griffin and the vampire owls, and out the other end.

The Roc was lying on the ground. It looked up at Ulf with big sad eyes.

“Don't worry,” Ulf said to it. “Tiana's got a surprise for you.”

The Roc screeched.

Tiana came flying from the Dark Forest. “Look
what I've got,” she called. In her arms, she was carrying a flower with white petals. “It's an orchid,” she said.

Tiana laid the flower on the ground in front of the Roc. “It's time to go home,” she said.

The Roc leaned forward and sniffed the flower, then started cooing happily.

“It's working!” Ulf said. The Roc's big yellow eyes blinked.

“It likes it,” Tiana said.

Ulf stroked the Roc's head with his hairy hand. The Roc looked up at the sky. It stood up and shook its feathers.

“Can I have a ride?” Ulf asked it.

The beast lowered its head to the ground. Ulf took hold of the golden feathers on the Roc's neck and pulled himself up. He sat on its back, gripping its feathers with both hands. “Let's go,” he said.

The Roc beat its wings and lunged into the air. It took off, flying upward into the evening sky.

Ulf looked down.

“Wait for me!” Tiana called. She frantically fluttered her wings and, in a burst of sparkles, shot up and tumbled onto the Roc's back, landing in its feathers.

The Roc flew high above the biodomes, soaring over Sunset Mountain. Ulf looked out over the land and sea, the wind blowing through his hair. The air tasted clean and cold. The sun was setting, and the clouds glowed red.

“Which way's Furnace Woods?” Ulf asked.

“North,” Tiana said, whispering into the Roc's ear.

The Roc banked in a wide circle.

“Full speed ahead!” Ulf said.

The Roc swooped down over the Great Grazing Grounds and the Dark Forest, clipping the treetops. The bulltoxic bellowed from the paddock.

As the Roc soared over Farraway Hall, Ulf looked down on the chimneys and the rooftop. Druce the
gargoyle was dancing and waving. “Go, Fur Face,” he called.

The Roc flew over the perimeter fence, and Ulf looked at the fields in the far distance. He had never seen them before.

“Keep an eye out for the helicopter,” Tiana said.

Ulf sat up to look over the top of the Roc's head, and the cold wind hit him full in the face. The light was fading, and there was no sign of the helicopter in the sky ahead. “They'll be miles away by now,” he said.

The Roc beat its wings, gathering speed. Ulf wobbled. He leaned forward, flattening himself against the Roc's neck.

“Try to relax,” Tiana said. “It won't let you fall.”

The Roc screeched, and Ulf slowly let his grip loosen on its feathers. They sped over moorland and fields of sheep. Looking westward, Ulf could see the blood-red sun sinking below the horizon. The sky was growing darker. He could feel the hairs tingling on his hands.

“Look, Ulf!” Tiana said, pointing down. “Houses.” Ahead on the ground, tiny yellow lights dotted a valley.

Ulf looked to the East. The clouds were parting. From behind them the full moon appeared.

Ulf saw it, and his eyes flashed silver.

He felt the bones in his chest cracking.

His transformation had begun.