The Chameleon Shop

Kaylee’s mind was racing ahead with plans of how to get out of there; she had had quite enough of the tunnels and Ricky’s directions. She boldly asked Saorsa ‘Is there another way out of here? How do you get out of the caves to hunt?’

Saorsa pointed to the wall far to Kaylee’s right. ‘There is a secret opening behind the waterfall on the cliffside of the Byagal Sea. The gnomes bring me what they can, but it is nowhere near enough. I use the secret entrance hidden behind a waterfall on the side of the cliff to fly out at night, while the wasps sleep. The crone would love to finish me off if she could find a way to get to me with those vile insects of hers.’

Finally, the Dragon revealed the cell where her father was. Saorsa lit torches along the wall with her own fiery breath and moved aside. In a dark, previously hidden part of the cavern, now only bars stood between Kaylee and her father’s face.

‘My God, it’s true ... you’re alive,’ Kaylee cried.

Running, tripping and stumbling, Kaylee made her way across the stone path and a small arched bridge to the cell where her father stood clutching the bars. His eyes held a look of such loving longing. Tears of joy overflowed.

He was not as badly off as Kaylee’s imagination had painted him. He still looked about the same size, eyes still bright in his handsome face. His brown beard and hair had grown quite a bit longer and was not brushed. His clothes were a bit grubby, but not in rags; he looked well enough, at least physically.

In his cell Kaylee could see a bed, blankets and even a small desk and chair. There was a stubby candlestick on the table as well as a meal and mug of something. The dragon had treated her prisoner with respect by the looks of things. What a relief that was for Kaylee to see.

‘Kaylee? How did you? Oh God ….’ Greg was too overwhelmed for words.

She ran to the bars and grabbed his hands and they pressed noses. ‘Man, I can’t wait to see Paul’s face when you get home,’ Kaylee said to her father.

‘What are you talking about? He’s my best friend. He wouldn’t steal my girl,’ Greg said to her.

‘Ha! Nonsense!’ Saorsa burst out rudely.

Greg turned to the dragon, angry, ‘What?’

‘He did,’ Saorsa said bluntly.

‘You knew about that?’ Greg was astounded.

‘Of course I did,’ she said. ‘The mirror shows me whomever I wish to see.’

’And you didn’t tell me!’ He said incredulous, his voice disappearing in a high squeak at the end.

‘Well, I was not about to let you go until your daughter got my egg back. Would you rather I had tortured you with that information as well?’

‘Egg? What egg? Whose egg is this?’ Kaylee did not like the sound of this.

‘Why that dirty, little ... we’ve got to get back home,’ Greg said to his daughter, menacing and determined.

‘And home you shall go, just as soon as your daughter steals back my egg from that prat Wilfrey and his crone,’ Saorsa told him.

‘Oh boy!’ Kaylee said feeling faint again. She sat down again in the dirt suddenly, put her head between her knees and then muttered to the dragon. ‘I knew that’s where you were going with this!’ Then she popped her head up, ‘Hey? But you’re a huge, terrifying, fire-breathing dragon.’

‘Aye, and your point?’ Saorsa answered sarcastically.

‘Why didn’t you just fly up there to his castle and burn him out?’

‘That’s exactly what I wanted to do ... what I tried to do.’ Saorsa’s eyes glazed over as she remembered the horrible events which led to the loss of her egg that fateful day.

‘Wilfrey needed to make life harder for the realms to give him more control over them. No-one respected him as a man, so he had his crone put a spell on the caves. She created the wasp honeycombs, blocking off the main tunnel through from the Fire and Spirit Realms to the Water Realm. The magic on those combs meant I could not burn them away and those damn giant wasps almost killed me when I ...’ she grew emotional and had to regain her composure a bit before going on, ’when I tried to get my egg back.

Wilfrey wanted my egg to gain a way to inflict more terror and control over the other realms, so when the Crone told him of the egg I possessed, they wanted to try to get to my baby and train it. There was no way I was going to bargain with that evil man.

I was out hunting for food when it happened. That crone came right into my den and took the egg, brazen as anything. She flew like the wind across the fields on the back of one of those evil, devil pig-dogs and was well back at the castle by the time I returned.

I went berserk and almost roasted a few gnomes and several acres of wheat fields before learning who had stolen it. I flew straight for the castle ready to burn it to the ground, even if it was made of stone.

However, the whole swarm of giant wasps flew out to greet me. I can still feel their stings, must have got me at least a thousand times. Even the largest of prey can be brought down, if it is outnumbered.’ Saorsa flew up into the dark heights of the cavern and swirled around a couple of times, letting off steam. She eventually slowed and soared back down to pad slowly towards Kaylee.

’My only hope was to become invisible, but that left me deathly weakened. I plummeted to the ground, crawling to my chambers, almost dead. The gnomes felt bad for me, as the crone had barged in and bullied her way past them. Still, they had less chance against Wilfrey than I had.

They kindly brought me food. I did not want to eat, but had to get my strength back if I was going to get my egg back somehow.

I grew more depressed by the day, moping about the tunnels. Did not want to eat, did not want to live really, without my baby ... and one day while away in my own thoughts, I must have ventured down deeper than I ever had. I was a bit lost when I came across the mining tunnel where your father worked.’

Kaylee began to get the picture of what really happened in the mine the day the explosion had supposedly killed her father.

‘If I had not been so sad and weak I probably would have roasted him on the spot, but I was more curious than threatened, so I did not. However, I heard the other men coming and panicked. I swept your father behind me with my wing and roared flames, destroying the tunnel where he worked, before any other human could discover my existence.’

‘We thought he was dead,’ Kaylee’s voice was small and filled with pain.

‘I am truly sorry,’ Saorsa said. ‘I spared no thoughts for anyone else but myself in those days.’ She continued with her story.

’Your father begged me to spare his life. “I can’t die. My daughter needs me,”’ He cried.

There was a tiny ember of hope glowing deep in my heart that one day, I would get my egg back. At that very moment, your father’s cries gave life to that ember and it flared up. I thought that his daughter might be able to achieve, what a dragon, in all my massive flaming glory, could not.

I questioned Greg about this little girl and learned that his girl would probably never give up searching for him.

I had the gnomes make the iron key. With nearly all my remaining strength, I imbued it with my heart-magic and firepowers. I transformed one of your human shops, creating The Chameleon Shop just so you, Kaylee, could travel to The Five Realms.’

Saorsa shook off her recollection and focused her attention directly on Kaylee. ‘I know somehow, someway, you can get my egg back, Kaylee. Your father was begging me not to kill him, because of his love for you. You may be able to achieve, what I could not. Instead of strength, it will take cunning to beat this man.’

‘Because ... Wilfrey won’t be expecting to be beaten by a little girl?’ Kaylee guessed.

The dragon turned to Greg, ‘You were right, she is a smart girl. Very smart.’

‘Well, she takes after her father.’ He looked proudly at his offspring. ‘Don’t tell your mother I said that though.’

‘I thought all dragons were mean and bloodthirsty?’ Kaylee asked Saorsa, feeling tired as she sat cross-legged on the hard rock.

‘Lies! All lies invented by the world of man to cover their own evil deeds. They always try to pin the blame on someone else. What they don’t understand, they fear and what they fear, they kill.’ The dragon slowly circled her, as a shark would a turtle in the sea and Kaylee gulped audibly.

‘Do you not think that if I could have flown in there and torched his castle, destroyed everything important to him, I would have?’ Saorsa said.

Kaylee cowered a bit but looked up at her, ‘That sounds like all he deserves? I get the feeling you’re going to say, BUT... though?’

‘But ... if I destroy everything dear to him, do you not think he would take revenge by destroying that very precious thing I desire the most?’

‘Ah! Your baby. He would kill it if you did that, wouldn’t he?’

‘I believe he would. So now you see why I had to create The Chameleon Shop and bring you here using your father as ... motivation.’

‘You mean as bait!’ Kaylee argued. She watched the silent, sorrowful dragon for a moment, then sighed loudly, ‘Ok, I’ll do it. Now if it’s not too much trouble, could you let my father out, please?’