The Chameleon Shop

Listening to an eagle’s solitary cry, high above her in the endless blue sky, made the hairs on Kaylee’s neck bristle. It felt odd, this time, walking through the woods towards the village of the Spirit people.

I do believe this is the first time I have really been alone since I got to this strange place. That candy-cottage had to be a trap set by the Crone to catch me. Well, the old witch is not fooling me that easy.

The sudden weight of loneliness overwhelmed her. The warmth of the sun on her back vanished, as though a cloud had moved across it.

‘I know,’ she said aloud to herself, ‘whenever I was scared at home, I’d hum or sing a song to myself, and it didn’t seem so scary.’ She began to hum the first silly song that came into her head. The wheels on the bus go round and round. Humming along to herself loudly, she did not at first notice the massive swarm of pigeon sized wasps approaching her, until she stopped humming to have a sip from her water bottle.

The humming was still going and it was growing louder and louder. She thumped her ears, thinking for the moment that they were malfunctioning. However, above her and all around her, the humming grew nearer and she looked up just in time to cover her head with her hands as the deafening roar surrounded her. Massive flapping wings batted her ears and struck the top of her head, as a magpie had done once at home on her uncle’s farm. She hated flying insects more than crawling ones and was seriously freaking out. After her first painful sting, which felt like a whip crack across her arm, she cried out and thought her number was up.

She gripped her backpack firmly and swung it at the wasps. The bag began to glow green.

She had forgotten about the key!

Kaylee bent down, crying out in pain as she received another whipping sting across the back of her neck while unzipping the pack. She brought the glowing key up and held it out front of her, like a fiery torch.

Suddenly, the wasp swarm parted to fly around her, every one of them, as if she were a boulder in a stream. It was as though they could not see her anymore, as though she had become ... invisible.

She realised Saorsa’s Dragon magic was protecting her and she kneeled low to the ground, heart going dangerously fast and skin stinging in several places. While crouching low to the ground, her line of vision showed her something in the grass that made her heart leap into her throat.

It was one of the Messenger Cats, Topaz. The wasps must have attacked her. She had not been lucky enough though, to possess the magic key to make herself disappear.

‘Oh no! Oh please don’t be dead ...’ Kaylee ran over to the still body in the grass and cautiously put her hand in front of the cat’s mouth. The big cat’s pink gums were very pale, Kaylee observed, as she felt for the hot moisture of her breath. It was there, but very faint.

Topaz opened one eye. Kaylee jumped back with fright, expecting to be bitten. ‘Help ... me,’ Topaz whispered barely loud enough to hear. ‘Please.’

Kaylee looked around the clearing for help. The wasps had gone for now, thank God. She remembered the plants the Shaman had used sometimes grew down by the riverbank. She strained her ears, listening. There was the sound of rushing water, a river nearby. Kaylee ran to look for the plants. She was very relieved to find that there were some of the special plants growing there. She quickly snatched a few handfuls and raced back to Topaz.

The Shaman had said they were very good for healing cuts, burns and stings. Kaylee chewed some as the Shaman had taught her. They were horrid and bitter tasting but she kept chewing until she was able to spread the masticated plant on the swelling red stings all over the poor cat’s body. The flash of pain across the back of her neck, reminded Kaylee of her own stings. She chewed up some more to rub on her own wounds while she was at it. They burned like the worst case of sunburn she had ever had.

No wonder they brought the dragon down. Imagine thousands of those stings all over your body. She felt quite a lot more sympathy for the dragon now.

To begin with Topaz growled and twitched in pain, but after a long while, the plants began to ease the stings and the big cat was breathing more steadily and able to talk more easily.

‘I would have died if Opal hadn’t sent the Pegasus herd down to help me, the whole lot of them. They came thundering down and flew round in circles making a whirlwind that pushed the swarm back. But the wasps knew I still breathed … they wanted to finish me off! Payment for all the stoneys I’ve killed, I guess. They were set to come back for me when you came along. Why didn’t they manage to kill you?’

‘Saorsa saved me.’

‘Seer-who saved you? Is that your mother? Is she here?’

‘I wish my mother was here. The dragon saved me; Saorsa is the name I’ve given her. It was she who sent me the key and the key ... well it glowed. The wasps flew right over me, like I wasn’t there anymore?’

‘Why? What is it she wants from you?’ Topaz asked shrewdly.

‘What makes you say that?’ Kaylee asked.

‘Nobody gets something for nothing; not in these lands, they don’t.’

‘Alright, yes she does want something. She wants me to get something back from Wilfrey. Something precious he stole from her,’ Kaylee said quietly.

‘And you’re ok with that?’ Topaz asked her. Kaylee nodded silently. ‘Well, Good luck with that then. You’re a lot braver than I thought,’ Topaz said.

‘It’s not bravery that’s making me do it,’ Kaylee replied honestly. ‘She has my father prisoner.’

‘Ah! I see. It is as I told you. No one gets something for nothing.’

Kaylee gave the big cat some of her water and offered some of the food she had in her pack ─ cheese and cold roast meat ─ but Topaz just wanted the water. Kaylee sat with her until she could regain enough strength to ward off any more dangers that might come along.

After a couple of hours, Topaz pulled herself up and shook all over, from her head to the tip of her tail, like they do when they get all wet, trying to shake every last drop off. ‘I will be alright now Kaylee, thanks to you. I am forever in your debt.’ She put her big paw on Kaylee’s shoulder and touched her nose to Kaylee’s, a cat’s version of a kiss.

‘Are you sure you will be all right now? I can stay with you longer, if you need me to?’

‘I’m sure. That rest helped and those yellow plants did too. You need to meet Jett. He told me to tell you where he was, if I saw you.’

‘He did?’ Kaylee smiled, she had missed Jett, even Willy, to her surprise.

‘He went this morning to get that annoying little fur ball you had with you. I’d have left it with the gnomes, but Jett thought you might want him back.’

They parted ways, Kaylee heading towards the Spirit Village and Topaz back towards the Fire Realm, sticking to the cover of the tree canopy, where she had a lair in a safe cave of her own. Kaylee wandered down the road, feeling a lot more confident now, knowing the power the key held and having used it to save her own hide a few times now. Before long, she saw Jett coming the other way, with Willy riding beside him on the back of a brown and white pony.

The monkey leaned across the pony’s neck, in an attempt to pull Jett’s whiskers but the big cat was ready for it and batted him away before he could.

‘You really ought to be careful who you annoy you know,’ Jett stated, unimpressed.

Willy sat on the placid pony’s back, scratching his ear with his back leg like a dog, completely ignoring Jett.

‘Where did you get that little tunic from then?’ The big cat asked.

Willy screeched at him and turning away, put his little palm up as if to say stop!

‘Talk to the hand, huh?’ Jett sniggered. ‘Alright, don’t tell me then. Nevertheless, mark my words, one of these days your bad habits are going to turn out very poorly for you, wee fellow. Take those gnome wives, for example. If I hadn’t come to reclaim you when I did, they’d have trussed you up like a turkey ready to feed to the dragon!’

The monkey screeched excitedly jumping up and down on the pony’s back. Jett thought he was just being rude again, until he looked ahead up the road.

‘Kaylee!’ He bounded up to her and gave her an affectionate head-boomp.

Kaylee laughed and wrapped her arms round his neck, giving him a firm hug. ‘I missed you too, Jett.’ She looked at the monkey who was running up and down the pony’s back trying to attract her attention. ‘And you too, Willy.’

‘This pony was sent along for you to ride. From the Shaman of the Spirit people,’ Jett told her.

‘What for? Not that I mind, she is lovely, but …?’ Kaylee asked.

‘I’ll tell you that in good time,’ Jett said. ‘She said to tell you, Paedro, that’s the wolf you recall, is healing well.’

‘Oh wonderful,’ Kaylee cried. ‘I was really worried about him.’ Kaylee had hoped to see that wolf-boy once more before leaving these lands. ‘Thank you for going back for Willy, by the way. I know he’s a pain, but I really would feel bad if we let him get into real trouble and didn’t help him out of it. I feel sort of responsible for him since taking him from Dougie’s place.’

‘Not to worry, my dear. It was not terribly difficult to retrieve him. This time at least.’ He neglected to mention the fact that the gnome wife had grown very tired of Willy’s high jinks and had him trapped in a Dutch oven. She was angrily sitting on the lid, waiting for her husband to go get a rope. She was about to tie him up and send him along nicely gift wrapped to the dragon.

Jett sat on his rump; this was to be an in depth conversation. ‘Now, about this pony, it’s to take you to the castle.’

‘Wait, you know about the dragon’s egg?’ Kaylee was surprised.

‘I didn’t before, no. However, I am a Messenger Cat. It is our job to know what is going on everywhere in the Five Realms. We have our ways of learning these things. Besides, the Shaman told me. She saw it in a dream.’

‘Wow. That woman has some serious gifts. What else did she see? Do I get it, without getting myself dead?’ She said matter-of-factly and sat on a large fallen log by the side of the road.

‘Would I be sending you up that mountain, if you didn’t?’ Jett answered logically.

‘Ok, that’s a relief then. I suppose I’ll believe you.’

‘Still ...’ Jett added.

Kaylee tensed up. ‘I don’t like the sound of that.’ She said, suspicion growing.

‘You’d be surprised what you can live through.’ He replied, his face quite serious.

‘What?’ she almost shouted.

Jett chuckled and stood up, indicating it was time they continued with their journey to Mount Beaton. Kaylee smacked him on the rump as he passed her. ‘Don’t tease me, cruel thing. This is a very scary quest for a twelve-year-old girl to try to achieve you know.’

‘I know my dear. Ah, but you are not just any twelve-year-old girl. The Shaman has told me about your visit with the Tree of Life. That tree knows everything and she has found you worthy of the task. I’m sure you will come out of this alive.’

‘Hmmm.’ Kaylee wished she believed in herself as much.

Jett told Kaylee that every year Wilfrey had a Masquerade Ball to try to butter up the realms, before giving them his trading terms. There was to be a Ball tonight, Friday the 14th. It would be her best and possibly only, opportunity to get in there and steal the dragon’s egg.

Kaylee used the fallen tree to mount the painted pony. With Willy behind her they rode on, wandering through streambeds, trees and plains, ever aware of the looming shadow of the mountain falling across their path.

As they reached the outer limits of the Spirit Realms, they could see the old bridge that crossed the gully. The gully was a deep divide cutting between the road and Mount Beaton.

There sitting by itself, out in the middle of nowhere like a bird-poop on a car-bonnet, was a wishing well. It was made from stone with a tiled roof in a sad state of disrepair. There was a crank-handle for winding up the rope and bucket. On closer inspection, they could see the jagged end of the rope hanging forlornly where an earlier visitor had cut the bucket away.

Kaylee gulped. It felt as though the well was saying, ’All the best. Hope you return, but we don’t really like your chances ...’

She remembered the coins Willy had stolen back in the Fire Realm and fished out the little brown leather bag. She tipped the gold coins into her palm and threw them into the well, making wishes for her safe return and that of her father. Kaylee needed all the luck she could get.

By the sounds of things, the well was dry because instead of the expected plop or splash she heard the coins tinkle all the way down inside the stone well.

That is not a good omen, she thought.

When she gave her pony a gentle kick to walk on, Willy jumped off the back unnoticed and climbed down into the well. His tiny agile hands were able to grab at holes in the stonework, easily clambering all the way down. Within moments, he reappeared at the lip of the well, patted his little jade-green pockets to hear a satisfying chink, chink sound.

He lollopped up the road to his friends and clambered back up the pony’s stirrups. His absence was hardly even noticed by the others, deep in conversation about Kaylee’s plan of attack once inside the castle.

‘You must find a way to get down to the dungeons unnoticed. That will be where the Crone is. Look for the egg near a warm fire. Dragon eggs need a lot of heat to hatch,’ Jett explained. ‘DO NOT let the Crone catch you! It will not be pretty. Wilfrey is cruel, but she is the brains behind that pair.’