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THERE'S NO SUCH THING!

By Jeanette Cottrell

Copyright 2003

One

Dragons don’t sulk.

Dragons are fearless, brave, and adventurous. They get angry, happy, furious, terribly hungry, and really, really mad. And they are never afraid.

So Gina was not afraid. She was not hiding under a tree stump waiting to be rescued. She was just thinking, carefully, for a very long time.

It had to be Clyde ’s fault. His pranks were endless, like the time he tripped her and she’d fallen over the cliff and hit the water before she got her wings half unfurled. That stinker! If he hadn’t taken her by surprise, it wouldn’t have worked. But she’d paid him back, but good! She’d tied a vine to his tail, and the other end to a rock while he was asleep. Then she’d snuck outside and yelled “Dad brought fish!” He’d been half-airborne before the vine yanked him back so fast he’d slammed sideways onto the floor and lost a few scales. She’d almost busted a gut laughing at him.

That was yesterday. So of course, this had to be his revenge, getting her back. Or else it was a dream. It had to be. Right?

Gina thumped her tail against the ground decisively, and suddenly opened one eye. Just as suddenly, she slammed it shut again. It was just as she’d thought. That entire world out there, it had to be a dream. She raised a bright green eyelid and peered out through the jagged hole in the stump.

Rocks, large and small. Trees. A lake sprawled at the bottom of the hill. No waves, no froth, no seagulls, no sea serpent. It was a weird place, for sure. And where was everybody?

This had to be one of Clyde ’s tricks! He’d hauled her out of her cave without waking her up, dragged her to a totally strange place, and stuck her under a tree stump. His friends must have helped. In fact, they were probably lurking behind some rocks or trees, waiting to snicker over her reaction. The thought made the scales rise on the back of her neck.

Dragons were never afraid. She’d baffle them.

Gina, the totally fearless, brave, and confident Junior Patrol member, swaggered out from under the tree stump. Her long green tail dragged a wake in the masses of small pebbles behind her. In spite of herself, she glanced around nervously. The lake just lay there, unnaturally calm. No dragon snouts poked through the water. No snickers broke the air. Even Clyde wouldn’t pull a practical joke without waiting to see her reaction!

She wouldn’t be afraid. She just wouldn’t. She swiped at a passing bird with a claw. The bird squawked in panic. Another flew by to investigate, and splattered her rudely.

“Rrrrowww!” Gina snarled. She jumped into the air after them. The birds scattered in a dozen directions. Gina pulled in her wings and dive-bombed. She spread her wings at the last moment and caught three birds underneath them. They crashed into the water. She surfaced, watching mischievously as the three drenched birds spluttered water out of their lungs, and fluttered off, soggily.

A whirring noise grew behind her, louder and louder. A pointy wooden thing, three times her size, skated on the water. Gina stared as it shot past her. The water swirled and flipped her upside down. She shot out a jet of flame to clear the water from her mouth. She spat, trying to rid her mouth of the tasteless stuff. Water without salt! How disgusting. Obviously, a sea serpent had grabbed her. Some creatures just had no manners! Well, she’d just teach it a thing or two!

Green stuff clung to the dirt and muck at the bottom. A couple of fish darted away. That dratted sea serpent had escaped! Another swirl of water caught her, and she somersaulted gracefully towards shore, tail over snout. Her dignity seriously ruffled, she swam to shore.

No one had laughed. If Clyde had seen that, he’d be bellowing to his friends, and making fun of her. But no one laughed at all. She must be alone, completely alone. A quiver of fear ran up her spine.

Pebbles rattled a little ways down the shore.

Gina’s eyes flew wide open. What a ridiculous looking creature!

Two round things rolled along the ground, glittering in the sunlight. Perched on top was a brownish-blue animal. The head was squashed in and impossibly round. Wisps of brown fur stuck out from under a blue beak. The animal stopped. It held a black gadget up to its eyes, and looked over the lake.

Gina frowned. Was it a bear, a unicorn, or a griffin? No, she’d seen all those at home. She narrowed her eyes, and took a step closer. What it looked like, really, was a gargoyle, only wriggly instead of stone.

The top half of the creature pulled itself off of the round things, and walked away. Gina blinked in surprise. Ah yes. An animal was riding a metal thing. Two legs, two more legs that hung out of the top of it, and a head. That was all. No tail, no wings, and no body to speak of. Poor thing, what a freak!

Gina threw an anxious look over her shoulder, and heaved a sigh of relief. All dragons were stunningly beautiful, and she was no exception. Gina took a cautious step towards the strange beast, and then another step, pebbles crunching under her claws.

The animal turned towards Gina, and gasped. Gina rumbled threateningly, and backed up a pace, staring in shock. Why this must be a people! Clyde was always going on about people, and the snares he was making to catch them. Grandpa Jack claimed he’d killed a knight in fair combat, and knights were people. It stood on two legs, and had two--arms, that’s what they were! And a head with no snout. Yes, it had to be a people.

This was definitely a dream. ‘People’ were just baby stories that grownups made up, for fun. Darn it, anyway. If only it was real, she could take it home. Clyde would turn purple with envy. The people-dream backed away. It said loudly, “A dragon? No, it can’t be.” It turned and climbed onto the metal gadget. “There’s no such thing as a dragon!” it shouted angrily.

Gina watched it go, looking less like a dream and more like a nightmare. A people? No, no, no! It had to be a dream. A people?

“No!” she bellowed. Flaming breath shot out with the words. “No! There’s no such thing!” Gina scowled, and marched back to her tree stump. She would sleep, and it would all go away. “A dream,” she told herself firmly. She wriggled back into the tree hollow, long tail curling in last.

The rocky hill was still again, except for the cautious flutter of birds daring to pursue their daily lives.

Slowly, cautiously, two small eyes peered from behind a rock, and slipped on top of it. It was about eight inches tall. It shimmered like transparent Jell-O, hair gel, or moving ice. Small whorls of blue shifted through it, and sparkles appeared randomly within two arms and a head attached to a glob of jelly. After a moment, the glob grew legs.

The elf jumped off the rock. It stumbled headlong into the valley of pebbles made by Gina’s tail. Spitting out a couple of small stones, the elf dragged its way out of the pit. It stuck its hands on its hips and glared at the cave.

“How can you fit in there? You must be twelve feet long. That was my stump, you know,” it grumped, but not loud enough for Gina to hear. It studied the place the boy had stood. “So, there’s no such thing as a person!” he said to the vanished boy, “and there’s no such thing as a dragon in Salem , Oregon !” he said to the cave. “Well, for imaginary critters, you leave awfully big footprints!” He took a step back and fell backwards into Gina’s tail print again, arms flailing wildly.

“Well, you two may not be real,” he went on, “but you see each other, have names for each other. An unreal dragon, and an unreal person--but me? No name, no nothing. You look right at me and see absolutely nothing. Hmmph!” He frowned and eyed the cave speculatively. “At least the people do. But a dragon?”

~ * ~

Half an hour later, Jeff Morris parked his bike in Grandmother’s garage. He picked his way through the packing boxes and opened the door.

“Mom?” asked Jeff. He ran his fingers through his hair, matted from the bike helmet. “I’m home.”

“Have a good ride?”

“Sure.”

Mom’s papers were scattered all over the kitchen table again. She bent over them with a pen, a calculator, and a worried frown.

Jeff shot a quick glance at her. “Mom, what would you do if you saw something that, er, wasn’t there?”

“I’d go see my optometrist.” She chuckled. “Need an appointment?”

Jeff laughed self-consciously. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Too much sun, Jeff? Are you feeling sick?”

“No. I’m fine. But for real, what if you saw something that was like, weird? Would you report it to somebody?”

“Jeff, what did you see? Something illegal?” Mom’s head shot up in alarm.

“No, nothing like that, Mom. You’ll think it’s silly. It just, well, you’re not going to believe it, but it looked kind of like a dragon.” Jeff forced a small chuckle.

Mom stood up and took small steps towards him, her eyes riveted on him. “Jeff?” Her hand lifted towards his forehead. Jeff brushed it away, rolling his eyes.

“I’m not sick! Don’t treat me like a baby, will you? I’m fourteen!”

“Jeff, look at me, please.”

Jeff glared at her in outrage. “And don’t look at my eyes like you think I’m on drugs, or something. Don’t you trust me?”

Mom sighed, a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry, Jeff. You’re right. I’ve got no reason to even think such a thing. I’m just--everything’s been going wrong lately.”

Jeff’s shoulders sagged. “Yeah, I know. Mom, why did we leave?”

“You know why we left. Now we’re close enough to see Grandma more often. Someone needs to take care of the house while she’s in the nursing home. Grandma needs us.”

“Dad needs us.”

“Your Dad needs his volcanoes, or his science lab,” his mother said, her tone acid. “And I guess he needs you and Megan. He loves you,” she added, her voice softening.

“He needs you, too,” Jeff said softly.

“Jeff, don’t even start, okay?” Mother and son stared at each other. Jeff’s eyes dropped. “Listen, your father’s a good man. We just can’t live together right now. All right? And I’m stressed out, and here you’re seeing dragons and unicorns and things. Don’t do it, Jeff. Don’t run away into some kind of fantasy world. Please? It’s bad enough with Megan so--so, I don’t know what she is. Please, Jeff. Just try to keep sane until we sort things out.”

“Sure, Mom. I didn’t mean to scare you. It was probably just a big bird. I’ll check it out in my field guides.” He forced his voice into a cheerful mode. “Hey, these binoculars are great. I saw a flying woodpecker!”

Mom smiled, and sank back into her chair. “I’m glad something’s working out for you, Jeff. You’re such a sensible person. First week at a new school, and you’re out exploring, doing well at school. I’m just so proud of you.”

“Sure, Mom. It’s okay. Don’t worry about me. I know there’s no such thing as a dragon. It’s not like I’m a little kid or anything.”

Available in the Young Adult section at Wings ePress

ALSO AVAILABLE AT PODIOBOOKS.COM