Catnapped! by Gareth P. Jones

Author:Gareth P. Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
Published: 2020-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The next day, while most of London went about its usual Saturday business, Dirk and Holly travelled across the city’s rooftops under a grey and featureless sky.

“Are we going back to the warehouse?” asked Holly.

“No,” replied Dirk. “Today we’re going to find out exactly how many dragons we’re up against.”

“How do we do that?”

“Hold on. This bit is tricky.”

They were on a rooftop of a building next to a busy rail interchange. Six tracks carried trains in and out of the station, while echoey-announcements apologized for delays and passengers stood staring at their phones.

“This is all about timing,” said Dirk.

A train was rumbling towards the platform on the nearest track, while another picked up speed in the other direction. Holly felt Dirk’s muscles contract before suddenly springing up and using the two passing trains as stepping stones to the other side. Holly turned to see if anyone had noticed but the passengers on the train were all lost in their own little worlds.

A couple more big jumps, and Dirk landed carefully on the top of Borough Market. The food smells from the street sellers made Holly’s stomach rumble and she remembered how she had enjoyed a delicious veggie burger there once.

But Dirk was looking up. Towering above them was a giant needle-like building called the Shard.

“We’re going up there,” he replied.

“How? I don’t think you’ll fit in the lift.”

“Don’t need to. I have these,” he replied, flapping his wings. “Come on, I’d better hold you.”

Holly slid off the dragon’s back and he grabbed her, holding her securely against his belly.

“Won’t we be seen?” she asked. “It’s a long way and there are a lot of people down there. Someone’s bound to look up.”

“Ever heard of a smoke screen?” said Dirk. He cleared his throat and snorted. Grey smoke billowed from his nostrils. Holly shut her eyes tight to keep the smoke out. Dirk spun around on the spot a couple of times, still snorting, until the smoke completely enveloped them. He flapped his wings and Holly felt her feet lift off the roof.

On the ground below, a couple sat on a bench outside a cathedral, eating supermarket sandwiches in silence. The husband looked up at the cloud of smoke rising above the buildings. “Now, there’s a peculiar thing,” he said, accidentally spitting a bit of sandwich at his wife.

“Don’t speak with your mouth full,” replied his wife irritably.

“It looks like a big smoke signal,” he continued. “I saw a documentary about Native Americans once. It said smoke signals were like an early form of mobile phone call.”

“Pah,” said his wife. “What can you say with smoke signals?”

“Useful things like ‘Danger’ and ‘All’s Well’.”

“What if you want to say something more complicated like, ‘I may have accidentally scraped the car this morning when I was parking’?”

“What?” exclaimed the husband, instantly launching into an argument that caused them both to forget all about the strange clump of smoke that was now level with the top of the building.

When Dirk reached the top of the skyscraper, he wrapped himself around it and blended perfectly with its mirrored surface.

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