It seemed like it only took seconds for Henry to race past the waterwheel, the powerstation, across the bridge and up the hidden path opposite the generator house.
He was half way up the path before he slowed to catch his breath.
“Susie! Susie?” Henry called, hoping she hadn’t reached the cave yet.
There was no response.
What have I done? Henry thought. I should have been honest with Susie. Why did I lie.
He kept walking as fast as he could up the steep rocky path.
Then again, if I had told her about the dragon… she wouldn’t have believed me!
The trees were thinning. Henry realised he was nearly to the cliff side. He would be at the cave soon.
I still should have told her the cave was dangerous. Really Dangerous! Then, maybe she would have stayed away. Henry wasn’t too sure of that. Susie was stubborn. If she wanted to do something, she would do it—no matter what other people said. She probably would have just thought I was trying to keep more gold and jewels for myself.
He was so lost in his raging storm of thought and argument, Henry nearly ran straight into Susie as she came running around a corner in the path.
Susie spun sideways to miss crashing into her brother and continued running down the path. With one hand she grabbed Henry’s arm, pulling him after her.
“RUN!” she shouted.
She’s seen the dragon! Henry thought with a rush of relief. And she’s alive!
As Henry started to run after his sister there was an earth-shaking roar behind them followed by an odd sounding cry, “COME BACK!”
Henry grabbed Susie’s arm and pulled her to a stop. “Did you hear that?” he asked.
Susie took a three big breaths, recovering from her sprint. “Yes,” she said, “The dragon is very upset that you took his hoard.” Susie took two more long breaths. “He thought I was you. He shot a fireball over my head from the back of his cave. The he shouted that I should bring back his gold.”
Henry thought for a moment. “do you think it is really a dragon?”
“What else would it be?” Susie asked.
“Well,” Henry said, “Five little chunks of gold isn’t much of a hoard for a fire-breathing dragon. Shouldn’t he have a massive treasure trove?”
“Maybe he does,” Susie said. “Maybe you just found a tiny bit of it. Maybe it was bait, to get you to go in the cave.”
“And maybe the Ruby and gold flake were bait to keep me going up the trail!” Henry added.
Susie had a new look in her eyes and rubbed her hands together. “Let’s sneak back, real quiet, and see if we can find anything else.”
 |
| The Hidden Path a fairytale by David Edgren |
“YES!” Henry said.
Quickly, but quietly, they made their way back up the trail and stood just outside the cave. They paused and listened for any sounds of the dragon. From inside the cave, they heard a noise very different too what they were expecting.
“What is that?” Henry whispered.
Susie took a step forward, and listened. Finally she stepped back and said, “It sounds like someone crying.”
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment