Chapter Three - Narrow Escape
Exactly on July 16th, two years after Hallie and Mallory discovered the secret of the hidden dragons, horrible events happened. Worse than you could possibly imagine… (Even worse than your neighbor’s howling dog, now see how exasperating that is!)
It was just then, when Hannah was having a discussion on the phone with her annoying tag-alone, Holly Marks, she detected two shiny flying things with outlines of dragon scales in the sky from out of the blue. She lied to Holly and said she needed to finish one of her reports. She felt nervous, Hannah didn’t want to find out if mom had gone away because the house was dangerously quiet. But anyhow, she went up stairs and knocked about 7 times and waited for a reply. Finally, someone answered, but it wasn’t Mom…
~
Meanwhile, Mallory and Hallie were speeding back home racing against the time. They needed exactly 27 minutes and 58 seconds to get home-as what Mallory calculated-, but they only had 21 minutes. There was a treacherous blizzard, with the wind howling at their ears, it was extremely excruciating. Also, the moon was almost hidden from view by the ominous clouds. Would they make it in time? Both MoonFire and IceFire were awfully feeble. Their wings’ movement began to slow as Mallory and Hallie coaxed pleadingly for them to go on. Just about a mile away, the twins spotted their house. But something unusual was happening in there. But neither Mallory nor Hallie could tell what it was…
Hannah watched the objects fly closer and closer as she made out the shapes… It was two DRAGONS! But Hannah was puzzled enough, and the dragons made it more mysterious. Right now, she was tied up helplessly in a chair by this chubby dragon and now her sisters are riding on dragons! Are they evil too? Hannah thought.
As the dragons approached the house imperceptibly, they all noticed poor Hannah being tied to a rope on a chair and balanced on the unstable moonlit windowsill. Then, there was a sudden thump, Mallory and Hallie plunged through the air like heavy bricks and the sisters grabbed on to their neighbor’s rooftop. IceFire and MoonFire had vanished back to their cages! Now what? First the coaxing to arrive home, then their sister tied to a weak little rope balanced on a chair, now they’re hanging on the roof of their neighbor’s!
“Hallie, I’m scared! Your older than me by, like, 2 seconds, you should know what to do in such circumstances! We’ll die if not fall and injure ourselves!” Mallory cried. Hallie wanted to argue and say that 2 seconds isn’t long enough but replied rather nicely. And in fact, Mallory was startled when Hallie didn’t quarrel with her.
“Look, in this case, we’ll have to work together. First, you climb to the very top of the roof and sit on the acute angle somehow and take of your jacket even if you’re cold right now.” Hallie instructed. So Mallory did as she was told, although she struggled to balance herself. Abruptly, Mallory slipped by a few inches. And the storm, accompanied with the thundering snow, made it worse. But luckily, something caught her hand. It was… It was…the last thing you’d suspect.
~
IceFire and MoonFire? In dragon form! “How did you get here, IceFire?” Hallie wondered.
“How can we let our owners’ fate fall within the hands of Dana Okumanuik? Dana tied your sister to the chair and she used dragon-magic to cover the moon. She’s so brain-less and stupid! She watches ‘101 Ways to be a Nutcase’ too, you know! And the reason we’re here is because the moonlight is normally brightest and strongest at midnight to one o’clock in the morning, so, we’ve always been told by other dragons that we can only fly at that time. But, luckily, IceFire remembered that MoonBerry, her friend, said that we may always fly when the moonlight is well lit.” MoonFire replied for IceFire.
“What’s ‘101 Ways to be a Nutcase’ and where does she come from?” Mallory questioned showing a great interest to the conversation.
“It’s a television program for pests like her, she, Dana, is the escaped dragon from the cage of wild beasts #434404. Only nuisances get hunted there! And that’s the reason we’re here! We are official wild beast hunters, and we’ve been requested to find Dana and tap her with this twig. IceFire snapped at Dana as she held up a normal looking twig. As the chat continued, IceFire-along with the help of MoonFire-managed to get Hallie and Mallory on the roof as Mallory took off her jacket. Hallie showed Mallory a silver coin and stuffed it in her hands.
“See Mallory, that wild dragon, Dana, looks like a werewolf. If she is one, show her that silver coin and she is to become very pathetic, the reason is,” Hallie exclaimed, “Werewolves are attracted to the bright colors that are sparkly, and gold is one of the sparkly colors, which you are wearing on your jacket. On the other side of the coin, silver is known to everyone as the werewolf-killer, so, she’ll weaken ASAP when you use that coin. And if she is weak, IceFire will stay in hiding and come out with the twig and tap her. Now, if she isn’t, test her anyway and she will try to chase you because those fake werewolves have opposite charistics of a true werewolf, they are also called The Silver Mimicking Beaver. Then, MoonFire will fly pass and pick Mallory up by the wings and fly away. Dana will glide after you, so, while she is busy, IceFire, accompanied with me riding on her, will tap her with the stick, Okay?”
“Sure!” the three answered in unison. They followed her plan and found out Dana the ugly old nutcase was a werewolf. So, they tapped her while Dana was feeble and completed their first task.
“Sorry Mallory, we have to go, the moon’s weakening. And reluctantly, IceFire and MoonFire gave the sisters a slow but steady (and tired) ride back to the house as they untied Hannah. Now let’s see what Hannah’s got to say about this!
