Katie brushed her blond hair from her blue eyes, tipped her head back, looked up at Kraw and said, ‘Can you see them?’
Kraw shook his head, ‘There’s no sign of them, mistress,’ he said, his voice a deep rumbling sort off purring sound.
Katie giggled, she still wasn’t used to being called mistress by a dragon standing three metres tall. After all she was only nine and what nine year old had their own dragon; none that she knew of.
It was at her ninth birthday party that she met Kraw and he sort of adopted her.
Since it was such a nice sunny day, Mrs Tolly who ran the orphanage, had set up a table in the garden and the children had a party for Katie’s birthday. They had sandwiches, cakes and jelly. Katie had blown out her candles and made a very special wish.
That was when Kraw had appeared, he came swooping down from the sky and landed on the lawn. Mrs Tolly and the rest of the children ran off screaming, but Katie got mad, this, flying lizard had frightened the other children and spoiled her party and she wasn’t having that.
‘It just would, besides, I want a Mum and a Dad to love me and look after me.’
‘I can love you and look after you.’
‘No, I want a Mum and a Dad.’
‘How about I look after you until you find a Mum and a Dad?’
‘No, I’ll wait.’
‘But the head of the guardian dragons sent me.’
‘Sorry, like I said, I’ll wait to be adopted.’
The dragon hung his head and a tear ran down his cheek, it was so big that she had jump back to save being soaked. ‘B-bye, Katie,’ he said sadly and turned to walk away.
Katie sighed, he looked so sad with his tail trailing on the ground, that she couldn’t stand it; she had to call out, ‘Dragon?’
‘Kraw.’ he said.
‘What?’
‘Kraw, it’s my name.’
‘Oh, well Kraw, maybe, just maybe…’
‘Yes,’ he said eagerly.
‘Maybe you can be my guardian until I get adopted.’
Mrs Tolly wasn’t very happy about it, but from that day on Kraw became Katie’s guardian. Mind you, Mrs Tolly wouldn’t let him stay in the orphanage, but she let him use he old barn at the bottom of the field and Katie and her best friends Michael and Jenny helped him to make it cosy.
Now Michael and Jenny were missing, they’d gone off to the river to fish, and should have been back an hour ago, but there was no sign of them.
‘Kneel down, Kraw till I climb up,’ said Katie.
‘Ready, mistress?’ Kraw called, as he felt her settle behind his neck.
‘Yes let’s go,’ she called and Kraw began to circle, higher and higher he flew, until they could see the whole of the river below them, all the way down to where it joined the sea.
There was no sign of Michael and Jenny. All they could see was a small boat with a single sail, heading downstream.
‘Drop lower, we’ll have check out both banks, something must have happened to them.’ Katie said.
Kraw dropped down until he was just skimming the treetops, and beginning upstream, followed the river towards the sea. But there was no sign of their friends not near or in the water; they had simply vanished. They caught up with the boat and as they passed overhead the man in the cockpit looked up and waved.
As the Kraw approached the boat Dodgy Black hissed towards the cabin, ‘Keep them kids quiet, Rolly we’ve got company.’ Then he smiled and waved as the dragon flew by.
In the Cabin Rolly Jones put his hands over Michael and Jenny’s mouths and didn’t take them away until the shadow of the dragon passing overhead was long gone. He needn’t have bothered both the children were still only half conscious.
Dodgy had clubbed them from behind while they were fishing. Dodgy was good at that, he could club someone with just enough force to knock them out for an hour without causing them any permanent injury. An important knack when you spent your time kidnapping children and selling them as slaves.
They’d caught these two, an hour ago and were now on the way to Thanet, where the Frankish traders would pay a good price especially for strong youngsters.
The boy and girl hadn’t come around fully, so Rolly took the opportunity to pop up on deck. ‘What’s happening with the dragon?’ he enquired.
‘Gone downstream, doesn’t suspect a thing, but just in case he comes back you better get back down and keep those kids quiet.’
‘Yeah OK.’
‘Here, what, you doing?’ he exclaimed as he opened the cabin door and spotted Jenny at the small window. ‘Come away now,’ he demanded and he reached out to grab her.
But before he could come to grips with her, Michael butted him in the stomach causing him to fall to the floor gasping for breath.
‘Come on let’s get out of here,‘ Michael said. But as they turned to the door it slammed shut and no matter how they tried, there was no way that they could get it open again.
‘I’ve managed to hang my scarf out the window, but the opening is too small for us to get through. What are we going to do now?’ said Jenny.
‘Pass me his club, the first thing I’m going to do is belt him with it.’
bopped him on the head and he collapsed to the floor, with a grunt.
‘OK, now run from that side of the cabin to this.’ said Michael.
‘But, I don’t understand?’ queried Jenny.
‘Katie and Kraw will be on their way back upriver and if we can get the boat rocking from side to side, they might come to investigate. Ready, Go.’
Together they ran back and forth and each time Rolly grunted as they trod on him. They didn’t do it on purpose; the cabin was so small that they had to run over him to get to the other side. From one wall to the other they went, and soon had the small boat rocking from side to side.
As he flew back up river Kraw concentrated his attention on the reed beds lining the banks, in case their friends were hiding there, and he didn’t break his concentration until Katie climbed up his neck and shouted in his ear. ‘Kraw look at the boat it’s wobbling.’
And sure enough when he looked the small boat was rocking madly as it sailed towards them.
‘Oh, I can do better than that, hang on tight,’ said Kraw, with a wicked grin.
Swooping down, he shredded the sails with one swipe of his claw, and while Dodgy cowered in the corner of the cockpit, settled onto the cabin roof and dug his claws in.
There was silence for a moment, then Kraw began to beat his wings faster and faster, straining against the power of the river, finally with a great wet slurp the boat broke free of the waters suction, and he shot upwards carrying the boat.
Once the Kidnappers were behind bars, Kraw flew them all back to the orphanage, where Mrs Tolly fed them milk and chocolate brownies, she even gave Kraw two-dozen buns and a bucket of milk for himself
