We Fight Dragons (Volume 1, Chapter 6) 'Angry spirits'

Jam was now super-grounded, and boredom was threatening to take hold of him. He dragged out all of his old games for entertainment. His afternoons became full of Lego, single-player chess games, and drawing. At one point he made an entire army of chess pieces out of Lego, and used a ruler and a piece of white cardboard to draw a new ‘board’ to lay on top of the chess set, overlaid with sketches of lions and dragons and birds.

He asked to borrow Dad’s ukulele and he learnt how to play ‘You’re My Sunshine’ from a book of music. His strumming was okay, but his voice kept cracking on the high notes, so he tried to learn a heavy rock song from a book, but the fingering was a lot more complex, and over the week he only managed to play the first half of it.

By the end of the week he was getting so bored that he volunteered to make the family dinners, and for two nights in a row he cooked his favourite dinner which was mint lamb chops with carrots and peas.

When he got really frustrated he would kick a football around his bedroom, until Mum chastised him for marking the walls, and then he would hit the punching bag in the garage until he felt tired, which was usually enough to get to sleep.

He didn’t realise it, but by the weekend he had completely stopped thinking about the city, or about Zar, or his fight with Niles. The following Monday afternoon when he was free again, Jam and his friends were surprised to find Zar waiting for them outside the school, scrolling on her mobile.

At first the boys were nervous. ‘That big bloke didn’t follow you here, did he?’ asked Oli, referring to Niles.

‘Ha! I don’t think he wants anything to do with you again.’

‘Is your other friend here too?’

‘Nah. I didn’t tell anyone I was coming. I got out of school early and caught the train. This is the only high-school in miles so it was easy to find.’ She said to Jam, ‘You weren’t kidding when you said it was small! So, what do you do after school?’

‘Half the time we do Shirate, but not today. We could go BMXing?’ suggested Jam.

‘Ew! Sounds too much like exercise! Is there a mall?’

The boys laughed. ‘Not in this town! That’s too fancy for us.’

‘I know,’ Zach had an inspiration. ‘We could go up to the standing stones?’

‘Why?’ I mean, what’s so special about some old stones?’

‘They say they’re haunted by Wild-folk and monsters.’

Zar decreed that to be nonsense, but was sufficiently intrigued, so the group headed off towards the wooded hill. On the way they passed Jam’s house, and he ran inside and grabbed his Dad’s amulet from where it hung on the back of the kitchen door. He showed it around to his friends.

‘Dad always puts this on when we go up the the standing stones.’

‘Can I hold it?’ asked Zar. ‘Is it real gold?’

‘What? It’s copper. It’s not expensive or anything.’

‘So it’s like something from a second-hand shop!’ Zar quickly lost interest.

At the top of the hill the woods opened up into a clearing with a cluster of shaped stones in the middle. There was a wide ring of short upright stones, around a carved central stone that looked like a natural sculpture of some toothed predator.

‘Woah!’ said Zar, ‘that’s wild!’ The boys had seen it so many times it no longer held the same mystery for them. ‘What does it do?’

‘Do? It’s a bunch of stones. They sit there and look like that.’

Zach had an idea. ‘I’ve seen my dad doing something with his own amulet here before. When I was really young. I don’t remember exactly, but he was whispering something.’

‘Your dad has an amulet too?’ ask Jam.

It turned out that all the boys father’s had something similar, which deepened the mystery. Jam handed his amulet to Zach. ‘Here, try and do what you remember.’

Zach was sceptical, but he held the amulet tightly using the thumb and fingers of both hands, concentrating on it, and whispering nonsense.

Zar took out her phone and began taking pictures of everything.

As usual, Oli was keen to get a laugh so he climbed on top of one of the standing stones and asked Zar to take a photo, at which point each boy found their own stone and posed for the camera, insisting on seeing the photo afterwards, and laughing at the results.

When they got used to that, Zach wanted to have a go so he gave the amulet back to Jam and then climbed the sculpture itself. ‘Check it out!’ he cried, as he hung by one hand from the mouth of the beast.

Everyone watching him froze.

‘What the heck!’ exclaimed Oli. ‘Look at those clouds!’

From out of nowhere a pillar of clouds was forming above the hilltop, turning darker by the second. Zar shrieked in delight and started recording them on video. The wind picked up noticeably. From where he was hanging Zach struggled to turn his head upwards to take it all in.

‘Does this happen all the time?’ Zar asked excitedly.

‘No.’ Oli said, nervously. A light rain began to fall, which them quickly turned into heavy droplets of water that the wind blew into their faces.

‘Eeee! My phone!’ Zar tried to hold the phone under the cover of one hand, and keep recording.

‘It’s getting worse.’ Rollo was becoming alarmed. The clouds were coming lower, and starting to churn like a whirlpool. ‘What if there’s lightning? We shouldn’t be up here! What do you reckon, Jam?’ That was when everyone noticed that Jam wasn’t paying attention to the storm.

Jam was focused on the amulet, locked onto it somehow, and he couldn’t let go. He didn’t even want to! The roaring in his ears was back again, like when he got in that fight at the train station. He heard whispers that he knew were in another language.

Zar zoomed in on Jam with her camera. ‘This is so wild!’ She was excited, but for some reason she also felt a bit scared.

‘We shouldn’t be doing this!’ Zach had to yell above the wind, which was starting to toss him around where he hung.

Oli ran up to Jam and shook him. ‘Hey! Stop it! Whatever you’re doing!’ The shaking had no effect on the storm.

Lightning rippled across the clouds and a loud CRACK resounded. Zach tried to climb down, but his grip slipped on the wet stone and he fell heavily to the sodden ground, bruised and shaken.

Zar gave up recording and took shelter behind one of the standing stones. The wind was so strong that the rain was almost horizontal. Just as Oli was starting to think that he was going to have to slap Jam out of his trance, the sky opened up above them.

BOOOM!

Lightning raced down, striking the rock sculpture and fanning out like a shower of electricity, dancing over the stones, heading and down and towards the town. The impact threw Jam backward and he landed on his backside, the wet amulet slipping from his grip.

Slowly, like dirty water draining from an over-full bathtub, the storm began to subside. The children rose from the ground, knees stained by grass and mud.

Oli was first to react. ‘Jam, what did you do?’

‘Do? What do you mean? Zach gave me the amulet, and then… whispers? No. I don’t remember.’

‘Hey, Look at the town,’ Rollo pointed in alarm.

Down below, where there were normally the late afternoon street lights and electric signs, there was nothing. The nearest lights were coming from the city. The signal lights of the train light were out, and no car lights were visible on the motorway anywhere near town.

‘Oh. My. God.’ Zar exclaimed. ‘That was incredible. When I post this it’s going to go viral. Let me see if I got…’ Zar checked the images on her phone. ‘No! My phone! It’s bricked!’

‘It’s bricked?’ asked Oli. ‘You mean it’s dead?’ Oli’s dad was a technician, and he knew more about how phones worked than the others.

‘Yes, you idiot! That’s what bricked means!’

‘Maybe my dad can…’ Oli didn’t get to finish the thought.

‘Jamie! What have you done?’ They heard Mr Wood urgently demand an explanation. He was coming up the hill, yelling loud enough for them all to hear. Behind him was Mum, as well as Oli’s father, Mr Smith.

‘I… I… don’t know, Dad.’

‘Are you alright?’ Mum asked. ‘Did anyone get hit by the lightning? No? Thank goodness!’

Dad walked up to Jam and held out his hand without a word. Jam handed over his father’s amulet with silent relief.

‘Freya, can you take the girl home? Geoff and I will have to clean up here.’

Mum turned to Zar. ‘Hello dear. I’m Jamie’s mum. I run the berry orchard on the common land. Jamie might have told you about me? Anyway, I think it’s best if I take you home.’

‘I can catch the train. Thanks.’

‘Normally you could, but the lightning took out the signals. It’s going to be hours before everything is back to normal. It’s okay of you don’t want a lift. You could wait at the station if you like? Can you use your mobile to call your parents?’

‘My parents are too busy. I don’t want to call them. Besides, my phone is bricked.’ Zar looked to Jam for guidance regarding his mother, and Jam nodded to her reassuringly. ‘Okay,’ Zar said to Mum. ‘I’d like a lift. But I live in the city.’

‘I thought so. That’s okay. Who knows when you’d get home if you had to wait for the trains. Let’s get going before you can catch a cold.’ She turned to the boys. ‘Say goodbye, boys.’

The boys murmured farewells, but Zar was so annoyed by her dead phone that she didn’t respond. She stomped off down the hill, and Mum followed.

Dad turned to Mr Smith, ‘Geoff, I’ve got my amulet so I will begin here. Can you take them all back, and then get started in the town?’

‘Good thinking, Davo,’ said Mr Smith. ‘Come on you boys. Follow me.’

Jam left without a word, wondering how annoyed his father would be with him later that evening. As they left, Jam saw his father hold the amulet and begin whispering something to it, while caressing the stone sculpture like it was a horse that needed calming down.

‘Damn it all!’ Zar exclaimed angrily after they had started driving to the city. ‘That was an eight-hundred dollar phone.’ She turned to Mrs Wood and asked mildly. ‘I don’t suppose your friend can fix it? I want to get some photos off it.’

Freya shook her head. ’Sorry, dear. Phones are fragile things around electricity. However, I can ask him if you like?’ She pretended to be sad about it, but in truth she had no intention of asking Mr Smith to repair the phone. In fact, Freya was glad that any photos or videos of what had happened had been destroyed.

Rather than thank her for the offer, Zar sulked.

Freya decided that she didn’t like Zar very much, but she wanted to give her a chance. Perhaps Zar was the reason that Jam had returned to the city? Freya had to know. ‘Do you think your parents will be worried that you aren’t home by now?’

‘I don’t care,’ said Zar sullenly.

‘I like your hair,’ said Freya, seeing if there was anything nice that Zar would respond to. ‘It’s so long. I haven’t worn my hair that long since… since I was your age!’

It was a test. Zar could accept the compliment, which was fine. She could ask Freya about her hair, which was better. Or she could talk about herself, or say nothing, which was the worst response possible.

Zar shrugged her shoulders and turned away. ‘Whatever.’

As they approach the city, Freya and Zar were unaware that the events on the hilltop had attracted the attention of the Dragon. It was surprised to sense so much power, so close to the city. It had always thought that its enemies were more cautious with their abilities. Perhaps, it pondered, they had grown sloppy over the years?

In the dark caverns that ran deep beneath the ground, it willed its limbs into action and moved out in search of its mortal foes.

From the dark of a train tunnel it emerged invisible, causing the driver of a passing train to shiver for no reason that made sense. It hunted by scent, and it’s senses eventually lead it to a boy and his friends in the train station. The Dragon whispered in their ears, one by one…

Find the girl you call Zarah... from her you will find the boy who hurt you… and then you will hurt him… to draw out the others....

.