We Fight Dragons (Volume 1, Chapter 11) 'The paradox of defence'
After Shirate lessons Mr Dawson had swept the floor and was closing up the community hall, when a car screeched to a halt, and Mr and Mrs Wilson jumped out and hurried towards him.
‘Are the kids still here? Where’s Ronan?’ Mrs Wilson asked with a sense of urgency.
‘No. I sent them all home. Directly, as agreed. What’s wrong?’
‘Lily has a feeling that something bad is about tonight,’ Mr Wilson explained, nodding to his wife.
Mr Dawson didn’t wait for further explanation. He slammed the hall door shut and locked it. ‘Your feeling, it drew you here, is that correct?’ Mr Dawson questioned Lily Wilson as he switched automatically into police-officer mode.
‘Yes.’
‘Alright. Let’s take the car and see if we can catch up to Ronan. I think he went south on the main street with Jamie and Zach.’
The three parents jumped in the car, and headed off in the direction of the boys.
Shirate had been great fun and Jam was now confident that Zach was also a Knight, and probably Tobes as well. He also felt confident that with so many Knights in the town there was no way they were in any danger. The trio were relaxed as they walked home, and paid little attention to what was happening around them, which was a mistake.
Zach and Jam barely registered the sound of quiet footsteps running up from behind, and Rollo was oblivious.
Jam saw the sticks and bricks as they swung at them, and barely had time to grab Rollo and drag both himself and his friend out of harm’s way. Zach also dodged away from danger, and looked like he was torn between running away and leaving his friends, or standing by them.
‘Zach! Help me!’ yelled Jam. ‘We can’t leave Rollo.’
The Dragon’s minions also heard this, and correctly identified that Rollo was the weak link. If they could wound him, the others would be forced to stay by him, and then it would only be a matter of time before the last two would fall before the power that the Dragon had given its servants.
One of the attackers slashed at Jam with a broken bottle and Jam jumped back, and dragged Rollo with him again. He thought about trying to grab the glass, but it moved so fast they he didn’t think he could. Besides, if he left Rollo alone for an instant then his friend was doomed. For his part, Rollo was still trying to work out what was happening.
Zach dodged and weaved and blocked, proving impossible for the minions to hit, but he had never hit anyone in anger in his whole life, and the thought that he might be forced to was not occurring to him.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, there was a moment of silence and Jam realised that the attackers had paused.
Niles loomed in front of Jam, his eyes flickering with an internal green fire. ‘This body merely dislikes you… but I want to destroy you completely… it is only a shame your parents aren’t here to witness this!’ It was Nile’s month that moved, but it was the Dragon’s voice that the boys heard even thought they didn’t recognise it.
Jam tried to think of something defiant to say, but he couldn’t. The situation looked grim.
Then he heard the horn of an approaching car. It was Rollo’s family car. Jam waved frantically.
‘Ahhh!’ roared the Dragon’s voice. ‘No time to waste. Destroy them immediately!’
The next minute was a panic of dodging and parrying of broken glass, splintered stakes and sharp edged bricks. Jam and Zach had a purpose now, of defending Rollo until the help arrived.
Jam heard the car screech to a stop close by, and adult footsteps ran in their direction. Unfortunately, Zach was so relieved that he let down his guard and was hit in the ribs by a brick, causing him to cry out in pain and stagger. When Jam saw his friend physically injured, he became enraged. He wanted to hurt the person who had hurt his friend.
Jam’s anger was apparent to the adults and Lily Watson, Rollo’s mum, yelled out to him, ‘No, you can’t hurt them. They’re under a spell.’
Jam ground his teeth in frustration, even as he blocked another attack. The roaring in his ears was threatening to overwhelm him, but Mrs Wilson was right. He had to keep it under control. He started channeling his rage into his Shirate technique, yelling with each block and parry. Slowly, he was calming down, despite the ongoing attacks.
Mr Dawson had stepped into the fight, and worked with Jam to protect the others from being hit. Because of his injury, Zach was too hurt to fight any longer.
Mr Wilson stood out of the fight and produced a copper amulet, similar to the one that Jam’s father owned, and started whispering to it. Jam expected storm clouds to start forming, but whatever was happening it wasn’t that. The back of his neck started to tickle with static electricity.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jam saw Niles snatch a fence paling from one of his mates, and aim it at Mr Wilson like it was a spear. Mr Wilson was so focused on his amulet that he was unaware of the danger. Niles launched the makeshift spear, and Jam had an awful choice to make.
As loyal as he was to his friends, he could not just stand by and watch Mr Wilson be speared, perhaps seriously injured. He understood that the Dragon wanted to do as much damage as possible. As the spear launched, Jam coiled and leapt through the air to intercept it.
The spear was flying, and Jam realised that it was too fast to catch, but he managed to tip the back end of it and make it tumble, diverting the dangerous point from where Mr Wilson was standing. It spun, tumbling around Mr Wilson’s head and missing him entirely.
It was Rollo who suffered for this decision. Without Jam’s help, Mr Dawson was overwhelmed, and a plank of wood swung through the air too fast for Rollo to dodge and it struck him on the temple, crumpling him like a paper straw that become soaked through.
Mrs Wilson cried out in anguish when she saw her son go down. Without thinking of the danger she ran into the fight and flung herself on top of Rollo’s limp body.
Jam returned to helping Mr Dawson, but they now had three others to protect. The two of them could only protect two of their friends at the same time. Who would they leave exposed? Who would Jam have to sacrifice to keep the others safe? Being forced into such a horrible choice made Jam feel physically sick. It was gut wrenching.
Using Niles, the Dragon looked at Jam again and gloated. All it had to do was point out who to attack and that person was doomed. The Dragon/Niles opened its mouth and pointed a finger at…
CLAP! A cloud of static electricity erupted from Mr Wilson’s amulet and spread out like a wave. Sparks of electricity leapt from body to body, tingling and itching where they touched bare skin. The fire went out in the eyes of the Dragon’s minions as they fell to the ground.
Jam sighed in relief. Thank’s to Mr Wilson he was spared from having to make a dreadful decision. Suddenly, it occurred to him that if Mr Wilson was a Knight, then Rollo must be as well. Rollo, who got hit and was lying on the ground, being cradled by his mother. That didn’t make sense!
‘Thanks, Tim,’ said Mr Dawson calmly. ‘Can you exorcise them?’
‘Already on it,’ replied Mr Wilson. He went to each of the unconscious boys and smeared their foreheads with a greenish powder. He noticed that Jam was watching, so he explained, ’It’s a copper oxide alloy. It will remove any trace of the Dragon, and protect them for a while.’
‘Not forever?’
‘No. I wish. It will buy us time to deal with the Dragon, that’s all.’
While this was happening, Mr Dawson was on his mobile calling the private number for Dr Joyce. ‘Ava? It’s Nathan. Are you at home? Good. Ronan has been hurt bad. Impact wound to the head with a heavy blunt object. You need to get here as soon as you can. We are on the Main street, four blocks south of the community hall.’ Mr Dawson answered all of Dr Joyces questions, and when that was done he called the ambulance service.
When Mr Wilson was done exorcising the unconscious boys, he held Rollo’s hand and stayed with his wife. ‘Jamie, Zach, are you boys okay?’ he asked.
They nodded.
‘Good.’
‘He’s not healing? You know…’ Jam inquired.
Mr and Mrs Wilson looked at him and shook their heads. ‘He’s a late bloomer. We can’t say any more,’ said Mr Wilson, then he cast a glance at Zach. 'Best you ask your Mum and Dad what that means later, okay?’
Jam and Zach stayed with Rollo until their own parents arrived to take them home.
Mr Dawson called a city police station, to have them send someone to pick up Niles and the others. He suggested that they might have eaten bad food and all come down with food poisoning, to the point that they were immobilised. Before they woke up again he made sure to wipe the greenish power off their foreheads.
Several days later, when Rollo had recovered enough to return to school, Mum and Dad had some bad news for Jam at the breakfast table.
‘Before you go to school,’ explained Dad, ‘you need to know that the Wilson’s are moving away. They think it’s too dangerous for Ronan to stay here.’
Jam was shocked. He’d always assumed that no matter what happened, that he and his friends would stay together. ‘But… he’s my friend.’
‘I know, darling,’ said Mum sympathetically. ‘But he’s not like you. Not yet. That puts him in danger just now. He’ll be safer if they move to another town.’
At school it was announced that it was Rollo’s last day. They had a special party and a cake to wish Rollo good luck for the future. Mr Kirk even gave Rollo a going away gift of the textbooks Rollo had used that year ‘just in case his next school didn’t have any.’
Overall it was a depressing day. Rollo’s parents took him out of class early. Jam could see their car parked on the street, packed with bags and clothes. They weren’t wasting any time leaving.
It was enough to make Jam miserable, like at the train station, all over again. The last time that happened Mels had snapped him out of it. She wasn’t here now, but somehow even the memory of her cheered him up enough to fight the sad feeling off. He had to hope that she was well, because as far as he was concerned he wasn’t going anywhere near the city again.
That night the Wood’s house was host to many of his friend’s parents, and their sons. After dinner, the boys were all sent to the rumpus room to play board games.
Amongst the adults, Mr Dawson and Dad argued to take the fight to the Dragon, in the city if they must. However, they were outnumbered. Most of the parents thought that would leave the children exposed in the town.
They discussed splitting into two groups, but in light of how hard it had been to save the kids who had been enslaved by the Dragon, they agreed it would be even harder if they had to face adults next time. Ultimately, they decided to stick together. For better or worse, they were forced to defend, not attack.
Deep below the city, the Dragon had seen everything through the flaming eyes of its enslaved minions. It knew they were defeated, and that their minds were now protected against its magic.
The Dragon had lost a lot of energy with its failed minions. Energy that would take a while to recover, although the Knights might not know that.
It was scared that the Knights would come for it in the city, and being a Dragon it did what any scared Dragon would do. It went on the attack.
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