"Look out Rufus," Amanda called as her 10 year old brother dodged a flying golf ball.
"Phew, that was close," Rufus admitted, flopping into the scraggly bush next to her and glancing back in the direction of the golf ball.
"I didn't see any one at the greens did you? I thought there was too much wind today," she exclaimed surprised. "It's funny where it came from because there's no one there now who could've hit it so close to us --unless it hit a tree and bounced or someone's a really awful shot." she pondered.
Rufus turned to look at her. "What do you want to do then, stay here or try to make a run for the tree break by green 4.?"
"Well, I'm ready for a little rest. Whoever it was is sure to be coming this way, and will call the security guard if he sees two kids on the greens. Let's just hide here in the bushes for a half an hour," she countered cautiously.
"Well alright. My shoes hurt I'm going to take them off--hold your noses!" Rufus called as he unlaced them, and pulled them off. Amanda edged herself back into the low scraggly thorny bushes that jutted out of the pockets of grass in the sand dunes. She wanted to be hidden from any passing golfers.
"If I fall asleep, be sure to wake me up Rufus when the coast is clear."
"Ofcourse silly," chided Rufus, pulling out a stalk of grass and carefully sucking on the end of it. "I'll take care of you, I always do," he said proudly and settled himself onto his stomach so he could watch the greens without being noticed.
And those were the last words Amanda heard before she felt a tapping on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see a very tall, brownish, spindly shorebird staring down at her indignantly.
"You're not allowed to sleep here Miss. This is our ancestral place. No noise is allowed here. No humans either." It spoke to her in a high pitched, bossy voice.
"Oh" she hesitated then rose up on one elbow to blink a little and see if she were awake. "I'm sorry." she blurted almost by habit of good manners. But looking around her she felt more afraid than sorry. The bushes she had been sleeping under, were the size of trees, and her body seemed to have shrunk to the size the bird should be. "I was just having a nap while the golfers went past. I'll...er.. I'll find my brother and be on our way." She looked around again, but there was no sign of Rufus. It did not appear to be the same place where she had lain down. The wind had gone. The light was a pale yellow everywhere and there were no shadows, even under the thorny, craggy trees that formed a canopy above her. The air seemed thinner and lighter, like breathing at the top of a mountain.
The bird stepped back as she slowly got up to look for Rufus.
"Well I don't see your brother, do you?"
"No, he's not here - Rufus, Rufus," she called out, her voice seeming squeaky and ineffective in the thin air. "Where am I? This isn't the golf course is it?" Then came a sudden clutch of fear. "Where am I? I don't know where I am, or where Rufus is." Tears started in her eyes and she began to wail.
The shorebird embarrassed, pecked at the sand, not looking in her direction. Through the trees a whining noise grew closer. The shorebird looked up anxiously to listen, then turned to Amanda. "Stop that snivelling. Greengage is coming; he's picking up your distress. Silly girl. Get a hold of yourself. Stop that crying now." The shorebird's tail started to wag back and forth and his head went up and down as he paced irregularly in front of her.
Amanda wailed louder and sputtered, "I can cry if I want to. If I am afraid, I can cry about it. If I am lost I can cry. If my brother is not here, I can cry. Crying is how I feel and - and in any case, I can't help it." She blurted out the last part.
"Well Greengage will put paid to it if you don't cut it out; just wait and see." And with that the shorebird strode of on stilt-like legs in the opposite direction to the increasingly noisy screaching whine approaching. Amanda continued to cry less noisily, but watched amazed as a tiny golf cart drove up with an enormous green monster on it. The monster's body overlapped all sides of the cart, so only the steering wheel and the wheels were visible. The enormous green creature oozed itself to the ground while the creaks and groans from the cart were audible above the noise of Amanda's sobs and the thumps of the monster's huge paws landing on the ground. When she saw the disproportionate size of the monster and the cart, she understood the high pitched whining noise was a sign that the engine was straining under the weight.
Deciding not to be afraid of the creature, Amanda bravely stood squarely and said, "Hello Monster. I -I am lost. Can you help me? My name is Amanda. I was lying on the golf course with my brother and when I woke up I was here. Can you show me how to get back there? ...Er please?"
"Monster? Who's a monster? I'm a dragon, I'll have you know. And lost, what is 'lost'? " The monster bellowed so loudly that she had to cover her ears or be deafened. At the same time a foul stench of sulfur came out of its mouth causing her to gag and stop crying. "Socks get lost, keys get lost, yes indeed. But living things don't get lost. So you are not lost, thus, tell me why you are making so much fuss and disturbance? All this emotion, don't you know, it upsets the growing things, the plants, the grasses, the little animals. We can't have it and it has to stop or be stopped." This final statement was a roar so loud that the ground shook.
Amanda's tears had stopped, and her senses were overwhelmed with the sight before her. A real dragon was roaring down at her. The green slimy scales looked like a reptiles' skin. She blew her nose on the hem of her dress trying to compose herself to say something in her defense. Here was the dragon accusing her of upsetting growing things with her tears, but this roar was deafening and clearly far more destructive. She felt thoroughly bullied. What was it her mother had said about bullies?
"Well, little creature, what's your name, what are you and what lodge do you come from?" It bellowed slighly less loudly down at her.
"I'm Amanda Ashford. I am a human being. I live in Somerset. My brother is Rufus Ashford and we live in Westford. Can you help me now?" She asked in her clearest and politest voice.
"Somerset? Somerset? That's not a lodge. How can I find a place that does not exist? Are you playing games with me Mander.? Tell me the lodge, where did you migrate from.? Don't you remember anything?" He bellowed puffing and snorting.
"Somerset doesn't exist?" Shrieked Amanda aghast. "Someset doesn't exist?" She repeated. "But I was lying on the beach golf course in Someset when I went to sleep, and now I'm here and you tell me I migrated from somewhere. Boo-hoo I don't understand. I wish I could wake up. I wish I knew where Rufus went. Oh, I'm so unhappy." She started to wail again and to sob heartily into the hem of her dress.
If she had looked up she would have seen Greengage's green scales produce a luminous orange hue, and smoke start to whisp out between his long daggerlike teeth. The lips, not very plump to begin with, now were thin and stretched taut across the shark-like teeth. His skin, the strangest orange tinged and lime-green color start to sweat a mucousy fluid. He rose up and up above the sobbing Amanda, and pawed at the air before him as if climbing a great ladder in the sky. The smoke coming from his mouth billowed out and then a flash of flame curled around his teeth from inside his mouth.
Amanda saw none of this. She was too busy sniffling into her dress, and feeling such a pain in her heart at the strange turn of events. But just as the dragon reached his full height, she had a sudden insight. Mother had said that bullies cannot bear the truth, the simple, honest naming of what is so. With new vigor Amanda leaped up.
"What does a stupid imaginary dragon know about Somerset, or Rufus or the golf course any way? Why am I listening to this fairy tale creature with his bossy....." Her voice trailed off as she was forced to see the overwhelming size of the dragon in front of her. "Oh - AAAA" She screamed the full volume of her being over and over, her whole body shuddering with each scream.
Each wave of screams shook Greengage like shaking at the roots of a tree. He trembled and shook from head to toe and then roared into the sky so that the trees in the vicinity rocked and the ground shook.
Amanda frozen in fear, suddenly came to life with its deafening roar. She had to run, and run for her very life. Without thinking she shot off into the trees away from the nightmare, bounding over sand dunes and under thorny trees, heading in one direction, away from the noise. But the dragon, being so much bigger, needed only to see the flash of her blond hair to make a few grabs for her leg and in just a few moments he was hoisting Amanda immodestly into the air by one leg.
"Let me down. Let me down. You have no right to chase me and grab me. " She cried out, but the fear in her voice did not give it much effect. And she fell silent, wondering what would happen next.
The dragon held her aloft like this as it strode on two rear legs towards its golf cart. When it got back to the cart, it raised mute and subdued Amanda up to its face where the smell of sulfur from the burning breath, almost made her vomit. "Didn't I tell you not to make so much noise? Didn't I tell you it stops things growing? Don't you understand? We don't allow emotional distress here. You can't cry, weep, sob or express any emotions here. Just to make sure you understand the rules here, you will have to go to Stilland."
Squeezing itself onto the cart, it squished Amanda down between its belly and the steering wheel and proceeded to drive off. The smells, the pressure on her body, the shock of the noises and all the events since she had woken up, had left Amanda weary and worn out. She sat there mutely waiting to see where the dragon would take her. Had she tried, she could have jumped off the cart, but all the shocks had taken their toll on her will power.
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