The small group led by Daisy caught a train into the centre of the city. She knew where the hotel was. On the train, there were all sorts of different looking people: people with no hair, people with pink hair, old women dressed all in black, young women dressed in platform shoes with spiky pink hair, young men in tight pants and no shirts, old men without any teeth. Drake and Juniper stopped to stare at the old man without any teeth. “What’s so interesting?” asked Daisy.

“Dragonfolk all have teeth. Very strong teeth. You’d never see dragonfolk without teeth. We also have really strong fingernails … we’ve noticed how you can chew yours short with your teeth,” said Juniper.

“Check out my fingernails,” said Drake, offering Daisy his hand. She stroked his fingernails and then tapped them.

“They’re like bones! How do you cut them?”

“We have a special cutting every day at school where they trim our wings and our nails with a saw,” explained Drake. They both had quite long fingernails at the moment because they’d missed a few wing-cutting sessions.

“That sounds awful,” exclaimed Daisy. It was just normal to Juniper and Drake. They’d never known anything else.

When they came up and out of the train station, it was as though they were in a different city. Now they were amongst the tall buildings they’d seen stretching across the horizon yesterday. The buildings were massively tall and shiny and well-built. They were far more splendid than anything in Dragonland. The city seemed to be one of extremes. Daisy led the way in and out of the tall building and alleyways gushing with wind and seemed to know exactly where she was going.

“This is it!” she said finally. They stood outside a grand hotel. It was lit up with bright spotlights and had its own little driveway to drop off and pick up passengers. Daisy took them into the lobby. It had a marble floor and giant crystal chandelier, big black leather couches and glass tables.

“Why is this so splendid when you live in a little shack?” asked Drake. Juniper pinched him. He guessed he was being insensitive again but he wanted to know, so he didn’t really care. “Why?” he asked again. Daisy look confused.

“That’s just how it is. Some people have lots and lots of money and other people have hardly any. That’s life.”

“It’s not life in Dragonland,” Drake said, gently. In Dragonland everyone had a comfortable house. People had different ideas of what this meant. For example, Juniper’s parents lived in a cedar cottage near the edge of the woods. Drake and his mum lived in a modern house in a quiet suburban area. Ronan’s mother, with her many children, had run out of space in their little house on the edge of town, so the council had built her some extra rooms and put a little portable house in the yard for Ronan (the oldest child). Dragonfolk took care of dragonfolk. No-one would have been comfortable living in a palace while someone else went without. These ape-people didn’t seem to be very nice — although Daisy was really lovely and generous. It didn’t make much sense to Drake.

“What do we do now? What’s the plan?” asked Juniper.

“We need to know which room they’re keeping my dad in. Any ideas?” Drake asked, turning to Daisy. Daisy walked over to the reception desk and started chatting to the boy on the desk. She came back a few minutes later.

“From the sounds of it, he’s on the twelfth floor, room 212. Charlie on the desk there said there have been two funny-looking men keeping watch at the door. He said they seem harmless.”

“They can’t be harmless if they drugged and kidnapped my dad. We’d better be careful.”

Daisy grinned. Drake could tell that she was a bit like Ronan in that she really liked excitement.

“Ronan and I’ll go up and pretend we’re staying on the floor — you know, looking for a bit of romance.” She winked at Ronan. Juniper and Drake nodded in agreement and Daisy and Ronan disappeared into the lift, hand in hand. Daisy had snuggled her head into Ronan’s chest. She came just up to his armpit. Drake sighed. No girl his age ever came up to his armpit. Even the shortest girls around were the same height as him. Drake and Juniper sat on the couch silently and waited. They both seemed to be deep in thought. A few minutes later Daisy and Ronan returned.

“What’s the story?” asked Drake, rushing over to them.

“The guards are, like, ninety years old. They’re both quite deaf and one of them is blind. I don’t think this will be as hard as we thought.”

“Especially as I’ve already stolen the room access card from the blind one,” laughed Ronan.

“My hero,” said Daisy, still holding his hand. You could let it go now, thought Drake.

Ronan handed Drake the key. “Let’s go and do it. You two get into the room. I’ll pretend I’m having a fit and distract them,” said Daisy. “Ronan, you back me up.”

Drake and Juniper followed Daisy into the lift. Daisy punched the button labelled twelve and the lift jolted upwards. Drake and Juniper had been in lifts in Dragonland but never up twelve floors. Six floors was about the highest they had in their city. Drake was worried that Daisy was underestimating the kidnappers. He didn’t think ninety year olds would be able to manage his dad. He might be a bit out of shape, with one of those pregnant-looking bellies older men get, and maybe his eyesight wasn’t that good and he was a bit clumsy … but still, he could look after himself.

The lift doors flung open and Drake and Juniper immediately recognised the two old men. It was Gerry and Hubert, two of Dragonland’s oldest and most respected elders. Juniper and Drake looked at each other bewildered but didn’t get time to think any further as Daisy threw herself on the ground pounding and screaming and throwing her arms and legs into the air. Ronan ran over to her and joined in the commotion, yelling and screaming and jumping around.

“Quick,” said Drake and grabbed Juniper’s arm leading her to the room. He swiped the access card and they both quickly slid into the hotel room, closing the door promptly behind them. Drake turned to see his father sitting at a table near the window staring at him.

“Drake? How did you get here?”

“Dad, are you okay?” He ran over and fell into his father’s arms.

“I’m fine,” Donny Dramco said, holding his son tight and patting his back. “But are you okay? These kidnappers are likely to be dangerous … I don’t want you to get hurt.” Donny ran his hands through a grey version of Drake’s spiky out of control hair.

“Ummmm, Mr Dramco,” interrupted Juniper, “they don’t seem to be dangerous … it seems that Gerry and Hubert kidnapped you.”

“What? Why would they do that? How would they do that?”

“They drugged you, Dad, and I guess between the two of them dragged you into the car and then here. I’ve no idea about the why,” said Drake.

The door burst open and Daisy and Ronan pushed Hubert and Gerry into the room all tied up in ropes.

“It’s okay! We got them! What do you want me to do with them?” she asked punching her small fist into the air. Ronan stood next to her looking handsome and heroic.

“Sit them down on the chairs over here,” said Donny. “Be gentle. They’re old … although they do deserve a bit of pay back for the bruises all over my body.”

Hubert and Gerry sat obediently in the chairs. Hubert’s hands were shaking. Gerry had tears in his eyes.

“We are so sorry, Donny. We didn’t know what else to do,” said Hubert with a tremor in his voice.

“We are old fools,” added Gerry.

“Drake, could you untie them?” asked Donny. “They’re not going anywhere.”

“And if they try anything, I’ve got the door,” said feisty Daisy, showing them her fist.

“Who is that girl?” asked Donny, looking Daisy up and down.

“A friend,” said Drake. “We couldn’t have found you without her.”

“Then I’m pleased to meet you, Daisy,” said Donny, smiling at her. She smiled back. “So why have you done this?”

“We discovered that you’d travelled out of Dragonland and were about to ruin everything that we’d created to keep you safe,” said Hubert.

“We did it out of love,” croaked Gerry.

“Let me explain everything,” said Hubert.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked Gerry.

“I don’t think we have a choice now, Gerry. Get comfortable everyone. It’s a long story.

“Seventy years ago, Dragonland was founded,” started Hubert.

“But what about Gordon Starpower Dragonfolk?” asked Juniper, who was now sitting cross-legged on the bed with Daisy next to her and Ronan perched with one bottom cheek on the edge of the bed. Drake and Donny were on a couch opposite Gerry and Hubert.

“The monument is a big fake. We created it to make you think that Dragonland had a long history and there was nothing outside Dragonland. Seventy years ago the dragonfolk lived among the ape people … well alongside. We had our own little city within the ape people city. Ape people came to visit, mostly for dinner and during our special celebrations. We went into their city … we had little enclaves within their suburbs where we lived … dragonfolk were part of the city but we also stuck together … but then an illness struck that seemed only to affect dragonfolk. Many millions of dragonfolk died. Yes, there were millions of us back then.

“The sickness made dragonfolk aggressive so that they would breath fire out of control…” Juniper went red. “Affected folk would burn the skin off ape people for no reason before they went off by themselves and died painful deaths. Needless to say, the ape people became very suspicious of us and some even started to hunt us down and kill us. Something had to be done. So, with the help of the ape people leaders, dragonfolk created an isolated city and any folk who hadn’t been infected by the virus — you could do a blood test to see — were sent to Dragonland to build a new civilisation.”

“What happened to the folk with the disease,” asked Juniper looking horrified, and letting out a tiny little fire burp as she spoke.

“It was a very sad time for all of us. We all had family who were affected. Folk with the virus were taken to a government facility, which was very comfortable with lots of great food and television to watch, where they waited for their disease to come on. It happened very quickly …”

Juniper, Drake and Ronan all looked sick. Donny’s expression didn’t change, as though he already knew this. Daisy smiled sweetly at them, with an ever so slight frown forming between her green eyes.

“That’s why we wanted to protect you from this and Juniper you know your little Tourette issue is nothing to do with this,” interrupted Gerry, seeing their faces. Juniper looked slightly less sick. Hubert continued with the story.

“So we created this city and everyone who lived there decided that they wanted to protect their children from the truth and create a kind of Utopia. We created the monument and wrote our own history books, with stories about the world being small and flat. Of course the world is round.”

“Actually, it’s an oblate spheroid,” interrupted Gerry. Hubert shrugged and continued.

“We closed ourselves off from the outside world. They didn’t want us, anyway. And they did the same thing. They wrote us out of their history books … as though we had never existed. For a long time, Dragonland was guarded by ape people. The Quintas were released to fly through the desert and keep people out. They were pretty effective. And then ten years ago we got Donny here to create a force field.”

“But mostly we kept people away from the edges by telling stories … by making up stories about how dangerous it was,” added Gerry.

“So you clipped our wings … you put blinkers on us,” Drake yelled angrily, standing up. “You treated us like mushrooms, put us in a dark room and fed us on …”

“Drake!” interrupted Donny Dramco. Drake sat down again, pouting.

“I know,” agreed Hubert. “We tried to preserve the dragonfolk and instead we pickled their brains. Folk like that moron Peter Roche are running the place. Idiots. Non-thinkers. The IQ of the entire dragonfolk civilisation has dropped by 10 per cent.”

“So why did you kidnap me?” asked Donny.

“We are old fools,” said Hubert. “We found out you’ve been travelling in and out of the city and panicked. We got your secretary to help drug you — we’ve done her a favour recently and she owed us. That coffee she made you had a little something special in it. Then she helped us to get you down to the car and we drove you to the city.”

“Is this true, Dad?” asked Drake, bitterly. “If you knew there was a city beyond Dragonland, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I figured it out while I was working on the force field. I was still deciding what to do with the information,” said Donny with little emotion in his voice.

Suddenly all the anger Drake had pushed away each time his dad had disappointed him came bubbling to the surface. He put his face up to his father’s, almost nose to nose.

“You could at least sound sorry!” he yelled. “You lied to me. You put your work before me. Again and again and again and you made me feel as if I just wasn’t good enough. And I felt like I wasn’t good enough for anyone. If I wasn’t good enough for my dad to hang out with, then why would anyone want to hang out with me? It’s all your fault. It’s your fault I don’t have friends at school. It’s your fault I’m short too. Look at you!” Drake suddenly stopped in the middle of his ranting and stood silently, mouth open. He realised he sounded just like his mother and suddenly he understood her. He realised that he’d blamed her for the divorce when it was at least equally his father’s fault. He wasn’t ever there for either of them. Donny went pale and looked as though he wanted the earth to swallow him up.

“What happens now?” asked Juniper, staring intently at the two old men, and taking the opportunity to distract Drake and Donny. Drake noticed Gerry give Hubert a little nod and show him a little device he was holding. Drake swallowed hard. He had figured out that they had activated a kind of security device. At the same moment as his realisation, the door swung open and two huge men stormed through the door. The man on the left had an enormous, long face and a very fat neck. With his neck the same width as his face, he looked like a giant sausage. Drake nicknamed him Sausage-head. The man on the right was covered in muscle and had a round red face with a squashed little mouth that was all wrinkled up like a monkey’s bottom. Drake nicknamed him Monkey-bottom-face. Sausage-head and Monkey-bottom-face looked menacing and when Sausage-head spoke it was a growl.

“Youse better come with us without a struggle or we’ll squash you,” he growled.

“Where are you taking us?” asked Donny.

“Nowhere terrible,” he said, “if that’s what you’re thinking. We just need to keep you safe while the authorities decide how to deal with the situation.” None of them moved.

“Look what happened last time they decided to deal with the situation. They sent a whole lot of dragonfolk to a building to die,” whispered Juniper. Donny nodded in agreement. Somehow, they all seemed to be thinking the same thing. Drake noticed Ronan had twisted a sheet around his arm. “Now,” yelled Ronan as he ran towards the window and smashed it with his sheet-covered arm. The window shattered, leaving clear access to the sky above. Ronan grabbed Daisy around the middle and launched into the sky making a clean getaway. Juniper quickly shot through the window, darting around the now frantic Sausage-head as he tried to grab her. Drake grabbed Donny, wobbling with his weight as he tried to fly upwards. Donny’s weight made him slow and Monkey-bottom was only centimetres away. He flapped ferociously and made a little ground but Monkey-bottom leapt upwards, grabbing Donny’s leg and dragging them backwards. Drake saw Juniper dart beneath them. She let out a frightening roar and fire shot out, burning Monkey-bottom’s arms and causing him to fall to the ground in pain. Drake gathered up some momentum and flew with increasing speed up into the sky. They flew as quickly as they all could, staying close together, until they reached the edge of the desert and then Drake followed Ronan down to the ground. He landed with a thud and let Donny fall onto the ground. Donny clumsily landed on his bottom. Juniper landed lightly next to him.

Standing at the edge of the desert, Donny put his arm around Drake.

“You kids are amazing. I never imagined you’d be able to save me on your own. I thought you’d go straight to your mum or my work … but you’ve done all this yourself. And if you hadn’t, who knows what would have happened to me?” Drake smiled at Donny, feeling a bit uncomfortable at all the praise, and then looked in turn at Ronan, Juniper and Daisy.

“What now, guys? I guess we get ourselves back to Dragonland,” said Drake.

“I’m not going back with you. There’s nothing back in Dragonland for me. I like it here,” said Ronan. He put his arm around Daisy, who blushed.

“I’d like you to change your mind, Ronan. Really. I know it has been safe for you but it won’t be now. People, scary people, now know that there have been dragonfolk in the city. The Quintas have come in with us and hurt lots of people. People will be scared and when people are scared … Please come back with us … I really don’t want to have to force you,” said Donny.

It was pretty funny hearing Donny Dramco threatening Ronan like this. Parents just always thought they had all the control. Donny was barely over five foot, tubby and unfit. Ronan stood six foot tall, like a warrior. His huge black wings opened, with just a little arched majestically over his head. His once shaved head had grown back into soft, dark curls and when he smiled at Donny, he looked like a powerful angel and not necessarily a good angel. Ronan definitely had a darker side.

“Mr Dramco, no disrespect but there’s nothing you can do. Bye guys. Hope you make it okay. Give the Quintas a smackin’ for me,” he said and hugged Juniper and Drake in turn.

“Juniper,” he said to her hugging her, “I think of you like a sister.” Juniper’s mouth dropped from a smile to a fixed line. “And Drake, you know, you’ve become like a nerdy brother.” Drake wished he hadn’t added the word nerdy but smiled at him anyway and gave him a firm handshake.

“Dais’, you coming?” An obviously love-struck Daisy hugged them all goodbye, including Donny. Drake looked at Daisy closely and then looked at Juniper standing next to her. Daisy’s large green eyes were very pretty but they didn’t have the depth of Juniper’s brown eyes. Juniper’s face had so much expression. From compassion to horror, she hid nothing. Daisy on the other hand hid behind a sweet smile and Drake had no idea what she was really thinking. Drake was okay about Ronan and Daisy getting together and this surprised him. Drake noticed Juniper looking back at him and he quickly looked away. Ronan swooped Daisy onto his back and launched himself into the air. Drake watched as Ronan and Daisy disappeared into the distance.

They looked into the sky, already tinged with an evening shade of pink, to see a hoard of Quintas circling around, swirling angrily in figure eights. Recent events seemed to have riled them up.

“Now, I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but I’ve heard, and I saw it on a map when I was building the force field … there’s a cavernous section of the desert that continues right through to Dragonland. If we find it we can just walk through, sheltered by the walks of the rocky cavern. There’s no way the Quintas would be able to get into such a small space,” Donny said, rubbing his chin and nodding knowledgably.

“I’ve heard about it in stories,” said Juniper, wide-eyed. “And I’ve heard that the pathway is guarded by witches.”

“There’re no such things as witches, Juniper,” Donny jumped in before she had even finished the word. His tone was patronising. Men of science like him did not believe in witches. Drake hadn’t even been read fairytales as a child because as his father had explained to four-year-old Drake, a young child’s mind has no way to distinguish between fact and fantasy. Instead he read him stories about boys on adventures in the wilderness. Four-year-old Drake had pointed out to his father that young dragonfolk boys didn’t go on adventures in the wilderness either, so that was also fantasy. Donny didn’t have an answer to that.

“Let’s go and see what we can find,” said Drake. “We’d better get moving before it gets dark.”

They trudged through the dry red sand using Donny’s pocket compass to ensure that they were heading east and not going around in circles.

Before long, in the distance they saw the jagged edges of the rocky cavern. The sight of rocks in the distance quickened their pace, putting a visible skip in Drake’s step, and they made it to the entrance in minutes.

Rocks at the entrance to the pathway were piled upon each other so you could almost imagine the plates of land colliding together thousands of years ago. They were stacked tall with an opening so high up that Juniper had to stand on Donny’s shoulders to crawl through. Donny then beckoned Drake to do the same.

“Dad, you’ll never be able to get up on your own. I can fly myself up and crawl through. You climb on my shoulders.”

Donny shrugged in acceptance as Drake leaned against the rocks and Donny used his body as a stepladder. Drake grimaced as he felt his father’s full weight on his shoulders. It was the second time that day that he’d had to carry his father’s weight and his muscles ached. He was definitely going to do something to encourage his father to lose some lard once they got back to Dragonland. Donny shuffled into the hole and disappeared. Drake only used the smallest flutter of his wings to help lift him into the cavern. All the flying had really improved his upper body strength. He’d probably even be able to climb the ropes in gym now.

Once all three were in the cavern, they looked at the path before them. It was evening so the light was dimming and the rocks blocked out more of the light, making it difficult to see. The pathway though was smooth and had been cleared of rocks. It was easy to follow.

“Cleared by witches,” Juniper muttered so that only Drake could hear.

They walked quickly and quietly, Juniper first, followed by Donny and Drake coming up last. They had achieved a steady rhythmic pace and made quite a distance when the air became thick with fog, causing them to slow down. The fog gave the air a chill and meant they could see little further than their feet in front of them. They continued without mentioning it as if there were no point. They couldn’t turn back.

A sudden cackle cut through the stillness sending Donny flying into the air and Drake tumbling over him. When they both clambered back up, Juniper was standing in front of three women dressed all in black. Their black shrouds framed their lined faces, long noses and frizzy hair.

“We are the witches of the wasteland,” cackled one witch, her face visibly more lined than the others.

Donny was shaking like a leaf, while Drake was frozen in one spot, statuesque. Only Juniper seemed to be functioning.

“We mean you no harm,” she said in a soft voice. “We just want to go home.” The witches’ faces softened as she spoke and then grimaced back into their surly selves as she finished.

“We’ll let you pass if you solve this riddle,” said the oldest witch.

“And if we can’t solve it?” asked Donny, his voice wavering.

“Then we’ll eat you for dinner,” cackled the shortest witch, standing up on her tiptoes to appear more menacing.

“Not all of you,” added the third witch, her voice more singsong than cackle. “We’ll just eat your legs and send you home on broomsticks, legless, as a warning to others not to cross us.”

“Yes, just your legs will do. I make a delicious sweet and sour dragonleg stew,” added the old witch. “If you’re polite we’ll ask you to join us.”

“Join you in eating our own legs?” asked an incredulous Drake, his face screwed up.

“Can you just give us the riddle now?” asked Donny. He was confident he’d be able to solve it.

“Stand in a row, facing the back of each other, like this,” said the short witch, pushing them into place. Juniper stood at the front of the line. Donny stood behind her and Drake at the back. “Do not turn around. You can only look at the people in front of you. Now, kneel down.” They each knelt down and she put a hat on each of their heads. Drake standing at the back could see that Donny was wearing a white hat and Juniper was wearing a red hat.

“If one of you can guess the colour of the hat on your head, we will let you go. But before you answer, you must keep standing in this line. You cannot turn around.”

“We do have a hint for you,” said the sing song witch. “There are only red hats and white hats. At least one hat is red. At least one hat is white.”

Drake silently looked at the hats in front of him. How could he possibly know the answer? If they had one of each colour, his could be either colour. He felt sick. They were too close to reaching home to be trapped by these witches. He wasn’t sure that they’d really eat his legs, but he didn’t want to test it. After a minute’s silence Donny spoke up.

“I’m wearing a white hat,” he said, his voice no longer shaking. He sounded sure of himself and Drake felt relieved. You could always count on his dad to solve a puzzle. He couldn’t pull himself up a wall but he could solve any riddle.

“That’s right,” said the old witch, also sounding relieved. “Off you go then.” The witches stood aside and let them walk through.

“Stop!” said the short witch sharply and they all did. “Could I have the hats back, please?” Drake breathed again and all three whipped off their hats and raced off down the path. Once they were a safe distance, Drake tapped his dad on the shoulder.

“How did you know what colour hat you were wearing?” he asked.

“Because you didn’t solve the riddle. If I’d been wearing a red hat like Juniper, you would have immediately known that you were the only one wearing a white hat.”

“Ah, of course!” said Drake, still impressed.

“You were right about witches being real, Juniper,” Donny said to her.

“You know what, Mr Dramco, I don’t think they really were witches. I think they’re pretending to be to scare people away. They really didn’t seem to be genuinely nasty and it was all a bit too much like a fairytale storybook. Don’t you think, Drake?”

“I don’t know about the fairytale bit because I’ve never read any but I definitely trust your judgement on people,” answered Drake.

Drake was deep in thought for the rest of the walk out of the cavern. A lot had changed in the last week and he needed to sort his head out. Dragonland had turned out not to be the only city in the world and his dad had turned out to be just another dragonfolk dad and not the superhero that he’d thought he was. Drake could still see his strengths. He was creative and clever. But he could now also see his weaknesses. He was obsessive and was always so focused on his latest invention that the world around him disappeared, including Drake and his mum.

They reached the end of the cavern and stepped out into the forest at the edge of Dragonland. Drake looked at Juniper and his dad and breathed out heavily. They were back in familiar territory. Drake finally felt safe. The carefully controlled environment inside the force field was optimised to be super comfortable for dragonfolk. Drake had never noticed this before but it became very obvious after leaving and coming back. The slight burning sensation on his skin had disappeared. A hot stinging sensation he’d felt as he breathed the harsh ape-city air had gone. The air gently lapped into his mouth like water up onto an ocean beach.

“It’s still a long way back from here,” said Juniper. “We should just fly back … land in the oval at the school.”

“What time is it?” Drake asked Donny.

Donny looked at his watch. “Half past six,” he said. “Why?”

“We can land on the school oval and no-one will be there.” Juniper nodded in agreement. She still wanted a landing spot with a bit of space. Landing was definitely the hardest part of flying. Drake sighed to himself as Donny climbed onto his back. He was definitely going to get his dad to shout him a massage. His muscles were going to kill him tomorrow. Juniper darted up into the sky and Drake and Donny wobbled after her.

As they flew into the orange evening sky, it was only minutes before the oval came into view but it wasn’t empty, as they had planned. It was full of people, large vehicles, and tents. Drake sidled up next to Juniper.

“Do we still land there?” he asked. By this time someone had looked up and was pointing at them in the sky. Soon all the faces on the oval had turned upwards and the excited chatter buzzed up into the sky.

“Yes,” said Juniper. “We had better just fly down and land. I think I can see my mum and dad.” Drake could see his mum too and couldn’t wait to get down there and into her arms. He had only just realised now how much he had missed her. She might be a bit overprotective and she might treat him as if he were a baby, but she was always there for him. As they flew down towards the oval, circling closer and closer, Drake heard a group of kids talking.

“Is it a bird?”

“Maybe a plane?”

“No way. Look at the red boots and the cape …”

“No, it’s not a bird or a plane … it’s Dragonboy,”

Drake heard Barry Reed say. He could see him looking upwards with his puffy mouth wide open. Drake no longer needed his dad to be a super hero. He could just be a dad, with strengths and weakness like any other, because Drake was now a super hero himself.