Will's Galactic Adventure (6 page)

The screen on the wall of the control deck showed the disc of Earth glowing beneath them. Will had never been very enthusiastic about geography but even he could recognise the shape of Africa as it slid silently into view. The dragon ship
Brenda
was orbiting the Earth, moving from east to west. The sun had risen for the people in Africa beneath them now and the world turned to darkness as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The skies were clear as they crossed the eastern seaboard of the United States and below them they could see the twinkling lights that marked the positions of all those famous cities that Will had seen on television but never visited: Washington, Boston, New York. Of course, Will didn't know which was which but he was too caught up in the spectacle of the view to worry about little details like that.

Time passed and they crossed the western coast of America – were those lights down there San Francisco? – and headed out over the Pacific. Here the skies were less clear and as the sun rose again Will saw the great swirling cloud mass that indicated a hurricane. Mr Frobisher, who prided himself on being correct in all things, would have pointed out that strictly speaking what Will could see over the Pacific Ocean was a typhoon. It would only have been a hurricane if it had been over the Atlantic Ocean. Either way, it would be very windy and very rough if you were down there in a boat – so whatever the storm was called, Will was better off seeing it from above, safely inside
Brenda.

Several orbits passed and
Brenda
was clearly getting lower now; slower too. The course altered slightly to the north as the dragon ship left the Pacific behind, crossing Asia and, ever lower, Europe. As they crossed into the skies over England it was getting dark again, although Will didn't know it was England because the skies were cloudy below. Then the skies were cloudy all round as
Brenda
got lower still.

Finally, at the end of their journey, the dragon ship
Brenda
settled gently on to the heather of the Welsh hillside. The big screen on the wall of the control deck was still working but outside it was so dark and misty that there was nothing to be seen.

“Where are we?” asked Will.

“Back where we started, Will. Back in Wales,” answered Drych.

“I'm a bit worried about finding old Frobisher again and having to explain where I've been all this time.”

“Let's have a look,” said Drych. “The sensors that this screen uses can penetrate the dark and the mist.”

Slowly the screen began to brighten. Firstly to show just the swirling grey mist, then that too disappeared to reveal the scene outside. Over to the right was the cowshed where Will, Mr Frobisher and the geography class were supposed to be spending their week. To the left, sitting huddled in their walking clothes and looking extremely miserable, were Mr Frobisher and his pupils.

“Why on Earth are they sitting out there in the cold and wet?” Will was astonished. “They're only about fifty metres from the cowshed. Why don't they go inside?”

“They're still lost. Just like they were when I found you,” said Drych. “Whatever he might choose to think, your Mr Frobisher does not appear to be the most skilful mountaineer. He apparently does not realise that his shelter is only fifty metres away. They appear to have been sitting there for some time.”

“But that was ages ago! Hours, days even! I don't know – but too long to be sitting around in the cold and wet.”

“Well…” answered Drych, “Yes and no.”

“Remember we said that dragons aren't all quite in this dimension?” said Mavis. “Well they can sort of bend time. Not travel through it you understand. Just bend it a bit. I expect that as far as they are concerned it's not much later than when that sheep knocked you off the path.”

“I think about an hour,” confirmed Drych. “An hour and ten minutes at the most.”

“OK. I suppose that's a relief. At least I won't have to explain why I haven't been around for ages.” Suddenly Will had a horrible thought. “I won't have to explain will I? They can't see
Brenda
can they?”

“Course not,” said Spiv. “Pitch dark outside and anyway that mist's as thick as anything. Well not anything. The mists on Broomtinkle Seven are even thicker. Well known for the thickness of its mists, Broomtinkle Seven is. They're mists of sulphuric acid, o'course, so they might not count.”

“Spiv.”

“Wot, Mavis.”

“Be quiet!”

“Just trying to educate the lad. Might need to know that one day, ‘e might. Never know when he might fetch up on Broomtinkle Seven. Wouldn't do to be nipping out for a quick stroll only to find the mists was sulphuric acid. Spoil ‘is ‘ole day, that could. Be glad I'd mentioned it then, ‘e would. So would you for that matter. If you fetched up there and didn't know about it either, on account of not listening to me proper.”

“Will,” said Mavis, ignoring Spiv, “don't worry, they don't know we're here.
Brenda
is quite silent and it's so foggy and dark outside that they won't have seen us.”

“An' anyway, from what you've said, I reckon that your Mr Frobisher must be some distant relative of that old shepherd,” chuckled Spiv. “Wouldn't have seen us even if we'd landed right on top of him in broad daylight wiv' a brass band accompaniment.”

“Come on,” said Drych, “it's time to return you to where you belong. Follow me.”

Drych led them out of the control room and back along the corridor. He stopped by a piece of wall that looked just like any other piece of wall.

“We need to turn out the light so that they don't spot us. Get ready.” Instantly the light went out and at the same time the wall slid open and down to make a ramp. Will could see about two metres in front of him in the gloom.

“Follow me” whispered Drych.

“Best do ‘as ‘e says, young Will. And stay close. Very good night vision, dragons.” Then more quietly, so that only Will could hear, “Comes from spendin' half their lives ‘aving to peer through smoke.”

There was a hiss from Drych. Perhaps Will wasn't the only one to hear after all.

They moved off down the ramp and soon Will was squelching through the all too familiar mud again. Suddenly Drych stopped and Will bumped in to the back of him.

“Round here, Will. Here's the door to your… accommodation.”

Will worked his way around Drych, found the latch and opened the door. Inside it was freezing. Someone pushed past him.

“Colder'n the methane bogs o' Parkyblast Three in ‘ere. An' damper than a swamp on Gloobdrippy.”

Will wondered if the swamps on Gloobdrippy were damper than the mists of Broomtinkle Seven but thought better of asking.

“Could do with a bit of a fire to warm it up,” continued Spiv.

“Stand aside. The door's too small for me to squeeze through but I can just as easily light a fire from here,” said Drych.

“Just make sure you don't burn the whole blooming place down, then. Wait a minute, I think I've got a bit of kindling here.” There was a rustling from the fireplace. “Go on then. Mind me!”

Instantly one of Drych's white hot, pencil-thin flames shot through the door. The logs on the hearth burst into flame and Will thought he just caught a glimpse of a handful of photographs curling up in the heat before they too got swallowed up in the fire.

“Smashin'. Be like toast in no time.”

“Speaking of toast, I thought that you and your friends might need something to eat. Especially your friends, judging by the state of them,” said Mavis. “So I've just been back to
Brenda
to find these.”

Mavis placed two huge wicker baskets onto the table.

“How did you find your way in the dark without Drych?” asked Will.

“You should know by now that the oath prevents me from revealing the secret ninja ways,” she replied.

“Wool,” said Spiv. “Do a lot of knitting, the Ninja Tea Shop Ladies. Between customers on wet afternoons. I expect she tied a length of wool to
Brenda
then reeled it out on the way.”

“Hmph! Anyway, there's tea, coffee, soup, sausage rolls, sandwiches, scones and a few cakes. The warm things should be OK for a few minutes if you want to go and fetch your friends. You won't get lost, just fifty metres or so along the path to your right as you come out of the door.”

“We'll return to
Brenda
,” said Drych. “But we won't go until we're sure that you and your friends are all safely back here.”

Will was suddenly very sad.

“Will I ever see you all again?” he asked. His voice was quavering.

“Course! Now you know all about us. There's no getting away from the Ninja Tea Shop Ladies once you know about them. Always wanting you to do something for them – mind the shop while they're off chasing criminals ‘an that. Getting the kettle on for when they come back. Don't you worry young Will, you'll be hearing from us. In fact, I was just thinking that I ‘appen to know of a nice little job going that would just suit a bright young lad like…”

“Spiv!” Mavis interrupted. “Not another one of your schemes! The boy needs to finish at school before he starts thinking about jobs. There'll be plenty of time for that later. Or not, if he's got half the sense I think he has.” She turned to Will. “But he is right about one thing – you haven't seen the last of us.”

“'Aven't seen me at all,” chuckled the voice somewhere behind Will.

“We'll meet again, Will. According to the oath I should warn you not to tell anyone about all this – but you've got enough sense for that anyway.”

“Of course,” said Will. “No one would believe it anyway.”

“It happened though. And we'll be back to remind you about it one day – just in case you start to think it was all a dream.”

With that, Mavis, Drych and (presumably) Spiv turned and disappeared into the mist.

After a couple of minutes, Will left the cowshed and walked the fifty metres to find the huddled figures of Mr Frobisher and the class. Fortunately the singing had stopped sometime during the last hour or so. When he arrived, Will was munching a hot sausage roll.

“Well, are you lot coming back to the cowshed or what?”

A dozen pairs of eyes fixed on the sausage roll. Then a dozen questions started to come from the group:

“Where…?”

“What…?”

“How…?”

“Why…?”

“Is it…?”

Will put up his hands. “Shush – it's freezing out here. Let's go inside and talk about it later. While you lot have been practising your mountain survival skills I've managed to find a few things to eat and drink and there's a fire going back at the cowshed.”

Mr Frobisher finally found his voice. “Will's quite right. Shelter's the important thing. You did well there, Will. I hope the rest of you have all learned something about survival in the wilderness here. I was waiting to see if more of you would come up with a plan but it looks as if Will was the only one. Couple of minutes more and I would have had to take over myself.”

Yeah, right!
thought Will.

Will led the bedraggled group back to the cowshed. In two minutes they were all inside, pitching into Mavis' picnic baskets and huddling round the fire. Just before he closed the door, Will took one last look outside and, making sure that none of the class was looking his way, raised his arm and waved in the general direction of where he thought
Brenda
to be. He couldn't see anything, but he thought that he felt the softest waft of mist into his face, as if a large shape not too far away had risen silently in the darkness.

Back inside the group looked much more cheerful and the shed was filling up with steam rising from all the sodden clothing.

“Tuck in everyone,” encouraged Will, not that they needed any encouragement. “If I remember rightly there was a little tea shop in the last village that we came through on the way here. Mr Frobisher can drive us down in the morning. Somehow, just this once, I don't think we'll have any trouble getting the tea shop ladies to make a nice fry-up breakfast for a dozen noisy, muddy school kids!”