Tad Williams - The Dragons of Ordinary Farm

It felt like she was in a movie, one of those special-effects epics that she had to go see when it was Tyler’s turn to pick. Lucinda was looking at a stretched-out shape that almost entirely filled the massive steel pen running down the far side of the room, a scaly shape the size of a small jet plane. Even though she had been expecting something to fit Tyler’s word, monster, her brain couldn’t make sense of the immense thing in front of her. It was a giant robot, maybe, some kind of theme-park attraction, but it couldn’t be real.

It lifted its huge head on its huge neck and looked back at her with snaky yellow eyes almost as big as hubcaps. Nothing else, Lucinda found out, was as convincing as actual eye contact.

Her shrieks didn’t seem to bother the creature much. Its yellow eyes followed her, but without much obvious interest, as she stumbled backward toward the door and slammed into Colin Needle, who had just walked into the Sick Barn.

She fell down at Colin’s feet, still staring helplessly at the monster and trying to remember how to breathe. He didn’t bother to help her up, but the big farmhand Ragnar did.

“Don’t fear,” Ragnar said. “She will not harm you.”

“It’s a monster!” Lucinda shouted.

“See? I told you!” Tyler had stopped a good dozen feet from the pen to stare, which was clear evidence of how frightened he still was. But he was shaking with excitement too. “See! It is a real dinosaur. I wasn’t lying!”

“Don’t be stupid,” Colin said. “That’s not a dinosaur.”

“Have you children forgotten all the stories?” Ragnar sounded almost sad.

The monster in the pen stirred and the immense leathery flaps folded against her long front legs scraped along her scales. Wings.

“Oh my God,” said Lucinda, almost in a whisper, not talking to anyone but herself. “It’s a dragon. It’s a real, true dragon.”

Colin pushed past her. “Why are you showing them the Sick Barn?” he demanded of Ragnar. “Why didn’t anyone tell me you were all coming here? I’m going to tell Gideon.”

“He’s here,” said Mrs. Needle, pointing to the corner of the room where the old man in the striped bathrobe was talking quietly with Mr. Walkwell. “And we didn’t tell you because I thought you needed your rest.”

Colin scowled like a three-year-old about to throw a tantrum, but turned away instead. Uncle Gideon was coming back toward them, but Lucinda didn’t think that was the only reason Colin wasn’t arguing with his mother.

Gideon’s voice rose sharply and suddenly. “Here now, boy! What’s-your-name-Tyler! Don’t get too close to her. She hasn’t been feeling well.”

Tyler had been moving steadily forward, drawn toward the huge creature as though hypnotized. He looked like he was over his fear and into his I-wonder-how-it-works phase, something that usually spelled trouble for anything that interested him. Lucinda felt a clutch of fear. If he got eaten, how would she explain it to Mom?

It really was a dragon. There was no avoiding the fact, no arguing with it. Lucinda couldn’t see every detail because much of the creature’s body was hidden by the metal rails of the pen, but unless there was some normal kind of animal longer than a school bus that had scales and fangs and wings, then she, Lucinda Anne Jenkins, was standing in the same room as…

“A dragon,” she said again, loud this time, finally starting to feel the wonder of it all.

“She certainly is,” Uncle Gideon said. “I will introduce you to her-and I do mean introduce. This is a dragon, not just some kind of giant lizard or crocodile. You must treat her with respect. Her name is Meseret.”

“Un-be-lievable!” Tyler was bouncing up and down again. “This is so awesome! Where did she come from?”

Uncle Gideon scowled. “ That, at least, you’re going to have to wait for until I’m ready, boy.” He was still frowning as he said, “Now step forward carefully. That’s right. Just stand and let her smell you.”

Tyler and Lucinda had moved up to within a couple of feet of the bars. The dragon’s nostrils twitched like little volcanoes getting ready to erupt. It was all Lucinda could do not to run away. The smell, the size-she was terrified.

“Move slowly and quietly, will you?” said Gideon. “She has very little experience of human children. In fact, as far as we know, before today she hasn’t met any except Colin.”

“Poor dragon,” said Tyler, too quietly for anyone but Lucinda to hear.

The dragon fixed Lucinda with an emotionless stare. The huge eye glowed with red-gold light like the coals of a fire, and for a moment it seemed something Lucinda could fall into, fall forever, twisting helplessly downward… She backed away, knowing that if she didn’t she’d scream again. “This is too weird,” she said. “Everybody here’s acting like… like this is all normal! Like it’s… ”

“Ordinary?” asked Uncle Gideon, the light winking off his spectacles. He looked amused and angry at the same time, a strange combination. “Yes, I’m afraid the name of the farm is a trifle deceptive.”

“Oh, man-flaming cows!” Tyler said, laughing a little wildly. “Flaming cows! Now I get it!”

Uncle Gideon nodded. “Ah, you did receive the book, then. I was worrying I’d missed getting it in the mail in time. Good. Obviously it’s not really about cows. And I do want you to memorize it. They’re not at all like ordinary animals, dragons.”

Lucinda felt like her head was going to blow up. “But this can’t be real! If this was really true, it would be in the news… people would know… it would be on television!”

Without warning something grabbed her arm, and a second later she and Tyler were both being dragged across the Sick Barn by Uncle Gideon. He was holding her wrist so tightly her bones ached, and his face had gone red with anger. When they got out into the glare of the outside spotlights he abruptly let go. They both staggered. From the corner of her eye Lucinda registered the others coming out of the Sick Barn, too, but no one said anything.

Gideon stood in front of them, and he didn’t just look like an eccentric old man in a bathrobe anymore. He looked really mad and really scary. “Now you listen to me,” he said in a voice that trembled with fury. “You have no idea- no idea, I tell you -of the great privilege you have received in being invited to this place. And yet I find that the first thing you two do when you get here is abuse my hospitality. You, boy, do exactly what you are told not to do. You were told not to leave the house, weren’t you?”

“I warned him, sir,” said Colin. He sounded pleased.

“And then you, girl, start telling me this place should be on television.” Gideon made a sputtering noise, like a snake about to bite. “You have been here five minutes and you would give away our hard-won secrets to a society of idiots and thieves, would you?”

“No, I didn’t… ” she began, but there was no stopping Gideon Goldring.

“I cannot tell you how deeply disappointed I am in my first impressions of you both. Moreover, you just confirm my worst fears. Once people have been allowed into Ordinary Farm, there’s no control-no control at all! Yes, children, if you haven’t guessed, I am very, very angry.”

Tears sprang into Lucinda’s eyes and her heart hammered. She looked to Tyler, but he had his head down, avoiding Uncle Gideon’s eyes. Her little brother wouldn’t argue, but he wouldn’t give in, either. He was too stubborn for that.

“Give me your hands,” Gideon said, suddenly and loudly. “Right now! You are going to swear me an oath.”

Lucinda saw the mouths of some of the others fall open in shock. She looked at Tyler.

“ Now! ” roared Gideon.