Jens Hoffmann - Simon Knox and the Prophecy of Asragur

"No, I didn't. It was stuck in the roof under my window on Monday morning. I had a feeling that someone was at my window during the night. And just imagine, my Mum also heard something. It could be that I imagined the whole thing and there might be a simple explanation for how this piece came to be on our roof", he told him and nibbled on his ice cream. Richie played with the platelet in his hand and looked at Simon thoughtfully.

"So it was under your window ledge? OK, let me think a minute. One thing I can tell you for sure. It is definitely the scale of an animal. I guess we can rule out a fish. A fish would not simply jump out of the water and make its way along a few streets up onto the roof."

Simon scratched, clueless. "But what else could it have been?", he asked. "There aren't that many scaly animals on earth, are there?"

"No, there aren't", Richie replied deep in thought.

"I only know of lizards, snakes or ..." He paused and Simon looked at him with eyes wide open. "Dragons!", he blurted out.

"Dragons in Portsmouth?", Simon said amazed and looked at Richie incredulously. "Sure, Rich. That's the brightest idea of all! About as likely as fish climbing upon the roof", Simon laughed.

"It was just an idea", Richie snarled, a little offended.

"It changed colours", Simon added, "on Monday it was radiant white and shimmered like a pearl. Since then it has turned to a light blue". However it was clear that this information did Richie as good as it did himself. And so for now he returned the scale to his backpack.

When they finished their ice cream, they decided to postpone their trip to the cliffs in the moor till the next day. They were running late and didn’t want to keep Aunt Abygale waiting with the meal and they also had to set up the tent for the night. So they grabbed their backpacks, ambled over to their bicycles and took their time riding back to Greenwood Castle.

When they got back to the house, they saw that Professor Dawson had brought Richie's things. They were neatly arranged to the right of the staircase in the hallway. According to Aunt Aby, they had enjoyed good conversation with a cup of tea and a few cucumber sandwiches. After he had admired her rose beds and was given politely-formulated advice about how holidays should be made suitable for children, she went into the kitchen to prepare dinner for her young guests, pleased with herself and the rest of the world.

Dinner consisted of a huge stack of lamb chops, corn on the cob with butter, freshly baked bread, salad and her famous peach pudding for desert. Following dinner and an exciting story by Aunt Abygale, the two boys made their way to the garden to set up camp under the old oak tree, loaded down with provisions, sleeping bags, covers, a flashlight and lanterns. The old tent had seen better days, that was for sure. It smelled a bit moldy, was stained and had mended tears here and there. But it would keep out wind and rain just as it had many years ago when Simon's great aunt, together with her husband, had traveled around the world.

Chapter 3

The two friends set up their camp. A light wind was coming up, so it might turn chilly in the night. But that wouldn't ruin the adventure. They both wore thick sweaters and also took their jackets into the tent.

It turned dark and Simon and Richie were stretched out on their sleeping bags, gluing pictures into their album by the light of the lantern. Over in the house, Aunt Abygale had turned off the lights an hour before and the small estate was in ghostly darkness. In the back part of the garden, something rustled near the gorse bushes.

"What was that?" Richie said with a jolt and looked at Simon anxiously.

"No idea", he said and continued to nibble on his chocolate cookie and busy himself with his ships. "It was surely a rabbit", Simon said absently.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right", Richie calmed down some.

There was a rustling in the bushes again. It was so loud this time that even Simon was alarmed and looked up from his photo album. Twigs snapped. And then all was quiet again.

"I don't think a rabbit would make so much noise hopping through the bushes", Richard commented, his heart beating for fear. "Maybe we should better sleep in the house", he suggested and drew back into the tent.

"It could have been a fox", it occurred to Simon, knowing right away that this information wouldn't calm Richie down much. Especially since he wasn't sure himself and was also a bit nervous.

"Let's have a look", he suggested all of a sudden and grabbed his flashlight. Richie looked at him incredulously and instead of jumping up to look into matter, he entrenched himself in his sleeping bag.

"Come on, Richie, don't be a scaredy cat!" Simon prompted, shining his flashlight around in the dark garden. Richie anxiously moved a little closer to the opening of the tent when suddenly there was a rustling in the bush again. But this time they clearly heard wheezing.

From one moment to the next, the boys were terror-stricken. They carefully leaned out of the tent and pointed the flashlight in the direction of where they thought the strange noises were coming from.

The two friends froze and Richie nearly peed his pants for fear. Two green eyes starred at them from out of the thicket and they were absolutely sure that they were not the eyes of the neighbour's cat. Richie poked Simon. "You got any idea what we are supposed to do now?", he whispered fearfully.

"Not the slightest", Simon replied. And before they could consider who or what was staring at them from the undergrowth, the terror grew instantly worse. No more than twenty metres away, a fireball shot up into the air which slowly started to turn on its own axis and came towards them inexorably. Simon and Richie were paralysed with horror and fear. They couldn't move an inch, let alone bring themselves to say anything. They were rooted in front of their tent and stared spellbound at the fireball drawing menacingly near to them.

"Oh my goodness, a fireball!", Richie screamed, the first one to find his voice again, and threw himself to the ground with his arms protecting his head.

"Simon, we're going to die. That thing's going to burn us alive!", he wailed at Simon's feet.

"Richie, that's not a fireball! It must be something else!", said Simon, who couldn't take his eyes off the brightly shining ball. The faster it rotated and drew near to the boys, the more clearly the two friends became aware of the loud puffing and groan that came from within that turned into a bloodcurdling scream and ended abruptly when the ball reached the entrance of the tent. No longer rotating, the glistening bright ball of light hovered about a meter over Simon's head.

Simon tried to get a closer look and kept his hands over his eyes because of the bright light. A biting smell of sulfur reached their noses and Richie found the courage to place himself next to Simon when it became clear that the ball meant them no harm with all the noise it had made.

"What the heck was that all about?", asked Richie, staring at the fireball and forgetting his fear.

"I don’t have a clue", Simon said.

Suddenly there was a strong blast, causing both of them to scream and knocking them back inside the tent onto their sleeping bags.

They remained still for a moment, completely stunned and not knowing what had happened. The loud whistling noise in their ears was staggering and they feared that they would never again be able to hear a peeping sound. They slowly recovered and dared a glance toward the front of the tent, where only a few moments before the fireball had hovered above their heads.

The smell of sulfur was stronger than ever and brought tears to their eyes. Not believing their eyes, a fat grey dragon was moving around in the grass in front of their tent. Silently moaning and cursing to itself, the creature stretched its wings. Carefully sweeping its scaly tail, the dragon raised its head while grumbling. With its mouth full of grass and dirt, the dragon finally looked directly at the boys with its fierce green eyes.