Or flying upon a dragon.
The dragon ascends. I hold on even more tightly. It lifts its feet up into its body and commands its wings with the strength of multiple men rowing a ship. I cannot contain my scream of delight and terror as the dragon flies. It shoots up into the sky with more speed and agility than I could ever have imagined. I always thought dragons would fly like eagles. This dragon flies like a swift.
The scream in my throat turns into a shout of triumph and elation, as we dive and soar through the skies above the loch. When the dragon slows down to a gentle speed over the surface of the water, I take a moment to admire the blue scales.
A stunning blue.
The dragon, as if hearing me, lets out a snort of air and climbs higher once more. I instinctively let go. I swan dive, letting gravity haul me closer to the water. Right as I’m about to hit the cold loch with my nose, I harness. I trust.
I fly. Just like the dragon. I cannot rise as quickly, I cannot soar as high, but I can fly.
I suddenly remember sitting on the bike sheds at school, back in Edinburgh. I remember how nervous Mr Ishmael was, scared I might fall and hurt myself even though I was only five feet above the ground.
If only he could see me now. Soaring with a dragon, a blue dragon, that legends have hinted at yet most people cannot see. A dragon with myth and stories etched into its sapphire scales.
Later, I fill Grandpa’s book with pages and pages on the dragon I call Blue in my head. It reminds me of being in the streets of Edinburgh with Marley, cataloguing the strange and wondrous people we met. It all feels so long ago now, and everything has suddenly become so serious and grown-up. The world seems less populated by adults, now just full of big, frightened children.
Yet a dragon. A dragon that not only feels impossible, but also hopeful. I write down everything
I can about Blue, and I cannot quite believe that she
is real.
I’m a dyspraxic witch with a bad temper and I’m soaring side by side with a blue dragon.
“Like Aunt Leanna said,” I say to nobody. “Blue is rare in nature.”
Right now, there is a little blue in me, too.
Chapter Ten
Visitors
When Marley and I are back in our beds, I stare up at the ceiling for a good twenty minutes. I’m too wired to sleep, too tired to speak. Marley is sitting up, against the wall on his side of the tower bedroom. He is staring into nothingness. I finally sit up myself, putting the idea of sleep to one side for a moment, and we lock eyes.
“Marley,” I choke out, almost hysterical with tiredness and the tingling feeling that you get after doing something life-changing. “A d—.”
“Dragon!” he spits out before I can, his eyes wide and his voice higher than I have ever heard it. “That is, hands down, the maddest, scariest, most awesome thing I’ve ever seen during this weird quest.”
“A dragon!”
“A dragon!”
“Like, not even a little one,” I gasp, hugging my pillow to my stomach and rocking back and forth. “A massive, scary, BLUE DRAGON.”
We laugh, trying to smother the sound so we don’t wake the aunts.
“I wish…” Marley says, and his excitement suddenly fades. He looks down. I frown, glancing over at him
in confusion.
“What is it?” I ask.
His face crumples and he doubles over for a moment. When he sits up straight once more, I can see silvery streaks on his flushed face.
“Marley?” I say softly. “You okay?”
He sits quietly for a moment, making me wonder if he heard me. Then he speaks. “I just wish he were here. I wish he could have seen it.”
Grandpa. Marley knew him more than I ever did. They were close. “I know.”
Marley was quiet when the dragon finally landed on the edge of the water. We watched it disappear down into the loch and we walked home in silence. I thought he was subdued out of shock, because of the unutterable feelings the dragon left behind.
Now I can see he’s in the past.
“Ramya,” he finally says, and there is a change in the room. Something in his voice is older, more serious, and totally new compared to the way that Marley normally speaks.
“Yes?”
“I saw him.”
I blink. “What?”
“I saw him. I was looking up at you and the dragon and then I saw something flash across the water.
Then he was there. On the bank, a few yards away.
I saw him.”
