The town of Simule lives in the far north of England. No visitors come to their town, so it’s a nice and quiet town. The only thing interesting about the town is a tall wall that makes a border around the forest. People have tried to jump it in the past and that is why there are guards at the gate. No one knew why there were guards, it was just a forest, and there is probably good farm land beyond the wall. As far as anyone knew you just don’t go past the wall, no one questioned it.
Al was getting his pack ready to get bread from the bakery. “Remember to get the loaf not just the slice” Clay said in his gravelly voice. “And get some meat for dinner.”
“Yes Uncle Clay” Al responded “don’t stop and pick flowers or dance in a tutu waving a wand around like a fairy” he added mockingly.
“Hahaha and yes don’t pretend to be a fairy, people will think you're getting weirder every day” then they both burst out laughing.
Clay wheeled over to the door to hold it open. Al stepped out the door still chuckling and headed toward the center of town. Holding the coins in his palm. Instead of heading to the bakery Al headed to the wall, don’t pick flowers his words echoed in his head. Well if I don’t pick flowers or dance in a tutu, I’ll still be a man of my word. So Al set of towered the guard, “sorry you can’t pass, Al” said a gruff voice that Al recognized,
“Will? I didn’t know you were a guard, you could of told me” Al knew he sounded a little whiny. “Is it because of ‘Lousy’ Lizzy Abbot. Because you do know she likes walking by the wall?”
“She is not lousy” he started turning red.
“Whatever you say. Will you let me pass or not?”
“I will let you pass if you and dad stop calling her lousy”
“Fine, I’ll stop calling her lousy but I can’t speak for Clay.”
A roar broke loose in the chilled silence, making just a small earthquake. The second to last dragon had had just broken free of the shell. It made such a huge noise for such a small animal. Al stumbled into the clearing, looking scared half to death from the noise. The noise was so loud that he thought it came from right next to him. He shook off the feeling of being spooked and looked around trying to see if there was a wounded animal from the earthquake. All Al saw was a rabbit hiding in a hollow log. He reached into the pocket to grab a knife, the rabbit would have to do for a small dinner, he felt nothing. Al decided that he put the knife in his other pocket, but he soon forgot that thought when something bit his finger. He howled in pain, whatever bit him had sharp teeth and bit hard. Al pulled his hand out quickly and stared in terror at what had bit him. It was a dragon.
Al stared and stared until nearly 15 minutes passed. The dragon was handsome. Its scales were a deep forest green, well the scales did not exactly look like scales they looked more like branches covered with leaves you could not see. The wings looked looked like the top of some trees.
The dragon apparently got too tired to cling to his finger so it let go and fell to the ground. At first Al did not know what to do, he just decided that the best thing for it was to let it live in the forest. Just like that Al turned away and walked toward the general direction of his town, Simule.
The sun was starting to go down and Al was going deeper in the forest. He was not getting tired. He did not know why but the strange forest did not seem scary like the stories he heard from Simule. The forest seemed welcoming.
Al heard crunches of leaves like someone was walking. There was a whisper a well. “Is anyone there” he called out “show yourself. I don’t mean harm.” The footsteps stopped along with the whispers. An eerie silence. “Will you come out” nothing. Al decided it could have been a rabbit, but what where those whispers.
A faint glow of stars appeared near where the rabbit was. A small whisper and the stars disappeared. Now that is unusual. Al thought as he crept towards were the stars had been. Behind he saw what he thought where two children, they were about half as tall as he. When they knew that he saw them their eyes widened and ran as they could. “I must be dreaming” because just then he saw that the children's s hair was dark blue, their skin lighter blue and had a splash of freckles that looked like stars.
They were stars he realised. Those were that stars that started glowing a minute ago. “What are you?” was Al’s question.
“What do you mean what are we?” the one on the right said. As she spoke she took her hand away from her face, when she lowered her hand that stars on her face were glowing. “What are you?”
“We are in the land of the moon. So we are the people of the moon.” the one on the left said. She did not have glowing stars, she just had regular stars, or as regular as they could be. “What land do you come from? Are you from the land of magic? No you would know what we are if you were from the land of magic.”
“He must be from the land without magic, if he doesn't know what we are. Where are you from boy?” the question was directed at him now.
“I am not a boy.” Al said indignantly “I am a man, 17 years to be exact.” he said smugly. “And of course I come from a land without magic, there is no such thing as magic.” then he told them about his story with meeting the dragon.
But the two children stopped listening, so Al stopped talking. “Yes he must have no magic in him, he is too dreary, and his close are too dull.” the one with glowing stars stated in a matter of fact town. “Yes I don’t understand how people without magic have fun in there life.” the normalish one said.
“Now wait a second, I am not dreary, my uncle says I have the spirit of a fairy” the boy managed to say. “An my clothes aren't dull, I have the best in the town.” Al was in the moment of boasting that he didn’t realise that the people of the moon slipped away.
Al was a hunter so he could trace tracks even in the rain, but there were no tracks to be seen. The boy walked forward in the direction that he thought they might go. Al felt as if he had been walking for hours when he saw a town a small town with at least three dozen of the people of the moon.
“Why is Al not back he never skips diner.” Clay said.
“Um, there is something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” Will came in with his eyes down cast. “Al went over the wall, and um I let him.”
“Why did you let him over, he is not ready for it.” Clay was getting furious. “Get your stuff we are getting him back.”
Five minutes and they were out the door “get up boy its time I taught you one of my many tricks, and help me up out of this ghastly wheelchair”
“But dad, you can’t walk without it” Will sounded scared
“I can and I will” then Will hesitantly walked over taking his father’s hands and lifted him up. The weight of his dad was extremely light. “Now take my hand and think about a Blue-Jays feathers”
They both closed their eyes and thought. All the sudden Clay turned to the bird he was thinking of. Will realized he was holding a blue-jay and let go. Think about its feathers. All the sudden Will was flapping his arms like a chicken, “dad, what happened? Why are we birds?”
“Let us fly son, over the wall, I’ll explain when we land.”
As soon as moon people saw Al they ran and disappeared. “Wait!” but none of them were in sight. He kept on calling out “where am I?” and “what is this place?” Finally someone came out and started speaking regally “you come from the world without magic, that is why you don’t know about this place. Whence you cross the wall then you come to our land. Then if you cross the next wall you will be in the land of air, so on and so forth.” ideas went through his head but it can’t be and what if it is true, it has to be. There was a long silence while he thought. “Can I travel to these other lands? Would someone like to join me?” Two girls appeared, the same ones he first met, they nodded as if they wanted to go. “Oh” Al’s voice trailed off “sorry, but I need someone strong, fast and agile”
“Oh, just because we are woman, that means we are not strong” the one with stars said. “News flash idiot, we are ten times stronger and faster than you. We are probably ten times smarter than you two!” the other one said. “Plus, we want to ride on that dragon of yours.”
“What do you mean?”
“He is even dumber than we thought” they put their hand on their head, in a disappointed motion. “The dragon, you know the one that’s been following you around bout the size of a dog. The one that is right there” she was talking to him slowly like he was an idiot.
Al quickly turned his head the dragon was right behind him, and it was the size of a dog. “How did it grow that fast?”
“Dragons naturally grow fast. Anyway if we are going to go on a journey with you tell us your name. This is Indigo, and I am Lunar and you are?” Lunar said.
“I am Al short for Albert” he heard a laugh from the crowd. Then he looked at Indigo she was trying not to laugh.
The night was over, and the dragon was the size of a hippo. They got up ready to pack. And when the sun rose they got on the dragon and flew off.
Will and Clay were flying over a vast landscape of dessert. Will was so tired that he started to drop from the sky. They had been looking for Al for a week, but no sign. In the distance they saw a green dragon fly up into the sky, it looked so magnificent. Clay decided they needed to rest, they dipped towered the ground. Turned back human and set up camp, the search would continue tomorrow.