World War Dragon!

The Rising Starts.

'Marion – Marion!'

Marion blinked. Tommy's voice, a febrile, frightened whisper. A cold hand gripped her ankle. She levered herself up on her elbows. Tommy and Judy had crawled from their hammock into hers, and were crouched at her feet. Judy looked confused, rubbing her eyes and shaking her head. Tommy was trembling, a sheen of sweat on his forehead.

Marion was about to speak, but Tommy put a finger to his mouth to hush her. He pointed down. Marion peered through the web to the floor below.

Her heart began to pound.

Dragons' three of them and much, much larger than Malachite. They were sitting in the centre of the cave, heads close together, long bodies curling out like flames from the centre. Before the dragons was a pile of cloudy-honey coloured blocks, about the size of the gold bar Marion had once seen at Papa's bank.

One was the length of two grown horses, but very scrawny. Its skin was the murky green of marsh water on a dull day, marked with large dark patches. The dragon looked up at the hammocks, eyes huge and citrine yellow. For a moment, Marion thought it might have seen them, as its forked tongue whipped out and tasted the air but it showed no sign of having spotted them.

One dragon was much larger than the other two, with skin as cracked and brown as parched mud. Despite its colossal body, its head was small, perched on a long neck. It had great, webbed wings like a giant bat's

The last dragon was long and slim, but with beautiful scales of violet, blue and sparkling white. It had wide sweeping fin-wings, rather like Malachite's, but an awful lot longer. Its tail was long with a parting at the end, also like Malachite's. Its eyes protruded in different directions as it looked around.

The murky green dragon with the dark patches reared up and spoke, his voice a low-pitched whine.

Comrades – the time has come. Humans have betrayed the ancient truce. Our kind are being wiped from the planet, our children and babies slaughtered. We must strike back, show others the way. This is where the Rising starts. Let us devour the nectar that will give us the strength we need for battle.

The largest earth-coloured dragon raised its tiny head and let out a deep bellow that made Marion's stomach clench. The dragons ceased talking and started to eat the honey coloured bars hungrily. The crunching noise was like shoes on gravel.

Suddenly Marion heard a loud yawn from the hammock beside her. Tommy frantically scrambled towards Fred's hammock.

'You all awake yet?' Fred called to them cheerily. Too late.

Trembling, Marion looked down.

All three dragons were staring up at the hammocks. The dragon with the cracked, mud-like skin smacked its huge feet on the ground. HUMANS! It bellowed. Kill them!

Suddenly they heard Malachite's reedy little whistle. His voice bounced off the walls of the nest. Marion saw him patter down the steps towards the other dragons, still limping with his bandage.

The murky green dragon snarled, its long body looping round Malachite as soon as he reached the ground. Malachite crouched and bowed his head.

The mud dragon roared. Immediately, the murky green one snarled at Malachite.

Well, fancy seeing you again, little one. You won't escape us this time. SEIZE HIM.

The mud dragon landed a huge paw on Malachite's tail and the little dragon hooted in pain. Marion winced for him. But there was nothing they could do to help him now.