Willow Springs

Chapter 7

"Come on let me see please, you promised." Barnett pleaded as he carefully unpacked his belongings onto his bed. I knew straight away what he wanted to see, he had been at me all summer to make sure I brought it with me. He wanted to see my jar of Dragon tears, the strange glass jar containing a yellow gloopy mess. Of course, I knew straight away where it was because like Barnett I found it strangely intriguing.

"Okay, okay you win here, but be careful," I replied pulling the strange jar carefully out of my bag. But something didn't seem right and just as I was about to hand it to Barnett I noticed what it was. Holding it up to the fading light coming through the window it hit me what it was. The gloopy contents looked like it was a brighter yellow, almost like it would glow in the dark. Not only that it looked like it had doubled in size.

"What's wrong with it?" Barnett asked puzzled.

"Something doesn't look right about it, something strange."

"Something strange? Richard, it's bright yellow."

"Here you hold it for a sec, I'm going to call Aurora and see what she thinks. Other than my parents she and the person my dad got it from are the only people to have seen it."

Barnett took the jar off me and carefully moved it from side to side, watching how the thick substance slowly moved around the jar I watched carefully as waited for Aurora to pick up her phone. I don't know what I was hoping to see, maybe that it had gone back to normal, or it was all in my head but I didn't. I was so lost in my thoughts I didn't realise Aurora had picked up the phone.

"Hello? Hello, Richard you there?" I heard Aurora shout down the phone, echoing in my ear.

"Oh hey I need to show you something quick, can you and Bridget meet me outside the bench on the side of the loach in five minutes?"

"Yeah we can but what's wrong Richard? You sound really worried."

"It may be nothing, it could just be in my head."

"Okay well, I will just put my shoes on and will meet you there." With that said Aurora put the phone down and my attention turned back to the Dragon Tears. Barnett was still playing around with it as I explained that I was going to meet Aurora and it was obvious then he hadn't heard a word I had said on the phone.

Five minutes later Barnett and I were stood by the bench overlooking the loch. Surprisingly there wasn't anyone else out, probably because they were unpacking. But it was a beautiful evening and still quite warm. There was a slightly cool wind that blew across the loch and cooled my exposed arms. Hung by my side was my satchel bag which hid the jar of Dragon Tears from the world. Nervously I rocked back and forth on my heels as I waited for Aurora and Bridget to appear.

"Look!" I shouted as Aurora got close, pulling the jar out of my bag

"What the heck is that?" Bridget asked, getting closer to get a look at the strange contents in the jar. " It looks like something radioactive."

"It's Dragon Tears Bridge, you know what I told you about" Aurora explained, pausing to take the jar off me before she continued. "But it didn't look like that last time I saw it."

"Then what did it look like before? I mean it couldn't be any stranger than that I am sure." Bridget replied, sticking her hand out to Aurora to take the jar off her.

"It was the same colour but not as bright, and I am sure not as much of it either. It... It doesn't make sense. What did you do Richard? I thought it had a spell to activate it too."

"Me! I did nothing, I just pulled it out of my bag and it was like that."

Aurora seemed to ignore what I said and held the jar directly up to the dying sunlight and slowly the colour started to turn back to normal, and before our eyes, it shrunk back to the normal size it was when it was in the shop. Bridget, Barnett and I were confused by what happened, but Aurora seemed to quickly understand what had happened.