The Chameleon Shop

Oh how Kaylee looked forward to the day when she never had to venture near those dreaded caves again. Ruby was waiting for her this time, but Kaylee was utterly exhausted. She needed rest. It was after midnight and although she had not turned into a pumpkin, the inside of her head felt like one ─ all thick and mushy, with her brain refusing at this late hour to function properly.

She snuggled close to Ruby, wrapping her chilled body in the fluffy fur and dropped, almost instantly, off to sleep. As she slumbered with the beautiful egg in her pack, clutched in her arms tight, the egg began to crack, just a little.

Ruby purred loudly and Kaylee slept on.

Saturday 15 November

Kaylee was alarmed when she woke up early the next morning to find cracks all over the egg. She wanted to get the egg to its mother, before it emerged completely. Together with Ruby, she raced through the tunnels, unimpeded this time by gnomes or frogs. With Kaylee clutching both the egg and Ruby’s fur, she clung to the fluffy cat’s back, shouting ‘Baby coming through!’ to get the egg to Saorsa before it hatched.

Once in the dragon’s cavern where it was lighter, Kaylee was utterly mesmerized by its beauty. She had seen a pretty stone in a Hippy shop once, Fire Agate. The egg was exactly like that. It looked like it had scales like a snake ─ gold yes, but also stunning iridescent green, red, orange and brown. That was the rare beauty of the dragon’s egg.

They all heard scratching sounds coming from inside the shell and it rocked around the ground a bit, almost tumbling over the edge, but Saorsa caught it protectively with her pointed tail.

Suddenly it cracked open, the shell splitting into three pieces and the head of a gorgeously cute, clumsy baby dragon popped up. He was a softer, rounder version of his mother. The baby was more green than blue though and his nose was not so long ─ more chubby and rounded. Nevertheless, they both shared the same pointed tails.

The new mother dragon seemed a little unsure of how to handle her new baby, but was literally purring with pleasure the whole time. She snuggled her nose in close to the little guy, who freaked out at her size and hid. However, after a short while he decided he quite liked this Mama creature and the two shared a very tender moment, which brought joyful tears to everyone’s eyes.

The bars on Greg’s cell disappeared and Saorsa looked at him, ‘Greg, you are free to go. Kaylee, I can never thank you enough. Thank you both.’

When the little dragon had curled into his mother’s feet and fallen asleep, Saorsa the Dragon said to them both, ‘To get home again, go back to the Iron Gates. Hold the key and think of your mother. Say these words, “To find your heart’s desire, trust in the key of fire.” The key will take you home.’

’Ah! So that’s what those words in that old book were for?’ Kaylee said grinning madly.