Their ecstasy at having circumvented the many obstacles in their way was off the scale. It filled her with warmth every time she thought about it. But that was only half the story. What they had to do next was madness of a completely different order.
So, in the early hours of a weekday morning, having planned out their route both above and below ground with military forethought, they headed back to the domain of their birth with heavy hearts, constantly looking over their shoulders. After much skulking, scrabbling and concealment, they arrived in the shadows of the Purbeck Peninsula nursery ring entrance, carrying their beloved egg between them. She could remember thinking that it took an age for their knocks on the ancient wooden door to be answered. But answer them they did. Well, one lone female dragon did. And that's what they'd been hoping for. Little fuss, little attention, someone with little imagination and even less suspicion. It had seemingly all worked out fine. After half an hour the egg had been accepted, all the relevant documentation filled out (all lies of course) with a letter signed by them both, insisting that a certain dragon should not be allowed to see or interact with the youngling that was now in their charge. Both parents knew that the documentation was of the utmost importance and could never be altered, changed, infringed or ignored. The female dragon, just a girl really, processed everything quickly and efficiently, keen to get back to her brutally disturbed sleep by the look of things.
And so it was done. Of course there was much sobbing by both, but they took comfort from the fact that they were indeed nearby, vertically, rather than horizontally.
Time passed as it had before, with both Earth and her husband once again becoming more and more social, frequenting bars and events with the regularity that they once had, and although they thought about the egg often, the pain of the separation started to fade over time.
What neither knew, and only fate could conceive, was that a chance encounter late at night in one of their favourite pubs had led to them being discovered. It took a while, because few in the dragon domain now knew of their existence, with the cases against them, and whoever helped them escape custody, having long since been forgotten. But one or two in high up places continued the search, despite all this. And they were now well and truly on their radar.
31
Night At The Museum
It had been a doddle to disable the alarm system... child's play for a dragon as experienced as he was.
Slipping through the door, making sure to close it quietly behind him, he scrolled through the various visions available to him, eventually settling on infra red. Suddenly the main hall, which had been shrouded in darkness, became bright, alive, visible. With all the skills of a ninja, he padded silently around the different displays, making sure to stay in the blind spot of the security cameras. Much as he found the exhibits fascinating, now wasn't really the time for his curiosity to come out and play. Having always wanted to visit, he'd never imagined it would be under these circumstances.
His internet search about this place had gleaned much information, but not whereabouts in the museum the metal he was searching for was kept. So he had to do it the old fashioned way, and work his way through all the presentations.
Booked into a local guest house in the guise of a visiting wildlife photographer, he'd used a name other than his own, and his employer, the master mantra maker, had helped him forge a new driving licence and credit cards. Given his love of everything to do with nature, it hadn't been much of a challenge to pull off the new persona. Making a fuss of his DSLR Canon EOS 700D camera, with its variety of lenses and all the additional equipment that went with it, was more than enough to convince the guest house owners, along with all the staff. Normally he only ever used the camera to capture rugby pictures, be it from one of the other teams playing at the sports club, or some action or other from one of his coaching courses. Over the last few years, he'd developed a keen interest in photography and could often be found chained to his computer, manipulating some of the images he'd captured with various forms of software, late into the night. All this had helped him with his cunning cover.
Crawling beneath a display case of ancient coins, Tank hoped he was getting close in narrowing down the search. It had been more than fifteen minutes now since he'd first entered but it felt more like fifteen hours. Both his body and mind screamed at him to leave, get out, go. Every atom of him knew that it was wrong being here like this, but he just had to get his hands on that metal, so many lives depended on it. For him, it was the key to everything.
Sneaking past the end of a flint weapon display, he rolled across the open space in front of him with more agility than most would have given him credit for, especially just by looking at him. Coming up in front of a tall, singular exhibit, a smile stretched across his face as he realised he'd found the treasure he'd been searching for. Quickly he checked out the case the metal was contained in. It looked as though it was hooked up to a separate alarm, something he knew would only take him a few seconds to defeat. Abruptly a loud CRASH of something heavy falling from somewhere further down the hall echoed back up towards him.
'Someone or something else is here,' he thought. Oddly he'd felt all night like he was being watched, but try as he might he could find nothing to prove his gut feeling, up until now that is. He needed the metal inside the case, and he needed it NOW! On planning his illicit visit, he'd been determined not to leave a trace of having been there and especially not do any damage to the much cherished museum. But things had changed now and he needed to get his hands on that metal and scarper. This was not the time for niceties, particularly given that he had no idea who, or what, he was facing. Reluctantly, he slammed his large gloved fist through the plate glass of the display case, causing alarms to blare and the lights to flicker on. Grabbing the long, warped bar of metal, he pulled it out. As he did so, waves of intense emotion assaulted his very being, threatening to overwhelm him. Struggling to stay standing, continually fighting against dropping the valuable prize he had gone through all this for, out of the corner of his eye he glimpsed three bulky shapes much further up the main hall, all heading straight for him now that the lights had come on. Gripping the metal for all he was worth, instinctively he conjured up a mantra that filled the air with a high pitched whine.
'Darkness, at the moment,' he thought, 'is my friend and I want it back.'
Out of nowhere there was a large POP, followed by another, and then another as the bulbs in all the lights started exploding, one by one, the tinkling of glass drifting to the floor echoing across the vastness of the building, as darkness once again consumed it. Having made a mental note of where each attacker was before the lights went out, Tank decided on a course of action. Whether it would succeed or not was entirely dependent on whether or not they were dragons. If they were, he was already doomed. As the last vestige of light disappeared and full on darkness took hold, Tank sprinted, not away from his attackers, but across their path towards him. Careful to put as little weight as he could in his steps and with his infra red vision restored, he leapt for all he was worth towards a display case full of ancient skulls and bones. Part of him was dismayed that he would momentarily be landing on top of it, while the rest of him focused on what he had to do. For a brief moment he was surrounded, one attacker to his left closing in on his previous position, two to his right, backing up their friend. Casting all thoughts aside, he landed on the exhibit with cat-like-grace and, bending his knees, pushed off for all he was worth, sailing high over the head of one of his attackers, landing half way up the stairs that led to the first floor displays. Glancing over his shoulder, he was glad to see the three of them still searching around the tall, singular display. Quietly, he belted the rest of the way up the stairs, searching for anything that looked vaguely like an exit. Laid out in much the same way as the ground floor, with row upon row of glass display cases and the odd standalone exhibit, there was one noticeable difference: glass for walls, providing a stunning view off in the distance of the, by now, sleeping village. Darting down the length of the displays, Tank hoped for a fire exit or some other means of escape. But he was out of luck. There wasn't one, at least... not yet. It looked as though some building work was about to take place in a cordoned off area right at the end. In a few weeks' time no doubt, there would be what he was looking for, but right now he was aware that time had just about run out, not only because he'd picked up on the three strangers' distant whispers, but also because the police or someone else must surely be on their way, responding to the alarm he'd set off. Shaking off that muzzy feeling from his head, trying hard to push away all the negativity flowing through him from the metal, as that's what it felt like, he knew there was only one course of action and it broke his heart on realising that he'd have to do it. Behind him, footsteps came rushing up the stairs.