The Motorway Protest 4/7

A bright red dragon came out of the cave to watch. Jennifer Jane looked at her carefully. She was a little bit smaller than Clarence but not very much and as soon as she saw Jennifer Jane with Frosty, little puffs of smoke came out of her nostrils.

"Strangers then, is it, Frosty?" she asked.

"Please Megan," said Jennifer Jane, "we've come to change all your food with the crunchy bits, for this load of ordinary food. It's part of the witches' plan to stop a motorway being built through the woods at home."

"There's cheeky now," breathed Megan and flames started to come from her nostrils.

Frosty and the cloud shot straight up into the air. He wasn't going to be around if the dragon started breathing fire, he was far too afraid of being melted.

"Not even a by-your-leave, or an introduction," said Megan, looking very fiercely at Jennifer Jane, who suddenly felt very lonely. She couldn't blame Frosty, of course but she would have felt safer with the cloud handy to run to.

"I'm sorry, Megan," she said. "My name's Jennifer Jane and the witches...."

Megan interrupted. "Are you the Jennifer Jane who got Clarence helpless on his back and then took away some of his treasure?"

"Well, yes," said Jennifer Jane. "It wasn't quite like that but...."

Megan stopped breathing fire and smoke. Not even a small trickle of steam came from her nostrils.

"You keep away from me," she said. "You can have whatever you want but please don't hurt me."

Jennifer Jane was most surprised. The dragon backed away into her cave and then a large red foot began pushing out all the tins of food. Jennifer Jane collected it all into a heap and started to carry the new food towards the cave.

"Don't you come in here," shouted Megan, "just leave me alone. I'll get the food inside when you've gone."

"Please, Megan, will you let me explain," said Jennifer Jane.

"You take your 'please Megan' and go back across the border where you belong. You're trouble and trouble is what I'm not wanting. Be off, now."

Frosty came back down and helped load the crunchy food.

"Now we're off to give this to Clarence," he said.

Jennifer Jane looked over the side of the cloud as it rose into the air. She could just see a large red dragon's head looking carefully out of the cave mouth and then the cloud gathered speed. The mountains quickly faded into the distance.

Jennifer Jane snuggled down into the cloud and had a nap. It seemed that she had only just shut her eyes when she heard Frosty calling to her, "just landing now, Jennifer Jane."

Jennifer Jane stood up and yawned. She recognised the mountainside where Clarence lived and there was Clarence himself, coming out of his cave to meet them.

"Hello, Frosty old chap, I see you've got young Thingummy Jane with you again. After more treasure are you?"

My first name is Jennifer," said Jennifer Jane "and I've come to help deliver some crunchy food for you to help the witches' plan against the motorway."

"Oh, jolly good," said Clarence, "I'm going to have enough food to bring my fires up to full strength. It’s going to be just like the old times again."

He picked up a tin of food from the cloud and with a flick of his claw, took off the lid. Then he opened his mouth and emptied the tin.

"You must have got this lot from Megan," he said. "It tastes like one of her favourite brands."

"What ever did you tell Megan about me?" asked Jennifer Jane. "She seemed to be ever so frightened when I told her who I was."

"Well," said Clarence, "we aren't able to meet very often you know, because it's very hard to find reliable treasure sitters, so when we do meet we both catch up on what the other has been doing. I'm afraid I did exaggerate a bit when I told her how you took back your Dad's treasure. The way I told it made a jolly exciting story. We're the only two dragons left in Britain, you know,” he finished a bit sadly.

"It must be awfully lonely for you," said Jennifer Jane.

"It's not too bad really," said Clarence, putting a whole tin in his mouth without bothering to open it "but times like these do liven things up a bit!"

"Do you know what the witches want you to do?"

"Not yet, only that I've got to be up to full power by next weekend."

Frosty had unloaded all the tins that Clarence hadn't already eaten and was fidgeting about, waiting to get back to the Witches' Home.

"Goodbye, Clarence," said Jennifer Jane, "I hope I'll be able to see you in action next weekend."

Clarence waved goodbye rather absent mindedly; he was busy popping tins of crunchy food into his mouth. Frosty and Jennifer Jane climbed back onto the cloud and were soon heading for the Witches' Home