The Dragon's Eye by Dugald A. Steer Read Free Book Online Page B

Beatrice were going to come along. By now I was spending the afternoons discussing with Beatrice what she had seen and comparing it to my own experiences. Beatrice was making great strides with Darwin and had copied several of the dragon pictures into her record book.
    â€œI wish there were a book on dragonology,” she said as we were waiting by the front door for Dr. Drake to appear. “I’d like to see pictures of some of the different species of dragon Dr. Drake talks about.”
    Darcy arrived. He had overheard Beatrice, and he smiled.
    â€œWell, tomorrow you may be in luck,” he said. “Dragon school is starting. This will be our last day before classes begin and today, Dr. Drake wants me to take you out into the forest. Our goal is to find out just how far Weasel ranges, so we have to look out for all the signs that we can. And we have to be careful,” he added.
    â€œIsn’t Dr. Drake coming with us?” asked Beatrice.
    â€œNo,” said Darcy. “But don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll be safe. Weasel will recognise your smell by now, and we have a map of the forest.”
    He led the way, but instead of heading towards Weasel’s lair, we headed towards the part of the stream where I had first seen her.
    â€œNow,” said Darcy, “since no one has managed to record any knucker tracks farther down the stream than here, we can be pretty sure this is as far as she goes. Dr. Drake wants us to estimate her range and mark it on the map. Has anyone got any ideas?”
    Beatrice thought for a moment and said, “How about plotting Weasel’s lair on the map, and then setting off in a circle around it, looking for tracks and signs?”
    Darcy and I both agreed, and we headed towards the lair. After marking it on the map, we set off through the forest in a series of spirals that got larger and larger, searching the forest in a fairly wide band. It was difficult, but occasionally we would come across faint bits of purple gloop, or darker bits that had dried on trees, or parts of the forest where there seemed to be fewer rabbits. Each time we did so, Beatrice, who had commandeered the map from Darcy, made a small
X.
It took us a couple of hours, but as our circles ranged farther out into the forest, we soon came to areas where there were no more signs of dragon activity. To do the job more quickly, we had spread out, and every five minutes we shouted to each other to keep in contact.
    â€œDaniel! Don’t go too far off,” Darcy shouted to me when I had gone about two hundred yards on my quest to find bits of purple gloop in the woods.
    â€œI won’t!” I shouted back. But then I saw something just a bit farther on that intrigued me, so I went to investigate. It was a tall fence that had been broken down. It seemed to be an enclosure of some kind. Just beyond it were several trees that had long gashes scored in them. I could tell that the gashes were quite recent, because sap was still dripping from the cuts. I assumed that they were evidence of the knucker sharpening its claws, but I wasn’t sure, since I hadn’t seen any other trees like that. I took out my record book and had begun to sketch the gashes when Darcy and Beatrice came running up.
    â€œDidn’t you hear us calling?” said Beatrice.
    â€œLook what I’ve found,” I said, pointing to the broken fence and the claw marks.
    Darcy looked rather shocked when he saw the fence.
    â€œWe’ve gone too far,” he said.
    â€œBut weren’t these gashes made by Weasel?” I asked.
    â€œNo, that’s not a knucker. Knuckers don’t sharpen their claws like that. They use bits of stone or flint, or the bricks around the edge of wells.”
    Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar. We all jumped. It was much too loud to have come from Weasel.
    â€œIt must be another dragon!” I said.
    â€œLet’s go,” said Darcy.
    â€œShouldn’t