The Last Dragon Chronicles: Fire World: Fire World by Chris D'Lacey Read Free Book Online Page B

fists, she knew there was no
    escape.
    “What is this place?” he said. The circular wall was several feet in diameter. Above it was a v-shaped roof and a pulley. Suspended from the pulley was a bucket on a rope. Below the bucket was a deep, dark hole.

    “It’s a well, of course. Now, put me
    down.”
    “Dunno. It looks deep.”
    “I don’t mean in the   hole   !”
    “Hole?” he said, pitching forward a
    little.
    “Agh!” she squealed again. “What are
    you   doing ?”
    “Tripped on my laces.”
    “Oh, fun-nee.”
    “What’s down there?” he asked.
    “Water, stupid. Be careful, will you? This is my best dress.”
    “It’s just a dress,” he said. “You’ll dry out.”
    “NOOOOO!” she screamed, as he made to let her go.
    Instead, he brought her down with a bump on the wall, keeping his hands

    firmly round her waist (for ‘safety’s sake’, he later said). She threw her hands around the back of his neck (in case she lost her balance, she later said). She shook her hair from her face and glared at him through her smoky brown eyes. “Do you hate me?” she asked, pouting her lips.
    “Probably,” he said.
    She stuck out her tongue and called him a liar.
    In return, he pressed his fingers to her waist. She screeched with laughter and tried, with both hands, to slap his chest. He caught her and held her until she was still. She stuck out her tongue again. “Don’t know what to do now, do you?” she said.
    And that was true, he didn’t. He looked at her fingertips, roughened by years of

    handling books, and let his thumb glide
    across them.
    He was sure he felt her tremble.
    “You don’t really hate me – do you?”she asked.
    He made a show of thinking about it,but eventually shook his head.
    She cocked her head. “Do you love me,then?”
    “Probably,” he said, just as Runcey
    landed on the roof of the well.
    “Well, I’m spoken for,” she laughed,
    and blew the firebird a kiss. He
    responded, as usual, with a puzzled little   rrrh   ?
    She struggled free and flopped down with her back to the wall. “We forgot the buckets.”
    “Buckets?” David said.

    “To carry the water. To the librarium.”
    “Oh. Right. Shall I go back?”
    “Only if you never want to see me again.”
    He chewed on that a moment, but only for a moment. Then he sat with his shoulder pressed against hers, pleased that she didn’t try to move away. He opened the knapsack and took out the biscuits. Runcey fluttered to the ground in front of them.
    All of a sudden Rosa said brightly, “I’mgoing to make you a daisy chain.” She satforward and picked a handful of daisies,plucking them close to the ground topreserve the lengths of their bright greenstalks. For the next ten minits she made David sit back to back with her, so hecouldn’t see what she was doing and steal

    the ‘secret’ of how a daisy chain was made. Content enough to share a biscuit with Runcey and enjoy the warmth of the sun on his face, he obeyed. In the distance, the tall shape of Mr Henry could be seen strolling the walls of the librarium, completely lost in a book. David closed his eyes. Not quite an   adventure , a day like this, but very pleasant all the same. As he sat there, with Runcey taking crumbs from his hand and Rosa tutting ceaselessly about her creation, thoughts of home began to flash through his mind. How, he wondered, were his parents and Boon? Why was it they didn’t come to see him here? Fortunately, any threat of despondency was soon dashed by Rosa’s energetic presence. She showed him the circle of flowers. He readily deduced that

    it was simply made by splitting stalks and carefully inserting neighbouring ones into them, but he oohed and aahed in suitable fashion and was genuinely moved when she slipped the chain over his hand and wrist. It was the first real gift he’d ever been given.
    He wore it the next day when they went back to work. By now