SAMMY RAMBLES AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE STONE CROSS

CHAPTER 1

No Time Has Passed

‘See you in six weeks?’ said Dixie Deane, laughing at Sammy.

Sammy blushed and turned to the girl with the bright green hair sitting next to him on the cream leather seats in the back of the black limousine.

‘I always say that,’ said Sammy, laughing as well. ‘Stupid, huh?’

‘Yeah,’ agreed Dixie. ‘Especially since we’ll be helping clear it all up.’

Sammy looked out of the darkened limousine window at the remnants of the Dragamas castle. Two out of the nine magnificent cone roofed grey stone towers with black flags with the golden Dragamas “D” motif flying from the tops had been crushed to the ground when the Floating Circus had come crashing down from the sky only a few hours earlier. There was dust and debris everywhere you looked.

Despite the Snorgcadell Generals, Dragamas staff and students using the strong slowing power of the ruby gemstone, Princess Karmandor, Troll daughter of King Segragore of the Dark Ages, who had been cursed into becoming a dragon, had risen from her underground tomb of imprisonment and destroyed everything in her path.

Sammy remembered how Karmandor, who was due to become Queen of the Dark Ages following her marriage to King Serberon, had been summoned by the Angel of ‘El Horidore, the whistle that would call all dragons, living or dead, to the exact location where the whistle was blown.

When the Angel whistle had been used by the evil Dwarf, Alfie Agrock, all of the dragons in the world were summoned to Dragamas.

One by one the dragons had arrived. The power of the Angel of ‘El Horidore was so strong it had eventually reached Karmandor and she had slowly forced her way out of the Forgotten Forest.

Karmandor’s tail, once used as a lift to transport students and teachers between Dragamas and the lands above the school moved when she moved.

Eventually, the momentum had tipped up the end of the Floating Circus, causing it to fall out of the sky and crush the school. There had been nothing anyone could do about it.

‘You don’t mind, do you Sammy?’ asked the auburn haired woman sitting in the driver’s seat. ‘Big Al wants our help.’

‘And of course we will help, won’t we Julia,’ came Charles Rambles’s voice from the passenger seat. He rested his hand on Sammy’s mother’s knee. ‘It’s the very least we can do after everything that’s happened.’

‘We’ll help as well,’ said Sammy, squeezing Dixie’s hand. ‘It’ll be great spending the summer holiday together,’ he whispered in her ear and she grinned at him.

‘Big Al has arranged for us to stay in the Garden Guest House,’ said Julia Rambles. ‘It’s just until we can find a nice house near the village so we can be here instead of living abroad.’

Sammy grinned. He was still finding it hard to believe his mother, who until an hour ago knew nothing about dragons, actually worked with one of the Generals of the Snorgcadell, the organisation that policed the Dragon World, keeping it safe from anyone who would harm dragons and their way of life.

He grinned wider as he remembered how “Big Al”, whose real name was General Aldebaran Altair, was going to teach him how to become a Dragon Knight.

Sammy’s smile faded as his two-year-old sister, Eliza, suddenly turned towards him and threw up, inches from his lap.

‘Eugh!’ Sammy edged away from the pile of lumpy yellow-brown sick.

Dixie giggled and took out a wadge of tissues from her rucksack.

‘Here,’ said Dixie, ‘use these.’

Sammy scrunched up his nose and dabbed at the cream leather seats. He caught a glimpse of his mother’s eyes in the rear-view mirror.

‘It’s ok Mum, I’ll sort it,’ said Sammy, holding the soggy tissues at arms length.

‘That’s my son,’ said Charles Rambles, leaning around the seat. He took the tissues and put them in a bag. ‘Eliza likes her big brother Sammy.’

Sammy rolled his eyes. He was glad when the limousine stopped outside an attractive three storey red brick building.

A pale green wooden sign hanging from the front porch had the words “Welcome to the Garden Guest House” in black Gothic swirl writing.

Charles Rambles opened the passenger door and got out onto the pavement. He opened the driver’s door for Sammy’s mother and offered her his hand.

‘We’re back in the village again,’ said Charles Rambles, smiling and helping Sammy’s mother out of the limousine.

Julia laughed and nodded. ‘Hopefully they’ll have some nice rooms for us to stay in while we look for somewhere more permanent.’

Sammy opened the heavy limousine door and got out. He reached back into the car and pulled out Eliza, who gripped him tightly around the neck. He looked up to the sky and smiled at the blaze of dragons circling high above the rooftops.

There was his father’s jet black dragon, Cyngard, his mother’s green dragon Jovah, and his uncle’s reddish brown dragon, Paprika. They were casting aeroplane shaped shadows on the ground.

Flying above the three adult dragons were two beautiful blue-green shimmering dragons. One of the shimmering dragons was Sammy’s own dragon, Kyrillan, and the other was Dixie’s blue-green dragon, Kiridor.

Sammy watched as they flew in spirals, rising and falling on the air currents as they watched the people below them, waiting for instructions.

Dixie got out of the limousine last. She had the two rucksacks, the last of their possessions salvaged from Dragamas and handed Sammy his bag.

Sammy released Eliza’s tightly gripping fingers and slung the rucksack over his shoulder. He jumped as he was suddenly blinded by a bright green teleporting mist that made his eyes water.

The mist cleared and Sammy gasped. Where there had been empty space behind the black limousine, there was now a large green Range Rover with General Aldebaran Altair in the driver’s seat.

‘Big Al,’ exclaimed Julia, rushing to give the Snorgcadell General a hug as he stepped out of the Range Rover.

‘Hello Julia,’ said General Aldebaran Altair, ‘Charles, Sammy, Dixie, Eliza. It is good to see you all here safely.’

‘And you too,’ said Julia. ‘To think all this has happened so suddenly.’

‘It was foreseen,’ said General Aldebaran Altair. ‘I have brought you your car,’ he added, handing over the Range Rover keys.

‘From Switzerland?’ gasped Julia. She took the Range Rover keys, unable to take her eyes off the green car that had materialised out of thin air.

Sammy suppressed a giggle. This was going to be fun watching his parents re-learning everything they had forgotten about the Dragon World.

‘Settle yourselves into the hotel,’ said General Aldebaran Altair. ‘I will drop Dixie home and then call back to make sure everything is suitable for you.’

‘Thank you,’ said Charles, shaking General Aldebaran Altair’s hand. ‘Thank you very much.’

Charles Rambles opened the boot of the limousine and took out four large black suitcases on wheels. He set them on the pavement and mopped his forehead with a large spotted handkerchief.

Dixie got into the passenger seat in the front of the limousine. She waved vigorously out of the window as General Aldebaran Altair drove off towards her home, Three Chimneys, at the other end of the village.

Above the black limousine, Kiridor broke away from the other dragons and followed the car down the street.

Julia took the handles of two of the suitcases and marched towards the front porch of the Garden Guest House. She pushed open the glass door with her foot and disappeared inside.

‘Look lively Sammy,’ said Charles. He took hold of the remaining black suitcases. ‘Bring your sister. I’ve got our luggage.’

Sammy shifted Eliza’s weight on his shoulders and followed his father into the Garden Guest House.

Inside the glass doors, the hotel foyer was brightly lit by an overhead chandelier. The walls were decorated with mint green wallpaper with gold zig-zag stripes at regular intervals that sparkled under the bright light and matched the design of the carpet so well that Sammy could hardly tell where the floor ended and the walls began.

There was a plush mahogany horseshoe shaped desk in the middle of the room with a man with short brown hair sitting in a mahogany swivel chair. He was deep in conversation with Sammy’s mother.

‘And just let me know if there is anything else you need,’ said the man behind the desk. He gave Julia a beaming smile and handed her two sets of shiny silver keys.

‘Through the door, up the stairs and we have the rooms on the right hand side,’ said Julia, setting off down the hallway with the keys jingling in her hand and the two suitcases rumbling along behind her.

Sammy shifted Eliza’s weight from one arm to the other. At two years old, she was getting quite heavy and he was looking forward to when she could walk properly by herself.

As he followed his mother down the carpeted hallway and up the stairs, Sammy caught a glimpse of the dragons out of one of the stairway windows.

Both his parents seemed to have completely forgotten about them and Kyrillan, Cyngard, Jovah and Paprika were still circling overhead waiting for their next instructions.

Sammy scratched his head and hoped the dragons would be able to find their way inside.

‘Rages,’ gurgled Eliza, thrusting her hand towards the window and dribbling onto Sammy’s shoulder.

‘Yes, dragons,’ grumbled Sammy, annoyed she had dropped splodges of yellow-white saliva onto his favourite t-shirt.

‘Here we are,’ said Julia, as she stopped beside a large white door with “27” written in silver numbers. ‘Our temporary home until we can find somewhere to live in the village.’

‘It will be perfect for now,’ said Charles Rambles, taking the shiny silver keys and opening the large white door. ‘Come on everyone, let’s settle in. I could do with a cup of tea after everything that’s happened this afternoon.’

Sammy gasped as he stepped into the room. It was much bigger than he had expected and reminded him of the attic suite he had stayed in his uncle’s house.

There was a large lounge area with four cream leather sofas in a square formation with a coffee table in the middle. There was an enormous television in the corner of the room. Next to the television were two plant pots with red roses growing in them.

Beyond the cream leather sofas, Sammy could see more large white doors which he thought would probably lead into bedrooms, perhaps a kitchen and bathroom.

‘You’ll share your room with Eliza,’ said Julia. ‘It’s only for a few weeks and then you’ll be back at school,’ she added, looking at Sammy’s frowning face.

‘It’s fine,’ said Sammy, putting Eliza gently down onto the floor.

Julia came over to Sammy and gave him a hug. She took out some tissues and dabbed the splodge of Eliza’s spit.

‘It’s all going to be fine honey,’ said Julia.

Charles took the four suitcases into the bedrooms and returned moments later, his face bright red and his blue eyes bulging almost out of their sockets.

‘There’s four dragons in the bedroom!’ gasped Charles Rambl