Jack Pepper

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Sid squinted at her. Ruby was in her own world. He liked to go there with her though.

“You need to learn to balance,” he said, “so when the dragon turns, you turn with it.”

He helped her up off the ground and pulled her over to the see-saw. They climbed on, shuffled until the plank hovered, balanced in mid-air, their weight equal. Sid waited for Ruby to push the game further, like she usually did. But Ruby was quiet.

“If you really had a dragon, everyone would want to see it,” Sid said.

Ruby pictured the dragon in a cage. She imagined everyone looking at it. In awe. In amazement. Their pride. Their joy. But how it roared and rattled the bars at her.

She wanted to say something to the baby dragon. But she couldn’t find words it would understand. She didn’t even know what those words were. She imagined the unspoken sounds in her chest, like dragon’s breath. A swirling, hurtling ball of furious green flame. She let it out.

“Aaargh!” she yelled.

The searing sound hurtled across the park. It singed the football goalposts and stirred the trees over at the far side of the park, scorching everything the flames touched.

Sid clamped his hands over his ears. But the image of the baby dragon wouldn’t leave Ruby. The creature ignored her yell and curled its retractable claws tighter. Ruby swung her leg over the see-saw handle, ready to jump again.

Sid let go of his ears to hold on to the see-saw because it tipped now that Ruby had moved. Ruby jumped. The end thumped down on the rubber tarmac and jolted Sid.

“Why were you shouting?” he asked.

“To see if the dragon could hear me.”