by Twiny Tsang
Jane was a normal girl, living a normal life in the normal town of Ashingburg. Being the daughter of a self-conscious mother, she couldn’t expect much. Plus, being the youngest of five sisters was quite enough to add on to her shy, timid personality. Surely, life without being called out to missions as a hero was better …
*
Jane dawdled down the steps in her pretty party dress, brushing dust off the railings. Her sisters ignored her as she cleaned the house for the dinner party tonight. After they had packed their bags full of sweet little things, Jane’s big sisters sauntered out the door. It was school time, and only children from seven years old could get a quality education in the town of Ashingburg. Jane was not yet seven years old, but she awaited the day for school eagerly. The multiple days in the house, cleaning up, were mundane; nobody was in the house because her mother was at the mah-jong club down near the river with a bundle of elderlies, and every day apart from Sundays were educational days for her five sisters. And everyone called her a scaredy cat, especially because she feared dragons, so of course nobody would play or give her attention.
On that very afternoon, a knock came at the door. Jane walked to answer, and was surprised to see a manly guard staring at her intently, gesturing that he would come in. He was unreluctantly welcomed by Jane. Once the door had shut, he ripped open his armour. Jane gaped at the sight.
The guard, or what seemed like a wizard now, stood proudly. “Aah. Yes. My name is Mundru, and my dear Jane, you are the chosen one who will save the town with pride,” he said smiling.
Jane puzzled over his words. “Save the town? Me? No, I think you’ve chosen someone wrong,” she replied, chuckling nervously.
The wizard shook his head. “You have no choice. How ‘bout listening to the task first? The ruler, Leader Shookami, has noticed some signs of witchery magic around. And she suspects that the Evil Witch is behind all this.”
Jane began, “Then why am I the chos–”
The wizard stopped her, then continued speaking. “That is not important, but you must prepare yourself, nevertheless. You will be setting out with my magic map, through the woods, past the rocky passage, and finally the clump of trees, then towards the Dragon Cave, where the witch will fight you with her dragon. Five friends shall you bring along.”
The wizard ended the speech in a huff, then gave her lots of other advice. But one thing stuck into Jane’s brain as sticky as superglue: “Remember, the witch cannot fight. She can only defend herself through several attacks sent through her magic wand. Do not fear. Find her weakness that way.”
WHOOSH! And suddenly, behind the wizard appeared five children. She did not know any of them. Then came another WHOOSH! And the wizard was gone, leaving a note behind. It read, “Have faith and courage in yourself. I will meet you this evening for training. The mission cannot wait.”
She glanced at the other children, who looked shaken through the magic transformation, and then called them up.
The night of training was quick and swift. The wizard didn’t allow any breaks, but full-mode training. The next day was the day of battle.
*
The next day, they set off. Saying bye to the wizard, Jane took a big breath. You can do it, Jane Noyield, she thought, and then set off with her five teammates—Nick, Greg, Sammy, Laura, and Macy.
As soon as they stepped into the woods, a gale of snowstorms met their faces and nearly blew them off the ground. The horses that they took nearly fainted in the cold weather. There had to be a way out of this.
Jane gave each of her teammates a hooked rope and told them to hook with each other’s piece, with the last person hooking it on a tree or bush to keep it steady. Greg—the strongest child—managed to pull them all up in the end in one go. It was a close one. But the hook wouldn’t let go. It held Greg on firmly. The group cried for Greg, but he told them to keep going and that he would catch up later.
Next came the Rocky Passage. Not only was it impressively rocky but it was also patrolled with poisonous redbacks. For a second, all the teammates thought there were no way in. But Jane had a rather risky idea.
Macy saw the look on Jane’s face and urged her on.
“Maybe two of the horses could scramble in, distract the spiders,” said Jane. “And while they do that, two of us can stay at the back and take a horse back down to wait for us after the mission.”
They did a quick vote on the idea, with most agreeing. Sammy and Macy would stay with the horse. The idea worked perfectly, except one of the horses got bitten quite badly and one of the redbacks nearly jumped onto the children. They climbed up the passage and continued towards the inner woods, according to Jane’s magic map.
As soon as they entered, however, trees started falling everywhere they came. ‘Not again …’ Jane thought aloud, with the others scattered away from under fallen trees. The scattering would not work well; everybody knew that.
A scream came from beneath two trees. The group recognised the voice immediately: it was Nick’s. They all grabbed his hand till it stretched, and finally, Nick was out, but he ran out of the forest.
“Everybody is bruised. I nearly died! I’m not coming!”
The trees stopped falling suddenly, and then did it again after five seconds. Jane noticed a clear pattern. “I think it is every five seconds they fall! So, let’s try escaping them in five seconds! On the count of three, we should ride on the horses’ backs and speed it up!” she exclaimed.
The others consented and praised her for the brainy thoughts. 1, 2, 3, and they were on—just at the end of the second tree fall!
*
The horses’ hooves clambered everywhere as they made their best attempt for speed but carefulness. Laura’s hand was just a millisecond away from a tree fall. Any closer and she would have been hurt badly. Laura and Jane checked themselves for any major injuries, then continued the last of the journey.
When they were at the dragon’s cave, Jane shivered. It was dark, gloomy, and fiery—nobody wanted to enter. Jane looked to her right. Where was Laura?
A piercing, laughing sound came from down the dragon cave. “I’ve got your friend! Beat my dragon and I’ll hand her over! Ha Ha Ha! Or I will kill your townspeople!” the voice of a witch boomed in Jane’s ears.
A dragon’s roar erupted into her ears. It was deafening. Then, the creature crept out.
Jane faced her greatest fear. She would save everyone. She would be brave. She would be the hero.
At first, she grabbed her sword, swished and slashed it at the dragon, causing small bruises on its scaly skin. Lashing its tail at her, the dragon fought back and left a huge wound on her arm. Jane huddled her wound, then looked into the dragon’s eyes. Maybe emotional contact would work?
She was surprised. In the dragon’s eyes was misery, loneliness, and weariness. It was as if it didn’t enjoy the fight, didn’t want to work for the witch, didn’t want to kill.
Jane understood the key to the battle immediately. She threw down all her weapons and let the dragon calm. It breathed a small huff of fire to light the night sky, then allowed itself to droop and let Jane climb onto its back. She grinned thankfully, wiped her streaming tears, and flew with the dragon at top speed towards the end of the cave.
There stood a shaken witch, who was greatly confused. At that moment, Jane knew what to do. She remembered that she could not fight without the wand. The dragon understood and picked Laura up, who was beside the witch, tied together with strong rope, and blew a fiery spark, which exploded the wand power. The dragon picked up Laura, then waited for the blast.
BOOM! The witch was killed for sure. And the dragon started flying at top speed back to the town.
*
The dragon halted at the sight of the rest of Jane’s team, then swooped them up as well towards the centre of Ashingburg. It flew straight to the ruler’s castle, greeted by a joyful wizard. He bounced in joy, then rewarded Jane with bags of gold. But Jane didn’t want the gold. Friendship was her granted gift. Regardless, they split the gold equally, made announcements with the ruler, and headed home to play.
From then, most knew Jane as the hero. And Jane herself was no longer shy and timid. She was a hero, brave and proud.
