Gilbert Guttlebocker,

Defender of Dragons

7. Armed Guards

Gilbert awoke when the gentle back-and-forth of the elephant-walk ceased. Jerking his head up, it took him a moment to realize he was not at home in his bed in Connecticut. At his side, visible in the bright moonlight, young Bernice sat, chatting away about her hopes, dreams, and plans for the future, oblivious to the fact that he had fallen asleep while she was talking. Across from them, on the other bench, Barkley sat sneering.

It seemed nothing had changed.

The elephant was now standing in a grassy clearing, stretching from the jungle behind them to an enormous, ivy-covered stone wall, which curved off on either side, as though it were an incredibly expansive full circle in shape.

Sticking his head out of the howdah for a better view, Gilbert peered up the mossy wall of rough-hewn stones, judging its height to be at least 16 stories. Along the very top of the wall, roughly every ten feet, hung burning lanterns. Shadows flickered atop the wall, and it appeared to Gilbert as though people were walking along the wall. He could hear mumbled snippets of conversation floating down from above.

Immediately in front of them was an open, arched entrance that dwarfed the massive elephant beneath them. If the elephant had had another of its same size standing on its back, and then yet another upon its back, the three of them could have easily fit through the archway without any difficulty. On either side of the archway were additional lanterns, casting light across the entryway of the great wall.

Immediately below the two lanterns by the arched entrance stood two young men, about Gilbert's age or perhaps a year or two older, clad in full armor, standing at attention, spears in hand.

“It is now time for me to leave you. Please exit the elephant the same way you entered,” the guide instructed.

“Well, we didn't really... enter... the elephant,” Gilbert pointed out.

“Please,” the man repeated. “Exit.” He gestured toward the trunk.

Gilbert nodded reluctantly, deciding there was no point in arguing over the little man's peculiar word choice. He stood up and hoisted his backpack, boots still tied to it, over his shoulders. Carefully maneuvering past Bernice and Barkley, he then scrambled over the neck of the elephant toward its head, taking care not to knock over the guide, who remained seated on the beast's neck.

The boy looked at the elephant's trunk, wondering how on earth he was supposed to walk down it when it hung straight down, like a cliff edge. But then the guide clucked his tongue twice, and the elephant lifted its trunk.

“Thank you,” Gilbert said to the guide as he climbed onto the trunk.

The little man nodded at him uninterestedly, as though he had other things to do now.

As Gilbert descended, Bernice tossed her boots over the side of the howdah. She then followed him down the animal's trunk, and Barkley again came last.

The three students tied their boots back on as they watched the elephant and their native guide disappear again into the bush.

“That was pretty cool,” Gilbert said, grinning.

“Loser.” Barkley shook his head.

“That was such a magnificent experience! We should get an elephant after we're married, Gilbert, sweetie!”

Gilbert sighed and hefted his backpack onto his back. He walked over to the entryway and approached the guards.

“I think we're supposed to go in here, but I'm new… we're all three new here… and we don't know where we're supposed to go.”

“Name?” asked the first guard.

“Gilbert Guttlebocker.”

“Guttlebocker… student or teacher?”

Gilbert looked at the boy, wondering if he was serious. “Student,” he said.

“Student?” the guard asked him. “Are you sure you're not a teacher pretending to be a student?”

Taken aback, Gilbert asked, “Why would I do that?”

“That's what I was going to ask you,” the guard pointed out, suspicion in his voice.

Gilbert squinted at the guard, puzzling over the boy's challenge.

“Look, I'm — I'm not a teacher — I'm a student.”

“Sure you are,” the guard agreed cynically.

“But, look,” Gilbert explained, “what would it matter if I was a teacher instead of a student? Teachers can come in through here too, right? This is the academy, isn't it?”

“This is the academy, absolutely, yes, but it's our duty to keep the academy safe, you understand? And if you're coming here pretending to be someone you aren't, it seems to me that you're not exactly the type of character we can trust, and if we can't trust you, we shouldn't let you in.”

“That's right,” the second guard chimed in. “The academy wouldn't be safe if we let in anyone who is untrustworthy.”

“Well, yes — I mean, I guess I see your point about that — but I am a student. I am trustworthy because I said I was a student and I really am a student. Besides, the teachers are all dragons, right?”

The guards immediately lifted their spears, pointing them directly at Gilbert's face.

“Oh dear!” Bernice raised a hand to her head and fainted.

“Dragons? Are you a dragon then?” the first guard challenged.

“Dragon? Me? No, of course not!”

“Exactly what we would expect a dragon to say!” shouted the second guard.

“We have orders to kill any and every dragon on sight! We're certainly not going to let one of you fire-breathing menaces anywhere near this academy!”

Spears moving closer to his face, Gilbert was shaking, confused, and turning pale.

“I'm not — I swear... but how — the teachers — I mean…”

He could hear Barkley nearby, guffawing.

“These three are with me,” came a deep voice behind them that was so thunderous that the ground vibrated as he spoke, yet was also raspy — cracked due to immeasurable old age.

Both young guards leapt back to their positions beside the door, spears dropping back to their left sides, right hands snapping to a salute, heels clicking together in unison.

Gilbert released the breath he had been holding. Relaxing, he slowly turned around to see who had not only saved his life but to find out who could possibly speak in such a way as to make the very ground tremble.

He immediately wished he was still facing the guards.

A monstrous, red, triangular face. A gargantuan mouth full of teeth like daggers. Slits for eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness. Nostrils the size of fists, with smoke curling up into the air from each of them. Behind the head stretched a cedar-like neck, covered with red scales, from which hung a shiny medallion.

The dragon stretched out its immense wings and beat them once softly against the air, blowing leaves every which way in a cloud of dust, before folding them casually back against its body.

Gilbert stood, paralyzed with fear, eyes huge, breath caught in his throat. Images of fire coming from this very monster and devouring an unsuspecting Mugsy Marchesioni replayed in his mind.

“Gilbert Guttlebocker, is it?” hissed the murderous creature.

But the terrified boy could not answer.

“And you must be Barkley Bumperwaggle, are you not?”

Barkley nodded slowly, his hand tightly gripping the hilt of the carbon-covered sword he had picked up at the rocket landing site.

“And the young lady?” the dragon asked, moving his eyes toward the girl who lay collapsed on the ground between the two boys. “Ms. Bernice Buttersalt, no doubt? She looks tired. That's very peculiar. I had fully expected her to sleep on the flight.”

Gilbert immediately recalled the girl's snoring on the rocket ship.

“She fainted,” Barkey offered.

“Ah! Yes — fainted! That makes far more sense then.” The dragon nodded slowly.

“How did you know she would sleep? On the flight?” Gilbert asked, unable, even in absolute terror, to contain his curiosity.

The dragon's lips curled into a creepily menacing smile. “Yes — how did I know?” He chuckled, his claws caressing the medallion around his neck, as tremors shot through Gilbert's boots. But the smile disappeared in an instant. “Come with me,” he growled.

Moving past the three new students, the colossal dragon lumbered through the archway, between the two guards standing at attention, rigidly maintaining their salute.

As the two boys watched the beast's long tail slowly disappear into the darkness on the other side of the archway, the first guard finally relaxed his stance. “You'd better move along then. Yiiri doesn't like to be disobeyed.”

Gilbert's heart skipped a beat.

“Yiiri?” he asked. “That's Yiiri?”

The guard nodded.

“The same Yiiri that established this academy? Over a thousand years ago?”

Again, the guard nodded.

“But... why did you let him in?” Gilbert challenged, exasperated.

“It's his academy,” the guard explained. “Why wouldn't we let him in?”

“But you said you had orders to kill dragons on the spot!”

“Yep — those are the orders Yiiri gave us.”

“Then why didn't you kill him?” Gilbert argued.

“Kill Yiiri? Are you completely insane? He'd fire us! We only kill menacing, man-eating dragons — not upstanding academy professors.”

“But… but…”

“Come on, twerp.” Barkley shoved Gilbert's back gently between the shoulders with the palm of his hand. “We better get inside before they change their minds.” Stepping forward, he then spun the blackened sword around his body once, limbering his wrist and shoulder just in case of battle, then glared at the guards and walked through the doorway after their new mentor.

Gilbert, furious, frustrated, and utterly puzzled, reluctantly knelt beside Bernice and lifted her in his arms. Then he followed Barkley and the terrifying monster leading them through the archway and to the left, into the uncertain darkness beyond.