Dragon Flyer - Insert (Stage 7 Paper 2)
Joanna was waiting outside the school gates. It was nearly half past three. Aaron was late again.
Aaron was always later than they had agreed.
She looked up at the clock on the town hall tower and sighed. The street was quiet. A woman was
standing by a stall selling flowers. A bus drove past. Joanna pulled her scarf tighter around her
neck.
Then something made her turn and look down the side street.
At first she thought it was a dog. But it was too big, and the shape was wrong. It had wings. Wings!
Joanna stared. The creature was no higher than her knee. It was covered in shining green scales
that
glowed faintly in the weak autumn sunlight. The wings were folded neatly along its back. Smoke
curled
gently from its nostrils.
It was a dragon.
Joanna felt a strange calmness. She did not feel afraid. The dragon looked at her intently with its
bright
golden eyes. She felt as though it was trying to tell her something. Suddenly, thoughts like small
silver
sparks were flickering across her mind. “Dragon Flyer,” they whispered. Then they were gone, only
to
flash back again, brighter and faster.
A woman came hurrying up the street. She was wrapped in a long dark coat and carried a thick
blanket.
She swept the blanket around the dragon and lifted it into her arms. “Come along,” she said softly,
as if
speaking to a baby. Then she hurried away, the dragon hidden once more.
Just then Aaron arrived, still wrapped up in his headphones and music. “Sorry I’m late,” he said.
Joanna shook her head slowly. “It doesn’t matter,” she replied. She had already begun to walk
away.
“What’s up?” Aaron asked. “You look... different.”
Joanna did not answer. She was thinking of the dragon, of the sparks of thought in her mind.
Something
had changed. She felt as though a door had opened inside her — a door to something new and
amazing.
She did not know what it was yet. But she would.