First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts Read Online Free PDF Page B

“You will not be able to stitch this one up. Your sharp little needles will be no good on Sapphire if she is cut.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because even young dragons have scales as tough as slate. And how would you get to her? Can you gallop, human? Can you fly?”
    Rona said, “She can ride on your back, Yann, just like I do. Aren’t you strong enough for two?”
    “I will not be ridden by a human. I will not be saddled and bridled and tamed!”
    “I can go pretty fast on my bike,” said Helen confidently.
    “Over fields? And rivers? We have no more time to debate. We leave now.”
    “Wait! I’ll get you the teeth, I’ll just be a minute.”
    Helen rushed out of the garage, back into the house, and grabbed the swab packet from the welly. Then she went into her Mum’s small animal surgery, and pulled out an exotic animals textbook that she and Nicola often borrowed for its pictures of zoo animals. She turned to the hooks on the back of the door, and grabbed the spare first aid kit, a green waterproof rucksack with a full set of supplies in it.
    As she left the surgery she heard her Mum’s voice from the living room. “Helen? Is that you? It’s nearly teatime.”
    “Hi, Mum. I’m not hungry and I’ve got lots to do, so I’ll see you at supper.” She stomped noisily up to her room, then tiptoed back down again, hoping that her parents would think she was staying in her room all evening.
    She pushed open the back door and slipped out into the garden. Yann and Rona were having a whispered argument just outside the garage door.
    “Humans have enslaved my cousins for thousands of years. I will not become a farm animal just to take this human child out for a jaunt.”
    “You let me ride you.”
    “You are not human. You are a fellow fabled beast. You are a friend.”
    “She could be a friend too if you weren’t so rude to her all the time,” Rona said reasonably.
    “She is human. They are not our friends. They are our problem.”
    “This human has offered to help. You cannot refuse help for Sapphire tonight that you sought for yourself last night.”
    Helen walked noisily up to them, hoping they would stop talking about her. She would like to help them, and be part of their adventure, but not if Yann disliked her this much.
    She handed the kit and the book to Rona.
    “Here. See if you can help your friend with this. I don’t want to slow you down, and I really don’t want to ride on him.”
    All the fabled beasts stared at the book.
    Helen said, “It doesn’t have a chapter on dragons , obviously, but there are some case studies on lizards and snakes that might be useful.”
    Then she handed the packet with teeth in it to Yann. “The teeth of the creature that bit you. I promised you could have them when you answered my question. If you get hurt again, any of you, I will help if I can. Good luck.”
    She stepped away. Yann snorted through his nose, and hacked at the grass with a front hoof. Then he stood right in front of Helen and demanded, “Do you ride? Do you have a pampered pony somewhere? Do you take her to pony club gymkhanas and jump her over little striped poles?”
    “No. I prefer my bike. You don’t have to groom it, feed it or muck out. And you don’t have to be polite to it either.”
    “But can you ride? Would you fall off?”
    Helen said carefully, “I won’t fall off, if you don’t throw me off.”
    “I will only throw you off, human girl, if you try to tell me where to go.”
    “I don’t know where your dragon is, so I can’t tell you where to go.”
    “Climb up, then. Put your arms round my waist, and use your legs and back to keep your balance. Don’t dig your feet into my sides, and don’t tell me what to do.”
    So Helen hauled herself up on Yann’s back, and Rona climbed on more elegantly behind her. Lavender sat on Helen’s shoulder, grasping her hair, and Rona put the green rucksack on her own back. With Catesby soaring above them, Yann leapt the back fence and