Jonah and the Last Great Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page A

he ever hurt Jonah again.
    The dragons were standing quietly on the heliport field, while soldiers finished fastening webbing safety cages over their backs and under their wings. Almost as soon as the Deerhurst Wyrm had brought Jonah safely back to the barracks, the SAS trucks began to return with pork, beef and mutton for them. Sam had wisely delayed the unloading until Jonah had spoken to each dragon in turn, extracting promises not to harm people or other animals.
    ‘You can see that everything’s different now from when you were last awake,’ he had told them, while Ffyrnig watched intently to make sure none of the beasts turned nasty. ‘I’ll do my best to stop people annoying you and I will try to make sure you get good meals. We really need your help. We can’t fight off the Night Creatures without you.’
    Now, the green one looked Jonah up and down.
    ‘You are a bit young, to my mind, but if the old
Ddraig Goch
says you are a Dragoneer, I suppose you must be,’ he mumbled gruffly, cocking an eye at Ffyrnig, who glared at him through narrowed eyes.
    ‘Who is he? That crabby green one?’ Jonah had asked Ffyrnig while the soldiers trundled out huge pieces of meatto pile in front of each animal.
    ‘That’s the Mordiford Dragon – or Wyvern, to use his correct title. Yes, he’s a miserable old thing. They used to say that he never got over being attacked by a man who lived in that village. Hated human beings after that.’
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘It’s a long story but basically, when he was a dragonet, a little girl named Maud made a pet of him. Fed him and cuddled him. Wouldn’t give him up, even when he grew older and started eating the local cattle. Naturally, he got quite the wrong idea about living with human beings. He thought that because Maud loved him, everyone else would.’ Ffyrnig chuckled. ‘When he grew too large to live in Maud’s garden, he should have gone off to a deep forest or a mountain crag, like any dragon with sense. But oh no, he had to go and live just outside Mordiford village, in the woods near the River Lugg. Of course, he was forever making off with the villagers’ livestock and even one or two children – or so people said.’
    ‘He ate the village
children?’
    ‘Well, that was the story that got about. Obviously he’d deny it. Anyway, after Maud died – she was an old lady by then – the people of Mordiford were terrified of him. Of course, they tried all sorts of ways to kill him and a man named Garson nearly succeeded. Oh, dear, wasn’t old Mordiford surprised and hurt! He’s been a bit of a curmudgeon ever since.’
    ‘Poor old thing,’ said Jonah.
    ‘Poor old thing! I wouldn’t put it past him to eat your baby brother, if you had one. And he nearly got you killed. Be very firm with him, Jonah, and make sure that the soldier who rides him shows not a trace of fear. Mordiford will play up, if he thinks his rider is scared.’
    Jonah took a deep breath. ‘Thank goodness all the ridersare SAS chaps, then,’ he said.
    Sam Hereford came on to the field with the Parrys and Jonah ran over to them. He looked apprehensively at Claire. ‘Are you feeling better about it, now you’ve seen me with them?’ he asked. ‘Even the one that went for me – the green one – has accepted me now. It’ll be all right.’ He scanned her face anxiously.
    Claire gave a huge sigh. ‘When I saw you come off…!’ She shook her fair hair. ‘I don’t know. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t even scream.’ She squeezed his hand and gave a little laugh. ‘Try not to do it again, eh?’
    ‘Well, not when we’re watching, at any rate,’ Rhodri quipped.
    Sam, who had gone off to talk to another officer, came striding back. ‘They’ve nearly finished eating, I think,’ he said. ‘Air Troop is standing by. I shall be one of the eight flying with you and the other troops will come by helicopter. We don’t need ground-to-air control for them, luckily. We have already