The Pickpocket

Chapter 17 - Fire And Ice

“Actually,” a voice hissed in my ear, “there’s two of ‘em.” My head whipped around. Dad had his legs wrapped around the metal pole and was untying Owen. His knife was in his mouth and you could see that it was burning him.

“How d’you know that?” I asked in amazement. Dad grunted and slid further down the pole. I helped him to untie Owen and soon all three of us were clinging to the metal pole like sailors to  mast in a storm.

“Matt and Ben,” Dad replied at last, “twin brothers. My best mates when I was a kid. Both of ‘em died in the fire pit and I think the energy from the pocket watch was keeping them alive. But turning them into dragons.” Owen looked bewildered and skeptical at the same time. Questions rocketed around my head but I could feel my hands losing their grip and said so. Well, I swore a lot. Dad yanked me higher up so me and Owen were back to back at the top. We couldn’t see what Dad was doing.

“Dad?” I yelled, trying to peer past my feet to the fire below, “where are you going?”

“To fight a dragon or two,” Dad yelled back. I grinned at first then felt it slide off my face quicker than flames catch a dry twig.

“DAD!” I screamed.

 

*

 

Keeping my legs around the pole and my arms free, I slid down into the fire. Before all of the chaos happened I had a feeling that we’d go up against fire at some point and had made some precautions. As in, a mini fire extinguisher clipped to my belt. It had turned into a futuristic version and when I twisted around to read it I grinned.

It was a water bomb.

A dragon whizzed past my head. I recognised the one brown eye and identified it as Matt. I  could see a boy standing far below, fire crackling where his eyes should’ve been. The scar identified him as Ben and as I watched, he transformed into a dragon. Scales rippled across his skin and a forked tongue shot from his mouth. His eyes continued to burn but lost the actual flames. I couldn’t see much from where I was but  soon could. The two dragons flew up around me, snarling and spitting fire. Matt was green, Ben was red. I gulped.

“Hello, William,” Ben hissed. “Long time no see.”

“Hi, Ben,” I replied, my voice trembling slightly. I slowly reached around to the back of my belt and grabbed the water bomb. Concealing it in my hand, I turned to look at Matt.

“You killed me,” he snarled, “but it didn’t work, did it?”

“The great hitman,” Ben taunted, lizard tongue flicking out between his lips, “unable to properly kill a teenager. What does that tell you, William?”

“You’re my friends,” I replied, trying desperately to keep calm, “so I couldn’t kill you.”

“Were your friends,” Matt corrected, “now you’re Billy no-mates. Literally.” The dragons laughed, a rasping, guttural sound that chilled me to the core.

“What’s that?” Ben said suddenly, his eyes lighting up with interest as he spied the water bomb. “Is it a ball?”

“We don’t have anything to do here,” Matt added somberly. He snatched the water bomb from me in his black claws and threw it to Ben. The latter caught it and threw it to me. I fumbled with it and dropped it, causing it to land on the floor with a smashing sound. I frowned. I hadn’t realised it was glass. You could feel the water moving about inside it.

The flames around me flickered and died. The water was spreading across the floor like ice, freezing the flames before they were even created. I smiled slowly. The dragons hadn’t noticed yet.

“Was that a snowglobe?” Matt asked, “I heard it smash. I like snowglobes.”

Now it was my turn to correct him. “Liked. You ain’t long for this world, mate.”

Ben frowned the best a dragon can and lunged for me. He pressed my head against a now freezing cold metal post and cried out. I looked to his tail and saw that it was frozen to the floor. Matt roared and his jaw froze. Ben moved his claws from my throat and snarled at me before freezing into a bizarre ice stature. Matt went the same way seconds later.

I had to move fast. Yelling for Jamie and Owen to jump down from the pole, I prised myself away from the towering pillar of metal that was beginning to act like glue to my back. I prepared to jump down when I heard a cracking sound. The pole was freezing and cracking in the middle. I stopped moving, afraid to shift my weight lest it fell on top of me. I heard two thuds as Jamie and Owen landed on the grass, back outside of the fire pit. I was just below them.

“Dad?” Jamie called, a bemused expression on his face, “why are you down there?”

“Do you need help, sir?” Owen asked, peering over the side of the pit. I thought for a second then nodded. I felt and heard some of my hair crack - the pole was freezing me to it!

 

*

 

“Don’t worry, Dad, I’ll get you out,” I said confidently. Dad shook his head vigorously.

“Don’t!” he called back. “The pole has frozen me to it. It’ll just do the same to you two.”

Owen blinked then whispered to me, “Do you still have that grenade? I could adjust it so that it goes off. It didn’t. That was a different grenade, that’s why we’re all still alive.”

I pulled the grenade from my pocket and handed it to him. Owen pulled out the pin and hurled it down into the pit. I heard Dad curse before it hit the ground with a crack.

“That hit my head!” he yelled. I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand. Owen smiled and dragged me further away from the edge.

“Three…” Owen murmured, “two… one…”

BANG!

Dad came flying out of the pit, landing in a heap on the ground. He immediately covered his head with his hands as shards of ice rained down around us. Owen did the same and I followed suit. Once the ice shower had stopped, Dad stood up and walked over to us. He was smiling widely.

“Well, I have the pocket watch,” he said brightly, waving it about in the air. “It flew up and I caught it. That’s the second time an explosion has reunited us with this thing.” He raised it up high and threw it to me. I lunged for it, missed, and watched sadly as the pocket watch tumbled down into the pit.

“Oh Jamie,” Owen whispered, “what on Earth did you do that for?”

“Not to worry,” I said, trying to be optimistic, “I’ll just go and get it.” With that parting comment I jumped into the pit.