The Dragon's Eye by Dugald A. Steer

apple in his lair.”
    And at that he took the cut piece of apple and rubbed it all over the leather ball.
    â€œYour job today is to kick this ball past Jamal and into his lair. I don’t think you will be able to succeed. But since it’s a game, I need someone to go on Jamal’s team.”
    This time Billy’s hand shot up a fraction of a second before Beatrice’s.
    â€œAll right, then,” said Dr. Drake.
    We trooped through the forest and soon arrived at the fence, which I now knew to be protecting Jamal’s compound. It showed signs of having been repaired several times. Emery took us round through a dark clump of pines to a small gate.
    Emery unlocked it, and we went through.
    Almost as soon as we were inside, there was a rustling amongst the bushes and Jamal ran forwards to meet us. Then he bounded away, flapping his wings as though he were showing off.
    â€œThat’s right, Jamal,” said Dr. Drake with a laugh. “Lead the children to your lair.”
    It wasn’t hard to find Jamal’s lair. There was a huge pile of bones outside, and I thought that Dr. Drake must have been keeping at least ten butchers in business with all the feeding he needed to do. Like Weasel’s den, Jamal’s lair was dug into the sand, but it was dug into a tall bank and it looked much more like a cave mouth than a simple hole.
    â€œNow,” said Dr. Drake, “show Jamal the ball.”
    Emery took the ball and showed it to Jamal. The dragon came over and sniffed it. He looked puzzled for a moment. Then he leapt back towards his lair and stood in the entrance, looking at us warily.
    â€œRight,” said Dr. Drake as Emery placed the ball on the ground. “Billy, if you go and join Jamal and kick the ball away, he will realise that you want to help him. You other four — your goalmouth is between those two large pines over there.”
    This was amazing. Dr. Drake was actually going to get us to play dragon football.
    â€œWho’s going in our goal?” I said.
    â€œI will,” said Alicia. “I’m afraid I’m not very good at kicking balls.”
    But she had hardly started back for the two trees, when Billy came running towards her and kicked the ball into our goal.
    â€œEasy!” he said.
    Alicia trudged through the undergrowth, fetched the ball and threw it back into the middle, where it landed near Billy’s feet.
    â€œWe haven’t started yet,” said Darcy.
    â€œThen we’ll start — now!” shouted Billy. And he began dribbling the ball with his foot. Beatrice tried to tackle him, but he simply shoved her out of the way.
    â€œThat’s not fair,” said Beatrice.
    But by now
I
was trying to tackle Billy.
He isn’t going to shove me,
I thought.
    Unfortunately, he didn’t need to. He got past me in three swift steps and advanced on Darcy. He looked up, and then kicked the ball hard, but not at the goalmouth. It bounced off Darcy’s head, knocking his spectacles flying.
    â€œSorry!” said Billy.
    Darcy had to scramble for his glasses to make sure they weren’t trodden on while Billy dribbled the ball up to his sister, who was making the most half-hearted goal-keeping effort I have ever seen. I think she was afraid that the ball might sting if it hit her.
    Billy coolly passed the ball into the goal behind her.
    â€œDragons two, Dragonologists nil!” he shouted, running back towards Jamal’s lair.
    Alicia trudged off to retrieve the ball again.
    Beatrice looked over at Dr. Drake.
    â€œIt’s not fair,” she said. “We’re supposed to be seeing how Jamal guards his lair.”
    â€œThen I expect you need a plan,” said Dr. Drake.
    When Alicia had got the ball back again, Beatrice drew us together.
    â€œTeam talk!” she said. “There are four of us and two of them. All we need to do is get the ball off Billy. Let’s go!”
    Alicia threw the ball out