outwardly acknowledge their words. They must have forgotten she spoke Mandarin.
A deafening roar made her and everyone else in the cable car spin.
CJ’s eyes went wide.
An emperor dragon was hovering right alongside the cable car!
It kept itself aloft with the occasional flap of its vast wings and it peered curiously into the cable car.
CJ hadn’t even heard it approach. She couldn’t believe the sheer size of it. It defied the senses to see something so big hovering in the air. And it thrilled her to be able to see it so close.
The great beast roared again, an ear-piercing shriek that seemed to shake the whole valley.
It was a red-bellied black dragon. Its underbelly blazed scarlet. Its black plated armour looked strong beyond belief. When it roared, its teeth flashed.
CJ noticed that it was looking closely at her and her companions, as if evaluating them.
CJ found herself admiring it. Curiosity in an animal was a sign of intelligence and it was rare. You found it only in a few members of the animal kingdom: chimpanzees, gorillas, dolphins.
Her eyes swept up the curve of the great beast’s neck and she gazed at its fearsome head. Its eyes were a pitiless black. The sinews of its jaws were stretched taut. Its crest was sleek and sinister, while the rest of its massive head was covered in ugly scars and gashes, presumably from fights with other dragons—
CJ frowned.
Wait a second . . .
Something about this dragon’s head didn’t look right, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
Suddenly, with a final hideous screech, the massive creature beat its wings and banked away, flying off to the north, and everyone in the cable car started murmuring with wonder.
Shortly after, the cable car came to the great ruined castle. When she’d seen it before from the main building, CJ thought it hadn’t looked so big, but now she realised that that had been a trick of the distance.
Seen from up close, it was absolutely enormous: dark, grim and imposing.
‘We got the production designer from the Lord of the Rings movies to design this castle,’ Hu said to Wolfe. Hu seemed a little standoffish toward CJ now.
‘It’s awesome,’ Hamish said.
CJ had to admit that it did look pretty impressive. Indeed, it looked as if the fictitious inhabitants of the castle had done battle with invading dragons and lost badly. The brick battlements had crumbled. Whole towers lay askew on the ground. Some staircases ran nowhere, ending abruptly at ragged ends.
The whole thing was covered in black char-marks, causing CJ to remark, ‘I thought you said there were no fire-breathing dragons here.’
Zhang offered a bashful smile. ‘We took some liberties with the design of this castle, for the sake of theatricality.’
‘I like it,’ Hamish said.
About a dozen dragons moved in and around the ruins, all yellowjackets.
At the base of the castle, at the point where it sat at the same height as the waterfall, an elongated wooden platform stretched out from the front gate.
It resembled a drawbridge, only it led nowhere. It just extended out over the curving waterfall directly in front of the castle, looking like a bridge that had been stopped halfway through its construction. It took CJ a moment to realise what it was.
‘It’s a landing platform for the dragons,’ she said.
‘And a cable car stop for us,’ Zhang said, smiling. It was only a hundred metres ahead of them.
‘I have another question,’ CJ said suddenly.
‘Yes?’ Deputy Director Zhang cast a worried glance at Hu, no doubt fearful of another awkward question from the National Geographic woman.
‘You said you found 88 eggs in that cavern,’ CJ said. ‘But then you said that you have 232 dragons in this zoo. How does that work? I would have thought one egg means one dragon, so 88 eggs means 88 dragons, unless they’ve laid more eggs.’
Zhang visibly relaxed. This was apparently a question he could answer easily.
He smiled. ‘You are correct,
A deafening roar made her and everyone else in the cable car spin.
CJ’s eyes went wide.
An emperor dragon was hovering right alongside the cable car!
It kept itself aloft with the occasional flap of its vast wings and it peered curiously into the cable car.
CJ hadn’t even heard it approach. She couldn’t believe the sheer size of it. It defied the senses to see something so big hovering in the air. And it thrilled her to be able to see it so close.
The great beast roared again, an ear-piercing shriek that seemed to shake the whole valley.
It was a red-bellied black dragon. Its underbelly blazed scarlet. Its black plated armour looked strong beyond belief. When it roared, its teeth flashed.
CJ noticed that it was looking closely at her and her companions, as if evaluating them.
CJ found herself admiring it. Curiosity in an animal was a sign of intelligence and it was rare. You found it only in a few members of the animal kingdom: chimpanzees, gorillas, dolphins.
Her eyes swept up the curve of the great beast’s neck and she gazed at its fearsome head. Its eyes were a pitiless black. The sinews of its jaws were stretched taut. Its crest was sleek and sinister, while the rest of its massive head was covered in ugly scars and gashes, presumably from fights with other dragons—
CJ frowned.
Wait a second . . .
Something about this dragon’s head didn’t look right, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.
Suddenly, with a final hideous screech, the massive creature beat its wings and banked away, flying off to the north, and everyone in the cable car started murmuring with wonder.
Shortly after, the cable car came to the great ruined castle. When she’d seen it before from the main building, CJ thought it hadn’t looked so big, but now she realised that that had been a trick of the distance.
Seen from up close, it was absolutely enormous: dark, grim and imposing.
‘We got the production designer from the Lord of the Rings movies to design this castle,’ Hu said to Wolfe. Hu seemed a little standoffish toward CJ now.
‘It’s awesome,’ Hamish said.
CJ had to admit that it did look pretty impressive. Indeed, it looked as if the fictitious inhabitants of the castle had done battle with invading dragons and lost badly. The brick battlements had crumbled. Whole towers lay askew on the ground. Some staircases ran nowhere, ending abruptly at ragged ends.
The whole thing was covered in black char-marks, causing CJ to remark, ‘I thought you said there were no fire-breathing dragons here.’
Zhang offered a bashful smile. ‘We took some liberties with the design of this castle, for the sake of theatricality.’
‘I like it,’ Hamish said.
About a dozen dragons moved in and around the ruins, all yellowjackets.
At the base of the castle, at the point where it sat at the same height as the waterfall, an elongated wooden platform stretched out from the front gate.
It resembled a drawbridge, only it led nowhere. It just extended out over the curving waterfall directly in front of the castle, looking like a bridge that had been stopped halfway through its construction. It took CJ a moment to realise what it was.
‘It’s a landing platform for the dragons,’ she said.
‘And a cable car stop for us,’ Zhang said, smiling. It was only a hundred metres ahead of them.
‘I have another question,’ CJ said suddenly.
‘Yes?’ Deputy Director Zhang cast a worried glance at Hu, no doubt fearful of another awkward question from the National Geographic woman.
‘You said you found 88 eggs in that cavern,’ CJ said. ‘But then you said that you have 232 dragons in this zoo. How does that work? I would have thought one egg means one dragon, so 88 eggs means 88 dragons, unless they’ve laid more eggs.’
Zhang visibly relaxed. This was apparently a question he could answer easily.
He smiled. ‘You are correct,
Similar Books
