Boo looked at her clock for what felt like the hundredth time that night.
Time seemed to be crawling. It was only 2:12AM, Mommy had told her that she was not to get up until at least 6:30.
Last night Mommy and her boyfriend had taken her to a show, which was fun, then they had walked home in the cold, which was less fun. But she had shaken all of the presents and was pretty sure that she had identified them all, before finally collapsing into bed at around 11PM. Dragon was on the floor, as usual, snoring lightly, with little puffs of smoke emerging from his nostrils in time to the snores.
She reached out and ticked dragons chin, he snuffled and growled a contented growl. She ticked behind his ears too and dragon opened an eye.
Boo smiled in the semi-darkness, ‘Sorry Dragon, I cannot sleep’.
Dragon smiled his scary smile back. ‘I could do with stretching my wings, fancy a ride ?’.
Boo quietly hopped out of bed, grabbed her backpack from under her bed, pulled her pigtails extra tight, jammed her bobble hat on her head, pulled on her jeans and socks over her pyjamas and then slipped into her Parka before pulling her back-pack nice and tight. ‘Lets go’.
Just before they left, however, Boo looked into the lounge to see if Santa had delivered any presents. From what she could see in the semi-darkness the mince pie and glass of milk along with the carrots for the reindeer were all still sitting on the table where she had left them. Also as far as she could see, there were no new presents.
‘Oh no, Santa has not been yet’.
Dragon thought that this was perhaps a cause for concern too, ‘Normally he delivers at around half-past midnight’, either he is running a little late, or worse, something has happened to him.’ Boo climbed onto Dragon’s back and they shot out of the window like the cork from a bottle.
Streaking into the darkness, Boo was, once more, extra glad for Dragon’s warmth, despite the freezing weather, she was lovely and warm. They flew north at high speed, the lights below her twinkled in the winter landscape beautifully, for a moment she wished that she had remembered to pack her phone so that she could take a photo, but then thought that it was probably a little dark.
Within minutes, the land had disappeared and they were flying over the ocean, Dragon dropped down to skim the water with his wing tips creating little wakes that stretched endlessly behind them.
Within minutes they were once again approaching land, Dragon swept up and over the cliffs and once more the frozen landscape below looked magical. All the time Dragon was moving faster and faster, perhaps faster than Boo had ever known him before. Then all of a sudden they started to slow dramatically. They almost came to a halt in mid air, then dropped down to a street in a small town.
Right next to a sleigh.
‘Hello Santa, do you need a hand ?’
Boo hopped off Dragons’ back. There was obviously something wrong, because Santa looked very upset, the sleigh looked fine and there was a huge bag of presents on the back, but there was something missing….
‘Erm, Santa, where are the reindeer ?’
‘They got scared and they flew away, I’m trying to deliver all of the presents, but the sleigh is way too heavy to get any speed up, its not so bad down hill, but its really hard to deliver presents to people that live in high-rise buildings. At this rate I think I need about three days’.
‘Dragon, we need to help him, can you see if you can find the reindeer ?’
‘I have a much better idea, I’ll pull the sleigh, dragons are very good at pulling sleighs’.
Boo was not convinced that this was a good idea, while Dragon was obviously strong enough and fast enough, every time he mentioned that he was good at something, there was generally a disaster waiting to happen. However with time running out, it seemed that this was probably the best chance that they had.
Santa produced some magical rope seemingly from thin air, and fashioned it into a harness of sorts, Dragon manoeuvred himself in front of the sleigh while Boo jumped into the seat alongside Santa and they roared into the air, probably a little bit too fast, Dragons, can, as you no doubt realise, can get a little overexcited at times. .
‘Oh My’, began Santa, but whatever he said after that was drowned out by the wind. Santa pulled left and right on the reigns and Dragon flew in the direction that he felt was appropriate. He was obviously not as well trained as the reindeer, but he made up for the lack of control with great strength and speed. Santa directed him to the next house. It looked like it would be a little difficult to land as the snow was very deep and rather powdery. Dragon obviously noticed this too. A quick snort of flame thawed it all out in an instant. They were able to land safely and easily and apart from the slightly steaming tree in the front garden, everything was good.
They flew from house to house, street to street, village to village at very high speed, each stop just took half a second. In the blink of an eye Santa would disappear with presents and appear suddenly with mince-pie crumbs in his beard, milk around his moustache and a couple of carrots for Dragon. Dragons are not very keen on carrots though, so he would chew them a little and then spit them out.
From time to time they encountered snow-drifts, which Dragon melted instantly or fallen tree’s, which Dragon sliced his way through with his talons. They also encountered a couple of cars full of stranded motorists that Dragon simply pushed along the road as though they were toys.
On the longer flights between cities, Santa would check his watch, ‘We are less than an hour behind schedule now’ he shouted as they crossed the sea towards Ireland, ‘At this rate we will be all caught up before sunrise’.
Boo was getting a little sleepy, despite the high speeds, the gentle rocking motion of the sleigh and the lovely warm blankets made her eyes close from time to time.
They spent the next few hours zig-zagging around the world, finally arriving in Hawaii, Santa had explained on the long flight from Alaska that this was the most western place in the world and always his last stop. They once more delivered present after present all over the islands, then as soon as the last present had been delivered they shot vertically into the sky, Dragon soared upwards and did a few celebratory loop-the-loops. Luckily Boo and Santa were holding on tight and sitting on the now almost empty present bag.
‘Oh no’, said Boo,’We missed a house, there is still one left in the bag.’
‘Do not worry Boo, I thought that you would like to deliver the last one, it is after all somewhat appropriate that you get to do this.’
With a gentle tug on the reigns, Dragon stopped loop-the-looping and they headed east at high speed. Boo realised that it was not getting light like it should and therefore Dragon was doing his trick with time again. Santa’s watch seemed to be going backwards, confirming her thoughts. A few minutes later the familiar lights of London came into view below, then the lights of the various motorway networks, then finally the lights that she recognised as her home. They landed lightly on the patio and Santa, this time holding Boo’s hand twirled on the spot and they were inside the lounge, a quick glance at the clock confirmed that it was nearly two-fifteen. Santa held out the last present to Boo to deliver and she carefully hung it up on the door handle.
Outside there was a slight commotion going on, Dragon had tried to scratch his itchy left wing and had knocked over several things on the patio and the sleigh was carving gashes into the slabs.
Santa put his fingers to his lips, turned on the spot and re-appeared outside next to the sleigh. As Boo watched they lifted into the air, Dragon winked and as Santa waved they shot into the distance at Dragon’s usual high speed.
Boo crept out of the lounge and into her room, she placed her backpack under her bed, hung up her parka, pulled off her jeans and clambered into bed, exhausted.
Boo went to sleep almost instantly, she dreamed of dragons, santa, sleighs and missing reindeer.
To be continued…..