Tankoon: Book One of Caitlyn's Dragon

By Carol Cook

Book One of Caitlyns Dragon, Tankoon, finds the land in trouble. All of the stories are mixed up. Trees grow apples on one side and bananas on the other. Rain falls in cubes instead of drops. The atmospheric continuum, which controls the weather, and the optimal controller, which controls all the stories in Tankoon, are becoming unstable. The Fernal Equalizer is splitting. If it continues to split, Tankoon and possibly our land will cease to exist. The only thing that can fix these controlling devices is a key that will fit into the Fernal Equalizer and bring everything back to normal. This key is held by a dragon. Only a really real princess can control the dragon to obtain the key. However, he will only give up the key if he wants to. If he doesn't, he will destroy whoever tries to obtain it.
Caitlyn is a really real princess, but does she have what it takes to overcome all of the dangers to reach the mountains of Astra Arum, triumph over those trying to keep her from the dragon, and face the dragon to obtain the key? Follow Caitlyn and her friends in Book One of Caitlyns Dragon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479750559

Carol Cook

Carol Cook has concentrated most of her life working with children. She has spent 40 years in education teaching third graders, K-12 at-risk students, teachers, and is presently working in a Missouri correctional center helping offenders obtain their GED. She is an avid reader, and loves fantasy. She began writing picture books for her grandchildren, and expanded to chapter books as they became older. She has 3 daughters, 3 sons (their husbands), and 6 grandchildren. She presently lives in north central Missouri with her loving husband and four dogs.

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Copyright © 2012 by Carol Cook.

Illustrator: Ray Craighead

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Mallie’s Quest

Chapter 2

The Stories

Chapter 3

Hairy Hare’s Story

Chapter 4

Langdon Explains

Chapter 5

Captured

Chapter 6

Plain Of Plantain

Chapter 7

Tara-Erredan

Chapter 8

The Raging Rapids

Chapter 9

Forest Elves

Chapter 10

The Night Mare Forest

Chapter 11

Danger In Darlinggar

Chapter 12

The Dragon’s Den

To Caitlyn and Alyson

who will always be my princesses.

CHAPTER 1

Mallie’s Quest

If she had only known, she would have probably simply turned around and gone back to bed for the rest of her life. And if she would have done that, things would have gone much differently. However, she did not know, and she did not go back to bed for the rest of her life, so things went on the way I suppose they were meant to be. You see, once upon a time, in the kingdom of Noremac, there lived a beautiful princess. She had attractive blue eyes that sparkled when she laughed. They were innocent, shy, and understanding, yet fiery and passionate at the same time. Her long light brown hair was the color of almonds that sparkled in the sunlight. She was such a happy child that her laughter was heard often throughout the kingdom and had such a beautiful sound that the fairies became jealous.

Her parents, King Ray and Queen Dawn, were very kind and did not want to offend many of the neighboring royalty, so this princess had a very long name. It was Cassiopeia Agatha Ithica Thituagua Landmarta Yolanda Natalie. But since it was very difficult to say Cassiopeia Agatha Ithica Thituagua Landmarta Yolanda Natalie every time anyone wanted to say the princess’s name, people began to shorten it by using the first letter of each name and just called her Caitlyn. It seemed to work very well, unless she did something to make her mother very angry, which was not often, but then you may hear, Cassiopeia Agatha Ithica Thituagua Landmarta Yolanda Natalie, stop that right now!

Princess Caitlyn had a beautiful little sister who also had a long name. It was Antrude Lilliput Yepsibad Similad Ontario Notingham. But again, by the time you said all of those names, she would be late for supper, so people just used the first letter of each name and called her Alyson, which seemed to suit her very well.

Caitlyn and Alyson loved each other very much. They lived in a big beautiful house with King Ray and Queen Dawn and were loved by the entire realm (which were all the people that King Ray ruled over). Their house was nothing like the one you or I live in. Oh no, nothing at all like our homes. Let me see, how shall I describe it? Their house was called a castle, and it came in many parts. As you first approached the castle, you would come to a large moat, which was a huge body of water around fifteen feet deep that surrounded the castle. This was to keep anyone from tunneling under it. In order to get across the moat and into the castle, one would need to cross over on a drawbridge, which could be raised or lowered at the will of those in the castle. They could also raise or lower the portcullis at the end of the drawbridge to allow people to enter the castle or keep people out. The castle was surrounded by thick tall walls of stone, so wide that a walkway was built on the wall called the rampart. Soldiers could go up there when they needed to watch for enemies or protect the castle.

Inside the wall was the courtyard. Here you might see people cooking, sleeping, working, playing, gardening, or even taking care of animals. This was forever a busy place because there was always a lot of work to do to keep the kingdom in good working order, and people were constantly coming and going. The main and largest building was called the keep and was also made entirely of stone. It was very tall and strong and was where the family lived. The inside of the keep was truly something to behold.

The heavy wooden doors looked a rusty red in the sunlight. The cold stone marble floors echoed softly as Caitlyn walked down the hall. Beautiful paintings surrounded each room. Most of them were of former family members of days gone by. Caitlyn loved to hear stories of their exploits, both good and bad. A set of double staircases, one on the left and one on the right, led to the bedchambers on the second floor. Six large, evenly spaced carved stone pillars helped to keep the castle standing. To the left was a grand wooden door that led to a very large library. This was extremely unusual, because very few people were able to read or write in the kingdom of Noremac.

To the right was a door that led to a greenhouse with too many plants to even think about counting. Each one came from a different part of the world. In the center of the greenhouse was a striking fountain showering perfumed water into the air that gracefully settled back to where it started.

King Ray was a good king, and almost everyone in the kingdom loved him. Many people would come to him with problems, and he would tell them what they should do, then they would go away very happy.

One day, a commotion was heard outside the castle, and a group of men came riding up on horses. They looked very upset. We need to talk to the king! they shouted. Everyone wondered what could possibly be going on. The king had been working with his councilors but stopped what he was doing to see what the disturbance was.

The men were brought immediately to him. They all bowed low to the king. One man spoke up. Please forgive us for this intrusion, King Ray. We are from the eastern part of the realm and came to tell you that a dragon has been spotted there.

King Ray was not sure he had heard them correctly. He laughed. "I am sorry. I thought I heard you say a dragon has been spotted."

The men did not smile. Yes, sir, said the first man. That is exactly what I said, sir.

King Ray looked at his councilors, and his councilors looked back at him. There had never been a dragon in the kingdom of Noremac for more than three hundred years. In fact, he did not think dragons lived anywhere anymore. Can you tell me what happened? he asked the men.

The first man looked at another one of the group who looked very scared. Go ahead, Albert. King Ray is a good king. There is nothing to be afraid of.

Albert shakingly looked at the group of councilors and then at the king and began his story. "I was a walkin’ out ta ma field, sirs, to check on ma corn fer my cattle. It has been a little dry, an’ I thought I may need ta do a little waterin’, ’cause I’d really like ta have a good crop this year fer my cows.

"Well, ya see, like I said, I was a walkin’ out ta ma field an’ all of a sudden, I saw this here big black shadow sweep across the sky. It skeered me sumpin’ fierce let me tell you, sirs! ’Cause it was really big, sirs! I don’t mean just big, sirs. I mean really big, sirs. I had never seen nuthin’ like it, sirs, before in ma’ life, sirs. I didn’t know what it was, sirs. And I didn’t never want to see it again, sirs. I didn’t know if I should hide or get help or what I should do, sirs. But before I could think, sirs, here it came back again, sirs, an’ I looked up in the sky, sirs, an’ got a good look at it. It was a dragon, sirs. It was big an’ kind of blue an’ kind of green, sirs. Probably about twenty feet long from his nose to his tail, sirs. It looked really mean, sirs. An’ I was skeered sumpin’ fierce, sirs, let me tell you, sirs!"

King Ray could see that Albert was getting very excited and tried to remain calm. I am sure that must have been a very exciting experience, Albert. Can you remember anything else about this ‘dragon’ you saw?

Well, let me see, sir. There was a bumpy ridge that went down his back, sir. And his tail ended in what looked like an arrowhead, sir. He had two rows of teeth inside the top of his mouth, sir, but I couldn’t see the bottom of his mouth, sir.

King Ray looked at his councilors. Well, it certainly needs looking into. Sir Langton, please ready fifty knights for me. We will ride in the morning at the rise of the sun.

When Caitlyn, Alyson, and Queen Dawn were told about the dragon, they knew that King Ray would have to go and look into the situation, but they did not really like it when he was gone. Oh, they were still safe enough. There were many people in the castle to take care of them. But when King Ray was gone, there just seemed to be an emptiness that cannot quite be explained, but people who love each other understand when they are not together. Caitlyn was feeling that funny feeling now. She could not explain what she was feeling, but she thought that maybe if she would go outside and play, she would get her mind off of her soon-to-be absent father.

Queen Dawn told Caitlyn, You may play in the forest as long as you stay within sight of the castle, but please, do not go farther away than that. The forest can be very dangerous.

So Caitlyn went to the castle guard who lowered the drawbridge. Across the moat she trotted, glancing down into the fifteen-foot-deep water. Sir Rollaroy had told Caitlyn that they had just filled the moat with large man-eating fish to offer even further protection. She would really have to be careful not to fall in now. Off into the forest she went. Already she was feeling better. She made up a happy song as she went:

"Oh what a happy day.

I like to run and jump and play.

Into the forest I will run

and play awhile in the sun."

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Before long, Caitlyn heard something. She looked around, but she could see no one. Hello? Is anyone there? Caitlyn softly asked.

All of a sudden, everything was quiet. Caitlyn walked softly a little further. What was that? Did she hear a twig snap? Was someone following her? Hello? Caitlyn asked again. Nothing. Caitlyn thought maybe she was just hearing things, so she continued on her way.

"The sky is oh so blue.

It makes me feel like loving you.

Oh what a happy day,

to run and jump and play!"

Psst! Who are you? a tiny voice asked from somewhere.

Caitlyn stopped and looked around. She saw no one.

Who said that?

A funny little furry creature stepped out from behind a tree. He looked like he was part mouse, part bobcat, and part funny chicken; and he looked a whole lot afraid.

Are you nice? asked the funny little creature.

Caitlyn could not quite understand her reaction. She should be terribly frightened, but she really wanted to laugh. A creature talking to her? That should not be! Yet for some reason, she was not at all scared.

"I guess. I