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  Land Of The Thunder Dragon

  Planet Earth is about to be re-set, minus Humans.

  Can one adventurous Grandfather lead his five Grand Children on a mission to prove humanity is worth saving?

  Will the greatest ever insurance policy, a mission to settle humans on another planet, succeed? Or is it just a trap?

  Grand Adventure in the Himalaya, Tragedy, and a few good laughs along the way, will see Jack Matson and his amazing family take on an age-old prophesy in a last ditch attempt to find out if humans are worthy of their place on this planet.

  And did somebody say Dragon?

  ‘Land Of The Thunder Dragon’ is the first book in the ‘Outer Space Nature Boy’ series, join us for a wild ride across Planet Earth and the galaxy beyond.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Dave Williams

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the author,

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Please do the right thing. ☺

  Outer Space Nature Boy

  LAND OF THE THUNDER DRAGON

  To Skye and Flynn, who know who the real

  Outer Space Nature Boy is.

  (SHSSSSSHHHHH)

  Chapter 1

  "If only it would rain"

  "They’re not ready yet." Grandpa Jack spoke calmly into the phone. Jack Matson was responding to the arrival of five kit bags that had just been delivered by courier. A sign that his contacts were starting to get nervous.

  "It’s time Jack." The voice on the other end of the line said. "Within another month the world governments will ban private international travel altogether. If that happens our opportunity to complete the mission will be over. You’ve known all along that we have to act with the timing of David’s birthday."

  The voice on the other end of the line belonged to Lauren Matson, Jack's daughter, and his contact within the organisation. Jack preferred not to think about his weakness when it came to arguing with Lauren, besides, he knew she was right.

  Jack knew that the first response to the various world governments finally admitting that they were about to run out of oil, would be to restrict or even ban private travel by any means other than a bicycle. David, the second youngest of his five grandchildren, would finally be twelve years old six days from now. It would take them that long to reach their destination. It is time, he thought to himself reluctantly. He realised that he’d been putting off the inevitable.

  Jack looked out of the window into the food forest where his grandchildren were supposed to be collecting the ingredients for tonight's dinner. But as usual, work had turned into a game. They would eat from the forest as they played and would ultimately come into the house completely satisfied and won't want dinner.

  "Jack……..JACK!!!!!, are you there Jack?" Lauren's annoyed voice broke into his thoughts.

  Jack is a very young ninety two years of age, but he finds his thoughts increasingly wandering these days. Maybe it's just the worry of knowing what's coming in the next few weeks. So much depends on the outcome of their upcoming ‘adventure’.

  "Yes...yes, I'm here," Jack said vaguely, returning to conscious thought. "What's your plan Lauren?”

  "I need you and the kids to be at Jandakot airfield at 7am the day after tomorrow, the sixteenth, ok Jack?" She queried. "I will be there to meet the transport with you, do you have the means to get there ok?"

  Oh no, Jack thought to himself with a groan, if Lauren is coming it means there is definitely going to be trouble.

  "Yes, no problem" Jack said. "We'll be there."

  Jack wasn’t at all sure that the fuel cell in the E.V. could reach the required energy capacity before the 3 hour trip to Jandakot. There was no fuel available for the backup generator.

  He hung the telephone up and turned to find Skye, the youngest of his Grandchildren, looking at him with a wicked smile, and a wilted, filthy, carrot in her hand.

  "Here's your dinner Grandpa Jack," Skye said, desperately trying to contain an explosion of laughter.

  Jack played along, not wanting to ruin the joke or to let Skye know of his awareness that ‘the game’ appeared to have moved inside the house.

  Jack feigned a disappointed look, which started to melt Skye's heart. Her love for her Grandpa Jack is so strong, she could never hurt him.

  Jack shifted his balance imperceptibly to the right as four eggs left four grubby boys' hands and mounted a trajectory through the open window behind him. He caught two of the eggs in his left hand as they passed by his ear, but he allowed the other two to continue on, already having calculated that their final destination would be right in the middle of Skye's beautiful face. They continued past his head, seeming to roll in slow motion like asteroids in outer space.

  Skye's eyes lit up, as she too accepted their final destination. Her contained laughter turned to a look of serious concentration in a split second. Grandpa Jack observed the change and was rapt. The first of the eggs stopped centimetres from Skye's face, suspended in mid-air. The other one however, continued onwards to explode in a stinking sulphurous mess, yes it was a rotten egg, all over Skye's face.

  For a moment, Grandpa Jack thought that she had failed to stop the second egg, but Skye took one step back and the exploded mess just hung in mid-air, resembling the shape of Skye's face. The wicked grin returned to her face as she walked to the cupboard, removed the waste bin from below the sink and walked back to the eggs that were still suspended in mid-air, one whole, the other a splattered mess. She then allowed them to drop into the bin without a drop being spilled. She gave her Grandpa Jack a wink.

  "Yes, maybe you are ready," Jack mumbled to himself.

  "Ready for what, Grandpa Jack?" Yelled four loud voices from behind. The boys were already sitting on the newly delivered kitbags. "What are these for? We saw the delivery driver bring them in, five bags, five kids, where are we going Grandpa Jack?" Shouted Wayne excitedly.

  Jack realised that he could no longer keep anything from these fantastic kids, they even understand his thoughts before he has had them. Wayne as usual continued rambling on with no-one really listening.

  “At least I can shut out what Wayne's thinking,” Jack thought to himself, suddenly realising that he allowed that thought out, much to Wayne's dismay.

  “I know I talk a lot Grandpa Jack,” Wayne thought aloud, “but you love it, I know you do.” A genuine smile came over Wayne's face, suddenly fading to a frown as water began to pour onto his head from above.

  While everyone had been trying to shut out Wayne's loud thoughts, Timothy had started filling the bath on the floor above, via the household control panel on his smart phone. He was anticipating Grandpa Jack's impending instruction to wash up. Timothy's household control system needed some work however, as the bath had overflowed and was coming through the ceiling onto Wayne's head. Timothy raced up the stairs to turn the tap off manually, as everyone laughed uncontrollably at Wayne's predicament. "Oh well, at least the water’s warm," laughed Wayne.

  "I will answer your questions once I have fried these eggs for my dinner," said Grandpa Jack, holding up his left hand with the two perfect eggs nestled gently within it. "And when you five have cleaned up."

  Skye, having looked at the dirty state of her four cousins, had already bolted for the single bathroom, sneaking behind Timothy after he had stopped th
e water. She did not want to be last in the bath after those four grubs. Water restrictions are such a pain. “If only it would rain,” she thought, as she sank beneath the bubbles to the sound of her cousins banging on the locked bathroom door.

  Chapter 2

  "Five tasks I have for you"

  Skye and Flynn were already sitting at the kitchen table. They were anxiously watching Grandpa Jack carefully cut his fried eggs and transporting them via his shiny fork to his mouth. He slowly, deliberately chewed the perfectly cooked eggs, mentally thanking the chickens that delivered them, and apologising to them for the rough treatment that the boys had metered out to their carefully laid gems.

  Flynn had negotiated second place in the bath queue, on account of the size of his newly formed biceps. The result of his hard work around the farm.

  Wayne and Timothy, being brothers, twins in fact, and having no personal decorum whatsoever, according to Skye, had bathed together in the name of getting to the kitchen as quickly as possible.

  David, having waited patiently for Wayne and Timothy to exit the bathroom, looked disgustedly at the now tepid, soap scummy water in the bath. He reluctantly decided that being clean is seriously over rated, and towelled himself off with a wet face washer, before dressing and heading down to the electric atmosphere of the kitchen.

  "Before we can leave, I have five tasks that need to be completed, one for each of you," said Grandpa Jack. Five pairs of excited eyes were riveted to his.

  David could contain himself no longer, "Grandpa Jack, where are we going, and what's in those five bags?”

  "The bags are personal kit bags. Technical clothing and equipment for a long journey, there is one for each of you with your names on them. When we are finished here, you can take them to your rooms to make sure you have everything on the list, and that all items fit you well. You can add personal items you wish to take, as long as the bag weighs no more than fifteen kilograms," said Grandpa Jack.

  Grandpa Jack continued, "As to the question of our ultimate destination, I will answer that tomorrow evening when the five tasks are complete.”

  David looked at the list for his kit bag.

  Down Sleeping Bag with Liner (-14deg)

  Self Inflating camp mattress

  Share of a two person tent (five season)

  1 pair of Hiking Boots size 7

  Technical thermal layered clothing (2 sets)

  1 mountaineering Goretex Jacket

  1 x down climbing suit

  1 pair travel shoes size 7

  1 pair Crampons

  1 Ice Axe

  Water purifying drink bottle

  Windproof Balaklava

  2 pairs very warm socks

  1 Smartsuit

  Further at the bottom of the list was a strange message.

  Safe Travels David, from your Aunt Lauren.

  "And who may I ask is Aunt Lauren?" shouted David, the only one to have read the entire list.

  Grandpa Jack choked on the last of his egg, "I will explain later, you will meet her the day after tomorrow. Now, to the five tasks."

  "Wayne, being our best negotiator, I need you to visit our neighbour, Mr Rogers, and ask him if we can borrow his new solar panels for 24 hours," said Grandpa Jack, knowing full well that Mr Rogers would never agree. They hadn't got along at all since Flynn's rocket experiment went badly wrong, crashing into his roof top solar panels. Grandpa Jack had to replace them personally while Mr Rogers ranted and raved at him from the ground about how he should not be encouraging ‘young brats’ to be conducting dangerous experiments. Grandpa Jack had smiled and mumbled that “‘Dangerous Experiments’ are exactly what he should be encouraging his grandchildren to be doing. No one is allowed to take a risk any more, which is exactly why the planet is in the terrible state that we currently find it.”

  Grandpa Jack continued. "Timothy, once the solar panels have been acquired, I need you to install them here to boost our system, you need to have the E.V. at least 80% charged by sundown tomorrow for our trip the following morning.” Grandpa Jack was worried, the maximum he can expect from the E.V. is about three and a half hours on 100% charge, and that's with the solar panel on the E.V.'s roof providing additional power during daylight hours. We are going to be travelling in the dark for the first two hours, Grandpa Jack thought, deciding not to alarm the children. However, Timothy had picked up on Grandpa Jack's thoughts and was already formulating a plan.

  "Flynn, said Grandpa, “I need you to find a way to feed the chickens, and milk the two cows while we are away." Flynn just loves the farm, and everything about it. He has a real affinity with the soil, and a special love of the Chicken flock and their many uses around the farm. He is also a keen rocket scientist!!!

  "The whole property needs proper security while we are away. Skye, I would like you to handle that in your usual manner please.” Grandpa Jack didn't want to elaborate that he suspected various undesirables could be snooping around trying to undermine their expedition. If they were to gain access to the house while they were gone, things could become very difficult indeed.

  "Now David, I have a very special task for you. I need you to collect a half bucket of acorns."

  The chatter stopped immediately, and a deathly silence followed while everyone looked quizzically at Grandpa Jack.

  David has a keen sense that even though all five of the kids are around the same age, he is the youngest boy, only by two months, but nevertheless the youngest. Even Skye seems more mature than David and she is two months younger than he is.

  The Kitchen erupted with complaints from all sides, Wayne wanted to know why David gets such an easy task. Skye yelled, "That’s unfair," while David simply wondered why his Grandpa Jack always treated him like he is so little. "Don't they understand that I am capable of so much more?" he thought.

  "Oh Yes, I understand David," Grandpa Jack thought to himself, "But all in good time." Grandpa Jack knows that his treatment of David seems a little unfair, but if his prediction is correct, David will soon have to prove himself over and over again. He is not concerned about any of his Grandchildren's abilities, least of all David's.

  "OK," said Grandpa Jack, clapping his hands together excitedly. “Dark is upon us, please go through your kit bags and check that everything is there. Pack anything further that you might need and please get some sleep, ready for a busy day tomorrow. Good night."

  A mad rush ensued, all five cousins attempted to be first to collect their bag and rush to their rooms to inspect their new gear. It soon became obvious to them all, that they were going somewhere cold.

  Two minutes and five seconds later, Skye was rushing to each of the boys' rooms in turn. Wayne and Timothy preferred to share, and therefore had the largest room. Skye called an emergency meeting,,,, “NOW!”

  Everyone collected quickly in the Twins' room.

  Skye collected her thoughts, and then let fly,,,"whatonearthisgoingonwhatsthisallabouti'mscarednowandreallyworriedaboutgrandpajack."

  "HOLD ITTTTTT" shouted David, "Speak English will you?"

  Skye finally started to breathe again. Grandpa Jack, in the room below, smiled to himself as he realised that they are finally beginning to work together.

  "Listen," said Wayne rather calmly, "I think we are in for a great adventure, so everyone should calm down. Grandpa Jack is nothing to worry about Skye."

  "But he's so old and frail, do you really think he's fit for a grand adventure?” Skye said. "David, what on earth is with the Acorns?"

  "Look, don't blame me. I have no idea what that's about. But if it's Grandpa Jack's wish, it's good enough for me to follow through, even if I don't understand it," exclaimed David. "Besides, I am quite happy to help out on the other tasks if it helps to find out where we are going sooner. I for one have no idea.” David thought for a moment, “Except for the clues.”

  "What clues are you talking about David?" asked Flynn.

  Wayne cut in, "Well, it's obvious isn't it? The list has all cold weather and
mountaineering equipment on it. It has to be somewhere cold, perhaps somewhere high as well."

  "Good one boy genius," said Flynn. "That only cuts it down to, oh, about five hundred possible places. But Grandpa Jack did used to tell us stories about his adventures in the Himalayas as a boy, before the war wasn't it?"

  "Yeah,” said Timothy. “I remember, something about saving the planet I think. Obviously didn't work out huh!!"