Stuart McLean Macfarlane is a SAP Product Data Management specialist. Linda Macfarlane teaches primary school. They share a passion for entertaining children with science adventures leavened with humor. They are the coauthors of The Secret Diaries of Adrian Cat.

They got to Main Street safely. It too was empty. Warily they stole along Church Street then took the hilly road up School Lane towards the Common. Still nothing to be seen. Their confidence rose. Perhaps getting to the castle wouldn’t be as difficult as they had feared. They ran past the school to where the lane opened out onto the Common. All three gasped as if air was suddenly in short supply. They froze on the spot. They stared with unblinking eyes. The Common was alive with mythical creatures; some resting, some eating, many fighting.
Simon broke the trance. “Let’s get away from here,” he whispered.
Like actors in a movie being played in slow motion, they crept to the safety of a garden wall. Trembling they peered over. There, in front of them, was the weirdest collection of creatures imaginable. There were ogres and unicorns, dragons and griffins; creatures with animal bodies and huge wings. Many were a mix of two, three or more different animals. Some had more than one head. It was as if they’d stumbled across some Martian Circus Freak Show. Most frightening of all were the creatures the size of giant dinosaurs.