The next sound surprised him. “Michael!” a voice called out to him.

  Michael’s eyes popped open and flicked in the direction that the voice had come from. He was careful not to move his head. Sure enough, the voice Michael had heard belonged to Abbie. She was standing right next to Parvack with a huge smile on her face.

  “Are you ready to go, Michael? Parvack has agreed to help us look for the Dixon Glade sprites. I knew it would be hard to keep up with him in flight. We’ve got rather ineffective wings compared to his. Parvack has been gracious enough to allow us to ride on his back. I think it’s rather sporting of him,” she said with a nervous laugh and twisted her hair around her finger.

  Michael was speechless. He could hear the relief from anxiety in Abbie’s voice. He had gone from the thought that he was going to be eaten soon, to knowing that he was about to leave to find his fellow tribe mates. Michael simply lay there staring up at Parvack until the dragon gave a sooty snort in his face. By the time he pulled himself together enough to give Abbie a response, Edie and Jay were standing over him.

  “Did you think I was going to eat you, Michael?” Parvack asked in a bemused and gravelly voice.

  “Why yes. I was fairly certain that you were going to eat me,” Michael stammered.

  Parvack gave what he might consider to be a chuckle. “I was absolutely certain,” Jay added with a nod.

  “Your Abbie is very persuasive,” Parvack said. “After what we discussed, there was no way I could eat you.”

  As Michael stood up, Edie ran over to the dragon and threw her arms around his scaly neck. “Thank you, Parvack,” Edie exclaimed.

  Parvack moved his neck and face away from Edie so that she would release her embrace. “There’s no cause for that. I made a promise to you and Abbie, and I intend to keep it,” Parvack replied in a voice that was stern but not unkind.

  The four sprites gathered their things and followed Parvack to the middle of the clearing. The plan, Abbie informed the other sprites, was a simple one. Parvack would fly in the general direction that Jay told him and smell for sprites. The dragon would fly for a few hours at a time and then stop to allow them all to rest and eat. Each evening, they would make camp for the night and start again the following morning.

  They alighted gently on Parvack’s back and settled themselves. Michael, Edie, Abbie, and Jay each grabbed one of Parvack’s spines and prepared themselves for the moment when the dragon would take off from the ground. Jay told Parvack the direction that Jay had last seen his tribe. Parvack turned that direction and steadied his body. Then he jumped as high as he could and flapped his bat-like wings to propel himself off the ground.

  Edie had not expected that the flight would be so rough. The scales on the dragon’s back and sides were very slick. Edie had to hold on very tight the whole time in order not to slide off. Parvack’s body rose and fell violently with each beat of his wings. It was incredibly thrilling to be speeding along far more quickly than any of the sprites could fly, but the ride was not smooth by any means. Parvack landed after a few hours in the air. He needed a break to rest, and the four sore sprites needed a break for lunch.

  “I haven’t smelled any sprites yet…well other than you four,” Parvack jokingly reported after the sprites slid off his back.

  “Thank you, Parvack,” Abbie replied. Parvack stretched out to rest, and the four sprites ate their lunch. Although they were all a sore, they enjoyed their lunch of greens and berries. Abbie, Edie, Jay, and Michael had just finished eating when they heard a rustling noise behind them. Not knowing what to expect, they all stood up. Jay and Michael stepped protectively in front of Abbie and Edie.

  “Aw!” Abbie exclaimed, standing on tip toes to see over Jay’s shoulder. A creature Edie had never seen before stumbled out of the trees.

  Although the creature was almost twice as long as it was tall, the creature’s head didn’t even reach the bottom of Edie’s knee. On the top of the animal’s head, there were two small fuzzy antlers, meaning that it was a rather young member of its species. It had a hairy brown trunk and tail that accounted for most of the length of its body. The four-legged animal was completely covered in shaggy brown fur. It had a small mouth under its long trunk and brown fur-coated eyelids that covered its large bright green eyes.

  Edie stepped in front of Jay and moved toward the creature, but Michael held her back. “Even though that animal may look cute and harmless, it might prove to be quite dangerous,” Michael said, eyeing the creature warily.

  “Do you know what it is?” Edie asked him.

  “No, but just be careful,” Michael replied.

  The creature slowly moved forward, sniffing the air with its long furry trunk as it went. The sprites remained as still as they could so that they wouldn’t startle the creature and make it attack. Edie could feel a sneeze coming on. She tried to delay it, but she had to sneeze. When she finally let it out, the animal rushed forward and dashed up Michael’s body. It wrapped its trunk around Michael’s arm and clung there quivering.

  “What is it doing?” Michael asked in surprise. His whole body froze in place with his jaw tensed as he held his arm out away from his body. He tried as hard as he could not to freak out.

  “It’s just frightened, Michael. Edie scared it when she sneezed,” Jay said, looking at the creature. He moved toward it to pet it, oblivious of Michael’s terror.

  Michael began to try to shake it off, but it didn’t move.

  “Stop squirming for a moment, and let us see if we can get it off!” Jay exclaimed. Michael complied reluctantly.

  “Don’t be scared. We won’t hurt you,” Abbie said comfortingly as she reached over and stroked its head. Its eyes closed at her touch. “What kind of creature are you?” Abbie mused her question out loud even though she knew that the creature wouldn’t respond to her.

  In response to Abbie’s question, however, the animal relinquished the hold that its trunk had on Michael’s arm. It nearly tumbled to the ground, but Michael used his other arm to steady it and let it land gently on the ground. The animal bounced up and down and trumpeted with its trunk. Edie, Michael, Abbie, and Jay all looked down at the brown, furry beast.

  “Trunkaloose! Trunkaloose! Trunkaloose!” the animal suddenly trumpeted, still jumping.

  Edie bent down and rubbed the animal’s shaggy head. The creature instantly warmed to her touch and began rubbing its head against her hand. “Is that what you are? Are you a trunkaloose?” Edie asked.

  The animal began bobbing its head up and down vigorously.

  “What do we do with it?” Jay asked as he rubbed its back. It arched its back as his hand traveled from its neck to its tail.

  “I don’t know. I guess it’s lost,” Abbie replied. Then turning to the trunkaloose, she asked, “Are you lost?”

  The trunkaloose’s eyes glistened with tears as it repeated Abbie’s last word. “Don’t cry!” Abbie exclaimed. “We’ll take care of you!” She picked up the animal and hugged it. It snuggled down in her arms.

  “Abbie!” Michael said sternly. “How are we supposed to take care of it? We can’t take it with us! You know we can’t ask Parvack to do that!”

  “Well, what do we have here?” a gravelly voice said from behind them. “Did you find me a snack?”

  The four sprites froze and turned around to see Parvack staring at the trunkaloose in Abbie’s arms. The animal began to quiver again and buried its head in the crook of Abbie’s right arm.

  “This is a trunkaloose, Parvack. It found us. Abbie was just about to put it down so that we could leave,” Michael answered quickly. He gave a guilty grin to Parvack and then gave Abbie a stern look.

  “No, she wasn’t!” Edie said indignantly.

  “You can’t seriously think that I would allow you to take that with you,” Parvack said, emitting a puff of smoke as he laughed. “I made a promise to you and Edie, not to this stray. You’ve already brought along more in your party than I had bargained for.”

  “Parvack, let me speak to you, please,” Abbie requested. She handed the trunkaloose off to Jay and walked out of ear shot of the others. The dragon merely moved his head to still hear her. Michael noticed uncomfortably that Parvack kept looking back their way as Abbie spoke. When Abbie came back, Parvack looked slightly unhappy but pacified.

  “Just make sure it doesn’t lick me, wet on me, or anything unpleasant like that. If it falls off, we’re not going back to get it,” Parvack said with clear disdain. “You never know where it’s been.”

  “I’ll take care of it, Parvack,” Abbie said obligingly.

  “How did you manage to convince him to let it go with us?” Jay asked Abbie as Parvack walked away.

  Abbie shrugged, tapped her ears and pointed to the dragon to let Jay know that Parvack could still hear them, and gave him a knowing smile. Jay shook his head with a laugh and followed Abbie to get on the dragon’s back.

  Parvack walked to the clearing and stretched his wings. The sprites gathered their things and settled on the dragon’s back. “Make sure you hold on tightly. Wrap your trunk around me to make sure you don’t fall off. It’s not a smooth ride,” Abbie told the nervous looking trunkaloose.

  The animal’s head bobbed quickly up and down, showing that it understood Abbie. Then the trunkaloose wedged itself between Abbie and the spine that she was hanging on to. It coiled its trunk tightly around her arm just before Parvack launched himself into the air. The animal’s eyes grew wide with fear, but Abbie leaned down close and sang to it until it went to sleep.

  Parvack flew until almost dusk that night. He informed the sprites that he had no luck in smelling any other sprites. Then he lumbered off to sleep.

  Jay made a small fire for the sprites, and Abbie and Edie made some mushroom soup. They offered some to the trunkaloose, but it opted to scrounge around for some leaves and things to eat. When the trunkaloose was full, it waddled back over to the sprites and settled itself next to Jay.

  “I think it likes you, Jay,” Abbie said with a giggle. Jay gave a smile and scratched the shoulders of the trunkaloose.

  Michael looked down at the animal between him a Jay. “Well, if we’re going to keep it with us, we’ve got to give it a proper name. We can’t just run around calling it ‘trunkaloose.’ Besides, trunkaloose is too long of a word to say any time we talk about it,” Michael said.

  Edie laughed. Even though Michael acted like he didn’t like the trunkaloose, she knew that his affection for the little creature was growing. Why else would he want to give it a name?

  The sprites threw out several options before Edie said, “I think we should call it Muzuru. It means little moose.”

  “How do you know random things like that?” Michael asked Edie.

  Edie shrugged, and Abbie giggled. The trunkaloose, who they had thought to be sleeping, began to trumpet and started hopping around in excitement. The sprites turned back to him.

  “I guess that settles it!” Jay said. “We’ll call you Muzuru.”

  The trunkaloose bounced around a bit more and seemed to tire out. It laid its head in Michael’s lap and stretched out its trunk. Muzuru’s eyelids began to flutter and droop as the creature grew sleepy. Although Michael looked slightly uncomfortable to have the animal’s head in his lap, he didn’t move Muzuru’s body.

  The sprites sat around and talked for a bit longer. When they decided to go to sleep for the night, Edie went over and scooped up Muzuru. It murmured a few undiscernible words and slept on. Edie put the trunkaloose down beside her as she lay down to sleep. It curled up into a small ball next to her and sighed happily.

  Chapter Five

  Legend Has It

  The next day, Jay and Abbie were building a small fire while Michael and Edie gathered breakfast.

  “You know something, Abbie?” Jay said with a thoughtful look on his face.

  “What, Jay?” Abbie asked without looking up from what she was doing.

  “I’ve been thinking about your relationship with Parvack,” Jay stated. Abbie continued with her work without looking up. “It reminds me of a legend our village historian, Clark, told us one time. It always fascinated me. It was about a family who called themselves ‘The Carers” who could control dragons with their mind powers. They had stolen the dragon eggs as babies and had learned how to train them and control them with their minds. I never thought it was even close to true until now.”

  Abbie turned to look at him with a bemused look on her face. She turned quickly at the sound of brusque laughter behind Jay. Parvack, whom they did not realize was standing there, was laughing at Jay’s tale.

  “That’s not how it goes at all,” the dragon finally managed. “Cora found two dragon eggs abandoned in the forest.”

  “Wait, who is Cora?” Jay interrupted.

  “Shhhh…” Abbie said, settling in.

  “Cora came to the clearing in the forest every day to check on the eggs and talk to the creatures inside. She was very careful at first, not disturbing the eggs in any way, and making sure that the coast was clear so that she did not encounter a mother. Cora thought she was speaking to gryphons because of how large the eggs were. She did not know that she spoke to dragons. After weeks of coming to visit and never seeing a mother, she knew the eggs had been abandoned. She kept the eggs warm at night with blankets.”

  “One day she was singing to the eggs, and they began to crack.” Jay looked over at Abbie, her eyes gleaming at this part. “Out rolled a slimy baby dragon. It’s purple scales and blue wings were covered in a green slime,” Parvack said.

  “Aw,” Abbie breathed despite herself.

  Parvack resumed in his gravelly voice, “At first, Cora was terrified and turned away to run. But the dragon’s fiery red eyes brimmed with tears, and it began to cry in its own language, thinking its mother was abandoning it. The dragon had immediately imprinted on Cora since hers was the only voice it had ever known.

  “Cora slowly approached the tiny terrifying beast, and it calmed. Then it shook itself of all its birthing slime, completely covering Cora. She shook off her fright and disgust and chanced to rub the head of the dragon with her dry palm. It warmed to her touch.”

  “Aw,” Jay said this time, looking over at Abbie.

  “But before things continued much farther, the second egg began to crack, and a puff of smoke came out. Cora and the dragon’s attention were drawn to it, and it took everything in her being not to run away from what she knew would soon be two baby dragons.

  “The second tiny black baby dragon emerged on its back. It flapped its wet blue wings to right itself, again covering Cora in slime from inside its egg. She shook off as much of the goop as she dared and froze as it came toward her. It smelled Cora suspiciously but calmed to her touch when she began to sing.

  “Cora snuck away from her home every day to take care of the baby dragons. As the dragons grew older, they would leave the area to hunt but return every fortnight to see Cora. One day when they returned, the dragons smelled a new scent with Cora. Had she brought them a tasty snack?

  “As it turned out, Cora had brought her young daughter with her to meet the dragons. The little one bravely faced the now full-grown beasts with wonder. The dragons grew to love Alene just as much as they loved Cora, and then one day Alene’s son as much as the other two.”

  Parvack then bobbed his head. “Now that, young Jay, is the story of ‘The Carers.’” And with that, he lumbered back through the forest.

  “How does he know that’s true?” Jay asked Abbie. Then he yelled after Parvack, “How does that explain anything?” He looked back at Abbie and then ran his fingers through his hair.

  “Actually, Jay, it explains everything. Cora was my great-grandmother who cared for Parvack and his brother Amirnov as eggs. My father never told me about Parvack because he hadn’t seen Amirnov in years. My father still meets regularly with Parvack. Despite the dragons’ promise never to hurt anyone in our line, Parvack has been afraid his brother had gone rogue.”

  Jay opened his mouth and then closed it. Abbie turned back to finish making the fire. “But Abbie,” Jay said finally getting his wits about him. “How did you find out?”

  “I was in that cave with Parvack for days. I began to talk about my father, and Parvack realized who he was,” Abbie replied.

  “So, do you think that if Edie had not returned in time, he would have eaten you? Or would he have kept his promise to your family line?”

  Abbie lit the fire and turned to look Jay in the eye. She shrugged. “It’s a good thing we’ll never have to find out, right?” she asked with a gleam in her eye.

  Jay opened his mouth to respond, but Michael and Edie returned with Muzuru at that time, so their conversation was cut off in lieu of breakfast.

  Chapter Six

  Strawberry Fields

  When the sprites stopped the next night to camp, Abbie offered to go get water with Jay. Parvack had told the sprites that he had seen a small stream a short distance from where they were. Abbie and Jay set off in the direction that Parvack indicated while Edie and Michael kept an eye on Muzuru and set about fixing a meal for the five of them. Edie was glad that she didn’t have to see or even think about what Parvack would eat for his dinner.

  Abbie knew Jay was preoccupied with thoughts of finding his friends, so she tried to take his mind off that. As Abbie and Jay walked along, they talked about simple things like the weather and the trees they were walking through. Just as the two sprites reached the edge of the lake, Abbie tripped over a branch and tumbled part way down the incline they were walking down. She brushed herself off and pulled herself into a sitting position. Abbie checked her arms, legs, and wings to make sure nothing was broken. The only injury she had received was a long scratch down the top of her right leg.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9