A Dragon's Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans by Laurence Yep

Author:Laurence Yep [Yep, Laurence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-39230-3
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2015-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

You may know best—but sometimes your pet may be right.

Sure enough, we found a slender Lady Jane salamander sunning itself in the birdbath. It was still as a statue, but as soon as Winnie opened the book, it skittered from the bowl and down the pedestal.

We were racing over the gravel after it when it suddenly stopped, sides moving in and out slowly. As we neared it, though, I suddenly felt sleepy. Winnie began yawning continuously.

Even though I could see a perfectly normal path in front of me, I had a strong feeling that I was going to fall into a dark pit where something was waiting to devour me. Next to me, Winnie had started to tremble as if she, too, was experiencing something frightful.

I forced my groggy mind to remember the list, then glanced at the garden lamp, where three dream-casting moths had woken from their daytime slumber and were working their magic by waving their wings rhythmically. “Book,” I said.

Winnie was stiff with fear, but showing her true mettle, she managed to get the sketchbook open.

My hands and mouth moved sluggishly, as if I was in a living nightmare, but we put the salamander back into the sketchbook. And the sleepiness and fear vanished the instant the moths were returned to their pages.

Winnie gave her head a little shake. “It was almost like the salamander was leading us into an ambush.”

“Except it got caught itself.” I gazed at the pages. “I’ve never heard of dream casters being so strong before. For their magic to have such force, they must have tapped into their own personal fears.”

Winnie closed the book and put it away. “But why would they think we were going to eat them?”

“Or perhaps it was something else in the book,” I said.

“Maybe the pemburu?” Winnie asked. “Those claws would scare me if I was their size.”

“I suppose it will still be a threat once we capture it and will remain that until we can reseal the book,” I said.

“We could put lots of blank pages between the pemburu and the other sketchlings,” Winnie suggested.

“Hmm, you mean isolate it? Yes, that might work.” I tapped a finger against my chin. “But the sketchlings won’t know our plan to keep them safe. They associate the book with the pemburu now, even though it’s gone, and they’ll do everything to avoid it.” I shrugged. “But it can’t be helped. So …?” I waved a palm at her for her to decide where to search.

Knowing that I trusted her, Winnie grinned as she began to think. “Hmm.” At that moment, her stomach growled, and I recalled that we hadn’t had breakfast yet. She pressed a hand against her belly. “If I’m hungry, the sketchlings must be too. But what would they eat?”

I reviewed her list in my mind. “There are a bunch of vegetarians.” So we scoured the garden. Fortunately the roses were in full bloom, and this year not even the foggy summer had prevented a luscious display of blossoms.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.