The Secrets of Mount Galefang

                                    

                                          



                          
Nobody was watching the girl hunched inside the crook of a willow root in the Galefang. No one would judge her tears. Still, the girl tried to hold them all in until her face scrunched tight and her hands balled into fists at her side, but it was no use. She wept bright orbs that anyone could have mistaken for pearls until they shattered against the ground. 
                          
Even after struggling through the wild currents of Sundered Blue and beating Lord Ash to this wretched forest, the girl could find no trace of the curse of the Grandfather Dragon! An ancient latticework of spellfire vibrated under the soil of the Galefang. The barrier was too weak to keep her out, but still strong enough to scatter her focus whenever she tried to sense the precise location of the hidden magic within the enormous forest. Her tracking skills had never failed her when she concentrated all her will on finding a lost thing. Until now . . . .
                          
The massive beat of wings startled her. Dragon wings! Bolting up, she thrust her finger into the air and tested the sky. The twisting, tumbling changes in the air currents never lied to her. Her tracking skills had led her to the right place, after all. No doubt this dragon must be the guardian of the curse—she'd have to be careful not to catch its notice. Now she could narrow down her search area. Precious time would be lost gathering and drying herbs to make tracking charms strong enough to lead her to where the curse lay hidden in the dragon's den, but she had no choice. 
                          
"Wait for me, Father," the girl whispered aloud in a voice that was so thin and quavering that it startled her. "Please wait, just a little longer." 
                          
***
                          
"Told you there was a dragon," Tad said smugly as the Fairchilds cowered under the massive shadow cast by Aerohim's wings.
                          
Kit blinked groggily as the ground rumbled when the dragon landed beside him. A hot breeze singed his cheek as Aerohim snuffled his hair. 
                          
"I thought I told you to stay on the road—" Aerohim chided, but his tone hardened suddenly. "Why is your head leaking?" 
                          
Kit opened his mouth to reply, but the words garbled together on his tongue as a wave of dizziness washed over him. 
                          
Minnow pointed to where the Fairchilds stood in the road like petrified statues. "It's their fault. They called us thieves and stole Kit's oakenstaff!"
                          
"How rude." Fresh smoke spiraled from Aerohim's nostrils as he twisted his neck around to face the Fairchilds. "Very rude." 
                          
"The girl's mistaken, your Ra-ra-resplendence!" Mr. Fairchild stuttered.
                          
"Always lying," Mrs. Fairchild added, bowing and scraping low to the ground. "We'd never harm Foxkit, he's like a s-s-son—" But she choked on the brittle end of her lie. 
                          
Mr. Fairchild picked up Kit's crutch, dusting the dirt off the arm handle and holding it out with shaking hands. "We just had a little misunderstanding, that's all—"
                          
Aerohim's tail spike swung out and seized the crutch from him. "Silence!" he roared.
                          
Kit flinched as the heat of the dragon's command crackled against his skin; he'd never seen Aerohim truly angry before and wondered if he and the other Silver Pennies were safe so especially . . . close. 
                          
"I hereby banish you from the Galefang," Aerohim growled. "Forever." He wove his body around the Fairchilds in a tight-winding circle. "If you loathsome scum dare to trespass my woods again, your blood will boil as poison sap in your veins and the shadow of every leaf will cut into your skin with the sharpness of a thousand knives!" 
                          
"Cover your eyes!" Kit cried out to the others as a searing jet of blue flame streamed from Aerohim's jaws. Horrified awe coursed through the boy as the sapphire column of fire enveloped the Fairchilds and evaporated within seconds, leaving only a pile of ash that blew away with a gust of wind. Aerohim truly was a wondrous monster . . . .