Toby’s little heart thumped in his chest. Was he still there? Those footsteps had sounded pretty close, but now there was nothing, just the happy chirping of birds and the buzz of insects. He pressed his back hard against the bark, pulling his arms in tight to try and stand as small as possible so the trunk would cover him up.He wanted to look. He really wanted to look. But he knew if he did, he’d probably be seen as well, so that was definitely not an option. That meant the only opt

It was a nice thing, being outside. Having lived nearly all the life he could remember in caves- either stoney mountain caves, or squishy, squirmy stomach ones- he’d never learned to take all the simple little pleasures for granted. Sitting in the swaying grass, he felt the gentle breeze in his hair and listened to the sounds of the trees. There weren’t really any trees up on the mountain, not like these, and the air was always chilly outside the cave, unlike the friendly warmth down

“So, apparently it’s this thing called cloudbloom, and it gets everywhere,” explained the red scaled dragoness. Her normal fiery form was dotted with dozens of little pinpricks of white.“Cloudbloom?” echoed the younger dragon in the room. His black scales were free from this white pollution, and he’d been warned to keep a bit of distance to make sure it stayed that way. “Does it come from the clouds?”“Actually, it’s a plant. Get this, s

It was a rather tense moment, silence filling the cave. Toby stood before his mother and father; a tiny human boy, with his dim, timid glow, looking way, way up at the faces of his adoptive parents.But he wasn’t standing alone. Just next to him was his brother, Kint. Toby stood somewhat pressed against the folded wing at the dragon’s side, taking emotional support from the warm contact. On the boy’s other side stood his even bigger brother, Clak. The brown dragon wore a determi

*guuurgle*“Well, someone’s hungry,” Jane lightly teased. Rebecca gave a little awkward smile and glanced away.“Guilty,” she admitted. Dim chatter filled their ears as the two girls walked down the campus hall together.“Well, let’s go find Jill and head to dinner.”“Sounds good to me. Any idea where she might be?”“If I know my sister, she’ll already be halfway to our room,” Jane said.“Oh, right, there’s a tes