It was early evening when Shon, Tarun, Krall, Solimar, and Piggy had climbed out of the valley. Shon looked down upon the little green valley with longing, but not regret. He told himself the next time he entered that valley it would be to begin tracking down his parents.

When they reached the top of their ascent, Shon looked across and saw the outlook where Shon and Tarun had originally seen the valley, and realized they were now on the other side. “We’re not going back the way we came in?” Shon asked.

“Well, not that small winding deer path you came in on,” Krall replied. “We’ll be going back the way I came in. It will put us closer to the trail that will take us to Alderfold.”

“What’s Alderfold?” Tarun asked.

“That’s one of the three towns that is paying to have the dragon killed,” said Krall. “Alderfold is a big grazing destination for shepherds, and the dragon has already eaten dozens of their sheep. We’ll go there to talk to the headman and discuss the details.”

As they rounded a corner, Shon was surprised to see the dragon hunters’ dark green wagon, with the two beasts yoked to it munching lazily on a nearby shrub. “How in the world did you get that wagon all the way up here?” Shon asked.

“From this side, the climb isn’t as steep as what you and Tarun experienced,” said Krall. “Besides, the tauroks can make their way up just about anything as long as you don’t try to rush them.”

“Is that what those animals are?” asked Shon. “I’ve never seen anything quite like them before.”

“I’m not surprised,” Krall said. “It’s not likely you’ll see a team of them like this again. Tauroks are difficult to train because they’re so slow-witted. I’ve had these two for about four years and they’ve mastered ‘go’ and ‘stop.’ I’m still working on ‘don’t eat that.’”

“But if they’re so dumb, why don’t you get a couple of horses or oxen?” asked Shon.

“Tauroks aren’t bright, but they do have some advantages if you’ve got the patience,” said Krall. “They can eat just about any vegetation, so feeding them is easy. Their hides are incredibly tough and they almost never spook, so wild animals are no problem. And they have unbelievable endurance. They can walk an entire day pulling a load without stopping, and they can even keep walking in their sleep if I let them.”

“Wow,” said Shon, “that sounds great! Does that mean I get to ride in the wagon to Alderfold? It sounds like the tauroks won’t mind.”

Krall let out a loud, booming laugh. “Nice try,” he said, “but not a chance. Your training as a dragon hunter starts today. The tauroks may have plenty of endurance, but you could use some more. We’ll be walking to Alderfold at a pace that will help you build yours.”

***

Krall was true to his word about their pace to Alderfold. Shon went to sleep every night feeling much more tired than when he was just traveling with Tarun. Still, the exhaustion helped him sleep more soundly than usual, and by the third day he found his legs didn’t mind the walking so much.

The fourth day after they left the green valley, Shon began to notice signs that they were getting close to Alderfold. He could often hear the bleating of sheep, a couple of times they encountered shepherds who were leading their flocks, and even the smell of the air helped remind him that he was never very far away from the animals. By late afternoon, they came to a sign indicating that they had entered Alderfold.

Krall had Piggy stay with the wagon and the animals at the edge of the town, and covered his face with his hood to avoid attention. Even without the hairy dwarf or the sight of Krall’s green skin, they attracted a fair amount of attention from the locals. People regularly stopped and stared at them as they passed through, and Shon had to draw up his own hood to quiet down all the clamor of thoughts about them.

It was while his hood was pulled up that a small boy ran up to Shon and pulled on his cloak. Shon looked down at the boy, trying to figure out if his wide-eyed expression was a result of excitement, terror, or both.

“Are you really all dragon hunters?” the boy asked.

“Yes we are,” said Krall under his hood.

“Wow,” the boy said so quietly it was almost a whisper. “Some of my friends saw the dragon hunters who came through earlier, but I missed it. I was so mad because I thought I’d never have a chance to see dragon hunters again in my life. But now there’s more of you!”

“What other dragon hunters?” Krall asked.

“I don’t know their names,” the boy said. “They scared off my friends when they tried to ask them. But my friends said the dragon hunters were really cool. They were wearing all kinds of bones and trophies and stuff to show off their other kills. They were on their way to talk to the town headman when my friends saw them.”

“Can you tell us where to find the headman?” Krall asked. “We’d like to speak to him too.”

“Oh sure. He’s usually in that building right over there,” the boy said, pointing to a circular-shaped building to their left.

As Shon and the others started to walk away, the boy found the courage to ask one more question. “How come you guys don’t wear dragon skulls and trophies on your clothes like the other dragon hunters did?” he asked.

“For the same reason the shepherds in your town don’t wear sheep skulls for hats,” Krall replied as they walked away. “Because it would look stupid.”

Shon and the others stood outside the building where they were told the headman would be, and knocked. A man soon came to the door who appeared to be in his fifties. “May I help you?” he said with some trepidation.

“You sent out notices that you were looking for dragon hunters to take care of a dragon problem in these parts,” said Krall. “We’ve come to respond to that request.”

“Yes, of course,” the man said. “Well, if you read the notices then I’m sure you’re already aware that this is a joint contract between Alderfold, Tinderhood, and Avendale. That dragon has been a danger and a nuisance to all three of our towns, and we want it gone.”

“We’re prepared to pay the full five hundred pieces of silver promised in the notice,” continued the headman, “but only to the ones who bring back proof of the beast’s death. As I’m sure you can tell, we’re not an exceptionally wealthy town, so there will be no extra compensation for damages or expenses. And don’t bother asking for any kind of advance like the others did.”

“What others?” asked Krall. “I’m familiar with most of the dragon hunters in the region, and I hadn’t heard that anyone else was coming out for this job.”

“The group was lead by a big guy named Jarkt,” the headman said. “Pretty tough and rowdy-looking bunch, though I guess most of you probably are. You ever heard of him?”

“No,” replied Krall, “I never have.”

“Well they looked like a mean bunch, though I guess you’d have to be to go chasing dragons,” said the headman. “I told them we appreciate them getting rid of the dragon for us, but we expected them not to linger in the town. I, uh, suppose I’ll have to tell you the same thing so it doesn’t seem like I’m playing favorites.”

When Krall said nothing in response, the headman scratched his head and shuffled his feet uncomfortably. “Nothing personal, of course,” he added.

“Of course,” Krall quietly repeated. “Tell me, is there an area nearby where we might set up camp for the night without disturbing the townfolk?”

“Oh, yes,” the headman said in a tone of relief. “There’s a clearing just south of the town that’s nice and flat and out of the way. So you shouldn’t be disturbed by anyone.”

Shon could tell without even reading the man’s mind that he wasn’t worried about anyone in the town bothering them. Still, he decided to keep his thoughts to himself and let Krall do the talking.

“Thank you,” Krall said, bowing low. “We will return again once we’ve killed the dragon for you. Enjoy your day.”

As they turned to leave, the headman began to close the door, then opened it again and quickly added, “Be careful.”

“You too,” said Krall after the door had closed.

***

Shon and the others quickly found the clearing the headman had told them about, and wasted no time setting up camp. Tarun, Krall, and Piggy gathered nearby wood to start a cooking fire, while Shon and Solimar cleared away rocks and weeds from where they would set up the tents.

Shon was glad that Krall and the others had shared their tents with him and Tarun. Though the summer air was still warm, it was also starting to get humid, and that brought out several kinds of bugs at night. Sleeping under the stars had begun to lose its charm for Shon, and the smoky tents seemed like the perfect escape.

As Shon threw a couple of angular rocks outside of the clearing, he suddenly became aware of unfamiliar thoughts coming their way. Since he wasn’t holding Stick at the time, he couldn’t make out the thoughts clearly, but it seemed obvious to him that they weren’t friendly.

“Krall,” Shon said quietly, “I think someone is trying to sneak up on us.”

“Yes, I know,” Krall said calmly, continuing to pick up firewood. “They’re doing a pretty awful job of it too. They’re not even smart enough to come at us from downwind.”

“Though to be honest,” said Krall, snorting with a disgusted look on his face, “judging by their smell, I’m not sure being upwind of us would have really helped them all that much. Would you like to try and guess how many of them there are, Shon?”

Shon quickly walked over to where Stick was leaning against a tree and picked up the staff. “There are five of them,” Shon whispered. “Four male and one female. And they’re all armed.”

“Well that’s good to know,” Krall said. “My nose picks up a lot of things, but weapons are kind of difficult to smell. What do you say we surprise them and see if we can avoid a fight, huh? Can you get one of their names, Shon?”

Shon was surprised that with a group of potential attackers on their way, Krall was talking with him instead of Solimar, Piggy, or even Tarun. “Let me try,” Shon said. “Yeah, their leader’s name is Jarkt.”

“Ah. I was wondering when we’d get to meet these other dragon hunters we’ve heard about,” Krall said. Then in a loud voice, aimed at the direction Shon indicated, Krall called out, “Hello Jarkt! I see the headman passed on our message to you about joining us for dinner. I’m afraid you’re a bit early. We don’t have everything ready yet.”

Shon was amused at the confusion and frustration he sensed from the minds of Jarkt and the others. A few moments later, three large muscular men emerged from the bushes around the clearing. They were followed by a young woman covered in ornate, though primitive-looking jewelry and body piercings, and behind her was what looked like a large child, but with a mean face lined with years of unhappiness and anger.

The largest of the three men had long blonde hair covered with grease and dirt. He wore a stained and tattered shirt, and his shoulders and belt were covered with various fur, claws, teeth, and other trophies from beasts he had killed. He carried a heavy axe by his side and the head was stained with a mixture of what looked like dirt and blood. Shon could tell right away that this was Jarkt.

Jarkt eyed the entire party with an unpleasant look, and then turned to walk towards Tarun. “I’m not one to turn down a free meal, kid,” said Jarkt, “but you should know it’s rude to offer a man food when there’s animals around stinking up the place.”

“I really don’t think the tauroks will bother anyone,” Tarun said, looking confused. “Besides, I’m not the one who offered you a meal.”

“I am,” said Krall, walking towards Jarkt with an outstretched hand. “I was wondering when I would get to meet the dragon hunter Jarkt I had heard so much about.”

Jarkt didn’t look in Krall’s direction, but his face became livid as he spoke to Tarun again. “Look boy,” he said, “I don’t use hunting dogs, and I don’t expect other folks to ask me to talk to theirs. So keep yours in line.”

Suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, Solimar let out a high, clear laugh. “Hunting dog!” said Solimar. “That’s a good one. Krall, you big dumb animal, go sit yourself in the corner!” Krall’s expression immediately turned sad and confused and he whimpered a little as he walked over by their wagon. Shon thought the act was a little over the top, but apparently Jarkt looked convinced.

“You’ll have to excuse him,” Solimar said, turning back to Jarkt. “He’s handy when fighting dragons, and blissfully expendable, but sometimes he forgets his place. You said your name is Jarkt?”

“Actually, I didn’t,” said Jarkt. “But somehow you all seem to know it is anyway. We came here to tell you not to waste your time on the dragon. We got here first, and we intend to be the first ones to bag it.”

“We appreciate the professional courtesy,” Solimar said with thinly-veiled sarcasm. “But doesn’t that seem like an awful waste? Dragons are quite hard to kill, and I’m sure we all have something to contribute if we work together. We, for example, have weapons that can actually pierce dragon hide. Do you already have something like that?”

Another man stepped forward, carrying a bow and quiver of arrows. “Why pierce the dragon hide when you’ve got other ways to get past it?” said the man. “We’ve got shadow-slip arrows for that.”

“Shut your mouth, Preke!” snapped Jarkt.

The smile from Solimar’s mouth vanished for a moment, but then quickly returned. “Shadow-slip arrows?” the elf asked. “I don’t know whether to call that resourceful, wicked, or just plain reckless. Whichever one, it certainly is illegal. That’s some rather dark magic you’re playing with there.”

“Have you got something better?” barked Jarkt, jabbing a dirty finger at Solimar.

“Several,” Solimar replied. “We might be willing to barter if we can all just sit down calmly for a bit.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Jarkt said with a crooked yellow grin, gesturing at the young woman behind him. “This little lady is Treshigan. She’s a witch we caught a couple of weeks ago. She agreed to help us hunt the dragon, and we agreed not to break any of her pretty little bones. The runt you see behind her is Mutt. I’ve got a bet going that he looks like that because his dad was an elf and him mom was a dwarf, and the he’s just the ugly little result. Still, he does whatever we tell him to, so we keep him around.”

“Come here, Tresh,” Jarkt said, in a falsely gentle voice. “It looks like they’ve got a wizard or something with them. What do you think of him?”

Treshigan’s eyes were dark and piercing, but she somehow also looked very innocent to Shon. “I don’t recognize that emblem on your cloak,” she said. “Who is your master?”

“Oh, I don’t really have a master,” Shon said. “I mean, I lived with my uncle for a long time, and he’s a druid, but I’ve just been teaching myself mostly.” Shon was surprised that he would tell so much to this girl he had just met, but she seemed so inexplicably trustworthy for some reason.

“Teaching yourself?” she repeated sweetly. Despite the piercings through her nose and lip, Shon found her smile to be quite pleasant. “Teaching yourself?” she said again more loudly, beginning to chuckle. Something was wrong, and her smile no longer seemed sweet, but menacing. “Teaching yourself?!” This time she practically screamed the words, and followed it with a string of long, high, spiteful laughter.

After a moment Treshigan wiped a tear of mirth from her eyes and turned back to Jarkt. “Easy,” she said, snapping her fingers. She raised both of her hands with palms towards Shon and the others, and began muttering something under her breath.

Shon didn’t understand what was going on until he tried to turn his head to look at Tarun and realized he couldn’t move his neck. In fact, he couldn’t move any part of his body, including his jaw to speak.

As Treshigan continued waiving her fingers and muttering under her breath, Jarkt walked past Shon, and he could tell that Jarkt was speaking to Solimar again. “Thanks for letting us know you had something worth trading,” Jarkt said. “It would have been a shame if we had come all this way for nothing. Especially if I had to be insulted by an orc trying to talk to me like a person!” Shon could hear what he assumed was a spitting noise.

“Of course I don’t mind a good fight to get what we want,” Jarkt went on. “But it seemed a waste not to use Treshigan’s talents while we’ve got her. So we just had to make sure your little wizard here wasn’t any kind of match for her.”

Jarkt walked back in front of Shon and yelled to the others. “Raid the wagon, boys! There’s got to be something worthwhile in there!”

Shon stood motionless feeling foolish and useless. Why did he tell Treshigan that he had no master? Of course she would take advantage of him! He tried again to move, but it was in vain. He tried to figure out some way that they could get out of their situation, but there would be nobody to pull them out of the lake this time. They were under the spell of a powerful witch, and the only one who could stop her was another magic user.

Shon’s eyes began to fill with hot tears of frustration. If only his parents hadn’t abandoned him, or his uncle had taught him properly, perhaps he would have learned the right counterspell to undo the hex the witch was putting on them. Shon attempted to reach out to her mind, and heard the words that she was muttering under her breath.

“Wicked Thread

And Needle Point

Knit the Bones

And Bind the Joint”

She continued chanting the words over and over, making it difficult for Shon to read anything else from her mind. It reminded him of the way Empress would repeat a poem in her mind to keep him out. He tried prying harder to search for a counterspell in her mind, but he couldn’t find any. Even if he had, he suspected it would have been dangerous to attempt a spell he’d just learned.

Shon heard a crashing sound, and Jarkt began swearing loudly. “There’s nothing but a bunch of worthless rocks and plants in here!” Jarkt shouted. “If I’m leaving here empty-handed, I’m at least going away with an orc skull for my belt!”

“Stop it, you idiot!” Treshigan yelled. “You can’t kill him yet. We might need Krall alive.” As soon as she had said the words, she turned her attention back to Shon and the others and began muttering under her breath again. But in the two seconds that she had stopped chanting to yell at Jarkt, Shon realized he had been able to move again, though just for a moment.

With a rush of excitement, Shon realized that Treshigan wasn’t chanting in her mind to keep Shon out. She had to continue her chanting uninterrupted for the spell to keep them immobilized.

Shon tried projecting the most disruptive thoughts he could think of to disrupt her chanting. He tried shouting in her mind, and sending images of fire and storms. He brought up memories of the dragon that had attacked him and the pain he had sensed from her. No matter what Shon sent at Treshigan, the witch just looked at him with a self-satisfied expression and continued her chant. This was exactly the kind of counterattack she was expecting.

The frustration and anger that Shon felt burned hot on his cheeks. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so trapped, helpless, and bullied. The thought made him recall other bullies from his childhood.

Shon remembered back to one particular bully he had grown up with in Life’s Edge named Dref. Dref used to pick on Shon mercilessly, and Shon had once gotten revenge on him by ruining a speech he had to give in front of the whole class. Shon had learned that if he repeated in Dref’s mind his very own words, just a moment after he spoke them, it was nearly impossible to speak coherently. The whole class had laughed at Dref that day, and Shon had earned a week of detention from Empress when she realized what he had done.

He now looked at the witch who was muttering under he breath with a look more smug than anything Dref had ever come up with. Could something so simple work on someone so powerful?

He sent a mental message to the minds of Tarun, Krall, Solimar and Piggy. “I’m going to try something, Shon said to their minds. If it works, I’ll give you a signal to move again.”

Shon was glad that he still had Stick in his hands when Treshigan had frozen him. He focused all of his energy to listening to the words of Treshigan’s chant, and then redirected those words back to her, with just a moment delay. The effect was nearly instant.

Though Treshigan was still muttering under her breath, her head was jerking around and her words were choppy. She began repeating words or saying them in the wrong order. She repeated syllables and paused longer than she meant to, and Shon could feel the effects of the curse on his body lifting. Slowly and silently, he could see Krall and the others begin to loosen up and move as well.

“Go ahead and deal with Jarkt,” Shon whispered to them. “I can deal with the witch now.”

“Are you sure about that?” Krall whispered back.

“Easy,” Shon said with a grin.

Treshigan saw Krall and the others walk away from her curse, and she began to focus more loudly and intensely the words of her curse. This, however, just made it easier for Shon to take those loud thoughts and redirect them back at the witch, which infuriated her further. A moment before Krall, Solimar, Piggy, and Tarun reached the raiders, Treshigan let out an enraged shriek, but the warning came too late.

The fight that followed was fierce, but brief. Jarkt and his men were plenty strong and mean, but they had thought the battle already won by the witch, and they were completely unprepared for any resistance.

Treshigan had screamed at them to kill Shon at all costs, and the archer Preke had fired an arrow at him, but it was knocked aside at the last second by one of Solimar’s arrows.

At one point Treshigan herself had pulled out an ornamental dagger to attack Shon with, but he continued directing the witch’s thoughts of attack back at her, and her actions seemed to be affected similar to the way her words had been. She hesitated and stumbled, unsure of which steps she had already taken and which ones she was still taking. When she did reach Shon to lunge at him with her blade, he was able to easily dodge and knock her to the ground with a blow from Stick.

After a brief struggle, Jarkt and the others fled, leaving Treshigan behind, still on the ground muttering and holding her head under Shon’s influence. Shon, on the other hand, found that the redirection required very little effort from him, and he was grinning from ear to ear.

Krall walked over to Treshigan and spoke to her. “It seems you’ve underestimated our wizard,” he said. “Do it again, and you might end up dead. Now leave.” The witch glowered at all of them, but she picked herself up, and ran off in the direction that Jarkt and the others had gone.

“Now you owe me an arrow,” Solimar said to Shon.

“Sure,” Shon replied. “And you owe me a spell.”

“Fair enough,” Solimar said with a nod.

As they began picking up the ransacked contents of the wagon and trying to put the camp back in order again, Shon couldn’t help remembering the words Krall had said to Treshigan. “It seems you’ve underestimated our wizard,” he had said.

Shon smiled. He really was beginning to like that orc.

Illustration of Shon by Ryan Salway

Once they were all standing in front of the Soul Trees, Tarun was surprised how much detail Shon used when explaining his parents’ Soul Trees to Krall and the others. He told them about how his father was a mage and his mother was a sorceress. He told them about how his parents had disagreed on how to raise him and how they had left him to be raised by his uncle until they returned. He told them about how before he was born, his uncle had used his skills as a druid to create the three Soul Trees, and how he and Tarun had come here as the first step in looking for his parents.

When Shon finished his explanation, he stood with arms wide, gesturing to the two trees and said, “So if you have any ideas of how we might use these trees to find my parents, please let me know.”

Krall stood silent for a moment with a look of serious contemplation on his face. After a while he said, “What do you think, Solimar? You’re the expert around here when it comes to magical plants. You ever come across Soul Trees before? You think you could track his parents from them?”

Solimar walked up to the trees and began to inspect them closely, by looking, touching, and even whispering at them. Shon tensed slightly, but didn’t move or say anything. “I’ve never much liked Soul Trees,” Solimar said. “They’re usually made by inept druids who are love struck and trying to impress someone. You can usually spot a Soul Tree in a forest because it’s surrounded by a dozen warped and pathetic looking failed attempts.”

“Still,” the elf continued, running a hand along the bark of the oak tree, “these seem to have been done quite skillfully. Perhaps your uncle is not as inept as most druids. And yet, there is something strange about these other two trees.”

“What is it?” Shon asked.

“Right now it is the beginning of summer,” Solimar replied. “And yet this cherry tree has the new buds of spring instead of the fruit it should have during this season. And the fruit and leaves of the apple tree appear as if it’s already autumn. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been stuck this way for some time.”

“What does that mean?” asked Shon. “Why would my parents’ Soul Trees be stuck in the wrong seasons?”

“I don’t know,” said Solimar in a flat tone. “I’ve never seen this before.”

“You’re the best tracker I know, Solimar,” Krall said. “And you know quite a lot about magical plants. Do you have any idea if it’s even possible to track down the people whose souls are tied to these trees?”

“Perhaps,” the elf replied, “but it would take time. It could take months or possibly a year or more. It’s time we don’t have, Krall.”

Krall paced back and forth, mumbling to himself and absent-mindedly scratching his wrists as if trying to relieve an old itch. He did this for a while, and then turned to Tarun and Shon, exhaling loudly. “Solimar is right,” Krall said in an apologetic tone. “We’ve got a narrow window of opportunity to deal with that dragon, and there is too much at stake if we don’t. But I’m willing to make you a deal if you’ll hear me out, Shon.”

“I’m listening,” Shon said.

“You see, me and Solimar and Piggy, we’re three of the best trackers and hunters you’re ever going to meet,” Krall said. “I think you know I’m not bragging when I say that. Any one of us alone is pretty skilled at locating our quarry, and together we’ve never come across anything we can’t find.”

“How could you ever come across something you can’t find?” Shon asked.

“The point is,” Krall interjected, “that I’m willing to trade our services for yours. Solimar, Piggy, and I will help you track down your parents, for up to a year if that’s what it takes. But first you and Tarun will have to help us hunt and kill this dragon and her eggs.”

“How long would that take?” asked Shon.

Krall smiled, obviously pleased that Shon was taking the offer seriously. “I believe she has about two more months before she lays her eggs. That is when she would be weakest, and that is when we need to strike. So one way or another, by the end of the summer we’ll either be finished, or dead.”

Shon stood silent for a moment, looking over to Tarun to read his expression. “What do you think of the offer?” Shon asked him.

“Two months of our time for a year of their tracking skills?” Tarun said. “That sounds like a very generous offer to me.”

“Too generous,” Solimar grumbled.

Shon suddenly looked up. “Wait, Solimar is right,” said Shon. “That offer is too generous. Even if you assume you’re all so good we could find my parents in two months, it would still be a pretty lousy trade for you. Why do you need our help so badly? Tarun and I know nothing about dragon hunting. What could we possibly offer you three who are already experts?”

“Tarun is strong and brave,” Krall said. “Probably stronger and braver than he even realizes yet. And I may be big, but I’m not as young as I used to be. Solimar and Piggy both have their jobs, but I’m the leader and the muscle of the party. Something tells me we’re going to need more muscle than usual for this dragon.”

“Besides,” Krall said, turning to look Tarun in the eye, “there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on that seems important about you, boy. Like we’ve crossed each other’s paths for a reason. I’m not sure if it’s something you’re going to do for me, or something I need to teach you, but I’ve learned to trust my instincts on things like this.”

“Well that’s great,” said Shon sarcastically. “So Tarun is strong and brave, and you’re just letting me tag along so you get him?”

“When I first offered to let you boys join us a week ago, that was true,” Krall said. “But that was before your encounter with the dragon. Now your magic might make you just as valuable in this hunt as Tarun. The offer I made is only good if we get both of you.”

“What are you talking about?” Shon asked. “My magic was useless against that dragon. I don’t know any offensive spells, or any spells at all for that matter. And even if I did, my magic isn’t powerful enough to hurt a dragon, much less kill it.”

Krall waived a hand as if to dismiss Shon’s words. “There’s plenty of wizards that can blow stuff up,” said Krall. “I need you, because you can do something different.”

Shon was momentarily taken aback by Krall’s words. “What do you mean?” Shon asked.

“That dragon is unpredictable,” said Krall. “Now most dragons are a lot of things. Big. Powerful. Dangerous. Nearly indestructible. But another thing they usually are is predictable. It’s one of the only reasons experienced dragon hunters like us stand a chance. We’ve learned how dragons think and behave, and we’re very good at making plans that fit that behavior.”

“But this dragon we’re after is breaking all the rules,” Krall continued. “Her hunting area shouldn’t be this wide. She shouldn’t be coming back for prey after she already injured it. She should be roaring and chasing anything that tries to run, not sneaking quietly through the fog. Even Solimar was caught off guard when she grabbed that cougar in her jaws!”

Krall then pointed a thick finger at Shon. “But you,” Krall said. “You can sense her. You can sense that pain she’s experiencing that’s making her so crazy and unpredictable. You just may be exactly what we need to track her down or avoid an ambush.”

“And when it’s all over,” said Krall, “we may just be exactly what you need to find your parents. Now I won’t promise this job will be safe. Nothing with dragons ever is. But we will do everything we can to train and protect you. You’ll be part of our team, and we look out for one another. What do you say?”

Shon looked away from Krall and put a hand back on his mother’s cherry tree. “We came all this way to find them,” Shon said quietly. “And now we’re just going to leave?”

Tarun put a hand on Shon’s shoulder. “We didn’t leave Life’s Edge to look for trees,” Tarun said. “We left to find your parents.”

“Do you really think they can?” Shon asked Tarun.

“If anyone can, I believe it’s them,” Tarun said. “Shon, this feels right to me. I think we can trust them.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Shon said, and Tarun noticed he was wiping away a small tear. “It scares the wits out of me, but it does feel right.” Shon continued to rub the bark of the cherry tree. “All this time I’ve been waiting for my parents to come back and find me. Even coming here, I was hoping that when we arrived they would somehow know to show up and make things right. But that’s not going to happen, is it? If this is going to happen, it needs to be up to me.”

When Shon turned back to face Krall, his voice was firm. “Alright, Krall,” Shon said. “We’ll help you hunt down that dragon, and then you’re going to help me hunt down my parents.”

Krall’s mouth opened wide in a toothy grin. “Then let’s get started,” he said.

Tarun sat at the shore of the lake, while next to him Shon sat shivering, coughing, and sputtering. Tarun couldn’t tell whether this was a reaction to nearly drowning in the cold lake behind them, or from the shock of seeing the two dragon hunters in front of them. Either way, Shon seemed to be going through a fair bit of shock, and was experiencing a rare and uncharacteristic loss of words.

Solimar and Piggy were still dripping wet standing in front of them, and neither one was saying a word. Tarun reasoned that if anyone was going to start a conversation to get some answers, it would have to be him. “How did you know we needed to be rescued?” Tarun asked.

Solimar glared at Tarun with one eye, water steadily dripping off the elf’s long blonde hair. “It wasn’t difficult,” said Solimar curtly. “You’re rather big and made a very loud splash when you went in.”

“But what are you doing here?” Tarun asked.

“Saving your life, apparently,” Solimar curtly replied.

Shon suddenly got to his feet. With teeth chattering and face red with emotion he shouted, “But what are you doing here?!”

“That’s none of your business,” Solimar said flatly. “Though I suspect Krall will answer you when he arrives. He has an annoying habit of answering impudent questions.”

“Krall is coming here?” Tarun interrupted. “Where is he? When will he arrive?”

“Probably not far,” said Solimar. “He said he would stay close enough to Piggy to hear his horn if he blew it. I’m going to meet up with him to show him where we are.” Solimar abruptly turned and left before Shon could protest.

“I don’t like this,” Shon whispered to Tarun after Solimar was out of sight. “Why are those dragon hunters here? This is my parents’ valley and they shouldn’t know about it.”

“Perhaps they shouldn’t,” Tarun replied, “but I’m glad they did. I’m not sure how else we would have gotten out of that lake.”

Shon sighed through chattering teeth. “I guess you’re right,” he said begrudgingly. “Come on, let’s get changed into some dry clothes before Krall arrives. I’d hate for him to think my teeth are chattering out of fear for the mighty dragon hunter.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Tarun said with a smirk. “I think Krall can smell fear. It probably smells different than the scent of wet wizard.”

While Tarun and Shon changed into dry clothes, Piggy stayed near the shore of the lake, shaking himself and slapping his arms and legs until he was dry. Tarun got the impression that Piggy didn’t like the water very much, and noticed that much of the water simply beaded up and rolled off the dwarf’s greasy skin and hair.

Just as they were all getting dry and the valley was starting to warm up, Tarun saw Piggy’s boar running towards him from out of the brush. Following behind the boar at a steady pace were Krall and Solimar. Tarun couldn’t explain why he was both relieved and excited to see Krall again, but he was glad that the wise orc had arrived.

Shon, on the other hand, did not look happy to see Krall at all. He had a sullen look on his face, and Tarun could hear him mutter something under his breath about “a nightmare come true.” Tarun decided that if this meeting was going to go well, he would have to be positive enough for the both of them.

“It’s good to see you again, Krall,” Tarun said loudly, walking towards the orc. “Did Solimar tell you? Piggy and Solimar just saved our lives!”

“Yes, I heard,” Krall said as he came to stand in front of Tarun and Shon. “What were you two doing in the water if you didn’t know how to swim?”

“We were just soaking our feet,” said Tarun. “But the lake was much deeper than we expected.”

“Yes, lakes will do that,” Krall said with a little chuckle. “In any case, I’m glad you boys are safe.” Krall then turned to look at Shon and his expression turned serious. “I suspect you’ve had enough of pleasantries, eh Shon? You want to know what we’re doing here, and whether we followed you. That is what you suspect, isn’t it?”

Shon was surprised at Krall’s directness, and some of the anger drained out of his face. “Well… yes,” Shon said. “Though I never suggested that you followed us here.”

“Well, why wouldn’t you?” asked Krall, putting his hands on his hips. “How else could you explain us showing up here in the same place as you?”

“I… I don’t know,” Shon stammered. “Did you follow us here?”

“Well, the truth is only Piggy was following you,” Krall said. “I suspected that you two might need some… discreet… looking after. From what I’d observed before, it seemed like you had a harder time sensing Piggy’s mind, so he became the obvious choice.”

“But then what are you and Solimar doing here if Piggy was the only one following us?” Tarun asked before Shon could become indignant.

Krall looked away briefly, and for just a moment Tarun thought he might have seen a hint of embarrassment on the orc’s face. Then Krall straightened his shoulders and continued speaking. “The truth is, I’ve been camped out with our wagon about a mile from here for a couple of days. When I drew on your map earlier, I saw the marking on this location and I figured you would end up here pretty soon. I hoped I could have one more chance to-“

“You what?!” Shon angrily interrupted. “I knew we shouldn’t have let you hold our map!”

“Calm down, Shon,” Tarun said, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We don’t have all the answers yet.” Shon didn’t say anything else, but he began to pace back and forth, staring angrily at Krall. Tarun waited a moment before speaking and chose his next words carefully.

“What I still don’t understand,” Tarun said calmly, “is why Solimar was here to pull us out of the water if Piggy was the only one following us. Or were you both tracking us?”

“I wasn’t following you,” Solimar said with disgust. “I wouldn’t have stooped that low even if Krall had begged me. I had more important matters to attend to. I was tracking a dragon.”

“The dragon we saw yesterday!” Tarun interjected excitedly. “That’s the dragon you were tracking, wasn’t it? And I’ll bet the arrow I saw sticking out of its tail was one of yours!”

“Yes,” said Solimar, with just a flicker of a smile. “And now you owe me two arrows.”

“We owe you a lot more than that!” said Tarun. “We would have been dragon food if you hadn’t shot that thing to scare it off. Can you believe it, Shon? They saved our lives twice in two days.”

Shon stopped his pacing and dropped his arms to his sides, looking somewhat defeated and gazing down at his feet. “Yes, I suppose you’re right,” he said. “Thank you, Solimar. Truly. That dragon was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen.” Then, looking up at Solimar, he quickly added, “But wait. Why were you tracking that dragon in the first place? I thought the dragon you three were after was still several miles from here.”

“So did we,” said Krall. “By all accounts, she shouldn’t be anywhere near here. But there’s no mistake; that’s the dragon we’re after.”

“What is she doing here, then?” asked Tarun.

“I don’t know,” Krall said. “There’s something wrong. Very wrong in the worst way. The more Solimar tells me, the less I like it. Still, bad news is better than no news when it comes to dragons, and I hope you boys will tell me everything you can remember.”

Tarun and Shon recounted their encounter with the dragon, each taking turns telling the experience from their perspective. Tarun was surprised at how animated Shon became while talking about the dragon and the pain he sensed near her. Tarun was especially surprised to see Krall’s shocked and worried reactions as they went on, particularly when they described the wounded cougar with the spines and the purple foam around his mouth. They ended the account by explaining how the dragon had balked at Tarun’s pack and then flew off after Solimar shot her in the tail.

When they were finished with their account, it was Krall’s turn to pace back and forth. “This is all of my worst fears confirmed,” Krall said darkly. “You boys don’t realize just how lucky you are to be alive.”

“What do you mean?” asked Tarun. “Is this dragon more dangerous than most?”

“In many ways I suspect she is,” said Krall. “Shon, you said you thought the dragon was projecting pain into your mind as some kind of attack?”

“Yes,” replied Shon. “Have you ever heard of other dragons that can do that?”

“No,” Krall said, “and I don’t believe that’s what was happening to you either. I believe the dragon was actually experiencing that pain herself, and you just sensed it because of your magic.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” said Tarun. “Solimar didn’t shoot the dragon until the end of the encounter, and I didn’t see any injuries on her. Why would she have been in pain?”

“That,” Krall said with a heavy sigh, “would take a very long time to answer.” Krall’s shoulders slumped and he suddenly looked very tired. “Suffice to say for now that she has been poisoned by some very dark magic indeed. I will tell you more another time.”

“Another time?” said Shon. “How long are you planning to stay here?”

“Not very long at all,” Krall replied. “But I’m still hoping to convince the two of you to come with us. In fact, after hearing what you two have told me, I’m hoping more than ever that you’ll join us.” Krall then looked directly into Shon’s eyes and said, “I think it’s time you tell us what you’re doing here.”

“What?” Shon said, voice rising again. “Why should I…”

Solimar interrupted Shon by suddenly grabbing him by the shoulders. The elf whispered directly into Shon’s ear, but the stern words were loud enough that Tarun could still hear them. “I have saved your worthless life two times since yesterday,” whispered Solimar. “If you have any honor at all in that bald head of yours, you’ll stop wasting my time.”

Shon’s body was stiff and visibly uncomfortable as Solimar released his shoulders. He stood silent for a while, his face turning red.

Finally, Tarun broke the silence and said, “Shon, let’s just show them the trees. It can’t hurt anything, and we don’t know what else to do with them. Perhaps Krall and the others can give us some clues.”

Shon looked at Tarun and he could hear Shon’s voice in his head. Whose side are you on? Shon mentally asked. Mine or theirs?

Why can’t I be on both? Tarun thought back at his friend. I think we need their help, and it looks like they even need ours. Can’t we hear them out this time?

“Fine,” Shon said out loud with a serious expression, but less red in his face. “Krall, follow us and we’ll take you to my parents’ Soul Trees.”

The sun was already setting when Shon and Tarun were halfway down to the green valley. The narrow trail was no longer covered with overgrowth, which was fortunate because in the decreasing light available, Shon and Tarun had a difficult time seeing their path. By the time they reached the bottom of the trail the stars and moon were out and the night air was alive with the sounds of hundreds of frogs, crickets, and other animals.

Shon and Tarun were not able to see much in the darkness, but they managed to find a somewhat flat area under a large tree where the ground was not very wet. The air had a noticeable chill down in the valley, and Shon looked forward to getting inside his sleeping bag and ending the long and exhausting day that he and Tarun had just had.

However, once his sleeping bag was unrolled and Shon had crawled inside, he found that his mind was wide awake with excitement for what revelations the next day might hold, as well as racing with questions about the prior events of the day. Sleep did not come as easily as he had expected.

“Tarun,” Shon said in the direction of the night sky, “are you still awake?”

“Yes,” Tarun replied from the darkness. “After seeing that dragon’s eyes, I don’t know if I will ever sleep again.”

Shon shuddered at the mention of the dragon. “I know what you mean,” he said. “Why do you think it ran away like that instead of eating us?”

“I don’t know,” Tarun said. “But it didn’t seem to like my pack when I held it in front of me.”

“Do you think it could still smell the Dragon’s Bane you had in there before we sold it?”

“Perhaps,” Tarun said. “Although I think there was more to the dragon leaving than just the smell of my pack. I think it may have been fleeing an attack.”

“What are you talking about?” Shon asked. He sat up and looked in the direction of Tarun’s voice, though he couldn’t see him. “We were the only ones there. What attack could it be afraid of?”

“I’m not sure,” Tarun said. “Do you remember those spines on its back and tail? For just a moment as it was leaving, it looked like one of them was an arrow sticking out of its tail. Perhaps it was from the hunter that the old man told us was in the mountains hunting the cougar.”

“That seems unlikely,” Shon said, laying back down. “I mean, if the hunter shot the dragon to scare it away, why didn’t he reveal himself to us afterwards? Besides, even I know that dragon scales are too hard for arrows to puncture. It’s one of the things that make them so dangerous.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Tarun said.

The dark, chilly air was quiet for a few moments while even the frogs and crickets seemed to calm down. Shon once again broke the silence. “I was thinking about my parents,” he said.

“You think that one of them shot the arrow in the dragon’s tail?” Tarun asked.

“What? No,” Shon said. “I mean I was thinking about whether we’ll be able to find them. Do you think we’ll find any important clues here?”

Tarun was silent for a moment before he replied. “I don’t know,” he eventually replied. “Grodin didn’t seem to think that their Soul Trees would tell us anything specific, but I hope they give us some information.”

“Yeah,” Shon said. “I guess if nothing else it will be good just to see if their trees are alive or dead. Although now that we’re actually here, I’m kind of afraid to find them.”

“What do you mean?” Tarun asked. “They’re just trees. Why would you be afraid of them?”

“I’m not afraid of the trees,” said Shon. “I’m afraid of what I’ll find out about my parents. I mean, if the trees are dead, that means my parents are dead and I’m an orphan. On the other hand, if they’re alive, that means my parents are alive but never chose to come back for me.”

“I understand,” said Tarun. “Still, we can’t find them tonight in this darkness. Perhaps you will feel more enthusiastic about finding the trees tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.”

“Maybe so,” said Shon. He then let out a long, deep yawn and the exhaustion from all the day’s events finally caught up to him. Shon laid his head back, and as soon as it touched the lining of his sleeping bag, he was asleep.

***

Tarun proved to be right about the effect that the night’s sleep would have on Shon. When he awoke the next morning, he nearly jumped out of his sleeping bag as he remembered where they were. Despite the chill in the air, Shon felt an intense mixture of excitement for exploring the valley and optimism for finding clues about his parents.

The sun was just rising over the nearby mountains when Shon got up to stretch and survey his surroundings, and the light reflected so brightly off the nearby lake that Shon had to look away from the water. Although he had been amazed by the sight of the green valley from above the day before, Shon found that looking around at all the different shades of green life surrounding him from within the valley itself left him truly in awe. It seemed like the only area of land in sight that didn’t have some kind of vegetation growing on it was the nearby lake.

Shon found Tarun not far away gathering small pieces of wood together and building a structure similar to the one Krall had instructed them to build for the campfire several days ago. Shon had seen Tarun do this a few times since they parted ways with the dragon hunters, and when he had asked Tarun at the time why he was doing it, Tarun had just responded, “I just wanted to practice so I don’t forget how to do it later.”

“Good morning,” Shon said as he walked up behind Tarun. “Your structure seems to be improving.”

“Good morning, Shon,” said Tarun, turning around to face Shon with a smile. “I didn’t hear you get up.”

“I just got up a little bit ago,” Shon said. “Looks like you’re starting to rub off on me though. I can’t remember the last time I woke up on my own at the same time as the dawn.”

“Actually,” said Tarun, “the sky has been light for a while now. It’s just that these mountains around us are so high that the sun is just now coming into view. This whole valley has been one big shadow all morning until now.”

“Oh,” said Shon, feeling somewhat embarrassed that once again Tarun had been awake so much longer than him. Then remembering his earlier enthusiasm, Shon added, “What do you say we have some breakfast and then try to find my parents’ Soul Trees?”

Shon and Tarun ate a quick breakfast of hard biscuits and dried fruit, and washed it down with some of the water from the clear lake nearby. The water from the lake was so cold it gave Shon a slight headache when he swallowed a big mouthful too quickly, but both he and Tarun found the water to be refreshing.

Finding the Soul Trees did not take them very long. For one thing, Grodin had told them that the trees were located close to the perimeter of the lake so their roots would always have easy access to water. For another thing, most of the normal trees in the valley had dark green needles on their branches, and the three Soul Trees stood in contrast with the leaves covering them.

As Shon approached the three Soul Trees, he tried to remember what Uncle Grodin had told him about them. Shon’s mother had asked for a cherry tree since it was her favorite fruit and she loved the smell of the blossoms, his father had asked for an apple tree because of the versatility of the fruit in recipes, and Grodin had chosen an oak tree because he thought it would most benefit the different animals in the valley.

Shon approached the trees and studied them closely, touching the bark of each one with reverence. The oak tree had grown twice the size of the other trees and had broad green leaves and a trunk so thick that Shon’s arms could only reach about a third of its circumference. The other two trees were much smaller. Their main trunks were about the same height as Shon’s head, and even their highest branches only reached about twice Shon’s height.

In contrast to the bright green leaves on Grodin’s oak, the leaves on Alla Nen’s apple tree were orange and red, and the branches held small yellow apples with brown spots. The color of the leaves made Shon think of his father’s robe that he was wearing, but the sight of the apples made Shon sad for some inexplicable reason.

Shon assumed that the third tree must have been his mother’s. Pedhma’s cherry tree was covered with much smaller green leaves that were somewhat wrinkled in appearance and gave the impression that they had only just started growing. The branches also had several small flower buds that had not yet opened.

The first several minutes that Shon spent inspecting the trees were filled with relief for the young wizard. The trees seemed to be alive and healthy, which meant that his parents were too… somewhere. But after the initial delight at finding and observing the trees, Shon soon began to feel a growing disappointment. There really was nothing about the trees that Shon could see that provided any kind of clues as to where to go next in his quest for his parents.

Shon began looking for any sign, as obscure as it may be, for what to do next. Were the leaves blowing in a particular direction? Were the branches pointing anywhere? Shon noticed that all three trees had moss growing on one side, but then he realized that so did most of the other trees in the valley.

With growing frustration, Shon held Stick in one hand and placed his other hand on the bark of his mother’s cherry tree. With all the energy he could muster, Shon reached out with his mind to the tree, but the only thing he could sense was the same vague sense he had been feeling for days that they were being watched. Pulling his hand away, he spun around to see if anyone was in sight, and saw Tarun reaching for one of the apples from Alla Nan’s tree.

“What are you doing?” Shon snapped. “That’s my father’s Soul Tree, not a snack!”

Tarun withdrew his hand from the apple. “I know,” Tarun replied calmly. “It looked like you were growing frustrated, and I thought that eating one of these apples might provide some magical insight.”

Shon felt ashamed for speaking so sharply to his friend. “I’m sorry Tarun,” he said. “You’re right, I am getting frustrated. Perhaps eating one of my father’s apples will give me some ideas. Since I can’t think of anything else, I guess it’s worth a shot.”

Tarun picked the apple and handed it to Shon. He held it in his hands for a moment with great excitement and hesitance. Could something so simple provide any answers? He slowly brought the apple to his mouth and took a deliberate bite.

Shon immediately spat out the bite the moment after he had taken it. “Ugh! It’s complete mush inside,” Shon said with disgust.

“Perhaps that was just a bad one,” Tarun said, trying to remain positive. “Let me see if I can reach one with fewer brown spots on it.” Tarun reached high and stood on his toes to try and grab another apple, but before he could reach it, he fell back and winced in pain.

“What’s the matter?” Shon asked with concern.

“My foot,” Tarun replied. “It hurts a lot. The way it did when I first woke up in Life’s Edge.”

“Let’s take a look,” said Shon, momentarily forgetting about his frustration with his parents’ Soul Trees.

As they were removing the boot from Tarun’s foot, Shon asked, “How did you get this gash in your boot?”

“I, uh, had an accident trying to use the axe,” Tarun said, looking away. “It caused my sock to get quite soggy yesterday. It was uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to say anything.”

Shon removed Tarun’s sock and winced when he saw the foot inside. “I wish you had said something,” Shon said. “It looks like walking around in that soggy sock has given you a few pretty nasty blisters. We should have stopped to change socks.”

“When would we have done that?” Tarun asked. “I seem to recall we were escaping from a dragon for much of the way.”

“Fair point,” Shon responded. “Still, we should get these blisters cleaned up. Do you think you can walk over to the lake with me?”

“Of course,” Tarun replied with a smirk. “What’s the alternative? You carry me over there?” They both laughed.

When Tarun and Shon reached the shore of the lake, they decided it would benefit both of them to soak their feet in the cool water for a while. After removing their boots and socks and rolling their pants up to their knees, they both gradually began wading into the water.

As Shon walked around in the shallow water, he found the sensation of the cold mud and stone against his feet both pleasant and strange, though ultimately it did feel good on his feet that had walked so many miles in the last several days. At one point, Shon found an area where the floor of the lake dropped off abruptly, and when he looked over the edge of the drop-off, he could no longer see the bottom of the lake. He was about to tell Tarun about the drop-off when he heard a loud splash behind him.

Shon saw Tarun splashing his arms to try to keep his head above water, and he started to panic. He realized that Tarun must have stepped off a drop in the lake floor similar to the one he had just found, but he didn’t know how to rescue him. Shon had never swum before, and even if he had, he doubted he could rescue someone Tarun’s size. In his panic Shon managed to remember that Stick was at the shore, and he ran to grab it to try to pull Tarun to safety.

By the time Shon had returned with Stick, Tarun had disappeared under the water. He ran to the last spot where Tarun had been splashing, and tried lowering Stick into the water with a tight grip in case Tarun caught hold. There was a hard tug on Stick, and while Shon’s grip was firm, his footing was not, and he went splashing into the water where Tarun had been.

As he struggled frantically to keep his head above water, Shon realized that his wet clothes had become unbearably heavy. He mentally called out for help, but knew that there was nobody nearby to save them. Shon’s head managed to stay above the water for a few more seconds, but then went under. The last thing that he heard before his ears filled up with water seemed to be some kind of horn off in the distance.

Shon’s lungs burned for air, but he couldn’t manage to get his head back up to the surface. He could see the light of the sun rippling and wavering above him, but it seemed so distant now. Just a minute ago, Shon had not even thought about breathing, and now air seemed like the most precious thing in the world.

Just as Shon was about to give up and release the air in his lungs, he heard two dull splashing sounds from above, and suddenly something grabbed his arm and pulled him upward. A few seconds later, he broke through the surface of the water and began taking great, gasping breaths of precious air. He walked and crawled to the edge of the lake, and realized that Tarun was next to him, coughing and sputtering as well.

“How did you save me?” Shon asked as he started to regain his breath.

“I didn’t,” Tarun said between great coughs. “They did.”

When Shon looked where Tarun was pointing, he was startled to see Piggy and Solimar standing soaking wet and grim-faced looking back at him.

“What kind of idiot goes swimming fully clothed?” Solimar asked.

The next three days were fairly uneventful for Shon and Tarun. They continued along the main road at a steady pace, and the weather remained dry and warm enough that they could comfortably sleep under the stars in their sleeping bags at the end of each day.

Shon began to grow tired of eating the venison jerky, hard biscuits, nuts, and dried fruit that he and Tarun had purchased in Brookdale. He was also growing weary of the monotonous walking and the vague feeling he could never shake that they were being watched. Still, he kept his spirits up by telling himself that every step was bringing him closer to the valley that may hold some answers about his parents.

On the seventh day since they left Life’s Edge, dark gray clouds began gathering in the skies and a wind began blowing that was noticeably cooler than they had encountered so far. That day, Shon and Tarun came to a wide fork in the main road, which was their cue to begin looking for the small path that would lead towards the green valley on their map. It took until the middle of the afternoon just to find the path because it was so overgrown with bushes and shrubs.

The trail looked old, dusty, and disused. It was littered with dead leaves and seemed to lead in a direction towards some rather steep-looking terrain. Upon examining their map, Shon estimated that it was still roughly a full day’s walk from their current location to the spot that Grodin had marked as their destination.

“It looks like there’s a town on the map not far from here,” Shon said to Tarun. “I think we should stay there for the night and start on this trail tomorrow after we’ve gotten a good night’s sleep. Besides, I don’t like the look of those clouds and I’d rather not get rained on tonight. What do you think, Tarun?”

Shon looked up from his map and saw that Tarun was staring ahead at the trail with a strange look on his face. “Is something wrong, Tarun?” Shon asked.

Tarun blinked a couple of times as if snapping out of a daydream. “I don’t know,” Tarun said, turning to look at Shon. “I was just thinking about something Krall said about getting out when something didn’t feel right. I think staying in that town for the night is a good idea.”

For once Shon didn’t mind the idea of Tarun following some of Krall’s advice, and within a couple of hours they arrived in the town of Switchback. It was still only late afternoon when they located the inn at the center of town, but the darkening sky made it feel much later. Tarun and Shon decided it would be best to eat their dinner and go to sleep early so they could get started early the next day.

Once Shon had purchased their rooms and meals for the evening, he and Tarun sat down in the tavern that also served as the restaurant on the first floor of the inn. As they began eating their meal, they could hear the rain begin falling outside.

Tarun and Shon ate in no particular hurry since neither was very tired, and Shon wanted to savor his meal that didn’t consist of dry trail food. The crowd in the tavern steadily grew larger and louder as the rain continued on outside, and Shon eventually had to pull the hood of his cloak over his head to quiet the many minds around them.

In the midst of the noise, Shon heard a loud voice at the table behind him say, “Yep, a cougar all right. Up there in the mountains by the fork in the road. I didn’t believe it at first either, but about five people say they’ve spotted it now and only one of them is an idiot.”

Shon turned around in his seat and saw an old man with white hair and beard speaking to a younger man with a tired expression on his face. “Excuse me,” Shon said, “I don’t want to be rude, but I overheard your conversation…”

Shon was interrupted by the younger man at the table, who now had an embarrassed look on his face. “I’m sorry,” said the man, “we didn’t mean to bother you. My father is kind of going deaf and he doesn’t realize how loud he’s talking.”

“No, it’s not that,” Shon quickly said. “It’s just that my friend and I need to travel towards those mountains tomorrow. Did you say a cougar has been seen in that area?”

“A cougar in that area?” the old man said loudly. “You mean you’ve seen one too?”

“No, Pop,” the younger man said in a loud voice. “They were asking about the cougar YOU were talking about.” Then turning to Shon he quietly added, “I swear, he’s losing his hearing, but not his mind.”

“Oh yeah,” the old man said loudly. “Quite a few people have spotted the cougar not far from here. Mostly hunters who go into the woods looking for game, but one young lady said she saw it while picking herbs. You boys going anywhere near those mountains anytime soon?”

Shon nodded his head to avoid any more shouting. He didn’t want everyone in the whole tavern to know where he and Tarun were headed.

“Well you’d better be careful then,” continued the old man. “Do you boys know the tricks to dealing with a cougar in the woods?”

Shon and Tarun both shook their heads.

“The first trick is to avoid the cougar in the first place,” said the old man. “Sticking to the main road is a good way to do that, but then again there really aren’t any main roads going up to those mountains. Of course this trick doesn’t do a lick of good if you’re like that idiot hunter who’s out there right now looking for the thing on purpose.”

“That brings me to the second trick,” the old man continued. “If you do find yourself facing a cougar, don’t run away. That’ll just make him want to chase you. What you want to do is make yourself look as big and scary as possible. That shouldn’t be a problem for your friend there. Just wave your arms above your head and make a lot of loud noise. That usually does the trick.”

“Thank you for the advice,” Tarun said to the old man. Tarun didn’t shout, but the old man seemed to understand him anyway.

***

Tarun awoke the next morning soon after sunrise, feeling well rested. He awoke Shon, and after a quick breakfast downstairs the two packed their bags and left the inn to find the little trail again.

The sky outside was mostly blue with a few clouds remaining. Tarun assumed that the rain the day before must have depleted the clouds, and he was glad it looked like they would have clear weather for their journey. There were a few puddles on the side of the main road, but the early morning sunshine seemed to have already dried up much of the water.

Tarun and Shon soon arrived at the fork in the road and found the trailhead they had located the day before. Tarun was glad that they had found the trail before the previous day’s rain had begun. The wet ground and overgrowth made the path look even less like a real trail and he was not sure if they would have recognized it in its current state. As Tarun looked at the trail again he felt a sense of unease, though not as pronounced as the day before, and he reasoned to himself that it was just nervousness attributed to the warning they received about the cougar in the area.

Tarun and Shon began to walk forward along the trail and it quickly became apparent to Tarun that although they had avoided the rain, they would not be able to avoid getting wet. The leaves of the bushes and shrubs that they had to walk through on the overgrown trail still held several beads of water from the night before, and the moisture quickly accumulated on their clothes. The ground of the trail that was shaded by so much plant life had dried much less than the main road in the sun, and the dusty trail had become muddy and slick. The boot that Tarun had accidentally sliced with the woodcutter’s axe became particularly squishy and uncomfortable.

Tarun kept any complaints he had to himself, but Shon could see how wet his friend was getting, so he offered to take a turn in the lead so the leaves wouldn’t have so much water on them when Tarun walked through them. Tarun started to object, but Shon pointed out that his father’s cloak seemed quite water repellent, so the idea seemed to make sense.

Before long the trail began to slope steeply upward and Tarun and Shon had to stop more frequently to catch their breath. For the first time since they had left Life’s Edge, Tarun began to notice just how much larger and heavier his pack was than his friend’s. As they continued to climb upwards, the trail became less straight and began to cut back and forth in patterns that allowed them to make gradual progress up the steep landscape. The overgrowth made it nearly impossible to see the direction that the trail was leading them, and the only way they could even be sure they were still on the trail at all was to look down at their own feet and see the narrow path.

They continued their ascent along the trail walking without any clear sense of the direction they were heading or where the trail would take them next, but they kept taking one step after another. The air began to feel much cooler and a light mist hung in the air. After several hours the trail began to straighten out again and through the mist they could see that the ground and trees to their left sloped steeply downward while the ground to their right sloped steeply upward.

About an hour after noon the mist around them was thickening into a fog, but the overgrowth finally started to thin out so that Tarun and Shon could begin to see the narrow trail in front of them. They also saw why the vegetation began to thin. Instead of dirt and mud, the landscape in front of them was much rockier. Both the left and right side of the trail seemed to be covered with flat angular stones of varying sizes that would occasionally tumble down the sloped landscape, causing a fair amount of clattering as they collided with the other light gray stones on the way down.

At one point they came to a portion of the trail that had no overgrowth at all, and both sides of the trail were covered with nothing but the light gray shale that now dominated the sloped mountainside. Shon began to walk out of the overgrowth and on to the rocky path, carefully trying to avoid sending any bits of shale clattering down the slope to their right. Tarun hesitated.

“Doesn’t this feel rather… exposed to you?” Tarun asked.

“Well I’m certainly not crazy about it,” said Shon as he continued to walk carefully forward, using Stick to steady himself on the stone-covered path. “But what other option do we have? Leave the trail or turn around and go back? And to be honest, I wouldn’t mind having a break from all those wet leaves. My cloak is keeping most of me dry, but I’m starting to feel rather steam-cooked under this hood.”

Tarun was still holding back in the overgrowth when he saw Shon remove the hood from his head, and then almost immediately after he saw his friend stumble, scream as if in pain, and fall to his knees, clutching his head. Tarun immediately ran out of the overgrowth to his friend’s side on the rocky trail. Shon had just pulled the hood back over his head when Tarun arrived next to him.

“What happened?” Tarun asked. “Are you hurt?”

“I… I don’t know,” Shon said, rubbing the sides of his head. “I felt such intense pain. More intense than I’ve ever felt before, but it wasn’t mine.” Shon suddenly turned and looked at Tarun with panic in his eyes. “There’s something out here!”

Tarun could hear the clattering of falling shale above and below them, but the fog on all sides made it impossible to know if the sounds were caused by anything other than their own movements. “Let’s get back to the cover of the bushes,” Tarun said quietly. “I don’t think it would be very safe for me to carry you on this trail. Are you able to walk?”

“Yes,” Shon said, gingerly getting to his feet. “I only scraped my knees a little.”

Tarun wanted to stand behind Shon to steady him as they walked back the way they came, but the trail was too narrow for them to safely switch places, so he lead the way back to the overgrowth. But before they could reach the vegetation, they heard a loud growl.

Tarun saw a large, sand-colored animal climbing down the rocky slope, cutting them off from the overgrowth. “It’s the cougar,” Shon whispered into Tarun’s ear. “Do you think we should run for it?”

“No, the old man said that would only make things worse,” Tarun said. Remembering the old man’s advice, Tarun stretched his arms out wide and began stomping his feet and shouting as loud as he could. The cougar snarled and continued descending the rocky slope towards them.

Tarun wondered frantically why the old man’s advice wasn’t working. Had the old man actually lost his mind? Was this some kind of a sick joke he played on travelers? He continued shouting, stomping, and waving his arms until he heard Shon scream in pain again behind him.

“There’s something wrong with this cougar!” Shon shouted as if in agony. “It isn’t what I felt before but… AHHH!”

As the cougar came closer, Tarun noticed for the first time that the cougar had blood running from what looked like large black and purple quills sticking out of its flank, and thick frothy purple drool coming out of its mouth. The series of events that followed took place so quickly that they defied Tarun’s comprehension. He began to remove his pack to reach for the woodcutter’s axe he had secured to the back. Before he could untie it, the cougar leapt at the travelers with claws extended and mouth open.

In a flash, an enormous black reptilian head appeared out of the fog below them and snapped the cougar out of midair and into the creature’s powerful jaws. The cougar immediately went limp once speared between the beast’s huge fangs. The creature swallowed the cougar whole as the rest of its body noisily climbed up the slope. As it emerged from the fog, Tarun could see hard and sleek black scales edged with purple, four thick legs with razor like claws at the feet, two leathery wings folded on its back, and a long powerful tail tipped with dozens of the sharp black and purple quills that Tarun had seen sticking out of the cougar.

Tarun stood awestruck in front of the monster and the only action he could manage was to whisper the one word on his mind. “Dragon.”

The dragon turned its attention to Tarun and Shon with pure black eyes and then let out a deafening roar. The sound shocked Tarun out of his stupor and he began to try again to untie the axe from his pack. Seeing Tarun’s movements, the dragon opened its mouth and lunged at him, but stopped short when Tarun raised his pack in front the dragon out of instinct.

Suddenly the dragon reared its head back as if to gag, and began to slip on the shale beneath its feet. A moment later it whipped its head around and let out a high pitched roar as if in pain, and then flew clumsily through the trees back into the fog. As the dragon sped away, the last thing that Tarun saw disappear into the wet gray air was its spiked tail. For just a moment, it looked to Tarun as if one of the spikes on its tail was fletched with feathers like an arrow.

As soon as the dragon was out of sight, Tarun and Shon scrambled for the cover of the nearby trees and bushes. After a few minutes, Shon held his breath and slowly began to remove the hood from his head. When his hood was pulled all the way down, Shon let out a deep sigh of relief. “I think we’re safe,” Shon said. “It looks like the pain dragon is gone.”

“The what?” Tarun asked.

“Well, I’ve heard there are fire dragons and ice dragons and poison dragons, and so on,” Shon said. “So I decided that one must be a pain dragon.”

“I didn’t feel any pain,” said Tarun. “Just terror.”

“Well whatever it was, it seems to be gone now,” said Shon. “And I think we should keep going forward on the trail before it comes back for seconds.”

Tarun agreed, and they both decided to move along the rest of the trail as quickly as they could. They practically ran across the stretch of path where they encountered the cougar and the dragon among the shale. Once they made it past the open rocky slope and back into the cover of the trees and other vegetation they slowed down a little bit, but they maintained a very hurried pace for another hour.

Two hours after their encounter with the dragon, Tarun and Shon stepped out of the forest onto a large clearing next to a high cliff. A strong wind was blowing near the ledge. The wind was cold but dry, and it helped dry the surface of Tarun and Shon’s clothes. From the top of the cliff they could see a clear blue sky above them, and below them they saw the thick fog roll over the ground below.

“It’s like we’re looking down at a cloud instead of looking up at one,” said Tarun.

“Actually,” said Shon, “that may be exactly what we’re doing. I’m not sure exactly how high we’ve climbed, but it must be pretty high up.”

Tarun and Shon decided that the overlook was a good place to finally stop and eat some lunch. They reasoned that although it was exposed, at least they would be able to see the dragon coming if it tried to attack them again. The sun was moving low in the sky and they had not eaten since breakfast early that morning, and they ate their dinner with enthusiasm.

As they finished their meal, the mist below started to dissipate and Tarun heard Shon audibly gasp. Suddenly in their view they saw the most green and verdant landscape Tarun had ever seen. Even with a heavy shadow already covering most of the land below, Tarun saw a large blue lake, a couple of waterfalls, and countless trees and other plants.

Tarun heard the sound of sniffling and he turned around to see tears in Shon’s eyes. “Are you alright, my friend?” he asked.

“It’s the green valley, Tarun,” Shon said with a smile. “It’s right below us.”