Free Beast Quest #3: Cypher the Mountain Giant by Adam Blade Page A

trotted to her side. Elenna shot Tom a sideways look.
    Tom smiled and nodded. They were in this together.
    Before he’d met Elenna, Tom had been chosen by King Hugo and his royal advisor, the wizard Aduro, to go on a quest. He was to save the kingdom of Avantia from the Beasts, who were under the evil spell of the Dark Wizard Malvel. Before the Quest, Tom used to think the Beasts only existed in legend. But now that he had fought two of them himself, he knew just how real they were — and how deadly they could be.
    Ever since Malvel had gained control of the Beasts through his dark magic, they had been carrying out acts of terror and destruction. Tom’s mission was to stop them. He had to break Malvel’s hold over the Beasts.
    So far, Tom had faced the fiery wrath of Ferno the Fire Dragon, and the horror of Sepron, a monstrous sea serpent. He and Elenna had only survived by working together. Now Aduro had warned them that a new danger lurked in the mountains of the North.
    Giant
danger.
    Tom brought Storm to a halt and reached into one of the horse’s saddlebags. “Let’s check that we’re going the right way.” He jumped down and unrolled the magic map that Aduro had given him. Trees and hills and mountains rose up from the old parchment paper, standing as tall as Tom’s thumbnail. Near a hillside, a part of the path was glowing.
    “That’s where we are now,” Elenna said, as Storm rested his muzzle on Tom’s shoulder. “Another day’s ride and we should reach Colton.”
    Of all the towns nestled among the peaks of the northern mountains, Colton was the biggest. Tom looked at the drawing of the town on the map. It was surrounded by five mountains that rose up on all sides, jagged and forbidding. The road leading to the town was long and winding, and in one part it looked as if it was blocked. This meant they would have to find a way around. Tom had never tried toclimb a mountain before and wondered if it would be as steep and dangerous as he imagined.
    “We’d better make camp soon,” Tom said. “We’re going to need all our energy to get up that mountain pass tomorrow.”
    Elenna mounted Storm and Tom led the way with Silver. As they picked their way up the hillside, the mountains towered all around them.
    When they reached the top of the hill and paused to catch their breath, they couldn’t believe what lay before them. Mountains stretched as far as they could see. Dark shadows filled their cracks and gullies, while the peaks seemed to glow in the late afternoon sun. Like rows of sharp teeth, the mountains stood out against the deep blue sky. In the distance, near where Colton would be, dark clouds were beginning to gather.
    “It’s beautiful,” said Elenna. Tom nodded. He’d seen many things on his Quest so far, but nothing as breathtaking as this. He swallowed hard.

    As they were getting ready to continue on their way, they noticed a raggedy group of men coming down the trail toward them. Tom gripped his sword.
    One of the men called out a greeting as the group drew nearer. Tom could make out that one of them was carrying a young boy over his shoulder.
    When the group reached them, Tom and Elenna could see that the men were traders. They looked dirty and tired, and the boy appeared to be injured, his head wrapped in a bloody strip of cloth.
    “Can you help us?” the man carrying the boy asked desperately. “Do you have any water? All our supplies were destroyed.”
    Tom passed him his water canteen. “What happened?”
    “We were part of a trading caravan, bringing supplies to the town of Colton,” the man explained. “And then the ground started to shake and a rockslidecame down the side of the mountain — we were lucky to survive.”
    “What triggered it?” asked Elenna.
    “We don’t know. The mountains are usually very stable. But the weather was unusual and —”
    “The giant —” sputtered the injured boy. “There was a giant —”
    Tom and Elenna exchanged