Free The Dragon in the Sea by Kate Klimo Page A

who—slipped a sleeping potion into the deer meat!”
    “Jesse Tiger, you gave it away!” Emmy protested. “But you’re right. Someone slipped my old man a Donald.”
    “Don’t you mean a Mickey?” said Daisy.
    “Right! And who else could that someone be but St. George? Like most dragons, my mother knew about the healing power of herbs, so she waited until dark and then flew down to the Deep Woods to find the berries she needed to wake up my dad.
    “She had just found the berries, when from up in the trees, a large net came crashing down over her head. Scary pale men with torches surrounded her. One of them, a man with long golden hair and frightening eyes, poked at her through the nettingwith a cane. The head of the cane was a dragon covered in crystals.
    “Mom knew who she was up against, as all dragonkind know when we come face to face with our natural enemy. It was St. George the Dragon Slayer!
    “My mother begged for her life. Then she made a big mistake. Hoping to soften his heart, she told him that she was expecting a baby.”
    “Didn’t she know that St. George has no heart?” Jesse said bitterly.
    “I guess you could say she was a babe in the Deep Woods. Anyway, St. George could not have been happier,” said Emmy. “He had hit the jackpot: getting two dragons for the price of one. St. George put my poor mom in a cage. That night, in a nest of straw, my mother laid three eggs.”
    “Three eggs?”
Jesse echoed, sitting bolt upright.
    “Three eggs. That’s what she told me and she ought to know,” said Emmy. “Meanwhile, back on the mountain, my father woke up from his long sleep with one ultra-supersonic doozy of a headache. He couldn’t find my mother anywhere. Outside the cave, the dryads were waiting for him with more bad news. They had witnessed what had gone down in the Deep Woods, and they told him that my mother was being held captive in a cage.
    “The next part is too sad to tell, but, trust me, my dad fell asleep that night, after crying a brook.”
    “I think it’s a river,” said Jesse.
    “An ocean is probably more like it,” Daisy said. “Poor Obsidian!”
    “It was the first time the two of them had ever been apart and my father took it hard. That night, Obsidian had a dream. In his dream, the Old Woman herself, Mother of the Mountain, came to him. She gave him the recipe for a spell that would help him save Leandra. The Old Woman said, ‘Once you cast the spell, know that only a magic greater than it, and either of you, will be able to reverse it.’
    “When he woke up, my father gathered the ingredients for the spell. He made a fire and tossed the ingredients into it, one by one. The fire crackled and popped and shot out a bolt of lightning that lifted my dad high into the air and then smashed him against the side of the mountain. He was knocked out cold. Again.
    “My poor old dad woke up the next morning with an even worse headache than the one he had the day before and a humungous thirst. He staggered to the brook and leaned over to dip his snout into the water. The sight of his reflection in the water blew him away. This was no dragon staringback at him. This was a man with broad shoulders, dark silvery hair, and black eyes.”
    “Whoa!” said Jesse. “You mean the spell turned your father into a human being?”
    “That’s right, Jesse Tiger. He was looking at pink skin instead of silver scales, fingers instead of talons, and what had happened to his long beautiful tail? No offense, but he was totally bummed. He fell to his knees and sobbed his brand-new human heart out.
    “But the Mother of the Mountain came to him again. She said, ‘Don’t fret. In your man form, you will be better able to rescue Leandra.’
    “So Obsidian got a grip and dunked his head into the icy-cold brook.”
    Emmy sighed and settled into silence.
    “Then what happened?” Daisy asked.
    “Well,” Emmy said, “then my dad sneaked through the woods, found the cage, and unlocked it.