Free The Dragon in the Volcano by Kate Klimo

wave of her hand. “That’s just some tripe he and Emmy read in
Shimmer
.”
    “What’s tripe?” Opal asked.
    “What’s shimmer?” Galena wanted to know.
    “Tripe is meaningless drivel, and
Shimmer
is a magazine that prints it,” Jesse said.
    “For Young Women in the Glow,”
Daisy added with a curl of her lip.
    “Well, Emerald is certainly glowing,” Opal said with a worried shake of her head.
    “And it’s all that rascal Jasper’s doing,” said Galena.
    “The big two-timing galoot!” Daisy said, brandishing her drumstick.
    “Shhhh,” Jesse hissed. “Emmy and the big two-timing galoot are headed this way.”
    Emmy, strolling beside Jasper, approached theirtable and said, “Are you cousins finished with your runching? Because Jasper and I are going to take you for a jaunt in the country.”
    Jesse and Daisy nodded dully. Suddenly, both of them had lost their appetites.
    “The country is very different from the city,” Emmy explained as, immediately following the runching, they made their way through the streets of the Ruby City toward the outskirts. Here the buildings were lower, though no less dazzling. “It is very wild and sometimes dangerous. You must stay close to me at all times.”
    Daisy said, “We’ll be riding on your back, won’t we?”
    Daisy was already burning with jealousy of the fire fairies. The cheery little trio had ridden Emmy’s tail all the way to where they now stood at the entrance to a sprawling structure made from ruby and clear quartz bricks. Its long, wide central aisle had stalls on either side. It looked like the stable of an important and very large king. Daisy couldn’t see inside the stalls, but she could hear snorting and stomping, and the air was filled with glittery dust and smoke.
    Emmy was shaking her head sadly. “Fire fairies hitchhiking on my tail is one thing, but
you
cannot ride me here in this place. The other dragons wouldfrown on it. It would be disrespectful to me. Dragons here are very proud. I must learn to have more pride in myself if I am to stay.”
    “But we’re your
Keepers
,” Daisy protested. “Can’t they make an exception?”
    “No exceptions allowed, but I have the perfect mounts already chosen for you. Fire salamanders!” Her green eyes shone with excitement as she flung open two of the stall doors.
    Two six-legged, alligator-size salamanders with red and white stripes slewed out into the aisle. Jesse let out a yip and jumped to one side.
    “Meet Speedy and Clipper,” Emmy said proudly. “Aren’t they sweet?”
    Daisy gulped. In spite of their playful names and their candy-cane stripes, the fire salamanders were anything but sweet. Red ruffs wreathed their massive heads, through the top of which smoke puffed out of two holes. But Daisy didn’t want to spoil Emmy’s surprise, so she said with grim determination, “What do we hold on to?”
    “The ruffles,” Emmy said. She reached down and plucked playfully at the ruff surrounding Clipper’s smoking head. Daisy was surprised to see that Jesse was already gamely perched on Speedy’s back, leaning forward like a jockey braced for the starting gun, baggy flaps of skin gathered up in each hand.
    “Do these things fly?” Jesse asked, looking a little pale.
    “No,” said Emmy, “but they go like the wind, so hang on tight.”
    Daisy scrambled up on Clipper’s back, which was smooth as snakeskin, warm, and a little slippery. Her feet dangled about a foot off the ground. She could feel the creature’s ribs heaving beneath her and hear the rumbling of its guts.
This must be what it feels like to be on a revving motorcycle
, she thought. “Okay. So how do we get them to start and stop?” Daisy asked.
    “Don’t worry. They’re herd animals. They’ll go when Jasper and I go and stop when we stop,” Emmy said.
    Then they were off, the two fire salamanders neck and neck on the heels of the two bounding dragons.
    Daisy was expecting a bumpy ride, so her hands clenched the