Jase's Challenge from
By Clover Autrey
Willec scrambled toward the clearing, worn travel gear banging against his broad back. By all rights
that couldn’t have been what he’d heard!
Another high-pitched squeal rolled among the trees. A flock of chatterbrights shot out from dark
leafy branches, squawking furiously as they winged up toward patches of blue sky.
Willec slackened his pace. Healthy curiosity was one thing; rushing up to the unknown, quite
another. His bitter years defending the border had taught him that.
The squeal rang out again, so shrill and close Willec ground his teeth against the sudden assault on
his ears. Carefully, he moved to the edge of trees. His breath caught in his throat.
A streak of brilliant yellow soared just above the meadowgrass, ruffling thin green stalks back with
powerful strokes of air. A dragon.
A small one, at that: roughly half the length of a man.
Abruptly, the dragon veered. With an exuberant squeal, he flew straight upward. Leathery wings
pushed the air in great whooshes. Sunlight flashed across glistening scales, momentarily drenching
him in riotous color. With a twist of his body, he dove. Air whistled across folded wings.
Willec’s palm flattened against a tree’s trunk, wrinkled bark pressed seams across his flesh.
The dragon’s slender neck arched. A fraction above the ground, he curved and skimmed across the
grasses, wings gracefully extended, before flapping into a climb again. Sweet Mother Of All, the
dragon was at play. A smile Willec hadn’t felt for a long time crept over his features.
The dragon rolled in the sky. Young muscles rippled in the sun’s glow.
Willec wanted to step out from the trees, get closer. But where there was a young dragon, a mother,
too, would be present. He scanned the meadow and the sky, and found no sign of another dragon.
He didn’t think a grown dragon could fit between the trees, yet that didn’t mean she wasn’t sprawled
across their tops, sunning herself. She could likely be over his head this very moment. He eyed the
forest ceiling, looking for any overly large shapes or shadows.
A sharp whistle snapped his attention back to the clearing. The young dragon squealed as if in
answer and turned over in the sky. Claw-tipped feet lowering first, wings rounded out, the dragon
descended, moving on a course that was taking him directly toward Willec.
Willec froze, knowing he’d have a better chance of remaining hidden without any sudden movements.
Gusts of air from the dragon’s rapid approach blasted him. Leaves lifted in the air. The dragon
skidded through the meadowgrass, tearing huge furrows of soil with his hind legs and came to a
rattling halt. His frontward momentum carried him end over end and he landed on his belly with a
grating thud, less than ten strides from Willec.
“Oh, no! Dragon!” Two boys rushed out from beneath the shadows of trees, not far from where
Willec stayed concealed.
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