The setting sun blazed orange through the trees. Sarah sat upright on a bench, her hands in her lap, her head tilted back as if listening to the wind.
She opened her eyes.
A tiny star appeared before her,
expanding to a small globe that glowed like sunlight.
In the globe hovered a bronze man with long blond hair
and wings like an eagle.
He said, in that strange digital voice of the star folk,
"The army is here."
"A dragon is with them?" asked Sarah.
"Yes. Light green scales."
"It must be young," said Sarah. "For a dragon."
"I read that dragon scales grow darker with age," said Davion.
"Yes," said Sarah. "The oldest grow so black they seem to absorb light."
"How do you know this?" asked Davion.
"The spirit of the forest whispers to me," said Sarah. "She tells me things she’s seen over thousands of years."
"Hm." Davion stared at the ground, his brow furrowed.
"What other kinds of things has the ghost lady told you?" asked Quinn.
Sarah smiled. "She told me a race of one-eyed giants once populated these lands."
Quinn’s face lit up. "For real?"
"Cyclopes?" asked Davion. "I thought they were myth."
"They were real," said Sarah. "They had an advanced civilization two thousand years ago. They built many of the strange ruins that dot the land deeper in the forest." She looked at Davion. "I’ll take you to see some, one day, should I survive this."
"What happened to them?" asked Davion.
"I’m not sure," said Sarah. "All civilizations collapse in time. Dragons may have had something to do with their downfall."
Davion stared at the fire, looking thoughtful.
Sarah stood up. "We’ll need to leave before dawn. It will take a couple of hours to reach the apex of the tallest hill in the area. There’s a cave there. It can shelter us from the storm."