Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) by Laura R Cole Page B

the
realization of what the forest creatures actually thought of her
made her feel.”
    The old woman hung her head momentarily.
    “More and more little birds came to help, and
eventually, they got Zuzka to wrap her legs around the worm and
each of them held onto one of her limbs. Normally, she would have
dreaded contact with a creature so far beneath herself, but she was
beginning to realize just how important he was. With a bird holding
on to each leg, and two on her tail, they were finally able to get
the worm up off the ground. They made slow progress towards the
holes below, with the storm looming ever closer. Finally, they
reached the spot, and the worm serpent set right to work, tunneling
into the ground. Zuzka sat with the birds, huddling together,
awaiting the rain to see if they had gotten him here in time. As
droplets fell to the earth, harder and harder, they all watched in
trepidation, to see if the river would be properly diverted. The
water levels rose quickly with the sudden downpour, threatening to
overflow the riverbed, and then suddenly leveled out, the excess
water abruptly allowed to drain elsewhere. The little worm had done
it! Zuzka cheered with the rest of the audience of creatures, which
had tripled since their flight had drawn attention. Then, out of
nowhere, the elder dragon appeared. Zuzka tried to hide behind the
birds, sure he was going to take something else away from her for
having created the almost-disaster.”
    The woman hurried forward into the throng of
children and pulled several of them around her, as though trying to
hide, amidst their laughter.
    “But the elder just smiled at her. ‘Finally,
Zuzka, you have learned the importance of the other creatures, and
seen that they can accomplish what we dragons cannot. You have
earned the right to your natural form again.’ Zuzka tried to stop
him, embarrassed to sudden turn into the dragon that these
creatures had been talking of so unkindly, but he was too fast. The
creatures all watched in shocked surprise, and Zuzka hung her head.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ she said, looking at the ground. Then,
the worm serpent, his job finished, stuck his head out of a nearby
hole and wriggled over to her, laying his body over her fore-claws.
‘I hope that you learned something here today,’ he said to her and
she looked down at him gratefully. The other animals, though still
wary of her, did not move to leave and she immediately went about
to apologize to them each personally, vowing to never again be a
bully among them.”’
    The old woman wove through the crowd of
children, shaking hands with them as she went, before making her
way back to the front. She stood there silently a moment before she
wrapped up her tale with, “And the elder created the lizard to
remind Zuzka and those like her about the importance of all
creatures, and what one can accomplish even when they don’t have
all the things she used to think made her the most important
creature in the world.” The woman clapped her hands together in
finality. “And that, my dears, is where lizards come from.”
    Katya found that she had been transfixed
along with the children and had to tear herself away from the group
even as the old woman began another tale. It was all well and good
that she was learning the fables of the Dena’ina people, but she
needed to find where they kept this artifact so she could steal it
from them. Hunter’s life depended on it.
    So far, she didn’t see any indication of
where it was. Aside from the fact that the tribe was fairly spread
out, there was also the high level of paranoia prevalent in all
areas. They were ready for an attack at all times. Even the
children were always armed. There were quite a few
dangerous-looking beasts that Katya had encountered on her journey
here that could possibly account for this, especially when they
were on ground level, but that didn’t quite seem to make sense.
Katya couldn’t put her finger on it.
    There was