A Dragonlings' Haunted Halloween: Dragonlings of Valdier by S. E. Smith Read Free Book Online

plunged into darkness. She swept past
one of the carts, brushing one of the men before she settled in the
last one and partially reformed.
    *.*.*
    Arilla smiled as the babies gathered around
her as she settled down on the ground next to them. A soft laugh
escaped her when Phoenix crawled into her lap and looked up at her
with brilliant dark brown eyes.
    “Hello, little one,” Arilla whispered as she
gently stroked the soft black feathers covering Phoenix. “What are
you and the others doing?”
    Phoenix rubbed her snout against Arilla’s
gold cheek before she turned and hopped back over to where Symba
and the other symbiots’ lit the ground with a soft light. Wiggling
her tail, she waited.
    Arilla laughed as Phoenix and Spring and the
other Dragonlings, plus Roam, tried to pounce on the heads popping
up out of the ground. Whenever they were successful, a stream of
warm water would spray them. Arilla shimmered for a moment before
she changed into a small golden dragon that resembled Phoenix, only
she was covered in gold feathers. With a giggle, she joined in the
fun.
    *.*.*
    “I’m telling you, something touched me,”
Ha’ven snapped as he strained to move the bar. He was about to make
it dissolve when thousands of twinkling lights lit the cavern.
“What the…”
    “That is the same thing Trelon said
earlier,” Vox commented in a distracted voice as he looked up at
the ceiling with a frown. “Are those stars?”
    “It looks like it, but that is impossible,”
Zoran said from the front. “What is that?”
    Mandra shuddered as dozens of glowing orange
eyes appeared. “I don’t know,” he replied in a gruff voice. “It
looks like something Ariel would bring home, though.”
    “They’re moving closer,” Ha’ven said.
“Either that, or we are.”
    “I’m pretty sure, it’s both,” Mandra
replied, trying to shrink down in the seat as the large bodies of
the spiders suddenly started to glow and their mouths opened and
closed as they crawled down the web spread out across the tracks.
“Don’t kill them,” he added in a rough voice.
    “Why not?” Trelon asked desperately as he
felt for the knife he usually carried.
    “Because they are probably Ariel’s new
pets,” Mandra groaned and closed his eyes as he slid sideways
against Kelan as they passed underneath the chomping creatures.
    “You can sit up now,” Kelan informed Mandra
once they were clear. “Just sit in the cart. I want to see what
happens.”
    “You have been around Trisha and Paul too
long,” Creon muttered as the carts turned in a curve to the left.
“What is that, Trelon?”
    “I don’t know!” Trelon said in exasperation
as he realized that he had left his knife back in his living
quarters.
    “I think Ariel must have left half her pets
here,” Zoran muttered under his breath as more eyes started to
appear as they entered a thick forest. “What is that sound? Why are
they asking us ‘Who?’”
    “You are as bad as the twins!” Trelon
retorted. “I don’t know what type of creatures they are or why they
are asking us who. Maybe they want to know our names.”
    “I am Zoran Reykill,” Zoran called out. He
waited a few seconds, but the creatures just kept saying the same
thing over and over. “Tell them your names, as well.”
    “I am Trelon Reykill,” Trelon called out.
“They just keep saying the same thing.”
    “Well, maybe they need to know that Vox
d’Rojah, King of the Sarafin, is here,” Vox said loudly. A snicker
behind him had him glancing over his shoulder at Kelan. “What is so
funny?”
    “I didn’t laugh,” Kelan replied, raising his
hands off the bar.
    “Don’t look at me,” Mandra said with a shake
of his head. “I already know who you are.”
    Vox’s head whipped round when a low snarl
and glowing, yellow eyes sounded from the woods next to him. A loud
hiss escaped him when five beasts covered in dark gray hair that
stood up on the backs of their necks stepped out from between
several of