Dragon Kiss Read Free

the spot where he’d last smelled her. He continued on, more carefully this time, and lost the odor at exactly the same place. Audun tried again and again, each time becoming more agitated as well as more determined not to give up.
    Eventually, he caught the faintest whiff of another familiar scent, one he had smelled for the first time in the castle near his home. It had been the Blue Witch’s castle, and although his family had been trapped in the walls, it hadn’t been the witch’s doing; she had been a prisoner as well. He couldn’t remember the old woman’s name, but he did know that she and Millie had become friends of sorts. It was possible that she might even know Millie’s whereabouts.
    Following the new scent, Audun flew toward a part of the forest where the trees were older and taller. As he passed over a clearing, he glanced down and saw a nymph with long, green hair paddling in a small pond, while a unicorn drank from the shallower water. At Audun’s approach, the nymph slipped into the depths of the pond. The unicorn snorted, shook its mane, and turned to run.
    The dragon flew on and soon the old witch’s scent drew Audun to a clearing where nodding bluebells surrounded a small, well-kept cottage with a newly thatched roof and a gently puffing chimney. Three white-haired women sat in the shade of the only tree in the clearing, sipping from cups shaped like half-opened tulips. Not wanting to startle them, Audun landed at the edge of the forest. He was about to call out a greeting when the woman in the muddy-colored gown glanced over her shoulder and said to her friends, “Don’t look now, but there’s a dragon sneaking up on us.”
    The woman in gray lowered her cup. “If you won’t let us look, Mudine, you’ll have to do the looking for us. Is it anyone we know?”
    Mudine shook her head. “I’ve never seen a dragon like this before. He’s white.”
    “ ‘Never trust a dragon you don’t know,’ my old mother used to say,” said the woman in gray.
    “Don’t be ridiculous, Oculura,” snapped the smallest woman. “I had the same mother as you and I never heard her say such a thing! She wouldn’t have trusted any dragon, living or dead!”
    “You’re older than I am, Dyspepsia. You left home years before I did. I had to listen to a lot of mother’s adages before she choked to death on that fried radish.”
    “Can you two stop arguing long enough for us to deal with this dragon?” asked Mudine.
    “That’s easy enough,” said Oculura. “A wall of flame should chase him off. It worked on my last husband when he wouldn’t stop coming around.”
    “That’s even more ridiculous!” said Dyspepsia. “This is a dragon we’re talking about. They love flames! Why don’t we try something like this . . .”
    Rising to her feet, the little old witch swept her arm in a grand gesture while muttering under her breath. With a rumble and a whoosh! a torrent of stones rose out of the ground and flung themselves at Audun’s head.
    Befuddled, Audun half-turned, lifted his tail, and swatted the stones aside. He hadn’t done anything to provoke these humans, yet they were attacking him. All he wanted to do was talk to the Blue Witch about Millie. Maybe they didn’t understand . . .
    “Excuse me!” he called, taking two steps closer to the old women. “I just wanted to . . .”
    “Well, that didn’t do a bit of good,” said Oculura. “The beast is still coming to get us. Maybe if I do this . . .” Speaking under her breath, the witch held her hands in front of her, then thrust them apart as if she were trying to move something heavy.
    Audun yelped as the ground opened beneath his feet. He spread his wings and was about to fly away when Mudine said, “And I’ll do this!” Smiling with glee, the old woman fluttered her fingers at his feet and said something Audun couldn’t quite hear. Vines erupted from the hole in the ground and wrapped themselves around Audun. “Go ahead and use