The Gift of Charms Read Free

always telling lies and causing bad business,’ shot back Amlie, glaring defiantly at Igorr.
    Igorr narrowed his eyes even more at Yoshiko who stood next in line. ‘Well, well, well! Look who it is!’ he exclaimed. ‘My elder told me all about you. You are Yoshiko. Yoshiko – the weirdo. The one who came from the strange egg that the Hudrah should have taken away in her black wicker basket.’
    The colour left Yoshiko’s face as he took in Igorr’s words. ‘What are you talking about?’
    Igorr was about to reply, but before he could make a retort the attention of all the younglings was drawn back to Ayo as he beat his wings together, causing the great torches to flare.
    ‘Welcome to Fire School!’ he announced.
    ‘All younglings will now be having lessons in how to breathe fire,’ Ayo went on. ‘But we must all take great heed, for fire can also destroy as much as it helps create. Misuse of your talent could burn down the forests, dragons can be badly injured or even killed. My job is to ensure that you younglings know how to use your fire properly.’ He gazed up and down the rows of dragons eyeing them intently, then continued. ‘Now, I know that many of you younglings have come here today excited at the prospect of making a flame or two, so as a special treat for today I shall allow you to doa little target play. But first, you must learn the basic theories from me. Now, take out your wooden boards and charcoal sticks.’
    Yoshiko took out the equipment from his bag and as he did so he glanced over to Igorr. He noticed that the purple dragon’s muzzle was twisted in confusion and that he was looking about him anxiously.
    ‘Have you not brought anything with you?’ said Amlie as she also noticed that Igorr didn’t have a net of his own.
    ‘How was I supposed to know?’ grumbled Igorr, looking distraught. All the other pupils had their wooden boards poised expectantly. ‘No one told me I needed to bring … whatever that is,’ and he gestured with uncertainty to the stick of charcoal.
    ‘Here, you can share mine,’ said Yoshiko, moving the board between them. Igorr looked up reluctantly, and then Ayo began to speak again.
    ‘This morning I will be covering the basics of fire-making, that being dragon-anatomy, fire-sense, fire-theory and the history of Surion. The more you pay attention the quicker we will get to the fun things.’
    He pointed the edge of his wing meaningfully around the circle of younglings. ‘Until I have finished I don’twant to see any of you practising. Do you understand? Until I say you can make fire, no dragon makes fire.’
    ‘What is the point of learning all this totally boring stuff if I can already breathe fire?’ Igorr muttered. ‘I can hit a target from twelve paces – this is all a complete waste of my time!’
    Ayo looked at Igorr sternly to silence him.
    ‘What is the most important part of fire-breathing?’ Ayo asked, staring around the whole group of younglings for an answer.
    ‘The fire-gases!’ a young voice shouted out.
    Ayo peered to where an orange dragon was sitting. ‘Good answer,’ he said. ‘That’s a very important part of making fire, and for those of you who don’t know, there are fire-gases being made in all your bellies as we speak.’
    He gestured to his stomach. ‘When a dragon enters his tenth winter his abdomen changes,’ he explained. ‘Two chambers are formed which create two different liquids. When these are mixed together they blend into a special flammable gas. Who can tell me what flammable means?’
    Another dragon spoke out. ‘It means you can set it on fire,’ she said.
    ‘Correct,’ said Ayo. ‘So, all of you have these pits inyour stomach as we speak. That’s why you’ll have gone through metamorphosis.
    ‘Do you remember? When your stomach started to make noises of its own accord and you developed an embarrassing tendency to burp in public?’
    The younglings giggled. Most had gone through Metamorphosis with