Chapter Two

Once she had a plan, Morwen didn't waste time. The next day, she gathered some food, water, and the tools to make a fire, then rolled a change of clothes into a blanket. That night, she slipped out of her room and went west, thankful that Mistress Piroska slept soundly in the next room.

Morwen knew the roads around the school like her own hands, and by the time the sun was up, she was through the swamp and climbing a hill, the first of many.

The Mountains of Morning were much nicer than Toure-on-Marsh. They were drier, for one thing, and smelled much better. No nostril-searing rotted plants here, only clear mountain air, sometimes with a hint of clean dirt, other times smelling of wildflowers. Morwen ascended higher and higher as the day went on, tying up her skirts to keep them out of the way and clambering over the occasional boulder when she couldn't find an easy way around it.

The creatures of the mountains left her alone, save for a small sparrow that flitted around her cheerfully. Morwen listened carefully to its calls, wondering if it was trying to speak to her, but eventually decided it was merely a bird happy to see another living creature that wasn't likely to eat it.

The sparrow left her after an hour or so, and from then on, she only saw brown-and-white eagles flying overhead and flocks of little white goats roaming the cliffs. None of them came near her, even when she stopped around noon to eat a little of the food she'd packed.

Refreshed by the meal, small as it was, she continued to climb. By the time the sun began to set over the mountains, she was high enough to see for miles to the east. If she looked a bit to the north, she saw a flicker of light that might have been the observatory in Linderwall. And to the southeast was Toure-on-Marsh, looking much more pleasantly green from a distance, now that she was looking down on the treetops instead of trudging through the squashy marsh.

The darkness came on rapidly, and Morwen quickly found a protected spot among the rocks. It wasn't an inn with a roaring fire, beef stew, and featherbeds, but it would do. She spread her cloak on the ground, gathered wood to build a cheery little campfire, and ate a little more of her bread, estimating that she had enough for two or three more days. By then she expected to be in the Enchanted Forest, and surely something would turn up.

With that comforting thought, she settled down to sleep as the first stars winked into the sky.

oOoOo

A soft hiss intruded on her sleep. Morwen blinked drowsily and would have dismissed it as just another sound of the night, but there it was again, closer this time. The noise brought her fully awake, and after an instant of confusion while she recalled her surroundings, she realized the hiss was not a good thing.

She flung her cloak away and leaped to her feet, looking for the sound. The dying fire cast only a small light, and the moon wasn't much help, either, until a sinuous movement caught her eye from about twenty feet away. Another hiss and flicker of movement made her head jerk to the other side, desperate to see what was out there.

Rock snakes! That's what they were called. Morwen had never seen one, only heard stories, and she had no idea how to get rid of them.

But she had to do something, and fast, because they were slithering toward her and they didn't look very friendly.

Her hand fell on a stone and she snatched it up, hurling it at the nearest snake. The way it bounced off the snake's head might have been funny if Morwen hadn't been afraid for her life. While it was distracted, she dove for the fire, seizing the longest of the burning sticks in one hand and throwing on a few more with the other.

"Go AWAY!" she shouted, waving the flaming branch in the snake's face. She couldn't remember if snakes were afraid of fire or loud noises, but it couldn't hurt and, well, she had to do something.

The snake hissed and ducked away from the fire, and Morwen pressed her advantage as well as she could when there was another snake creeping up on her other side. She shoved the stick at the snake's eyes and it hissed in pain when sparks fell on it. Too afraid to feel sorry for the snake, she beat it away with all her strength.

But the swift movement crumbled the burned stick and only a tiny flicker of flame remained. Morwen's breath caught as she realized the other snake was between her and the campfire. She shouted and thwacked it on the nose with the stick, not caring when an enormous gust of wind fanned the flames of her little campfire.

Then the snake was gone, snatched away into the darkness by… something, she wasn't sure what. Well, Morwen wasn't about to say no to any assistance, and even if she'd wanted to decline, there was no time, because the first snake had come back for more. Hissing in pain and anger, burned by the fire she'd thrown in its face, it looked even bigger than before. She was forced to dodge away from it when it struck at her, but slipped on a loose stone and fell. The snake struck again, and she scrambled back, determined to stay alive and unbitten for as long as possible.

She raised her now smoking stick, ready to hit back, when there was a horrible crunch! and the snake was squashed flat under a huge, scaly foot. Morwen's eyes went wide and she froze. The only thought in her head was, Whatever's attached to that foot is much bigger than a rock snake. And there was nothing she could do if it wanted to eat her.

She slowly looked up into enormous yellow eyes.

It was a dragon.

The fire cast just enough light to see that it was female, green, and at least four times as tall as Morwen. Terrified but desperate not to show it, she wracked her brain for any information she'd ever read about dragons.

Dragons. What had Mistress Piroska said about dragons? They spoke human languages. They were strict about manners and respect. They didn't usually eat people, but they had been known to carry away princesses and do battle with knights.

Well, Morwen was neither princess nor knight, but she could show respect, so she stood up and curtsied to the beast that was looking down at her with open curiosity. "Thank you for your help, madam," she said, her voice quavering with surprise and fear.

"You're very welcome, little girl," the dragon replied, her voice strong and deep like a tolling bell. "What are you doing in the Mountains of Morning at this time of night?"

"C-c-camping," she said, shivering. "I'm traveling to the Enchanted Forest and it was too dark to go any further."

"You're a bit young to be wandering around the mountains alone," the dragon said, and if a dragon's voice could sound dry, this one's did. "Shouldn't you be at school?"

"I was," she whispered. "But not anymore."

The dragon made a humming noise like a thousand bees. "Well, that's neither here nor there at this time of night. You're lucky I happened to be out late and happened to see you. Come along. There's a cave nearby that's much safer than camping in the open."

"Yes, madam," she said obediently, because there wasn't much else she could do.

She gathered her things while the dragon put out her little fire, and they were ready to go in only a moment. The dragon was turning to lead the way when she stopped short and said, "Might I have the pleasure of your name, little girl?"

"My name is Morwen," she said, looking up into those great yellow eyes with as much courage as she could muster.

"How do you do, Morwen?" the dragon said politely. "My name is Kazul."