by Gill Vickery
The two friends looked at each other.
‘Finding our fathers can be our next quest!’ Tia said.
Loki cawed in protest. ‘Haven’t you had enough adventures?’
Tia and Finn didn’t hear him. They were too busy making plans.
Deep in a cave in a faraway land, a sleeping man woke, as he had once in every year for eight years. Candles flickered all around him, bathing the cave in soft yellow light.
He sat up and wondered where he was. He rubbed his face and noticed a ring on his finger. It puzzled him until he remembered: I have a wife, and I have a daughter, he thought wonderingly. A fearless little child who loves nothing better than to run barefoot through the woods.
‘I must go to them,’ he said. He struggled to feet. What was that shape in front of him, blocking the way out of the cave?
With a jolt he realised it was a dragon. An enormous sleeping dragon.
A cold wind blew through the cave. The candles guttered and died. A profound cold seeped through the man’s bones. He sank to the floor as his eyelids drooped, closed.
He began the ninth year of his slumbers.
First published 2014 by A & C Black,
an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com
Bloomsbury is a trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Copyright © 2014 A & C Black
Text copyright © 2014 Gill Vickery
Illustrations copyright © 2014 Mike Love
The right of Gill Vickery and Mike Love to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.
eISBN: 978-1-4729-0451-5
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