“Kindhearted? It’s your fault that this happened to me!”
She ignored his comment and began tying the food they had gathered—mushrooms, thanks to Barclay, and a rabbit, thanks to Viola—around a spit.
“I just think it would be a good idea for you to learn more about Lore Keepers before you go marching into Sycomore and making demands.”
Barclay didn’tmake demands. At least, he didn’t to anyone other than Selby, since Selby was supposed to listen to him.
“I’m going to get more water,” he grumbled, snatching both of their canteens and storming downhill toward a stream.
Mitzi followed him, crouching behind bushes and watching him menacingly. He fought down his panic. Viola didn’t like him much, but she wouldn’t let her Beast kill him, would she?
Then Mitzi shook her butt and pounced on a pine cone. She tumbled onto her back, gnawing it. Barclay didn’t know whether or not to feel silly for being scared. After all, Mitziwasa dragon.
While he filled the canteens, a wind blew and shook the trees overhead, sending a cloud of violet leaves fluttering down. On one side they looked like ordinary leaves—albeit purple ones. On the other there were beady black eyes and hundreds of spindly legs. Each stem was actually a long mouth, like a leech.
Barclay shrieked and swatted them away as they tumbled around him. Mitzi, startled by his noise, took off flying toward her Keeper.
“What’s wrong?” Viola called from atop the hill. “You scared Mitzi.”
Barclay sprinted up and cowered at Viola’s side. “Those leaves are actually Beasts.”
“Yes, they’re called Kafersafts, and they’re totally harmless.”
“No Beasts are harmless.”
“Some are.” Viola pried Barclay’s hand off her shoulder and sat him down. “This is exactly why you need a lesson. You’re clueless. Now you’re going to think every leaf, twig, and blade of grass is out to kill you.”
“No I won’t,” he shot back, eyeing the crinkled brown leaves around them suspiciously.
Viola rolled her eyes. Then she pulled off a mushroom roasting on the spit and offered it to Mitzi. Mitzi nibbled it out of her palm while Viola scratched her head, like she really was some pet.
“There are five classes of Beasts,” Viola told him. “The class tells you how powerful a Beast is and how hard it is to find. A Kafersaft is in the bottom class, the Trite class. They have a little power but aren’t even strong enough to bond with. They do have uses, though. The sap from a Kafersaft tree is a common ingredient in all sort of elixirs, like Chamelion Lotion and Hornpecker Serum.”
Harmless or not, Barclay was still spooked by their hundreds of buggy legs.
“Here,” Viola offered, handing him a mushroom. “You can feed her, if you like.”
Barclay absolutely wouldnotlike. But Mitzi, sightingthe food, had already scampered to Barclay’s feet. And he’d much rather feed her the treat than his finger.
He held his breath as she gobbled it down off his hand, then he hurriedly checked his skin to make sure it hadn’t turned scaly or infected.
“See, she likes you,” Viola said as Mitzi brushed Barclay’s leg with her feathered tail. “You’re not special, though. Mitzi likes everyone.”
Barclay almost—almost—came close to reaching down and petting Mitzi on the head, but then Mitzi made a belching sound and vomited the chewed-up mushroom all over his boots.
“You have to eat that now,” Viola told him seriously.
“I… I do?” Barclay asked, horrified.
Viola looked him dead in the eyes. “Do you want her to eatyou?”
As he fearfully bent down to scoop it up, Viola let out a howl of laughter.
“I’m sorry, I just… I didn’t expect you to actually do it,” Viola said, wiping tears out of her eyes. “I don’t know how many times I have to explain to you that Mitzi isn’t going to eat you.”
“She’s adragon,” Barclay grumbled, kicking the sick off his shoes. “What am I supposed to think?”
Mitzi climbed back onto Viola’s shoulder and pecked at her golden pins, very undragonlike. Viola smirked at him while she scratched Mitzi’s chin.
