Dragons of Asgard 3 by Logan Jacobs (first ebook reader txt) 📗

Eira somehow appeared immaculate. Her long red hair hung straight down around her shoulders to her waist, and she looked bright-eyed and refreshed from sleep.

Inger, Uffe, and Svass all tumbled along the path. The new little girl pounced on the red twins in an effort to get them to play, and Uffe lightly pushed her back with his head and flicked his tail at her while Inger flew up and out of the way each time the little dragon tried to pounce on her.

Blar yawned and trudged along, and he was clearly upset everyone had decided to get up, but he wouldn’t feel so sleepy once he realized I’d made him some pumpkin.

“Mmm, breakfast smells good,” Kas said as she walked over and took a seat by the fire.

“It does,” Eira agreed. “I’m starved.”

Just as I suspected, once Blar got close enough to the fire, he lifted his little nose in the air, sniffed a few times, and licked his lips.

“Yes, I made you some pumpkin,” I told the little dragon.

Blar walked over and sat in front of me so he could impatiently wait for his food.

I shook my head and dished up plates for everyone. Then I set the little dragons’ bowls on the ground near the fire, and Inger, Blar, and Svass rushed over to eat while Uffe approached his bowl slowly and savored each bite.

It was good to see Svass was more comfortable being away from Eira now, and she was fitting in with the other dragons quite well.

The adorable little yellow girl bounced up and down as she gobbled up her food, and little bits of meat, vegetables, and rice flew out of her bowl to land on the ground around her.

“I don’t think she minds eating by Blar and Inger anymore,” Kas laughed.

“I don’t see why she would,” Eira chuckled. “She’s just as sloppy as they are.”

Blar lifted his head from his bowl and shot the redhead a glare before returning to devour the rest of his food.

“Such an attitude, that one.” The redhead shook her head and took another bite of her breakfast.

“Rath had a dream last night that he was a baby dragon in Jotunheim,” Asta announced with a smile.

“What?” Kas asked through a mouthful of food, and she lifted her hand up to cover her mouth before she spoke again. “You did?”

“Yes,” I said. “I nearly forgot to tell you, I’ve been thinking about it all morning while I made breakfast.”

“What happened?” Eira asked.

“I was in some sort of ice cavern,” I told her. “I hatched and tried to get out, but the floor was too slippery, and I kept falling. Then some frost giants came down the hallway, and that was when I woke up.”

“What did you see around you?” Eira pushed.

“Yeah,” Kas added with an excited nod. “Were there eggs? Could it have been where the frost giants are keeping the eggs for the elf King?”

“I believe it was.” I nodded. “Eggs lined all the shelves in the room, there were dozens of them at least. I’m still trying to figure out how the little dragon hatched, though.”

“What do you mean?” Kas asked, and her violet eyes narrowed on me.

“I’m not sure if the egg hatched on its own, or if it was hatched through magic,” I explained.

“I hadn’t thought of that.” The strawberry-blonde frowned. “Do you think they know the magic the King talked about in his letter?”

“They might,” I said. “That could be, at least in part, how the King figured out how to hatch the eggs.”

“Do you think he’s tried it already?” Asta asked.

“Tried to hatch eggs?” Kas asked, and she pursed her lips. “Maybe. He could be buying the eggs to try hatching them, or he could be buying them to hatch. There’s not really any way to tell which based off the note we found.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “Once we free these eggs, we need to do more reconnaissance at the King’s palace to see what we’re up against. If we can sneak in there again at the right time, we might be able to figure out his entire plan and where he’s keeping all these babies.”

“Yeah, it was odd there weren’t more in the dungeon.” Kas frowned. “You saw a lot of them before, right?”

“There were three or four there at least,” I said. “And those were just the babies, I couldn’t see how many larger dragons there were.”

“He couldn’t have gotten rid of them,” Asta said. “Could he have?”

We all knew ‘gotten rid of’ meant killed, but I refused to entertain that thought, not until we had proof of it. The idea that all those babies died was too much for me to handle, and my vision went red just thinking about the possibility of it.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “He’s trying to build an army, and the best way to do that isn’t by getting rid of your soldiers.”

“Rath’s right.” Eira nodded. “It would better serve him to keep them around. He probably has them somewhere isolated where they’re undergoing training.”

“What kind of training?” Asta asked, and her white eyebrows pulled together with sadness and confusion. “He’s trying to train them to kill, you think?”

“Yes,” the redhead said in a low voice. “And to obey whatever he says.”

“How incredibly sad,” Asta sighed. “Dragons are such peaceful creatures, I hate to think of them being used that way. It’s bad enough they’re being traded and kept in captivity, but to try and use them for such evil purposes… it makes me feel ill to think about it.”

“I feel the same way,” I told her with a soft smile. “But we’re going to put an end to this, I promise.”

Asta smiled back at me,