Chapter 8

8 Up ahead, Hana saw a circle of daylight. Her heart leapt. Almost there! But then she heard something. It sounded like flames crackling. Hana hovered in the tunnel. She didn't want to fly out into the middle of a raging forest fire. But somehow, the crackling noise didn't sound quite right.

Cautiously, Hana flew on. The crackling grew louder. Now Hana could also hear the wind and booms of thunder. At the end of the tunnel, she stopped and looked out. She couldn't see fire anywhere—in fact, she saw the opposite. There was a wide, fast-moving river! Hana's ears twitched with surprise. The sound of a raging fire was coming from the flowing water! This must be the work of the Chaos Queen. Still, Hana was relieved that there was no real fire. She had too many other things to worry about right now. Like, where were Mina and Zora? She looked around, hoping they'd appear. But no luck. Were they still in the tunnel? Should she fly back and search for them? Maybe they'd been attacked by Chaos Critters! Hana filled her powerful dragon lungs with air. "Mina! Zora!" she roared over the noise of thunder, swirling winds, and the strange river fire. "Where are you?"

Suddenly, a furry black creature with a white stripe down the center of his nose popped out of a hole. He had golden claws and, most surprisingly, was wearing a green velvet vest. He scampered over to Hana, eyes wide with alarm. "What are you doing?" he whispered. "Do you want to bring the Chaos Queen and her critters right to us?" "Sorry," Hana said, letting out an anxious puff of smoke. "I've lost my friends. We have to find the Beat Badgers as quickly as—" Hana stopped and looked at the creature. "Hang on! Are YOU a Beat Badger?" The stocky creature smoothed down his vest proudly. "I am indeed. We Beat Badgers are the best drummers in the Magic Forest." His little ears drooped. "Not that we can do any drumming right now. The thunder drowns us out and muddles up the rhythms." "That's why we've come to you!" Hana said.

The badger looked confused. "Why do you keep saying we? There is only one of you, although you are very large." "I got separated from the other two Storm Dragons," Hana explained. "Oh! I've never met a Storm Dragon," said the badger. "But I have met the Treasure Dragons. They weren't as shouty as you." Hana looked back at the tunnel. There was still no sign of Mina and Zora. What could have happened to them? "The problem is," she continued, "my friends are carrying the objects we need your help with." "What objects?" asked the badger. "We have the Thunder Maker," Hana said. "Plus a new Thunder Drum." "Shh! Not so loud!" warned the badger. But his eyes lit up. "Do you really have the Thunder Maker? We thought it must be broken because the thunder never stops and the rest of the storm never starts."

"You're right, it's broken," Hana said. "That's why we got a new Thunder Drum from the Grizzling Bears. We're hoping you can thunderize it for us." The badger dropped to all fours and began thumping the ground with his paws. The earth shook. He was surprisingly powerful for such a small creature! The trembling grew and grew until Hana wondered if there was going to be an earthquake. Another badger peered out from the bushes to her left. Two more appeared to her right. Before long, Hana was surrounded by Beat Badgers, all dressed in elegant velvet vests. "What's going on?" they asked the badger in the green vest. "You know drumming attracts those horrible Chaos Critters. And the critters attract the Chaos Queen." "This is an emergency," explained the badger in the green vest, waving his paws in the air. "This Storm Dragon has lost her friends. And the friends

have a new Thunder Drum. They were last seen in that tunnel. We have to find them." Without another word, the Beat Badgers turned and disappeared into the tunnel. Hana stretched her wings, ready to follow them. But before she could, there was a tremendous whooshing noise and the badgers popped back out of the tunnel— on the backs of Mina and Zora! "We found them!" cried a badger in a red vest. "Actually, we found you!" Mina laughed. She turned to Hana. "Sorry we took so long. We got lost down there with all those complicated twists and turns." "But we haven't lost the Thunder Maker or the drum!" added Zora as she and Mina landed near Hana. Mina and Zora placed the precious objects on the ground. The Beat Badgers clustered around as the thunder continued to rumble. "We must thunderize this drum right away," said the badger in the green vest, picking it up