Chapter 4

4 The three Night Dragons took off into the Magic Forest. The Fire Moon cast a strange glow over the trees and made Phoebe's stomach tighten with worry. Clearly, there was no time to waste. "Which way should we go?" Stella called as they flew higher. "The Tree Queen said we should head to the Moon Lake. That could be anywhere!" Phoebe sighed as she scanned the treetops. She felt like

she was already doing badly, and the quest hadn't even begun. "Hey, Phoebe," Rosie said, swooping closer, glinting pink and purple in the moonlight. "The thread you're wearing around your neck might help. It helped me." As Rosie spoke, Phoebe felt the chain give a gentle tug. The end of the thread unwound itself just a little and stretched out. It was pointing which way to go! "Follow me!" Phoebe called, zooming to the front of the trio. The Night Dragons flew over the vast forest. The treetops below them swayed gently in the moonlight. Every now and then, a birdcall or animal cry floated up, reminding Phoebe that there were a lot of creatures depending on her and her friends. The thread kept tugging her gently in one direction until suddenly it stopped pointing ahead and started pointing down instead. Phoebe glanced below her and gasped. There glimmered a vast lake, perfectly round and so still it looked like a

mirror. Reflected in the lake's center was the moon, like a huge, shimmering pearl inside its shell. "That has to be the Moon Lake, right?" called Stella. Phoebe felt the thread tug downward again. She nodded. "Definitely," she said. The three friends whooshed down through the dark air and landed near the lake. All around it, steep, rocky cliffs rose up toward the sky. "I wonder where the Dreamlet hatchery is?" Rosie asked. Just then, the sandy soil around them began to move. Soon, hundreds of tiny lizard-like creatures began popping up through the sand. Each of the creatures glowed as if lit by a neon light. A purple egg balanced on each animal's back. The creatures stared at the Night Dragons with amazed expressions on their tiny faces. "You are the biggest Newt Nurses I've ever seen!" one declared with a flick of its bright blue tongue. "And where are your eggs?"

"I hope you haven't lost them," said another. "That's all we need right now." "We're not Newt Nurses," Phoebe said. "We're Night Dragons. We've been sent by the Tree Queen to help. She says there's been trouble here in the hatchery?" More newts, each with an egg carefully balanced on its back, padded over on their surprisingly big feet. "It's true!" one cried. "It's the Fire Moon. The Dreamlet eggs will only hatch when the conditions are just right. This moon is far too hot!" Phoebe exhaled, thinking hard. As her breath left her nostrils, it formed a pale cloud, shining like moonlight. The cloud hovered in the air, then sank down toward one of the eggs resting on the back of a newt. When it touched the egg, the cloud melted over it, covering it in a soft blue haze. "Look! The egg is hatching!" squeaked one of the newts. "Your roar must have cooled it to the perfect temperature."

The egg began to shiver and shake. There was a loud CRACK! The top part of the shell shattered and fell to the ground. Phoebe watched it closely. What was going to come out? As she stared, a tiny, soft, wormlike creature peered out and looked around. It had large blue eyes and stripy pink-and-purple fur. "Who would have thought that a worm could be so cute!" Stella said, clasping her paws. "I'm not a worm!" the Dreamlet said in a sweet singsong voice. "Can worms do this?"

The little animal wiggled up to the edge of its shell and then, to everyone's surprise, launched itself into the air! "Catch it!" Rosie cried in alarm. "It'll fall!" But there was no need to worry. The Dreamlet did not fall. Instead, it began to wriggle through the air just like a normal worm does on land. Phoebe turned to her friends. "Maybe if we roar together, we can cool down all the eggs and help them hatch?" she suggested. She knew it sounded like a very strange suggestion. Surely a dragon's roar would be hot? They definitely didn't want scrambled eggs. But it seemed like a Night Dragon's roar might be the opposite. Powerful, but cooling. "Fantastic idea!" said Stella as Rosie nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, then," said Phoebe, filling her chest with air. "One, two, THREE!" Together, Phoebe, Rosie, and Stella roared as loudly as they could. A huge plume of smoke— purple and pink and blue and even a touch of yellow—swirled in the air above the hatchery.