8. A LOST CONNECTION

CHAPTER 8 A LOST CONNECTION Aruna's Dragon Stone glowed as she stepped toward the angry Shadow Dragon. "Chaya, calm down," she said in a slow, careful voice. "You must not attack Darpan or our new friends. They are here to help us. I made a mistake when I fed you the Balam seed. We must make things right."

RAAAAWWWWWWR! Chaya, his eyes still red from the cursed seed inside him, roared again. Wisps of gray shadow flowed through Chaya's nose. Like a rope, the shadowy tendril wrapped around the chain of Aruna's Dragon Stone. Then the shadow yanked the stone from her neck! "Noooooooo!" Aruna cried. The shadow tendril curled back up toward Chaya. The dragon flew up, and then dropped the Dragon Stone off of the mountain peak! Oh no! Now Aruna can no longer communicate with Chaya, Drake realized. the Shadow Dragon roared again, and his whole body began to shine with gray light.

Dozens of creatures flew down from the sky-shadow—creatures made of shadow with glowing eyes and long arms. "Shadow phantoms!" Drake yelled, warning the others. "Don't let them touch you! Worm, try to slow them down."

Worm's eyes shone green, and glowing green bubbles appeared all around him. The bubbles floated through the air, absorbing any shadow phantoms they came in contact with. "Great new bubble power, Worm!" Drake cheered. Then Petra yelled, "Zera, stun Chaya again! And get those phantoms next!" Zera blasted Chaya with a powerful mist of yellow poison. The Shadow Dragon froze in place. But the shadow phantoms kept zooming down from the sky. Zera's four heads shot green poison blasts at four shadow phantoms. When the poison hit, the phantoms dissolved.

"Drake, hand me the flute!" Petra yelled. "We need to summon the Star Dragon now!" Drake ran toward Petra, holding out the silver flute. Whoosh! One of the shadow phantoms grabbed it from Drake! Aruna pulled the flute away from the shadow phantom. She tossed it to Petra, who caught it and brought it to her lips. Drake tossed Darpan the Legend of the Star Dragons book next. "Petra needs the music!" he cried. Darpan opened the book to the page of music notes. Then Petra began to play "The Song of the Star Dragon" once more.