The Gift of Charms Read Online Free PDF Page A

his elders were talking about him and his day.
    It provoked a strong feeling to boil inside him as he remembered Igorr’s taunts again.
    A burning sensation seemed to grow within him, and he tried to catch hold of it as he stared at the target. It was as if a picture of fire was in front of him and he felt his scales tingle all over in a strange rush.
    Yoshiko turned towards the rock face. He was breathing deeply and from the back of his throat came a fizzing sensation, like electricity.
    In a sudden burst a modest jet of flame flew out, falling short of the target, but coming halfway towards it.
    Yoshiko’s mouth dropped down in amazement. He had done it! He had made fire! Then he looked down at his belly.
    To his shock his body was no longer the rich red of the Nephan clan. He had turned bright orange.
    Yoshiko gasped, looking to find his arms and legs were glowing the same colour – even his feet throbbed with the new colour.
    Then, almost as quickly as he’d noticed it the colour faded, and his body returned to the Nephan red. Yoshiko blinked, and looked again. Cautiously he held out his talons, but they were also back to their deep natural shade. His immediate thoughts returned back to his fire-breathing achievement and he ran over to Ketu and Kiara.
    ‘I made flames!’ he pointed back towards the target. ‘I can do it!’
    Ketu and Kiara both followed him to the target.
    Yoshiko puffed up his chest. The rich warmth in hisbelly came, and then the sharp crackle in his mouth, and as they watched he blew out with all his might, and snapped a flicker from his tongue. No fire had emerged, but he had made a spark. ‘Great. You’re nearly there!’ Ketu said.
    ‘Wait!’ Yoshiko took hold of Ketu’s wing in case he should move. ‘I can do more.’ He puffed out his chest for another attempt.
    This time as he blasted the air forward the spark caught and a tiny but perfect fireball spat forth. Ketu’s eyes widened and Kiara clapped her wings.
    ‘And it was even better before. A bigger ball. I need to practise more.’ He spread his claws wide to demonstrate.
    ‘Not tonight. Come and eat,’ said Kiara. ‘School again tomorrow!’
    At the thought of the return to Fire School and facing Igorr, Yoshiko’s face dropped.
    He returned to the front of the cave where the food was laid out. Recalling his colour change he wondered if he should now mention it but as Kiara and Ketu bit into the soft warm pie he did not wish to disturb their look of contentment.
    Yoshiko glanced down at his red claws and concluded that he had just imagined the rush of orange colour.

5
Flying High
    ‘ C ome on, Yoshiko!’ Ketu huffed very early one morning. ‘Time for a flying lesson! We shall spend the morning practising at the flying rock!’
    Yoshiko looked back at him warily, the remains of his breakfast still on his muzzle.
    He had filled out, Ketu had noticed, during his first few months of Fire School. Ketu hoped that the fire-training exercise would do him good, knowing that Kiara fed their son so many treats.
    Yoshiko loved dragon puffs, a sweet sticky delicacy found in the centres of bulbous flowers from the Mida clan forests. Yoshiko had plumped out thanks to these sugary snacks that he loved to toast in theircave fire until they were crunchy. This gave Igorr and his friends even more reason to laugh at him at school.
    * * *
    ‘By the time we get back you won’t need to travel with me to school any more,’ Ketu declared. ‘I’m taking you to a special rock where I learned to fly at your age,’ he continued encouragingly. ‘No one should be there but us. You can practise all you want freely.’
    His son climbed aboard, and with a wave from Kiara they were soon airborne, floating through the mists of Dragor. Ketu gave an expert sweep of his wing and brought them east, taking them out towards the dragons’ Burial Ground where he could see the faded Red Seventh Moon seasonal tributes left to honour the dead.
    They cruised