Listen Carefully Part 5

Arabella followed the footprints through a tangle of weeds until she emerged at the edge of a sparkling stream. A tree trunk had been laid between the edge of the water and the mossy island at its centre.

With her heart in her mouth, Arabella dropped to her knees to crawl over the tree trunk. The muddy footprints were faint on the bark, but still, they were clear evidence that someone that had gotten there before her.

          Arabella could almost hear the silence of the exam hall she was going to have to sit in.

But then her feet landed on the other side of the stream, and she stopped dead.

Arabella had seen pretty things before. She’d seen diamonds and rubies around the necks of ladies in town, sunlight streaming through church windows, and the way that snow shone on a cold, winter’s morning. And yet, she had seen nothing as beautiful a dragon’s egg.

The egg was easily the size of her parents’ cauldron: so tall that it would have come up to her shoulders… if she could have reached it. It sat in a cradle of boulders in the middle of the island.

As the sun rose up behind the egg, sunlight framed the dark shape of the dragon sleeping within.

Someone coughed behind her.

Arabella twirled and found Mrs. Moon standing there, hands clasped neatly at her front.

Arabella huffed a laugh, “They were your footprints?”

"They were.” Mrs. Moon said, smiling fainty, “You won. Well done.”

Oh, those were the best two words Arabella had ever heard. She thought she might go home and burn her practice exam papers.

“You know,” Arabella laughed, “I almost ran past it. Robyn went up the hill to find it and I don’t blame her – it made sense.”

But Mrs. Moon only winked. “The most beautiful things in life are worth slowing down for, Arabella. Try to remember that.”

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the story trail for ‘Listen Carefully’ by Ophelia P. Johnson