Read Online Dragon Keepers #1: The Dragon in the Sock Drawer by Kate Klimo, John Shroades - Free Book Online

wait for an answer. She flapped off like a wet seal. (She and Jesse each kept a set of clothes in the barn in an old wooden chest.)
    Jesse wrapped Emmy up in Daisy’s dry sweatshirt. He held her and rubbed her briskly until her shivering eased.
    â€œLand’s. Sakes!” Emmy cried, sounding just like Miss Alodie.
    â€œWhat happened, Emmy?” he said.
    â€œFear. For. Em. Meee…,” she said.
    â€œWell, I was pretty scared, too,” Jesse told her.
    Daisy soon came back in dry clothes, rubbing her hair with a beach towel. “What frightened you?” she asked Emmy.
    â€œSee.
Things!
” said Emmy.
    â€œWhat things?” asked Daisy, plopping down on the bank.
    â€œBad.
Man!
” said Emmy.
    â€œWhat bad man?” said Daisy. “There was no bad man down there. All I saw was rocks and moss and you…you poor thing.”
    â€œSee. Bad. Man,” Emmy said. “Bad. Man. Get. Em. Meee. Em. Meee. Sad. Help. Em. Meee. Jesse. Day. Zee. MA! MA!”
    Jesse held Emmy tighter and stared at Daisy.
    Daisy shrugged helplessly.
    Emmy stiffened in his arms. “Saint.
George!
” she cried, then passed out.

CHAPTER SIX
    LOST AND FOUND
    Jesse was at the computer, the connection was working, and Professor Andersson’s face was back on the screen. Daisy paced behind Jesse, holding Emmy, who had not let them put her down since she had revived from her swoon. She was still wrapped up in Daisy’s sweatshirt, with a purple kneesock wound around her neck like a muffler. The little dragon was sucking away on a stalk of raw broccoli as if it were a leafy green pacifier.
    Jesse clicked the mouse and said, “Can you tell us about hoarding, please?”
    They heard the professor clear his throat noisily. Then his bushy white eyebrows flew up and he began to speak. “‘Hoarding,’ when it comes to dragons, is a misnomer.”
    â€œWho the heck is Miss Nomer?” Jesse muttered to Daisy.
    Daisy reached for the dictionary, but the professor beat her to a definition. “The word means ‘wrong name,’” he said. “‘Hoarding’ implies greed, and dragons are the least greedy of all creatures.”
    â€œThen how come he talks about hoarding in his book?” Jesse wondered aloud.
    The professor continued: “In the dark years that followed The Time Before, many believed that dragons looted castle treasuries because they were greedy for riches. Now we know that this is not the case. Dragons require the properties of silver and gold and precious gems to maintain healthy bones and muscles. They quite literally absorb the minerals through their skin.”
    â€œSo it’s like vitamins?” Daisy asked.
    â€œYes, think of it as vitamins,” said the professor. “Will that be all for today?”
    â€œNO!” Jesse said. “Our baby dragon jumped into a brook,” he blurted out. “She said she saw a bad man named Saint George….”
    â€œSlowly!” the professor said. “You are slurring your words. I do not understand Slurvian.”
    Jesse took a deep breath and repeated himself, slowly and clearly this time.
    The professor furrowed his brow. “Are you absolutely certain of this?” he asked softly.
    Jesse looked at Daisy. Daisy nodded. Jesse said, “Yes!”
    The professor’s eyes lit up, and he smiled. “My, what a precocious dragon you have! It sounds to me as if your dragon was scrying! Marvelous!”
    â€œWhat’s scrying?” Jesse asked.
    â€œDragons gaze into pools or streams and, if the circumstances—the positions of the sun in the sky and the planets in their rotations—are right, they see pictures foretelling the future. The act is called scrying. Your hatchling is very young to be scrying. She must be a very powerful dragon, but powerful or not, she still requires your protection.”
    â€œWho is Saint George?” asked Daisy.
    The