Chapter 3

   Chronus took FireStorm with him and Kajar took Sylver with him. Talon left
for the hunting grounds, for none of his wolves were involved. Kajar took
Sylver to the northern clearing in the Cursed Woods. He stared at her
steadily.
    "Sylver, I want you to tell me if Chronus's version of the story is
true," Kajar asked Sylver.
    "No, Kajar. In the middle of the battle I was in with FireStorm, a
shadow dragon attacked. But I did not cower. FireStorm and I attacked it
with all we had. I just wasn't strong enough to finish it. I was knocked
to the ground and to weak to carry on just seconds before FireStorm drove it
away."
    Kajar bit his lip. "This isn't good," Kajar mumbled. "Chronus is
probably very proud of FireStorm and is going to say she did it
independently. Which, of course, is not the whole truth, but half the
valley will have heard FireStorm's version of the tale by now.²
    Bigger things than her reputation were worrying Sylver right now. "But
what about that shadow dragon? That thing's power was incredible! We
didn't kill it, it just got annoyed by our repetitive pounding of spells and
flew off. I think- no, I know we werne't really doing much damage."
    Kajar thought for a moment. "Long ago, as a pup, I recall legends of a
great beast living in Mt. Woe. This could be it. If so, it could be a
great crisis for the valley." He paused a moment. "The way I see it, the
only way to get both peace in the valley and your reputation back, you have
to conquer the dragon."
    Sylver's heart skipped a beat. Kill the dragon? "Kajar... how... how
am I supposed to do that?" Sylver couldn't believe what she just heard from
Kajar.
    "With training. And lots of it."