Chapter 1

Abby woke up in the attic she shared with her siblings Mathew, the twins Ryan and Delaney, and the younger twins, Caleb and Rosie.  As the oldest in the family, she had to wake everyone up, send her brothers out to milk the goats, and then get her sisters dressed and started on making the beds.  After that, she could get herself ready for the day and then go downstairs to help make breakfast.

            The loft had a window at one end of the room, a trap door and ladder at the other, and two beds pushed against the walls.  Standing in the aisle in between, Abby yanked the blankets off both beds in one practiced tug.

            “First one downstairs gets warm toast,” Abby yelled.  “Last one down gets to pick up pajamas.”

            “That’s not fair Abby,” groaned Delaney.  “You wake up first and that gives you a head-start.”

            After the initial grumblings, the boys raced downstairs and the girls folded the blankets up.  Abby, as usual, was the last one ready so she picked up all the pajamas and put them in the trunk at the end of the girl’s bed.  The girl’s trunk was for clothes, the boy’s trunk held anything else the children thought worth keeping.  Then Abby went downstairs.

            The crowded downstairs held only the huge fireplace that served as stove and sole source of heat, the kitchen table, a few cupboards and chests, and a door leading to Abby’s parent’s room.  Just then, the fireplace held a small fire and the kitchen table was loaded with plates, cups, and cheese-spread toast.  Everyone sat down to eat and plan the day.

            “I’ll need all the boys to go with me to the hills.  It will soon be time to send our share of the tribute to the king and we want our sheep to be the fattest in Plum,” Abby’s father announced.  “If any of them fall off a cliff or get lost in the caves, I’ll have to send one of you to the castle instead.” 

            “It takes you forever to go to the kingdom with the sheep.  How come you have to give our sheep to the king?  ,” complained Ryan.  “It’s not like the king helped herd them.”

            “The king rules the country and he owns all the land.  We’re just paying him to let us live here and raise the sheep.”

“Send me instead of the sheep! Send me!” squeaked little Caleb, who had not been allowed to leave the yard without his mother.  “I never get to go anywhere.”

             “I don’t think so,” said their father, “I’m going to send you and Rosie to town with Abby.  Her mother tells me that we need a few things from the market and I want to hear the latest news from the capital, even if we are so far away that any news we get is already a few weeks old.”

            Caleb pondered on the wonderfulness of being allowed to go to town while all the other children quickly asked to go to town too.

            “I’m just sending Abby, Caleb, and Rosie.  They can sell the skeins of wool I made and buy what little we need.  I need Delaney here to help bake and your father needs the boys out in the pastures.  Come on, the day has already started and we can’t be left behind,” Abby’s mother said and then stood up to clear the table.

            The girls started doing the dishes after the boys left to bring the sheep out.  While the dishes were being dried, Abby complained, “Mother, the twins will slow me down.  They’ll want to stop and look and touch everything.  What if they run away in the market while I’m selling the yarn?”

            “You know that you’ll stop to look and touch everything too and that the twins are too well behaved to run off.   And if they stay,” and here her mother stopped to make sure the twins were upstairs getting ready.  “How can we bake a birthday cake with two of the most inquisitive snoops in the house?   It’s hard enough when they are already getting old enough to know when it’s their birthday.  I think they’re suspicious about the packages in the chest.  Ryan and Delaney know it’s their birthday so there’s no surprising them, but this may be the last year we can surprise Caleb and Rosie.  Their birthday is in two days you know.”

            Abby looked up in surprise.  “I completely forgot about the twin’s birthday.  How about I just take them with me now, and let you and Delaney get busy?”

            “Oh no, finish your chores.  We’ve got plenty of time.  We only have four birthdays a year and we don’t need to rush and get them over with.  Finish putting everything away and then you can go.  I’ve made you a list of people who want the yarn.  Just tell them to pay me next time they see me.  Be sure to be back before dinner.”

            Abby quickly put the plates and cups in the cupboard and then rushed upstairs to get the twins.  Once they were down the path, Abby pointed out the different birds and flowers to the twins.  The trek into the small village passed quickly. 

            The marketplace was busy with shepherds selling sheep and farmers selling produce.  The trade was mainly between neighbors because most merchants did not think it worthwhile to travel the distance to a small village that likely had nothing that could not be gotten anywhere else.  Abby quickly found the items on her mother’s list and then sat down next to the square’s fountain with the twins to enjoy their lunch of sandwiches.

            “Abby M’Kennan, don’t tell me that your mother sent you to town by yourself with these two young things!” exclaimed the plump jam seller who had come to get some of the wool.  “I hope she hasn’t broken her leg or gotten sick.”

            “No, Mrs. Connuny.  Mama was just extra busy this market day and wanted the twins out from underfoot,” Abby replied.

            “Well, give her my regards.  Tell her I want to meet her next market day.  I have a special color I want some wool dyed.  It’s reddish yellow…”

            Suddenly one of the merchants who had come into town for mutton came out of the town’s only inn, the Lyon inn, surrounded by a small group of men and women.  Mrs. Connuny started to walk over, interested in any gossip.  Abby couldn’t help overhearing from her perch on the fountain.

            “I tell you out of neighborly concern, because your village is closest to the mountains, and therefore in the most danger.  I leave myself in the morning, but I’ll leave knowing I left all of you forewarned.  The king himself is sending out a decree.  I heard it myself, with these two ears, in the fair city of Cavan, when I there trading last week.”

            At this most of the people still in the square gathered around the man.  The people, full of questions, vied for the merchant’s attention.  Even Abby could not help but inch closer, hoping to hear more of the mysterious news that put her small village in danger.  Then, the innkeeper seeing what a large crowd of people had gathered around his inn, invited them all in to sit and talk it out indoors, and, perhaps, get a bite to eat.  At this, Caleb and Rosie began to pull at Abby’s arms.

            “Let’s go in and see what that man has to say!” cried Caleb.  “I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying because of all those grown-ups.”

            Abby looked at the inn and then back at the sun sinking behind the mountain peaks.  She wanted to go into the inn and find out if the merchant was just telling a tale or not but she knew that if she was to get the twins home before dark, they would have to leave immediately. 

            “I guess if it’s really important Mrs. Connuny or one of the other people will come tell us.  We should probably go home now.  Market day is over and you know what mama says: Come late to supper and you get yesterday’s breakfast.”

            “But we already ate that breakfast.  It’s all gone,” Rosie said.

            “That’s exactly what mama means.  If we don’t get there in time, we’ll get nothing.  Let’s go,” Abby said.

            As they trudged out of the market, Mathew’s friend Adin came running up.  “Did you hear the news that the merchant brought?”

            “No,” said Abby.  “The merchant went inside before we could hear it.  We figured the news would spread and we’d hear it eventually.  Did you hear what he said?” 

            “What he said?  He practically exploded trying to keep it in and build suspense, and then he had to shout to be heard above the crowd.  The dragon in the mountains is alive and was seen flying over the forests.  The merchant said it had burned down a whole town to the south of here.”

            Abby looked at the twins, who seemed to be holding their breath at the excitement and fright of this news.  Everyone knew about the dragon that lived in caves of the Clay Mountains, there were hundreds of stories, but no one ever saw it.  “What village did it burn down?”

            “The merchant couldn’t remember.  Maybe it was two towns, maybe just a barn.  Anyway, do you think it’ll go after your father’s sheep, you living so close to the mountains?”

            Abby replied, “We’ve never seen a dragon before and nothing has ever stolen our sheep.  I’ll bet that merchant just made up that story to get a free meal.”

            “Just because you’ve never seen it doesn’t mean it ain’t true.  The merchant said the king would give whoever slayed that dragon a piece of land.  And whoever does it gets to marry his daughter.  But what person would go after a dragon alone!  I’ll bet the king will have to send out a whole army to protect our village from the beast.  You’d better watch out for those twins.  Anyway, I’ll see you next market day.  Tell Mathew to come to my house so I can show him this cool rock I found.  Bye.”

            “Bye,” Abby called as he ran towards the few houses that made up the village.  She was slightly confused by Adin’s news.  The dragon had never done any harm and had never showed itself.  The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like the merchant had made the whole thing up.  Merchants were famous for telling tall tales to get a free meal and some attention.  Any isolated village would be gullible enough to believe anything a city-slick merchant would say.  But, if there was a proclamation, what could it be about and when would the king’s crier come to tell them the news?

            The twins were very tired from walking to the village and back.  The sun set over the mountains as they trudged home.  The twins were put in bed while Abby finished her supper. 

            “Any news in the village?” asked her father.  “I heard that one of the shepherds across the valley is trying to beat my sheep in quality.  Did you see him?”

            Abby was tired, but not too tired to talk.  “I didn’t talk to too many people, just the people I bought mama’s things from and those who wanted wool.  There was a loud merchant who was talking about a big proclamation the king is sending out to all the towns.  He said something about our dragon being dangerous.”

            Her mother came over.  “That dragon up there is just a lot of poppycock.  It’s just a legend; something someone made up to explain why the sheep go missing every once in a while.  There never was a dragon and there never will be one.  That merchant just wanted to sound important.”

            “That’s exactly what I said when I heard it,” called Abby as she went up the ladder.