SPARX Incarnation: Mark of the Green Dragon (SPARX Series I Book 1) Read Online Free

have taken lightly to finding the Webfoot banner in my possession, whatever the reason, being on the council and all. Indeed, given the nature of the offence, Paplov had been unusually strict in his punishment. He seemed to think it was a black mark against my future in local politics. “They’ll never forget,” he had said. They being the other council members.
    “What heat did he get for it?” I asked.
    Gariff’s silence said everything.
    “That’s what I thought.”
    The Stout raised his head and looked over to me. His grumpy face turned apologetic and the two narrow slits beneath his brow widened into the darkest brown eyes. “Kabor doesn’t mean any harm’n it… he just does it in good fun.”
    “Fun for him you mean,” I said, shaking my head. “I didn’t even want him to take it down. And I told him not to do it. You know the connections – Town Hall, the mayor… Paplov.”
    Over the years, Gariff had done more than his share of apologizing on behalf of his younger cousin. Granted, Kabor’s parents were lost in a caravan raid when he was very young and so Gariff’s family had taken him in. Plus, he couldn’t see that well. The two combined had earned him more than his fair share of sympathy. I admit he had it rough, but I made it a point that he was not to receive any special treatment from me. Kabor wasn’t the only one who had it rough. Still, I had to acknowledge that taking the town flag the way he did, when he did, was rather gutsy. And there was a certain thrill to it all…
    “It’s a wonder he didn’t get caught climbing up there in broad daylight,” I said, “right under their noses.”
    Gariff smirked and let out a reflective chuckle. “He never gets caught.”
    “Yeah, well, he will one day,” I said.
    There was a long, awkward pause between us. I knew what Gariff was about. Finally, he let it out.
    “I gotta go after him, Nud,” he said, shaking his head. Gariff slumped. He turned to follow his cousin, and started back towards the creek.
    A couple of complaints later, I followed.
    When we arrived, the three of us split up and poked around the site for the better part of the remaining day. The sinkhole had completely filled in with groundwater. Kabor tried to fish unseen body parts out of it with a stick, to no avail. Gariff dug for stones along its edge, feeling through the wet earth and pulling up all kinds of debris. I showed Kabor the tangled mess of tree roots where I found my stone, careful not to mention the flickering.
    When the two Stouts were busiest, I stole away to peek at my find, and every so often I put my hand in my pocket to check that the stone was still there.
    After much searching, nothing grand turned up. Near the end of our stay though, Kabor did happen to stumble on a slim, orange post in the ground. An orange ribbon with writing on it was nailed to the top. He took his spectacles out of his pocket and put them on. Kabor’s eyes suddenly looked three times bigger.
    “HME-226,” he read aloud.
    Over the years, more and more of the posts seemed to be popping up throughout the Mire and surrounding territories. It meant that the location had been claimed already, probably for mineral rights. Kabor pulled the stake out of the ground.
    “Stop,” I said, flushed with anger. He had no idea the administrative processes people had to go through just to stake a claim, plus all the careful mapping and measurements required. The sharpness in my voice drew Gariff’s attention.
    “We could all get in trouble for what you just did,” I went on.
    “Oh ya?” said Kabor. His eyes narrowed. “Watch this.”
    Without hesitation, he tossed the wooden post high up into the air, towards the creek.
    I closed my eyes in an attempt to contain my irritation. It was all I could take. A distorted buzzing sensation welled up in the back of my mind, like nothing I had ever experienced before. It spread, growing to an all-consuming volume. It pushed at my skull from the