The Dragon in the Driveway Read Online Free Page A

Woods. The woods were too dense and dark for casual walking. But there was nothing casual about this situation. They both nodded soberly and followed Emmy.
    Five minutes later, the Deep Woods began to thin out, and the three came to what seemed to be a natural clearing. The clearing was about the size of three football fields. Jesse, Daisy, and Emmy crept to the edge of it and took cover behind thetrunk of a tall spruce tree. Near their end of the clearing stood two supersize dump trucks, a steam shovel, and two bulldozers, all of them brand-new and painted bright orange. There didn’t seem to be any workers around.
    “What’s that?” whispered Daisy, pointing to a huge machine off to the side that dwarfed all the others.
    “It’s an earthmover,” Jesse whispered back. “I saw one once in Venezuela. It was mowing down the trees in the rain forest like they were matchsticks. I was really little, so at first I thought it was neat. Then my parents explained that the trees wouldn’t grow back and that the forest and all the animals would be gone forever.”
    “So the Dragon Slayer is a Tree Slayer, too,” Daisy said.
    “I guess he can’t do it with magic, so he needs these big machines. But where is he?” Jesse said, scanning the clearing. “He had to have done most of this work during the storm.”
    “I wonder why,” Daisy said.
    “Maybe so he wouldn’t get caught,” said Jesse. “Let’s go check it out.”
    Daisy grabbed his sleeve. “No! Let’s wait here until we’re sure he’s not lurking around,” she said.
    Jesse nodded. It could be a trap. He checked his watch. They would give it fifteen minutes, just to be safe. They waited in silence. Beneath Jesse’s hand, Emmy trembled, but she sat between them patiently, her long pink forked tongue lolling out the side of her mouth.
    As if Emmy had been keeping track of the time in her head, she jumped up and started into the clearing exactly fifteen minutes later. Jesse and Daisy were right behind her. Nose to the ground, Emmy made a beeline over to the foot of a huge mound of fresh, damp earth. Next to the mound was a hole. The cousins went over to it and peered down. The hole was wide and deep, and at the bottom, they caught a glimpse of open space, like an underground cave.
    “What do you think it is?” Jesse asked, his voice eerily returning to him from the damp, dark hole.
    “It looks like a mine,” said Daisy grimly. “A very old, very deep mine.”
    “What does St. George want with a mine?” Jesse wondered aloud.
    “I have no idea,” Daisy said. “But let’s get out of here before he comes back and shoves us in.”
    They walked back through the Deep Woods. At the edge, Daisy stopped and addressed the two trees. “We’ll be back,” she promised.
    “With a real plan,” Jesse added, and Emmy barked twice.
    When they got back home, Emmy was hungry and tired. Safe inside the garage, she assumed her dragon form and looked at Jesse and Daisy expectantly. Jesse went into the house and returned a few minutes later with a head of kale, a bunch of spinach, and a chunk of Swiss cheese. Emmy made quick work of these and afterward, Jesse and Daisy tucked her into her nest of socks. Daisy read her “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” while Jesse leaned against the packing crate and listened.
    Before Daisy reached the end of the story, Emmy’s eyelids were drooping.
    “Too much sudden activity after too many days of just lying around,” Daisy said to Jesse out of the corner of her mouth, sounding just like her mother.
    “That weather spell probably tuckered her out,” Jesse replied with a yawn.
    When Daisy closed the book, Emmy heaved a sleepy sigh and snuggled down into her bed of socks. “Emmy’s bed is not too big and not too small. It is juuuuuuust right.”
    “For a while, at least,” said Jesse. “Until Emmy-locks gets bigger.”
    “Sweet dragon dreams,” said Daisy.
    After the cousins had bid Emmy a final “good night, sleep