Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) by Laura R Cole

well.
    The woman just continued her story. “As Zuzka
was basking on her usual rock, the elder approached her in the form
of a mouse. ‘You are laying on top of my home, dragon, please get
off. My children are in there!’ Zuzka didn’t even open her eyes. He
asked again, and still got no response other than the dragon
swiping at him with her forearm.” The old woman slashed an arm
through the air dramatically, drawing gasps from the crowd.
“’Move!’ the little mouse cried and finally Zuzka cracked open an
eye for just a moment. ‘Make me,’ she told him. The elder
transformed back to a dragon, bellowing his rage at Zuzka’s refusal
to respect her fellow creatures. ‘This is the last straw, Zuzka, I
am taking away your size too if you will so misuse it. I am at my
wits end, and will give you no more chances. Until you prove to me
on your own that you understand the value of respect for your
fellow creatures, you will remain this way!’ So now, Zuzka had no
horns, no claws, no wings, no scales, and was the size of a
mouse.”
    The woman moped around with a pathetic look
on her face.
    “Then one day, as Zuzka was hiding out in a
tree so that none of her friends would see her in such a state, she
heard someone crying. Having done the same many times the last few
days, she rushed to investigate. Not, mind you,” she held up a
finger, “for the purpose of sympathizing, but rather because she
thought it would be nice to see someone in a worse situation than
herself.” She gave all the children a pointed look, as though
admonishing them for doing the same themselves, and several looked
down at the ground.
    “Soon, she found the source of the crying and
was gleeful to discover that it was the ugliest, most pathetic
creature she had ever seen. It had no arms, no legs, was a
disgustingly gross slimy pink color, and had no redeeming features
whatsoever that she could see. In short, it was a worm serpent. She
laughed out loud as she approached, and the thing looked up at her
and sniffled. ‘I can see why you are crying,’ she told it, ‘you are
truly the most disgusting creature in the world.’ The serpent
looked at her with unseeing eyes. ‘I am not crying for me,’ it told
her, ‘but for the dragons that live here. I used to create tunnels
in the ground which diverts the flow of water around their homes,
but recently one of the young dragons thought it would be funny to
pick me up and place me up here on this ledge where I cannot get
down. I don’t think she meant to cause such harm, but she seems to
have forgotten my plight.’ Zuzka felt an unfamiliar feeling wash
over her: shame. She vaguely remembered having been the one to have
placed the worm there…and he was right, she had meant to
come back for him later that day. But like most things that didn’t
directly have to do with her, it had slipped her mind.”
    The old woman widened her eyes to two round
orbs and mouthed ‘oops’. Several children giggled once more.
    “Zuzka was worried, and asked ‘why does that
matter to the dragons? They are the most powerful creatures in the
world, anything you can do, they can do better.’ The worm looked at
her with blind eyes, his features accustomed to digging. ‘They
cannot,’ he told her, ‘the area makes it impossible to use magic to
accomplish and they are much too big to physically dig it with the
detail it requires. I do not think they even realize the
significance of what I do, and wouldn’t even know to try. I fear
that with the next rain, their homes will be destroyed.’ Zuzka was
truly worried now, and surprised herself by her first thinking of
what would happen to the children before worrying about her own
possessions. It was nesting season and there were many young
dragons in nests who would be harmed by a sudden flood. ‘What can
we do?’ Zuzka asked the worm serpent. The worm wriggled around to
the edge of the ledge it was trapped upon and twitched part of its
body towards the earth far