PART FIVE: THE EGG

“Where are we going?” Harold asked as they slowly made their way up the slope. It was colder up here, and Harold felt strangely sick. Morak did not answer. Instead, he continued to slither up the mountain. A dark bat flew past his ear and Harold jumped slightly.

“We are going to the Egg cave, where the Egg dwells.” said Morak, and his voice was strangely angry. Harold gripped a rock as he slipped on a particularly slippery boulder.

“Why are we going there when we were going to the ship?” he asked with a horrible feeling that something bad would happen if Morka found him with the Egg.

Morak turned a corner and then looked at him. “The moment I saw you, I knew you would be able to end my problem. If you take the Egg and smash it to pieces, a great wealth will come to you. I wanted the Egg so that I and what remains of my family will no longer be poor.”

“But why can’t you just smash the Egg?” Harold asked.

“Because I am a dragon. I cannot smash the Egg because I have claws!” he hissed. “Now you can smash the Egg because you have hands. I promise to share the wealth we obtain if we can successfully break it.”

Morak pointed to a small cave in the rocks and motioned for him to enter.

Inside the cave on a stone mount stood a large, rock-sized egg that glowed ominously in the dark and slick walls of the cave. It was the Dragon’s Egg.