Frost Wyrm

  Cady was using some of the flowers she had picked to show Giddy how to decorate hats. He was a good student, and she wondered how long it would be before he decided such things were too girlie for him like her other two brothers.

  Glancing at the forest Cady wondered what was keeping Almas and Ulec. She hadn’t seen them anywhere near the flowers, which didn’t say much for Ulec as he was only seen when he wanted to be.

  She had asked Seacra if she knew where they had gone off to, and the elvish girl had told her to wait at home and she’d go find them. Cady didn’t think it would take this long.

  “Hey, Uncle Jerad is here,” Giddy stated, pulling Cady from her thoughts.

  Looking in the direction Giddy was pointing, she saw her father’s best friend walking purposely toward her father at a brisk pace. He had a concerned look on his face. He walked up to her father, who greeted him, but his face turned somber almost instantly as Jerad started to converse with him. Cady couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she saw him turn to Creetan and say something then started walking over toward her and Giddy.

  “Cady, do you know exactly where the boys went?” her father asked as he approached.

  “We didn’t see them near the flowers Seacra showed me. She said she was going to go look for them. Is something wrong?”

  “Nothing to worry about, I think. A couple of my scouts failed to report in. Probably just running late. But to be on the safe side, Jerad is taking you and Giddy back to the house and Cree and I are going to go retrieve Almas.”

  “What about Ulec and Seacra?” Giddy asked.

  “I’ll make sure they are also fine, but I think Ulec and Seacra can take care of themselves. Right now you two get going. I’ll be home shortly,” her father said with a grin.

  Cady watched a moment as her father and brother walked into the forest, then said to Giddy, “Guess we’ll have to finish the hat in the house.” Giddy helped her gather some of the flowers then walked over to where Jerad was waiting for them.

  “You two having fun today?” Jerad asked as they came within speaking distance to him.

  “We were making a flower hat,” Giddy told him excitedly.

  “Do you know why the scouts didn’t report in?” Cady asked.

  “That’s what we are looking into, and that’s a nice looking hat. Let’s get it to the house so you can show your mother.”