CHAPTER 8
DRAGON’S BREATH

Zuli raced back down the path to Rainbow’s cave. She snatched Professor Erb’s papers and flipped to the notes about the desert fungus. Nothing in Zuli’s other research had mentioned anything about fungus making dragons sick. But Erb’s notes did talk about fungus spores. Sometimes winds or storms carried spores over great distances.

“That has to be it!” she told Rainbow. “And another storm is coming. Even more dragons might get sick. I need to work fast!”

Splashing through the cave, Zuli grabbed her tools. She needed to build something that could kill all the spores in the air. A filter? No. There’s nothing big enough… Zuli mused. Maybe a spray? Dragon magic can direct it throughout the storm’s winds!

Zuli looked for notes about cleaning up fungus. She found a recipe that might work in Erb’s notes. She grabbed a vial of vinegar and a jar of salt off a shelf. Following the recipe, she measured the ingredients into a pitcher of water and shook it together.

Next, she made a battery by sticking nails and wires into some lemons to link them together. Finally, she stuck two wires into the end lemons and placed the other wire ends into the pitcher. Soon the vinegar mixture was bubbling.

As the pitcher bubbled and brewed, Zuli found a large jug. She wound more wires around it and brought the ends together over the jug’s mouth. Then she attached a bundle of gems to the wires.

Thunder rumbled outside. Zuli worked faster. She poured the mixture into her jug. The gadget wasn’t pretty. But the storm was on its way. Hopefully it would be enough.

Zuli gripped a cup of the special dragon soup in one hand. She hooked her other arm through the wires of the new gadget. Then she hurried to the middle of the campus green. She moved as close as she dared to the hulking shape of the sleeping Old Dragon. Rainbow followed slowly behind.

Zuli paused to give Rainbow another sip of soup. She hoped Rainbow’s magic would work long enough to get the gadget going. Zuli scratched Rainbow between her horns.

“All right, Rainbow. We need to use your magic to spray this solution into the storm. You’re on!”

Rainbow stretched out a claw to touch the gems on the jug. The gems glowed, and the gadget buzzed.

Zuli put her hand over the gadget. The solution wasn’t spraying.

“Oh, no,” she said. “It’s not working!”

Rainbow’s head sagged, and she started drizzling. The buzzing stopped. The gems’ light winked out.

Zuli sagged to her knees. It didn’t work.

Suddenly, the Old Draken snorted in his sleep. A big puff of air from his snout fluttered Zuli’s hair. The gadget buzzed and its gems glowed for a moment. A tiny mist rose from the jug.

Zuli’s eyes widened. “Of course, it didn’t work.” She groaned. “We need to spread it through the storm. But the gadget is really built for a wind wyvern’s air magic.” She felt silly. She suddenly realized she had designed the gadget a lot like Tad’s.

She needed his help.