The Birth of Flame the Tame and Flare the Fearless, Dragons of Lazaronia

By Laraine Anne Barker

The story of how the young future King Lazarone III and his distant cousin Esmeralda find and hatch what appear to be the last eggs from the last two dragons of Lazaronia. A short-story prequel to the Mark Willoughby series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laraine Anne Barker
• Release date: Jun 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9780987668714

Laraine Anne Barker

Laraine Anne Barker has always enjoyed telling stories. As a child, when playing with dolls with her younger sisters became boring, she would make up stories featuring the dolls. She also remembers how she and her sisters wrote stories into exercise books and even illustrated them, using crayons to colour them because they found that rubbing on the crayon pictures gave them a shine similar to that of glossy colour pictures in magazines. Laraine submitted her first book (for adults) to a publisher at about the age of 21 and received a very kind rejection letter in which the editor suggested the story could be rewritten for young readers. She regrets she didn't keep the rejection and follow up on the advice. She didn't start writing fantasy for young readers until 1986. After many rewritings the book started then became The Obsidian Quest (published under the Hard Shell imprint of Mundania Press). The Obsidian Quest was a finalist in The Dream Realm Awards 2001 and was followed by Lord of Obsidian and The Third Age of Obsidian, also published under the Hard Shell imprint of Mundania Press. The Mark Willoughby series was started in 1992. Silvranja of the Silver Forest was short-listed (one of three) in 1998 for a major New Zealand prize, The Tom Fitzgibbon Memorial Award.

Book preview

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chapter One

Lazarone halted his pony on top of the highest hill in the Dragons’ Peaks range and stared pensively over his beloved land. Although it looked as lovely as ever, at that moment he was aware of an uneasy feeling that under the surface something was hideously wrong.

In the middle distance the Forest of Argentsiana dominated all. Its vast canopy covered hills and valleys alike in a mantle more silver than green. The day was so clear Lazarone could even make out the snow-clad tops of the land’s only mountain range. One peak, shrouded in bizarre legends, was rumoured to stand head and shoulders above the others. Known as Geheimberg, the Secret Mountain, it was