Perrin’s Handmade Star — Under the orchard castle’s pear trees, Perrin rubbed a wooden star smooth against a flat stone. Read the full story →
Under the orchard castle’s pear trees, Perrin rubbed a wooden star smooth against a flat stone. He wanted his shield badge finished before the dusk watch, but the star still needed a bright center. The best glow-pebbles lay beyond the little gate, where grass brushed his boots with cold beads of dew.
Past the winding path, he heard a soft sniffle and smelled warm smoke, like toasted bread. A young dragon sat with one claw wrapped around a glowing pebble. Its wing had snagged on a thorn bush. Perrin’s fingers stung while he bent each thorn away, and his last strip of polishing cloth tore in two. “Hold still, friend,” he whispered.
The dragon blinked, then dropped the glow-pebble into Perrin’s palm. Back at the castle, Perrin pressed it into the wooden star. It shone unevenly, with one corner rough from his own carving, and he liked it best that way. When you see the star on his shield, can you spot the handmade corner from under the pear trees?
