They kept flying on and on until the field below them turned to a forest. "This is where the druids live," said Rowan pointing his finger at the forest below.
"Then we better land by the edge of the forest," said Spark as he began to fly lower and lower towards the ground. Then he landed with a bump and they all slipped off his back. Far away they could see the silhouettes of mountains.
The sky was growing darker and darker. There was a stream close by and Freddy, Oliver and Rowan refreshed themselves drinking water from the crystal clear stream.
Then Rowan sat by the stream and caught some carp. "You two go and find some firewood so that we can start cooking the fish," said Rowan as he sat by the stream.
Freddy and Oliver went deeper and deeper into the forest collecting wood. Soon they saw that they had lost themselves in the forest. Just a few feet away they could hear voices.
"Are you sure you saw a dragon?" asked a gruff voice from somewhere closeby.
"Yes, I am positive I saw a dragon," said another voice in answer. "It landed by the west edge of the forest."
"Well then, let us go and see," said the gruff voice that had spoken before in reply.
"Quick, hide behind this bush," whispered Freddy to Oliver as the sound of the footsteps got closer and closer.
They hid behind the thick leafy bush and peered through its foliage and saw two burly men walking past them.
When the sound of their footsteps grew fainter Oliver said, "we should go back to Rowan. I don't think he has any idea about these men."
"Yes, come on, let's try to find our way back. I hope we get back to Rowan before those men so that we can warn him," said Freddy as they ran through the forest.
They ran and they ran weaving through the trees but soon they came to a part of the forest that looked unfamiliar. The trees grew huddled together and it was darker than the rest of the forest they had been to.
They kept running through the shadows of the trees and soon came to a cave. They stopped to catch their breath.
"I think we have lost our way for sure," said Freddy looking at the cave. "I don't remember seeing a cave before."
"Neither do I," said Oliver looking into the cave. It was dark but he thought that he could see a faint glow coming from the cave.
"Shall we go into the cave," asked Freddy, peeping into the cave. "If those men are after dragons then the only chance we have is to hide and wait until we can find our way back to Rowan.
"Well, what if those men and their families live in this cave?" asked Oliver with a shudder. "We'd be walking straight into danger."
"Who are you?" said a voice from behind them that made both of them nearly run off into the forest once again.
"We...I am Freddy and this is Oliver," said Freddy, looking at the stranger. He was dressed in long white robes and he was wearing a silver circlet.
"What are you doing here by the Druid Den?" asked the stranger, looking around him.
"We came here by accident. We didn't know where we were going," said Freddy as the stranger tugged at his beard.
"Did you happen to come by dragon," he said looking at Freddy.
"Well, yes. We...we heard two men talking about it too. I think they were after the dragon. They said they saw the dragon landing in the West side of the forest. We have been trying to find our way back to the dragon but we ended up coming here."
