Elfric was the smallest dragon in the hollow at the edge of the Hush Forest, where the mountain leaned down to listen to the trees.

Every dragon was born with a tiny light inside the chest, an ember that glowed warm whenever they breathed, and on quiet nights the older dragons lit the whole cliff like a row of orange lanterns.

But Elfric's light had always been the smallest of all, no bigger than a candle seen through fog, and more than anything he wished it would grow.

The big dragons told him his glow would brighten the day he became brave enough to fly into the dark forest the way they did. Elfric wanted that so much, yet the night woods frightened him, full of shadows that moved and sounds he could not name. One cold evening, after a long day of feeling too small, he curled up to sleep and pressed a paw to his chest the way he always did, to feel the little warmth there. But the warmth was gone, and when he looked down, his ember had turned completely dark.