Three friends follow a rainbow scale into the Dragon Forest and find a tiny dragon waiting in the dark.
The Dragon Forest began just beyond the last meadow outside Kwiaton, where the grass thinned and the trees rose close together like a wall. Even on bright days, the place seemed to hold its breath. Wind slipped through the branches with a whisper, and shadows pooled beneath the roots as if they were waiting for someone brave enough to step inside.
The adults in town stayed well away from it. They said too many strange things had happened there, and that was enough to make grown-ups cross the road and keep walking. But Hania, Filip, and Maja were twelve, which meant they were old enough to be curious and young enough to ignore sensible warnings.
They knew every path around Kwiaton. Hania, with her red hair and her ever-present magnifying glass, noticed details nobody else did. Filip was always planning his next great expedition, even if it was only to the far side of a hedge. Maja could draw anything she saw, from crooked fences to clouds that looked like animals.
That Friday afternoon, Hania burst into the garden behind her house with something tiny and shining in her palm.
"Look," she said, breathless.
It was a scale, no bigger than a fingernail, but it flashed with colours that shifted when she tilted it toward the light. Blue. Gold. Green. Then a streak of red like a spark in a fire.
Filip bent so close his nose almost touched her hand. "That can't be ordinary," he whispered.
Maja took out her notebook at once and began sketching the shape, her pencil moving faster each second. "It looks like it came from something alive," she said. Then she looked up, eyes wide. "Something very alive."
Hania slipped the scale into her pocket and grinned. "Dragon Forest," she said.
By evening, they were standing at the edge of the woods with torches, a folded map, and a packet of jam sandwiches tied in a cloth. The sun had already gone low, and the first shadows were crawling between the trunks. They followed a narrow path they knew from summer walks, but tonight it felt different, as if the trees had moved closer while they weren't looking.
The forest hummed softly around them. A light blinked somewhere ahead, then vanished.
"Did you see that?" Maja asked.
Filip swallowed. "Something's there."
Before anyone could answer, the branches in front of them drew apart.
Not snapped. Not shaken by the wind. They parted on their own, slow and deliberate, revealing a clearing washed in a pale emerald glow. In the middle of it lay a tiny dragon, no bigger than a house cat, curled beside a patch of moss. Its scales shone with the same rainbow shimmer as Hania's scale.
The dragon lifted its head. Its golden eyes met theirs.
Then, from somewhere behind them, a dry crack split the silence.