Dragon Keepers #1: The Dragon in the Sock Drawer by Kate Klimo, John Shroades

prickly way down Jesse’s arm and jumped to the ground. She flung out her forepaws.
    â€œMa. Ma?” she cried, looking up at the mountain.
    â€œMa. Ma?” she cried, looking across the pasture to the Deep Woods.
    â€œMa. Ma?” she cried, looking down at the big red barn. Then she turned her eyes first on Jesse, then on Daisy, and bleated, “Em. Meee. Want. Ma. Ma!”
    Jesse and Daisy looked at each other helplessly. What could they say? They had no idea where Emmy’s mother was. One thing was fairly certain. Emmy’s mother had been dead since The Time Before, whenever that was. But there was no way they could tell Emmy that, not when she was such a baby.
    Emmy took off down the hill, making whooping sounds.
    The cousins ran after her, but the little dragon kept the lead, her head bob-bob-bobbing above the tops of the clover as she cried, “Ma. Ma! Ma. Ma! Want. Ma. Ma!”
    She hopped across the cow pasture and darted through a narrow gap in the barn door. Jesse and Daisy shoved aside the heavy sliding door. Emmy was standing in the middle of the barn with her head raised, having a bawling fit that shook the rafters. “Want. Ma. Ma! NOW!!!!” she repeated in an ear-piercing, heartbreaking wail.
    â€œCan’t you do something?” Daisy said, covering her ears and yelling at Jesse over the din. “Pick her up and comfort her!”
    Jesse pulled the purple kneesock out of his sweatshirt pouch and put it over his hand. Then he went over and picked up the squalling baby dragon, hoping he could help.
    â€œHush, Emmy. Hush,” he crooned to her, and snuggled her, as much as snuggling a wailing baby dragon was possible. “Jesse has you.”
    Whether it was the sound of his voice or the sight of the kneesock that calmed her, Emmy stopped bawling. She snorted once, blowing dragon snot everywhere, then curled against Jesse’s chest. He carried her back out into the sunlight.
    Just outside the barn was an area enclosed by a crumbling stone wall, where the grass grew thick and soft. Jesse and Daisy called it the Heifer Yard, and it was their favorite picnic spot. “Would Emmy like some food?” Daisy asked in a soft but eager voice. She began to unload the backpack.
    â€œFooood!” cooed Emmy.
    â€œGoooood,” Daisy cooed back. She quickly peeled the hard-boiled eggs and set tiny bits of shell on the ground.
    Jesse sat cross-legged and held Emmy on his lap. He reached for a piece of shell and offered it to her. She took it in her claws and sniffed it. Then she nibbled. She sighed and hiccuped and said, “Gooood.”
    Jesse fed her one bit of shell after another, and she crunched them up as if they were potato chips. When Jesse felt it was safe to do so, he set Emmy down gently next to her eggshell chips and let her help herself.
    Then he and Daisy tucked into their soggy tuna sandwiches, with one eye on Emmy, and drank the slightly warm lemonade out of the thermos. Jesse checked his wristwatches. It was three o’clock in Goldmine City and one o’clock in the morning in Africa. He had been so excited this morning that he had not checked his e-mail. Life had gotten very busy all of a sudden.
    The afternoon sun poured down on Jesse’s shoulders like melted butter and made him feel drowsy. The cousins stretched out on the warm green grass as Emmy finished off the last of her chips and then curled up between them. In no time at all, the three of them were asleep.
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    Jesse awoke with a startled gasp and sat up. He had been dreaming that he was watching a great cloud of dust whirling down the old lane that led to the barn. At the center of the dust cloud was the million-dollar car. It took him a good few seconds of sitting there and blinking at the empty lane to convince himself that the dream wasn’t real. His skin prickled with relief.
    Daisy was still asleep, but Emmy was wide awake and standing