Anya and the Dragon: Chapters 21–29

by Sofiya Pasternack
While trying to capture a dragon to collect a reward and save her family's home, eleven-year-old Anya discovers that the dragon is friendly and also in need of being saved.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–11, Chapters 12–20, Chapters 21–29, Chapters 30–39
30 words 10 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. manifest
    reveal its presence or make an appearance
    She huffed, her frustration manifesting as a quiet sob, and then nearby splashing and rustling made her open her eyes.
  2. dismay
    the feeling of despair in the face of obstacles
    As she pushed up, the thick blanket that had been covering her slid down her shoulder, and she realized she wasn’t wearing her dress but an enormous tunic instead. Her dress, to her dismay, hung on a chair near the fire, behind the dragon.
  3. mantel
    a shelf that projects from the wall above a fireplace
    A shield with a red dragon painted on it hung above the mantel.
  4. undulate
    move in a wavy pattern or with a rising and falling motion
    He used his two legs to walk across the floor and undulated his long body like a snake, helping to push himself along.
  5. haphazard
    marked by great carelessness
    As he approached, she held up her arm and pointed to the haphazard bandage.
  6. benevolent
    intending or showing kindness
    She thought of what the stories said—fearsome, violent, monstrous—and then what Babulya said. Gentle. Benevolent. Good luck. The dragon coiled before her had pulled her out of the river and had brought her to his home to have her wounds bound. That was benevolent, wasn’t it?
  7. gingerly
    in a manner marked by extreme care or delicacy
    She followed carefully, hugging the oversize tunic to herself as she stepped gingerly around rocks and sticks.
  8. skepticism
    doubt about the truth of something
    Håkon stared at her, his dragony face pulled into an expression of skepticism.
  9. discern
    perceive, recognize, or detect
    She spun in a circle, trying to discern some way to find the dragon in his cave, but there was nothing.
  10. rudimentary
    being in the earliest stages of development
    A stream of water poured up from the river and into the little cave, forming a rudimentary table and chairs.
  11. ire
    anger; irritability
    Anya absently picked at her fingernail, trying to hide her ire. There was no way Håkon would ever hurt anyone. “So the tsar killed all the dragons because one of them did something terrible?”
  12. scant
    less than the correct or legal or full amount
    The scant dawn glowed through the tiny window.
  13. condescending
    characteristic of those who treat others with arrogance
    Kin groaned as he walked around the forge to her and leaned over the tall counter, a condescending smile on his face.
  14. trepidation
    a feeling of alarm or dread
    She hesitated, and Kin heaved a sigh and said, “I’m not gonna steal it.”
    With trepidation, Anya set the scale onto Kin’s palm.
  15. warble
    sing or play with trills
    When he opened his mouth, he didn’t speak or make a sound Anya expected from a dragon. He tweeted, and twittered, and warbled.
  16. drab
    lacking brightness or color; dull
    Bright songbirds, drab little sparrows, huge black ravens, and a handful of hawks and eagles swooped in, landing on any available surface.
  17. tine
    a prong on a fork, pitchfork, or antler
    The pitchfork’s tines bent and stretched like claws, grasping Håkon around the neck and yanking him to a stop.
  18. chastise
    scold or criticize severely
    The metal still bound him, and Kin lifted a trembling, chastising finger at the dragon.
  19. bale
    a large bundle bound for storage or transport
    Minutes later they were in the hayloft, with Håkon blocked from the door by some hay bales stacked three high.
  20. scythe
    an edge tool for cutting grass
    Kin reached a hand up, and the scythe he had used against Anya earlier flew to him. He hobbled across the barn floor toward Sigurd, and the Varangian smashed his sword against the scythe, knocking it out of Kin’s hands.
  21. misshapen
    so badly formed or distorted as to be ugly
    Sigurd slashed his sword past the misshapen horseshoes, and they both jerked to a stop.
  22. bearing
    (usually plural) a person's awareness of self
    He shook his head, gaining his bearings, and went to charge up the stairs again.
  23. waver
    be unsure or weak
    The domovoi wavered between Anya and Ivan, then looked up at the ceiling as heavy boot steps clunked down on the floor from the direction of the hayloft.
  24. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    They shoved at the door as the smoke continued to billow through the floorboards, and the fire spread wider, roaring as it went.
  25. inferno
    a very intense and uncontrolled fire
    They huddled by the well, watching the barn above them go up in an inferno that nearly scorched them where they stood.
  26. backfire
    return with an undesired effect
    “If I try, it will backfire!”
  27. murky
    cloudy, dirty, and difficult to see through
    The underground current spat Anya out into murky light, and her lungs screamed for air as she clawed toward the surface.
  28. meager
    deficient in amount or quality or extent
    After the prints crossed the bridge over the Sogozha—the bridge with the fisherman trail beside it that led to Kin’s secret ravine house—they took a sharp left on a meager path, directly south into the forest.
  29. meander
    move or cause to move in a winding or curving course
    The farther south the forest went, the more dry birch and pine would give way to the swampy shores of the messy, meandering Sogozha.
  30. venture
    proceed somewhere despite the risk of possible dangers
    Vodyaniye and bukavacs prowled the waterways, hungry for people foolish enough to venture in.
Created on Wed May 11 12:48:02 EDT 2022 (updated Mon May 23 09:16:17 EDT 2022)

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