Young Writers Society

I so can't wait to get started on LMS!

This story is going to be about a girl, a dragon and a faerie colony set up to protect dragons from hunters. I'll post each chapter here, as well as some comments about my progress.

... 4 more days ...

Just over half an hour to go until midnight my time! All my studying's done for the night... time to finish planning my first chapter

Week 1

Chapter 1

The small, brown rabbit looked up at Terri. Terri waved at it and nearly fell forwards over the fence. She was balancing halfway up it, scattering chicken feed out of a massive steel bucket. Most of the chickens had come over when they saw her, as always, but this time they’d brought along the friend.

“Hello, little rabbit,” she whispered, “Are you hungry?”

The rabbit twitched its nose then bolted off. Terri sighed and turned her attention back to the chickens. The field was so flat, and here it sloped down the way too, that she could still see the little fella. He sat there staring at her, clearly waiting for the chickens to head off so he could get at any food they left over.

“Fat chance, buddy,” Terri murmured, “They can never get enough.”

The chickens, clucking and pecking at the last of the feed as it floated to the ground, seemed to be confirming her.

She dropped down from the fence and clutched her shawl tight about her with the hand that wasn’t holding the bucket. The sky was so grey, that really light grey that was basically just nothingness, and misery. She groaned and looked back towards the house. She was quite far from it, but she’d grown up there. She knew every inch of its leaning, thick-walled, dodgy roofed frame. Nothing had changed since she left the house after lunch that afternoon. Nothing ever changed.

She turned away from the house and looked back towards the chickens. Well, more accurately, she spotted the rabbit again. It was edging closer to her, a few feet at a time. She giggled and beckoned for it to come closer, leaning over the fence again.

“Come on, little rabbit.” She grinned. “If you hurry you’ll get here before the greedy cockerels have gobbled everything up.”

She nearly squealed with delight as the rabbit sprinted towards the chickens, which were starting to disband.

“Told you.” She smirked at the rabbit, whose ears had drooped when it saw that there was indeed no feed left.

It looked up at her, its breathing coming fast.

“I’m sorry!” She braced herself with her knees on the fence and spread her hands wide. “There’s nothing left! But hey, you’re meant to be good at this kind of thing. Did your parents never teach you how to forage? Are you a spoiled little rabbit?”

The rabbit twitched, but didn’t run away. Maybe it liked her talking to it.

“Besides, you live with Old Man Jaicinth, don’t you?” A smile spread wide on Terri’s face as she pictured the rabbit sitting down for tea with the fabled faerie Lord. “That’s where faeries live. Down in the rabbit burrows. That’s how we never see them. Rabbits don’t let us down their burrows, cos they’re worried we’ll steal their food – and the faeries never leave because why would they? You lot are so good at feeding them they’ve got all they’ll ever need!”

The rabbit didn’t really react, other than checking the ground for extra seed again.

Terri shrugged. “It’s alright. I expect the faerie court wouldn’t want you to tell me its secrets, even if you could talk.”

“Terri?”

This time Terri did fall off the fence. The boring grey-white sky flashed past as she toppled backwards, then the thud jarred down her forearms as she caught herself on her elbows. She gasped, her elbows gave way, and all of a sudden she was flat on her back and her head had thumped against the wet, muddy grass. She cringed and sat up. She really hoped she was facing the right direction to talk to whoever had spoken; she was far too dazed to turn round.

“Sorry, Terri,” her brother, Darret, said. He offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet. Then he went on, “I didn’t mean to interrupt your confidential dialogue with the Faerie Prince.”

It was only as he tilted his head to the side to direct this to the person standing next to him that Terri noticed there was a person standing next to him.

“It’s not the – it’s a rabbit! – Darret!” Terri put a hand to her temple as her own voice thundered in her skull, echoing like it was physically bouncing around in there.

“That’s not what it sounded like to us.” Darret's grin was like an elastic band tightening around her throat. He knew perfectly well that Jaicinth had always been a Lord, and that he wasn’t a rabbit. Dellig was the one who’d come up with the rabbits being the faerie servants in the first place.

“Oh, this is Rostel, by the way. He’s the friend from my tutoring I said I’d be bringing back for dinner tonight.” Darret stepped slightly forward and to the side so that he was halfway in between but a little apart from the two of them. “Terri, Rostel. Rostel, Terri.”

Rostel took Terri’s hand and planted a solid kiss on the roots of the fingers.

“Uh, nice to meet you,” Terri said. Her eyes darted to Darret, who shrugged. So this was a normal way of greeting people in the town then …?

“And you.” Rostel straightened up and smiled widely. His lips curled upwards so symmetrically. It was like he practiced meeting new people. His hair swept elegantly to the side in a somewhat severe parting and he was so very, very tall. When he spoke, his voice was deep but clear. He said, “What’s this about some sort of faerie King?”

With all of Terri’s might she resisted correcting yet another promotion of Lord Jaicinth. Instead she glanced about her and spotted a wheelbarrow about fifteen yards away. That would do.

“Uh, Darret can tell you about him. He told me all about him when we were kids. But uh, I have to go move some compost around.” She turned halfway through this sentence so that maybe he wouldn’t realise she’d said compost. She hadn’t a clue what was in the wheelbarrow, but she really hadn’t needed to give such a stinky example. Rostel didn’t need any more reason to think that Darret was any less cultured than he probably already did.

I'm here! I really like this. The characters and the dialogue feel really natural. I like Terri & I like the rabbit even more.

I'm unsure how old Terri is? She comes across very young in the first half of the chapter but then her reaction to Rostel kissing her hand comes across as adolescent. Maybe you could clear that up in the next bit!

Can't wait for more!

Ooh cool that's exactly the reaction I was going for She's 15, but she's had very little contact with society, cos she's lived on a farm her whole life. I'll try to slip her age into a line of dialogue at some point.

Week 2

“Terri!” Darret called. She didn’t turn round, and nearly found herself speeding up to get away from them. She breathed out and kept her pace steady, but she didn’t turn round. Then Darret called again, “Terri, do you know if Mum’s started on dinner yet?”

Terri scoffed and shook her head. She started twenty minutes ago. Maybe she wouldn’t have had to if you would help out for once. Terri sighed and tried to let her anger out along with her breath. Shouting at him wouldn’t do any good; she’d just sound like a little puppy yapping away. Or at least, that’s what he’d say.

She cut through the bottom half of the field, grinning with satisfaction as she successfully navigated the wheelbarrow through the heavy wooden cattle-gate. She nearly rolled the wheelbarrow over her foot as she did the same at the gate that took her back out of the field, but she just about emerged unscathed. She wondered if Darret and his friend were watching her, if Darret was proud of his farm-hand sister. Fifteen years old and she’d been to the village a total of twice in her life. Maybe Darret had brought Rostel home just to prove she was real. Surely it must have been impossible for a city boy to conceive of someone so uncultured.

She lay the wheelbarrow against the outer wall of the stable, which was only a few yards from the edge of the fowl field. The chicken coop looked sort of like a kennel to it, Terri always thought.

“Hey,” she called out into the dim light of the stable. They only had one horse, but the poor thing was old, and took naps almost constantly. She called again, “Hey, Lucio, where are you?”

There was a grunt. A single grunt from somewhere to Terri’s left. As she was trying to remember which of the half a dozen empty stalls she’d led him to last night, a grey snout lurched forward with a whinny.

“Lucio!” She smiled wide and could have hugged him if he hadn’t been behind the half-height stable door.

He hung his head over the door and puffed some air out of his nose as she approached. She put a hand on his nose and stroked at some black and white dappled patters between his eyes.

“Why aren’t we enough for him?” she whispered.

Lucio snorted, then seemed to sense her trembling or something. He lifted his head and leaned as far forward as he could, letting Terri wrap her arms around his neck. Terri sighed. As far as Lucio knew, it was normal to have never been further than ten miles from where you were born.

***

To be fair to Darret, he did at least stay out of the way while Terri and her mum were getting dinner ready. He and Rostel sat beside each other in the little living space, passing pieces of paper back and forth. Terri figured it was something to do with their tutoring but was way too busy to ask. Her mum had finished most of the actual cooking by the time she’d got in from cleaning the stables, but since they had company, they were going all out on presentation.

“Careful!” her mum exclaimed as she arranged some rare herbs around the edge of the plate of stew.

“Sorry.” Terri gasped and drew her hand back.

“It’s okay.” Her mum smiled and tucked a wisp of dark brown hair behind her ear. Terri really liked her mum’s hair. Or at least, she preferred it to her own, which was dirty blonde and almost always tangled. “You just don’t want to get them in the sauce. Those herbs are really rare – on this side of Noreon, you can only find them south of the town. We want the taste to be as obvious as possible.”

Terri nodded. “Maybe I should just ask Darret and Rostel what they would like to drink…”

“Oh, that’s actually a good idea, yes,” her mum said. She put a finger in the air in front of her, remembering something. “Tell Darret we have that tea he mentioned the other day.”

“Will do,” Terri said as she whipped off her apron and lay it over one of the kitchen chairs.

She popped her head into the living space, which was right next to the kitchen.

“Hey guys, what would you like to drink?” she asked, directing this towards Rostel because she still couldn’t quite look at Darret. “Mum says to say we have that tea from the north.”

“Oh,” Darret said. Terri forced herself to look round at him. He was grinning as he drew a large dark bottle from his satchel. “I bought this off a friend of Rostel’s. Ridiculously cheap, massive bargain.”

Terri tilted her head to the side and stared at the bottle, which started out rotund and swooped into a narrow neck at the top. “What is it?”

Darret stared at her for a few moments, then snorted.

“It’s er, wine,” Rostel put in.

“Oh.” Terri glanced at the ground, away from both of them just for a moment. Then she looked back up and said, “I’ll tell mum you brought your own drink.”

She held Darret’s gaze for a moment, daring him to admit that he might get into trouble if she did so. His birthday wasn’t for another month, so he was still just as seventeen as he had been for the past eleven.

He shrugged. “Okay, sure.”

Terri turned away immediately and nipped back through to the kitchen.

“Mum,” she said. Her mum put the finishing touches on the last plate, then turned round.

“What did they say, Ter?” she asked, absentmindedly untying her apron.

“They’ve brought some wine to drink.” Terri shrugged. She didn’t want to look like she was telling on Darret, even if she sort of was.

Her mum sighed and said, “Fine. Take them some glasses at least.”

Terri frowned, but did as her mum said. Then it was time to call the boys through to the dinner table. Terri grinned at Darret’s widened eyes as he saw the lavish – or at least relatively lavish compared to every other night – dinner plates in front of him. Terri chuckled to herself. Seeing him unable to stop staring at his plate, lowering himself into his chair without taking his eyes off it, was the most fun she’d had since he’d interrupted her conversation with the rabbit.

Week 3

“You’ve been busy,” Darret said eventually.

Terri rolled her eyes but looked down at the table so her mum wouldn’t tell her off.

“It looks delicious, Mrs Gannochy,” Rostel said. He smiled softly, as if he was sinking, or swooning, into pleasure. Terri resisted the urge to roll her eyes again.

“Thank you, Rostel,” Terri’s mum said. She gestured with a spoon towards their plates. “Come on. Eat up.”

Terri had never eaten so much for one meal in her life. It was like the food was piling up and up in her stomach so high that towards the end she felt like she was causing a bottleneck in her chest. She even choked a little as she finally set her knife and fork down. In between listening to Darret and Rostel talk about their tutoring and the amount of meat she’d eaten, she was so exhausted that she nearly fell asleep at the table.

Her head was beginning to hang to the side and her eyelids were almost shut when a sudden clatter made her bolt upright and hit her knee against the table leg.

“Herus, Terri!” Darret yelled. Then his eyes went wide and he just stared at her for a few seconds. Terri grinned. ‘Herus’ was their name for the actual faerie King who Jaicinth served. She loved it when he got drunk enough to forget he’d grown out of that.

“Are you alright?” Rostel asked.

Terri dragged her eyes away from Darret’s reddening cheeks and smiled at Rostel. She was tempted to explain to him exactly who Herus was, but instead she said, “I’m fine, thanks. What was that noise though?”

“I don’t actually know …” Terri’s mum mumbled, turning her head slowly to face the window as she spoke. “It sounded like it came from quite far away. Did you think it was closer? You jumped up like someone had blown a trumpet in your ear, honey.”

Terri frowned, then shrugged. “I don’t know. It just woke me up. It’s fine. What were you guys talking about?”

“You can go to bed if you want.” Darret shrugged, his cheeks back to normal. “You don’t have to stay up just for us.”

Terri shook her head and straightened her posture. “No, no. I’m fine. Just had a lot to eat.”
Terri’s mum rose from the table and sighed. “Well, I am going to go to bed. Try to keep the noise as low as you can, yes?”

“Yes, Mum,” Darret muttered, “Night.”

“Good night, Mrs Gannochy,” Rostel said, “I promise we’ll keep it down.”

Terri exhaled slowly out of her nose and tried not to think about slapping the suck-up. Her mum kissed the top of her head as she left the room and she nearly whimpered. She loved her mum so much, she really did. She was so lucky they got on, since they had to spend so much time together. But did she have to treat her like she was five, in front of Darret?

“How about hi-jinks?” Rostel was saying.

Terri snapped to attention and tried to focus her increasingly blurry vision on him. “How about what now?”

“It’s a drinking game, Terri. You know you really can go to bed whenever you want,” Darret said. Terri stared at his short, fuzzy hair so hard she wouldn’t have been surprised if it had spontaneously combusted.

“Or you could play with water,” Rostel added. The worst part was that he was actually trying to help.

The corner of Darret’s mouth tugged up and he said, “Hm … or you could play it with wine. Mum’s off to bed, remember.”

Terri clenched her jaw and stared one of the half full bottles of wine. Really … how bad could it be? She was so sleepy that she was seeing double by this point anyway.

“You don’t have to, of course,” Rostel said, holding his hands up in front of him as if protesting innocence. “The game really does work fine with water.”

Terri grabbed the bottle of wine and took a swig.

***

“I think he’s coming from over there!” Rostel hissed.

Terri could only make out his outline in the pale dusk light. His hair was sort of wispy, giving his shadow a rather fuzzy look. She blinked and tried to focus on what he’d said. Darret, it was Darret who was coming. They were playing hide and seek, she reminded herself.

“Where?” Terri whispered, “I can’t see where you’re pointing.”

“Ten o’clock on a clock face,” Rostel muttered, then started crawling away to Terri’s right. “Come on. What’s that hut over there?”

Terri frowned, then remembered he couldn’t see her. “That’s not a hut. That’s our stables.”

“Come on then.” Rostel grabbed her wrist. “Let’s go hide in there.”

She sighed and followed him on all fours, clutching at the bottom of her dress to stop it dragging on the wet grass.

“Where’s the entrance?” Rostel asked.

Terri darted past him, pretty sure she was far enough away from their previous location to stand up without Darret immediately spotting them. She shoved him through the door of the stable and instinctively felt her way along the stalls to the second on the left, where she’d left Lucio that afternoon.

“Terri? Where’d you go?” Rostel called.

“Down here,” Terri whispered, “Shush!”

Rostel giggled and she heard his footsteps get closer. Then the door she was leaning on vibrated slightly as he caught hold of it, keeping himself upright in the dark. His breathing was heavy. How much exercise did you get, living in the town?

“Lucio,” Terri called, “Lucio, where are you?”

“Who’s Lucio?” Rostel asked.

“Keep your voice down!” Terri hissed. She paused to give him a moment to calm down then said, “He’s our horse.”

“Oh,” Rostel said. A couple more breaths. “Oh, I think I hear him.”

Lucio was by this point breathing right on Terri’s hand, but making almost no noise. They hadn’t lit any lanterns, leaving them totally in the dark, and he seemed to have got the message to be quiet.

Then there was something on her hand. Lucio’s tongue? No, too smooth. Too … bony. Oh Jaicinth, it was Rostel’s hand. Before she could figure out what to say, he’d pulled her left side out from Lucio’s door so that she was facing him, or at least, facing where his breathing was coming from. She still couldn’t see him.

His hand was on her waist. His other hand on her neck. His breathing coming heavier and heavier. What was he doing? The absolute idiot. What did he think he was playing at?

But he wasn’t stopping. And then his mouth was on hers and the hand on her neck slipped down to join the one on her back, then they both pushed downwards. She blinked and as soon as he pulled away from her mouth she clenched all her muscles and threw herself backwards as forcefully as she could.

Week 4

“Get off me!” she screamed.

She stared at the whites of his eyes, all that she could make out in the dark. Her chest heaved up and down and she didn’t say anything. She had no idea what to say. What had just happened? What was she meant to do next?

“Well, that was rude,” spoke a voice a few metres behind her.

“Darret, I –” Rostel began. Terri felt his shoulder brush past hers and she winced. She forced herself to turn around. At least Darret was going to tell him off … even if he didn’t sound as furious as she’d have hoped.

“If you wanted me to leave you alone you could have just said, you know,” said Darret, his face lit up with a lantern he held. He grinned and leaned back against a stable door.

“That,” Rostel said, pointing at the lantern, “is cheating.”

Terri’s face burned. Of course Darret wasn’t siding with her. She wasn’t sure if he was siding with Rostel either … He didn’t even realise there was anything wrong.

She forced herself to say, “Which one of us did you see first?”

“You, I’m afraid, little sis.” Darret pushed himself up and started heading out of the stable. He handed her the lantern and said, “To a hundred. Slowly.”

Rostel shrugged at her, still smiling. Always smiling. Breath rushed out of Terri as the two of them left and she sank to the ground. With the lantern at her side, her heart still pounding and Lucio watching over her somewhere behind her, she started counting.

She got to twelve before she realised how ridiculous this was. People thought she was ridiculous for talking to rabbits all day. But talking to rabbits made sense. Rabbits didn’t make you kiss you and then laugh about it with your brother. Nor did they fail to defend you from your stupid always smiling friends. They brought you messages from the faeries out in the forest. They kept you company when you were lonely.

Shakily rising to her feet, she left the stable, walking away from the house and out towards the forest. She didn’t care that the faeries weren’t real, that the rabbits – well, the rabbits were real but she wasn’t going to try to convince anyone that they actually talked. She wished they did so much that she bit her lip and made it bleed.

The forest was about a mile away, but she’d walked about a quarter of the way before she even thought about how far it was. She’d been there before, playing at searching for the other realms back when Darret had still been her friend. Darret had led her there, their mum trusting him because he’d done such a good job of helping to plough the farm the day before. She missed him so much.

The first trees were taller than a lot of the trees further in, but were spindly and spread far apart from each other. As Terri slowed her pace and walked further in, hopping over the first roots and loose fallen branches, her feet started to throb a little. She’d been marching quite heavily, clenching her jaw and punching the air while picturing Darret’s face, and her feet had been landing with quite an impact. She didn’t care. She was here now.

She let the breath out of her slowly, coming to a stop near an ancient toppled fir tree. Its branches had long been bare, and were now clad in a thick layer of moss. It was where Darret and she had used to sit to have lunch. She could almost see their young forms chatting and staring about themselves, talking about what was going on around them in the trees. There had been a monkey once, saying hello to them from high above. Then a faerie scout had seen it, got startled, and rushed away to tell her nearest den.

There was a cracking sound somewhere further into the forest. Terri gasped and felt her pulse, which had just begun to calm, immediately spring back into action.

“Hello?” she called, then clapped her hand over her mouth and wished she could get that noise back into her mouth. Nobody appeared though, so whatever had made the sound hadn’t heard her.

There was a cry … which actually sounded more like a roar … but it was definitely a cry. Not letting her brain have a say in the matter, Terri’s legs took her forward, darting from behind tree to tree. She was climbing a short, steep hill, so steep that it was pretty dangerous to go down it except on hands and knees, as she and Darret had discovered one fateful day.

Her memories were cut short when she reached the top. About fifty metres away she could see three upright figures and something lying down. Its legs were kicking out – it seemed to have four. Far more interestingly though, it seemed to have wings of some sort. They were sort of crumpled and bent, but that was definitely what she saw.

One of the upright figures threw something to one of the others, who caught it and crouched down behind the creature on its back. Then the figure who had thrown it also crouched down and Terri watched as it wrapped its end around a peg and nailed the peg into the ground. They were tying the creature down.

Terri darted behind a tree, realising that if she could see the figures, chances were they could see her. She crouched down as low as she could go and peeked her head round the side of the tree. They were lit by a light blue glow, coming from Terri had no idea where. It looked … magic.

You there!

Terri gasped and drew her head back. But that made no sense. How could they have seen her from so far away, just her head which was all the way at ground level.

It’s okay! Please listen to me, young Preisa. I haven’t got long before they take me. Please, if you have any value for your fellow child, please help my baby.

The voice was deep and gravelly. But there was nobody speaking. It was like it was right in Terri’s head.

Week 5

There was another piercing cry. It wracked through Terri's head and she curled up into a ball, pressing her head into her knees to keep from crying out. She clung to her leggings and waited until it was over, which, thinking about it later, was probably only about a second and a half.

I'm sorry, the voice said. Terri heard panting in her head. Couldn't cut ... connection in time.

Terri swallowed. She had no clue how to answer this voice - this voice which seemed to be coming from the creature she'd watched be tied town fifty metres away from her.

"Who are you?" Terri whispered, so quietly she wasn't sure she hadn't just mouthed the words.

My name is Loudela. My baby-

There was another whimper, still loud enough to cause Terri to wince.

My baby is called Jamik. Please. Please find him. Please find my baby!

Terri gasped again as the voice cried out. She was shaking, holding her hands to her head to try to block out the shouts of the people tying down whoever was speaking to her.

Then something felt different. There was something missing. It was like someone had reached into the space between her head and taken out a handful of air. The connection was broken.

There were shouts from far off again, roaring cheers of triumph. Terri's breath caught in her throat and a shudder ran all along her body. What if they came towards her? She couldn't get back down the hill fast enough in the dark. Should she climb the tree? Herus, there were twigs breaking barely ten metres away from her! How could they be on her already?

There was a cough beside her, just on the other side of the tree. She wasn't sure, but the sound seemed to come from close to the ground, roughly as low as she was crouching. Was one of the hunters - she figured that's what they'd been - crouching down to her level?

Then there was a louder cough, and a small burst of flame. A small snout poked forward, followed by a little head, with little white horns just beginning to sprout out of the top. Then a tiny little body followed, padding forward slowly as it raised its head to sneeze.

"Jamik!" Terri hissed, thrusting her hand out and clamping it over his snout. "You need to be quiet, Jamik ... that is you, right?"

Mummy? The creature tilted his head to the side and his eyes went wide.

"Come on, Jamik," Terri whispered, "We have to go."

She grabbed the creature around its midsection, wincing as his wings hit into her arms. She'd imagined picking up a baby pig, forgetting about the extra feature she'd spotted earlier on his mother.

Oh, Herus' waters. Coughing fire... wings. She was clutching a baby dragon.

She grinned slightly as she darted over to the nearest tree and stood with her back pressed against it. Gazing up through the trees, she sighed at the rawness of the starlight that broke through the gaps. This felt so real, so exciting. She'd never felt so alive.

She sprinted from tree to tree, but after a while there was no more sound of the hunters. She wasn’t really sure if she should relax yet, in fact that seemed like a terrible idea but Jamik was squirming in her grip, and they were nearly at the edge of the forest. She crouched to the ground and let him hop out of her arms.

"Jamik, are you alright?" Terri asked, staring into his shining bright eyes.

Jamik looked down at the ground and said, Mummy.

Terri gestured with her head for him to follow her as she jogged out through the sparse, tall, spindly trees and back onto the path that led to the house. The moon was bright, and now that she was out from under the canopy of leaves it lit Jamik's form enough that she could tell his fur was a shiny metallic green.

She stopped and stared at him, ignoring the screaming voice of common sense in the back of her mind. This was ridiculous, she knew. She should be panicking, freaking out, screaming because she was running alongside a baby dragon that had already coughed fire about five centimetres from her head. Not to mention the fact that those hunters were definitely still out there somewhere.

But he was just so beautiful.

Mummy! Suddenly Jamik rushed past her, back towards the forest. Had he seen Loudela? She tried to listen for the hunters but there was nothing. The forest behind them was silent.

Terri spun round and stumbled after Jamik. She hissed, "Jamik! No, come back!"

She nearly tripped over him when she reached him. He was sat back on his haunches, legs curled up and back hunched over. There was no sign of his mother or the hunters anywhere - he must have just realised late that he was running away from her with a stranger. She dropped to her knees beside him and put an arm round his shoulders, gasping slightly as it nearly got caught in his wings.

Want Mummy ... Jamik's voice was a soft, scared whisper in her mind. Her voice caught in a lump in her throat and she gulped.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Then the urge to calm him grabbed hold of her and she added, "We'll find her, I promise ... Come on, let's go get you something to eat."

She turned to face Jamik and noticed glittering tears running down his cheeks, sparkling more than they would be if they were just glinting in the moonlight. This was a dragon.

Nonetheless, Terri realised letting him walk by himself was literally going to get them nowhere. She drew her arm carefully out from between his wings and scooped him up, her adrenaline still high enough for the weight to feel just about bearable.

She took a deep breath, patted Jamik's head with one finger, and set off towards the house.