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  The trees were as tall as oaks with brownish-black trunks and leaves a teal so dark they were almost black. So when a flash of gold flickered in those dark leaves, it made me look.

  There, sticking its head out from between two teal leaves, was a perfect little miniature dragon. Not a lizard or a snake—an actual dragon about as long as my hand from the tip of my middle finger to my wrist. It had an elongated snout and large, jewel-like eyes that whirled as it considered me. When it sat up on the branch I saw it had tiny wings too—gold with red and black webbing. It looked like an exquisite golden statue come to life.

  “Hi there, little guy,” I said to it. Could this be the fire drake? It didn’t seem nearly as frightening as I’d thought it might be. “How about coming here for a minute?” I said to the little dragon, holding out a hand, palm up to it. “I’m supposed to touch you but I’m pretty sure it’s okay if you touch me instead.”

  It hesitated for a moment, then stepped out onto my hand. Its little claws were sharp and its skin was dry and very hot—in fact, I could feel the heat of its tiny body radiating against my palm as though I was holding a live coal instead of a living creature.

  “Hey, buddy…” Carefully, using just one fingertip, I stroked the top of my new friend’s head. The whirling jeweled eyes half closed with pleasure and it made a soft humming sound I took to mean it was enjoying itself. I stroked it again and was so caught up in the enchanting experience I forgot to look and see what Eucilla was doing until I heard her voice.

  “Well, hello there,” I heard her coo. I looked up to see that she was staring at another miniature dragon that was peering at her from a higher branch of the tree. “Aren’t you just adorable,” she gushed, as it cocked its tiny golden head from side to side, studying her. “Morbain said you’d be big but just look—you’re tiny.” She cast me a defiant glance. “I see you’ve already got one.”

  I shrugged. “He just came to me. They’re cute, right?”

  “Hmmph.” Apparently she was done talking to me. Instead, she held out her hand to the little golden dragon, which was slightly larger than the one I had. “Come here,” she said in a coaxing tone. “Come to the True Incarnation as you’re supposed to, now.”

  The dragon sniffed her hand, cocked its head to one side…and bit her middle finger.

  “Ouch!” Eucilla cried, snatching her hand away and glaring at the dragon, who almost seemed to be laughing at her. “Why you little—oh no, you’re not getting away that easily. Come here—come here!”

  She made a snatch at the dragon but it darted away. Eucilla, however, was clearly not one to give up easily. She grabbed the branch the little creature had jumped to and began to shake it vigorously.

  With a sharp sound of distress, the miniature golden dragon fell out of the tree, onto the soft moss below.

  “Got you!” Eucilla snatched it off the ground before it could skitter back up the tree. “Let’s see you try and bite me now,” she exclaimed, holding it in front of her face, but not so close that it could reach her with its spiky little teeth.

  “Be careful,” I said sharply, putting my own little dragon carefully back on the tree branch he’d come from. “You’re hurting him!”

  “Well, he hurt me.” Petulantly, she squeezed the little creature until it squeaked in distress.

  “He was probably frightened,” I said angrily. “Stop it, Eucilla! Put him back!”

  “I’ll do no such thing. I—”

  She was interrupted by the high, keening wail coming from the little dragon in her hand. At once, about a hundred little golden heads stuck out from the trees on either side of us and other miniature dragons took up the cry. It got so loud I had to put my hands to my ears.

  “Stop it! Stop that dreadful racket!” Eucilla exclaimed. “If you don’t, I’ll make you sorry! I am the True Incarnation—I’ll have the lot of you destroyed if you don’t shut up.”

  And then the hill moved.

  It was just a motion in the corner of my eye at first—something I barely saw because I was so focused on the little dragon clutched tight in Eucilla’s hand. But then it moved again and I turned to face it.

  What I saw made me feel cold all over. The little dragons abruptly fell silent and in the sudden stillness I swore I could hear my own heart pounding in my ears.

  “Eucilla,” I whispered breathlessly, my mouth so dry I could hardly talk. “Eucilla, put it down now.”

  “It bit me,” she said, her eyes still trained on the little dragon. “I’m not done with it yet! Besides, I’m supposed to touch it.”

  “Well you’d better get done in a hurry,” I told her, still facing the hill which was no longer hill-shaped. “Because I don’t think that’s the fire drake we’re supposed to be touching.” I pointed with one shaky finger. “Look.”

  “What are you talking about?” Reluctantly, she turned her head to look at what I was pointing at. Her eyes grew wide and she gasped.

  The hill was a hill no longer. It had uncurled itself, revealing that what I had taken for a moss-covered mound of dirt was actually an enormous back. A long, snaky neck had uncoiled to point a huge head directly at us.

  Once when I was a kid, my adopted parents had taken me up to Washington DC to visit the Smithsonian museum. My favorite part of that trip was the Natural History museum with all the animals. Specifically, I loved the dinosaur exhibit. I still have a picture of me standing beside a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull, completely dwarfed by the huge fossil.

  That was kind of the way I felt now except the creature facing us was no fossil. Also, it was at least twice as big as a T-Rex and it looked mad as hell.

  “Oh my Goddess,” Eucilla whispered, staring at it. “Oh my Goddess.”

  “Drop… the little… dragon,” I hissed at her from the corner of my mouth. Dimly I was aware of Morbain shouting the same thing at her from the doorway. But the door was so far away, on the other end of the football field-sized room, it was hard to hear him. “Drop it,” I repeated. “I think that’s a baby and this is the mother. If she thinks you’re hurting her baby…”

  “Oh.” Understanding flooded Eucilla’s face, which had been nearly drained of prettiness by the fear that was stamped on her perfect features. “All right—it’s all right,” she said in a shaking voice to the huge dragon which was watching us with whirling jeweled eyes as big as basketballs. “I’m letting your baby go, see? I’m putting it down.”

  Up until now, both of us had been frozen in place. Now, as Eucilla reached up to place the little golden dragon back on the tree branch with his brothers and sisters, I saw the dragon’s huge eyes tracking us. Suddenly, it opened its mouth and let out a roaring, hissing screech that made my eardrums bulge.

  “Ahh!” I clapped my hands over my ears in pain and Eucilla fell to her knees, crying.

  The huge head lifted and the jaws stretched wide, showing razor sharp, serrated teeth as long as my arm. The fire drake blew a huge plume of flame into the air, white-hot and as bright as a jet from a blow-torch. The temperature in the room went up by what felt like twenty degrees and the cold sweat that had popped out on my skin suddenly turned hot and desperate.

  Eucilla shrieked and started trying to scramble to her feet in the ridiculous heels.

  “Run! We have to run!” she babbled.

  “No!” I caught her arm, dragging her under the shelter of the tree with me.

  “Let me go!” She batted at my hands frantically. “I have to get away from here! This creature is mad. It doesn’t understand I’m the True Incarnation!”

  “Stay right here.” I shook her, making my voice stern, as I did when I spoke to unruly patients. “Don’t you see—she’s protecting her babies! She won’t burn us as long as we’re close to them because she might burn them, too. If you run, you’ll make yourself a target because you’ll be far enough from them for her to breathe fire at you.”

  At last I saw my words were sinking in. Eucilla’s eyes grew wide and she stopped struggling against my han