“Shoo,” Alijandra said, peering over the side of the box and waving her hand. “Go away, flies. Get off my Pearl. Shoo.”

Isabella squatted next to her sister and looked inside the box. The little green dragon sprawled on the bottom, eyes shut, flies buzzing around the crusted-over wounds on its sides, its neck, its tail. I hope it’s not— Isabella began to think, but then the dragon’s head twitched and it went mrrr. 

It was early in the morning, and the girls had just awakened. Their mother and To-Ho-Ne and Jack were outside. Yesterday, after meeting Ahiga and Brother Tunneler, they had come home to find no change in the dragon’s condition. They had thrown out what the ants had not stolen from the dragon’s food basket. Some of the water had evaporated—sucked into the thirsty air—but the rest had not been disturbed. The girls had scrounged up some more scraps: a bit of fat from the ham, pieces of tortilla, a spot of honey, even a few petals of a yellow blossom that To-Ho-Ne had carefully plucked from a prickly pear cactus. They had put all these in the food basket, making sure that no item of food touched another (that was Alijandra’s idea). They had slid the basket to the edge of the box, so that all the little dragon had to do to reach it was stretch out her long neck.

And still the dragon had not eaten.

“Maybe she doesn’t like any of this food, either,” Alijandra said. 

“We don’t have anything else to give her,” Isabella replied.

“Maybe she eats bugs,” Alijandra said. “A lot of lizards do, and she looks like a liz—”

“I am not catching bugs,” Isabella announced. “If you want to feed her bugs, you catch them.”

“I can’t feed her bugs,” Alijandra replied. “I’d feel bad for them.”

“Then why were you trying to catch hoppers the other day?” Isabella asked.

“Just in case we had to,” Alijandra explained. “Besides, I like hoppers.”

“You’re a hopper,” Isabella said.

“I’m a hopper! I’m a hopper!” Alijandra sprang to her feet and began hopping about, both feet together. “Chee-reep! Chee-reep!” she called.

“I take it back,” Isabella said. “You’re not a hopper: you’re an idiot. Now stop jumping around like that and help me figure out how to get this dragon to eat.”

“Chee-reep! Chee-reep! Chee-reep!” Alijandra sang, still hopping. Just then, the door opened. Mama and To-Ho-Ne and Jack came in. “Mama, I’m a hopper!” Alijandra exclaimed.

“Anyone can see that,” Mama said. “Why are you a hopper this morning?”

“Never mind her, Mama,” Isabella said. “The dragon isn’t eating.”

Mama and To-Ho-Ne came over and hunched over the box. The old Diheneh woman grunted. “It is too sick to eat,” she said. “But if it doesn’t eat soon, or at least drink, it will die.”

“She can’t die,” Alijandra replied, no longer a grasshopper. 

To-Ho-Ne leaned over and pointed her round finger at the dragon’s side. “The paste I made is keeping sickness out of the wounds. But it is not enough. Sickness is already inside her. From poison, I think.”

“Poison?” Alijandra asked. “How did she get poison in her?” 

“The other dragon?” Isabella wondered. “The venomdrake?” 

To-Ho-Ne nodded. “Perhaps it tried to kill this little dragon. Look here,” she said, pointing again at the wounds. “These could be scratches from teeth.”

“How could this little dragon live through a fight with that big one?” Isabella asked. “One bite, and she’d be dead.”

“Maybe Pearl was too fast for her,” Alijandra replied. “Little things are faster than big things.”

“Not always,” Isabella said.

“I’m faster than you,” Alijandra said.

“You are not,” Isabella said. “I beat you every time we race.”

“Well, Pearl must have been faster than that other dragon,” Alijandra said. “Or maybe she could hide under bushes and cactuses and rocks and things, because she’s so small.”

“Why would that other dragon—the venomdrake—fight this little dragon?” Isabella asked. “She’s too little to hurt anything.”

To-Ho-Ne shrugged. “Venomdrakes are very bad. They like to kill animals and people. Maybe it just saw this little one and wanted to have some fun. Or maybe this little one did something bad to it, somehow.”

“Pearl would never do anything bad,” Alijandra said. “Pearl is nice.”

“’Pearl’ almost bit my thumb off,” Isabella reminded her. “And she scratched up my arm.”

“You’re still going on about that,” Alijandra said. “I told you that she didn’t mean it.”

“What do mean?” Isabella demanded. “You don’t know any—” 

“Stop arguing,” Mama said. “I am not in the mood for it.” She turned to To-Ho-Ne. “What can we do? Anything?”

To-Ho-Ne shrugged again. “There are herbs that cure poison. But venomdrake poison is very bad. It can kill a strong man like that,” she said, clapping her hands, startling Jack. 

“So Pearl must be very tough,” Alijandra said. “Because she’s still alive, and the bad dragon put poison in her.”

To-Ho-Ne nodded. “I need buckwheat and golden smoke, and altjj’jik’aashi, if you can find it. Can you girls get them for me?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Alijandra exclaimed.

“I suppose,” Isabella said. “Where do we find these plants? What do they look like?”

“You can find them all around,” To-Ho-Ne said. “Buckwheat is a tall, skinny green grass, with tiny white flowers. Golden smoke is also tall and green and skinny, but it has long yellow flowers on top that look like horns.”

“Like horns on a cow?” Alijandra asked.

“No, like a horn you blow in,” To-Ho-Ne said. “You find altijj’jik’aashi by water—there might be some by the arroyo, but if not, there may be some at the stream.”

“The stream we have to cross to go to Scorpion Tail?” Isabella asked. To-Ho-Ne nodded. 

“That’s a long way off,” Mama said. “Hours there and back.”

“What does this altij…what does it look like?” Alijandra asked.

“Tall and skinny and green—” To-Ho-Ne began. 

“Everything is ‘tall and skinny and green!’” Alijandra laughed.

“—but the stems are not all one long shoot. They are made of little parts, each as long as my finger,” To-Ho-Ne said, holding up her pinky, “one on top of each other.”

“Stacked like blocks?” Isabella asked.

“Something like that, yes,” To-Ho-Ne said. “And at the very top is a white part that looks like the end of a rattlesnake’s tail.” 

“It sounds like some kind of horsetail plant,” Mama said.

“Yes!” To-Ho-Ne said, clapping her hands together. “A ‘horsetail.’ I could not think of the word.”

“Do you have to have the horsetail?” Isabella asked. 

To-Ho-Ne shrugged. “It is very good for bites from snakes and spiders and tinilei lizards,” she said. “Good for scorpion stings, too.” 

“If it will help, we have to get some,” Alijandra said. “I don’t mind going to the stream.”

“I mind,” Mama said. “It’s too far: it would take you almost all day to go there and come back. And that’s if there are any horsetails there. And only Our Mother knows what might happen to you two out there.”

“Mama, we have to help Pearl,” Alijandra insisted.

“Stop calling the dragon that,” Mama replied. “No. You may not go. It’s too far, you might get lost, you could fall down and get hurt, you could be found by bandits or a cougar or something even worse. No. Absolutely not.”

“I don’t want her to die,” Alijandra said. “I just want to help her.” 

“You’re more help to her—it—by going with your sister and getting the other plants that To-Ho-Ne said and not wandering off and having something bad happen to you,” Mama said. 

“Nothing bad is going to happen,” Alijandra protested. 

“But if something bad were to happen, what then?” Mama asked. “You’d be very far from home, and it would be hours before To-Ho-Ne and I realized that you hadn’t come back—and then it would be more hours before we found you—if we found you. What if we never did? How would I live with myself, knowing I had let my two little girls go wandering around alone in the desert, miles from home? And what about poor Papa? He loves you more than anything else in the world. If I let something bad happen to you, he would never recover, and he’d never forgive me. Do you want to take the chance of that happening? I don’t.”

For a long moment, the house was quiet. Finally, Isabella asked, “What if the medicine doesn’t work?” 

“Then we have to try something else,” To-Ho-Ne replied. “Perhaps a sand painting. Ahiga’s father is a healer. He can do one.”

“What’s a sand painting?” Alijandra asked.

“Something like a prayer, like the kind that Daon Raul does for us,” Mama answered.

“Except sand paintings work,” To-Ho-Ne added. Mama pursed her lips. 

“Why don’t we just ask him to do one now?” Alijandra said. 

“Making a sand painting is not easy,” To-Ho-Ne said. “Let’s try the buckwheat and the golden smoke first. If that doesn’t help, perhaps I will go by myself and find some horsetail.”

“What about our chores?” Isabella asked.

“You can do them when you come back,” Mama said. “Get dressed and wash your faces and scrub your teeth and have something to eat. Then go with Jack. Stay together, and don’t dawdle. Come back as soon as you have what To-Ho-Ne needs for the medicine.”

“Yes, Mama,” Isabella said.

“Yes, Mama,” Alijandra added.

They quickly dressed and washed and ate some frybread. Then To-Ho-Ne gave them a basket and the three of them set off, going towards the butte: the girls out front, Jack huffing and puffing along behind. Every so often, he would wander off, sniffing around a bush or a clump of cactuses or a tree, but he stayed in sight and always kept up with them.

“How does To-Ho-Ne know so much about dragons?” Alijandra asked. 

“What do you mean?” Isabella answered. 

“She knows about the big dragon,” Alijandra said. “The bad one that’s dead. She knows it’s mean and has poison. And what kind of babies it has—remember?”

“Yes, you’re right,” Isabella said. “I was wondering that myself, but I’m not sure. Maybe she really doesn’t know anything about dragons and is just making up things. Like those stories she tells about ghosts and monsters.”

“There really are ghosts, and monsters,” Alijandra insisted, “and witch people, too. She told me.” 

“She just tells you things like that to get you to be good. She used to try to me those stories, too, but Mama wouldn’t let her. She said it was…” Isabella fumbled for the word. “She said it was against our religion.”

“Well I think she does know about dragons,” Alijandra said. “But I don’t know how she knows.” She considered something for a moment. “Do you think To-Ho-Ne used to train dragons? Like Papa does?”

“No,” Isabella said. “To-Ho-Ne was Mama’s nurse when she was little and lived in Ysparria. She raised Mama. And when Papa married Mama and they came here, she came, too, to take care of you and me. Except…”

“Except what?” Alijandra asked.

Isabella shook her head. “I don’t know. I think I remember one time, back when you were a baby, right after we came here, when To-Ho-Ne didn’t live with us. I don’t know why she didn’t. But she came back after a little while.” She shrugged. “Maybe she was staying with her family. But then—I don’t remember To-Ho-Ne ever mentioning her family. No mother or father—she’s old, so they must be dead—but no brothers or sisters, either.” 

She shook her head again. “Maybe I’m just remembering it wrong and she really did live with us the whole time. I was just little then. It’s hard to remember things when you’re little.”

“I remember everything,” Alijandra said. Isabella said nothing. They walked on for a while. The slap of their sandals, the buzz of the insects, and Jack’s panting were the only sounds in the world.

Suddenly, Alijandra stopped and looked around. 

“What?” Isabella asked.

“This is where I found Leonor,” Alijandra said. 

“Who’s Leonor?” 

“My spider friend.”

“Oh, that again.”

“I met her right before the big storm and I’ve been looking for her ever since but I haven’t found her and I think she may have drowned like the sheep did and it makes me sad,” Alijandra said. 

“It’s just a spider,” Isabella said. 

“She’s not just a spider!” Alijandra insisted. “She’s my friend.” 

That’s stupid, Isabella thought. Just stupid little baby thinking— But her sister’s eyes were growing wet and her lip was trembling. Isabella hugged her sister. “I’m sure she’s all right,” Isabella said. “The rain probably just washed away her old web, so she made a new one somewhere else.”

Alijandra wiped her eyes. “Leonor doesn’t make webs. She lives in a hole in the ground. To-Ho-Ne said so.”

“Well, then, the hole where she lives got rain in it and it got too muddy for her and she went to find a new one,” Isabella said. 

“You don’t think she drowned in the rain?” Alijandra asked. “Like the sheep did?”

“The sheep didn’t drown in the rain,” Isabella explained. “She fell into the arroyo while she was running away and drowned in the river.”

“I know that,” Alijandra said. “That wasn’t what I meant.”

“Good,” Isabella replied. “Don’t worry about Leonor. I’m sure you’ll see her again, if you look long enough.”

Alijandra considered this. “To-Ho-Ne said that spiders like her don’t go very far.” She beamed. “So she could be anywhere around here.” She cupped her hands to her mouth. “Leonor! Leonor!” Jack looked up at her, puzzled.

“I don’t think you can call a spider like you can call a dog,” Isabella laughed. “Come on. Let’s go find those plants for Pearl.”

“Do you think Pearl will be all right?” Alijandra asked. “She looks so sad and so hurt and she’s not eating anything and To-Ho-Ne says if she doesn’t drink anything she’ll die and—”

“She won’t be all right if we don’t find those plants,” Isabella said. “So let’s do that.”

They wandered. They found a clump of golden smoke growing at the base of the butte, and picked it. In the shadow of the butte, the ground was still soft from the rain, and it was easy to pull out the plants. They kept on walking, going away from the arroyo and where they had found the venomdrake’s carcass. 

After they had been walking for about an hour, Alijandra pointed to a dark, squat thing about a half mile away. “What’s that?” 

“It’s an old shack,” Isabella said. “Mama said to stay away from it.”

“Does anyone live there?” Alijandra asked.

“Not any more. Mama told me that some old man named Mr. Dempesson used to live there, but he died a long time ago. He knew Papa.”

“Can we go see?” 

“Didn’t you hear what I said?” Isabella demanded. “Mama said not to go there. There’s nothing to see, anyway: it’s just an empty little house.”

“How do you know it’s empty?” Alijandra asked. “Have you been there?”

“No, and I don’t want to,” Isabella said. “And don’t you go telling Mama I have been there, because I haven’t.” She took Alijandra’s hand. “Now, come on. We need to find some buckwheat.”

“And maybe some horsetails,” Alijandra added. 

“We are not going to find horsetails,” Isabella said. 

They walked along, heading more or less in a big loop back towards their house. The air became very hot very quickly, and Jack kept by their side, trotting along with his ham-pink tongue lolling. Near a pile of boulders twice as tall as Isabella, they found some buckwheat growing. They picked all of it and put it in the baskets.

“That was easy,” Isabella said, “and it didn’t take long at all. Let’s go ho—”

“No, let’s not go home,” Alijandra said. “Not yet. Let’s go get some horsetails. By the little stream. Where the fish were when we were coming back from Scorpion Tail.”

Isabella shook her head. “No. Mama said not to.”

“But she needs them,” Alijandra said. “These plants aren’t as good as horsetails. To-Ho-Ne said so.” 

“She did not,” Isabella said. “You’re just making that up. You don’t know anything about medicine for dragons. No one does. Not even To-Ho-Ne. She’s just guessing that this will help.” Isabella shook her head again. “I’m not going to get in trouble for that dragon—and neither are you. We’re going home right now.”

“But—”

“Remember what Mama said? What if we get lost? What if something bad happened to us?” Isabella squatted down and put her hands on her sister’s shoulders. “I know you just want to help Pearl. But this is the best way to help her. Right?”

Alijandra didn’t look at her sister.

“Right?” Isabella asked.

“Right,” Alijandra said. 

“Come on, then.”

“But what if this medicine doesn’t work?” Alijandra asked. “What if she just gets sicker? Then what do we do?”

“Then we’ll have to go to the stream and find some horsetails,” Isabella said.

“What if Mama won’t let us?”

“Well, To-Ho-Ne said she would go,” Isabella replied. “We could go with her.”

“What if Mama won’t let us go with To-Ho-Ne?”

“Then we’ll go by ourselves,” Isabella said. “Even if Mama doesn’t want us to.” Alijandra wrapped her arms around Isabella and squeezed tight. 

Why did I say that? Isabella wondered. I didn’t mean that. We can’t just run off like that, when Mama told us not to. She hugged her sister tight. Tail wagging, Jack came over, sniffing and licking the girls’ faces. Alijandra giggled and rubbed her face on his thick, dusty neck. 

“Come on, then,” Isabella said, standing up. “Let’s go home. It’s a long way back, and we have a lot of other things to do today.”
 
 

On the way home, they found more buckwheat, a big patch of it. After Alijandra picked some, Isabella memorized how to find the spot again. Northeast, past the butte, she told herself. To the right of the pine with the vulture nest. That’s where it is.

It was almost noon when they came home, and the air was burning. Mama and To-Ho-Ne were sitting in the shade of their ramada: four poles holding up a roof made from sticks tied together. They were kneading cornmeal into balls; flattening them by rolling them on a smooth, flat stone; then slapping and pulling and pinching each one into a perfectly round tortilla. Each tortilla would go into a basket, and the women would start again. 

“Mama! To-Ho-Ne! We found them!” Alijandra exclaimed, hopping up and down. “We found the plants so you can make medicine for Pearl!”

“Yes, we did,” Isabella said, showing them the basket. 

“Help me up,” To-Ho-Ne said, holding out her hands. Isabella gave the basket to her sister, took the old woman’s hands, and leaned back, straining. With a grunt, To-Ho-Ne got to her feet, wincing.

“Does your hip still hurt?” Alijandra asked, giving the old woman the basket.

“Every day,” To-Ho-Ne said. She picked through the shoots the girls had brought. “These are good,” she said, nodding. “This will do.”

“What do we do now?” Alijandra asked, clapping her hands.

“Bella, collect firewood, please,” Mama said. “Ali, you come sit here and help me make tortillas.”

“Yes, Mama,” Isabella said.

“But Mama,” Alijandra protested, “I want to help To-Ho-Ne take care of Pearl.”

“For the hundredth thousandth time, stop calling the dragon by that name,” Mama reminded her. “To-Ho-Ne doesn’t need any help, but I do. Now, sit,” she said, patting the ground next to her. “And tell me all about your excursion this morning. Where did you go?”

“I’m going to get some water before I get the firewood,” Isabella said. Mama nodded as Alijandra launched into their story. 

Isabella went into the house. It was hot inside, of course, but not as hot as out in the sun. To-Ho-Ne had sat herself on the floor beside the dragon’s box and was tearing a sprig of buckwheat into small pieces. Isabella poured some water from a jug into her cup and gulped it down. She poured another, drank it. Not so fast, her mother’s voice reminded her, or you’ll get cramps. “Do you want some, To-Ho-Ne?” she asked. The old woman shook her head. Isabella poured a third cup and sipped it. 

To-Ho-Ne was chewing a wad of buckwheat. She reached into the box and gently lifted out the dragon. Its claws waved feebly at her. She laid the dragon on her lap, pried open its jaws with one hand, and used the other to reach into her mouth, take out the wad of buckwheat, and stuff it down the dragon’s throat.

Ugh, Isabella thought. Disgusting. “How do you know how much to give her?” she asked.

To-Ho-Ne shrugged. “I don’t.” Head still held firmly in the old woman’s hand, the dragon’s neck jerked, trying to cough up the wad. Its white eyes glared at To-Ho-Ne as the old woman leaned over, her elbow pinning the dragon to her lap. With her free hand, she carefully picked up the bowl of water. Prying open the dragon’s jaws again, she slowly poured some water. The dragon thrashed. Most of the water splashed over it or onto To-Ho-Ne, but some of it went down the dragon’s throat.

“Ahodiniitlooh,” To-Ho-Ne said to the dragon, putting it back in its box. It hissed like a snake—it’s going to bite her, Isabella thought—and then went limp.

“Is she all right?” Isabella asked.

Frowning, To-Ho-Ne waggled her hand. “I told her to go to sleep,” the old woman said. 

“And she did? Just like that?” Isabella asked. “Is that magic? Can you do magic?”

“You sound like your sister,” To-Ho-Ne chuckled. “No, that was not magic. She is very weak; that is all, and she wore herself out fighting me, because she thought I was trying to hurt her.” She leaned over the box and said, “Baa ahashya, ak’is.”

“Why are you speaking to her in Diheneh? She can’t understand you.”

“Dragons first came to this world from the underworld through a hole in the ground in these lands,” To-Ho-Ne said. “My people were the first people they met and befriended. And though the dragons flew and swam and walked to every part of the world, they all remember this place, and they all remember my people.”

“That’s just a story.”

“Yes, it is just a story,” To-Ho-Ne agreed. “But that doesn’t mean it is not true.” 

Alijandra ran inside and plopped down beside To-Ho-Ne. “How is she? Is she all right? Is the medicine helping?”

“I thought you were helping Mama make tortillas,” Isabella said.

“I told her I was thirsty and she said I could come inside and get a drink.”

“You lied,” Isabella said.

“No, I didn’t,” Alijandra replied. “I am thirsty. I am going to have a drink. But I want to see Pearl, first.” Isabella smirked. “Can I have a drink, Bella? Please?”

“I suppose,” the older girl said, filling her cup again.

“How is she?” Alijandra asked. “Is she getting better?”

“I gave her the medicine,” To-Ho-Ne said. “But she did not want to take it. She tried to fight me, but she is very weak, and has fallen back asleep.”

Isabella gave her sister the cup of water and Alijandra downed it with several loud gulps. When she was done, she asked, “Why isn’t she better yet? Didn’t it work?”

“You’re welcome,” Isabella sneered, taking the cup from Alijandra’s hand. 

To-Ho-Ne smiled and patted the little girl’s head. “It will take time for the medicine to work. Go back and help your mother. And then, after that, maybe you should try to find Pearl something she would like to eat when she wakes up and feels better.”

“I don’t know what else to give her,” Alijandra said. “She doesn’t seem to like anything.” 

“Well, what do you like to eat?” To-Ho-Ne asked. “Maybe she would like some of the same things.”

The little girl thought for a minute. “Eggs,” she announced. “I like eggs. Maybe Pearl would like to eat an egg.”

“Maybe,” To-Ho-Ne said.

“Mama won’t let you give the dragon an egg,” Isabella said. “Those eggs are for us. We need those.”

“But she doesn’t eat anything else,” Alijandra said. “Can’t we just give her one? Just a little one? I bet she doesn’t eat much.”

“You’ll have to ask Mama,” Isabella said.

“Ask me about what?” Mama came in, hands on her hips. “Because I have something to ask, too. Such as, where is my little girl who is supposed to be helping me?”

“Coming, Mama!” Alijandra said, bounding to her feet. “I was just having some water.”

“While you perch by To-Ho-Ne and that dragon as if you were a vulture,” Mama said, smiling only a little. “I know what you’re up to.”

“Mama, Pearl still isn’t eating: can I give her an egg?” Alijandra asked. 

“You’re changing the subject,” Mama noted. “And my answer right now is no. We need those eggs. Find something else the dragon might like, please.”

“But Mama, I’ve tried,” Alijandra replied. “She doesn’t want to eat anything we give her.”

“Don’t say ‘she,’ Alijandra,” Mama reminded, “say ‘it:’ we don’t know if it’s male or female. And it probably isn’t eating because it’s too hurt. Give To-Ho-Ne’s medicine some time to work, and try again.”

“But To-Ho-Ne said that sh—the dragon needs to eat soon or she’ll die,” Alijandra said. 

“I know what she said,” Mama replied.

“Just one egg?” Alijandra asked. “Just one?”

“I’m sorry, Ali, but we can’t spare even one egg,” Mama said. “Not until Papa comes back.”

“If she doesn’t eat it, I will,” Alijandra suggested. 

“No,” Mama said. “I know you are just trying to take care of the little dragon, but no. Now, come along and help me gather some berries. And you—” she said to Isabella, “I will need that firewood, please.”

“Yes, Mama,” Alijandra said.

“Yes, Mama,” Isabella said.
 
 

skrkk

Alijandra’s eyes popped open.

skrrk

The house was dark. Slowly, quietly, Alijandra sat up. 

skrrk

Next to her, Isabella was sprawled on her back, eyes half-open, mouth agape, as she usually slept. On Alijandra’s other side, Mama lay still, breathing slowly and deeply. Next to Mama, To-Ho-Ne softly wheezed.

skrrk

This was a night sound Alijandra had never heard before, not the sound of hoppers singing, or coyotes calling. And it was close. Inside the house.

skrrk

Slowly, quietly, Alijandra crept off the sleeping mat and padded toward the metal box where the noise was coming from.

The little milky-green dragon was clawing, feebly, inch by inch, out of the box, toward the clay bowl of water, which someone had absentmindedly set a few feet away, rather than right next to the box.

“Hello,” Alijandra whispered, squatting down beside the dragon. It shrank back from her as best it could, tiny white eyes wide.

“You want some water?” Alijandra asked, still whispering. “I’ll help you.” She showed the dragon her empty hands. 

The dragon looked at her, then the bowl of water, then back at Alijandra. 

“I won’t hurt you.” Slowly, gently, she leaned closer. The dragon’s eyes followed her hands. 

“It’s all right,” Alijandra whispered. She laid her hands out flat on the floor, like she had for the spider.

Slowly, the dragon dragged itself forward. Its claws poked her palms, but Alijandra held still. When the dragon had hauled most of itself onto her hands, she gently lifted them and the dragon a few inches off the floor. Slowly, carefully, she shuffled over a few steps to the water bowl and gently laid the dragon beside it.

The dragon craned its neck over the edge of the bowl and started lapping up water—plpp plpp plpp—with its thin pink tongue.

“Thirsty, aren’t you?” Alijandra asked. The dragon kept drinking. “Are you hungry, too?”

The dragon kept drinking.

“Wait here,” Alijandra whispered. She stood and quietly went to the door. She slowly lifted the latch so that it would not make that loud BKK! noise it always made when opened quickly. The door creaked, as if always did, as she swung it open, but no one stirred.

It was warm outside, and the hoppers were louder, but both moons were up and there were no clouds. She went barefooted along the side of the little house until she came to the chicken coop. She squatted and reached inside, feeling around under the sleeping hens, who, like the people in the house, did not wake.

Something big padded up to her from behind, its breath—HUFFAHUFFAHUFFA—hot and wet, and for a moment she thought it was a monster. But it was only Jack, of course, come to see what she was doing. 

“Shh,” she told him, as she took a small brown egg from the coop. “Don’t wake anyone up.” He sniffed at what she had in her hand. “No,” she said. “It’s for Pearl.”

Jack followed her back to the door and sat down just outside. Alijandra slowly shut the door—again, no one but her heard the creaking—and latched it. It was much darker inside. She waited for a moment for her eyes to adjust, and then she carefully made her way back.

The dragon was lying on the floor next to the bowl, just where Alijandra had left it. Its eyes were closed.

“Pearl,” she whispered. “I’m back.”

The dragon opened its eyes and did not shrink away when Alijandra sat down on the floor beside it. “This is for you,” the little girl told it. “It’s an egg.” She held it out in her palm for the dragon to see.

The dragon leaned forward.

“Here,” Alijandra whispered. She inched closer. “Take it.”

The dragon reached out and carefully gripped the egg with its claws. It leaned forward and sank its needle-like teeth into the egg shell, crushing only a tiny piece. Then its tongue flicked out again and again, lapping up the gooey insides. 

Alijandra waited, holding the egg, while the dragon ate. When it let go of the empty shell, she gently picked up the dragon and laid it back in its box.

“Good night, Pearl,” Alijandra said. 

Curled inside its box, its eyes closing, the dragon, of course, made no reply. 

© Kenton Kilgore, December 2007