One morning, around a month after Brightfeather had left, Dreamspears was awoken by loud bellowing from the Lumpox, over on the other side of the encampment. She rolled out from her sleeping place, realising even as she got up that there was nothing she could do to help.

They all pretended they could control the Lumpox, but in reality, it stayed with them out of goodwill. If something the size of a ship and as strong as a mountain decides it’s going to leave, there’s not much you can do other than get out of the way.

She had heard rumours that they had tried tying or chaining it up when it was younger, but that hadn’t gone well and they had never tried again.

The woman who looked after the Lumpox had never partnered up or had children, and she loved the animal like a child. It loved her back in return, curling its trunk around her and taking food gently from her hands.

Dreamspears had mostly gotten over her fear of it over the past couple of months but still tried not to get too close. Better not to take chances.

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She looked around, and then up, as a shadow passed overhead. Ah, the dragon, flying low in preparation for a landing in the next city over. The packs against its sides bulged with mail, silver scales glinting in the morning sun.

Was it shinier than usual, or was it just her memory playing tricks on her?

She’d seen it once or twice whilst living in the city but had never dared go near. The other kids said it looked friendly, but that it’d eaten a child once. She wasn’t sure she believed that, but they’d insisted it was true and although she would be a rather meagre snack, she still didn’t want to risk it.

Now that she was older, she wondered if it was merely something the adults said to keep the kids out of the way or if it was a real thing that’d happened.

She sighed, folding up her blanket and stuffing it into her backpack, slipping it over her shoulder. It was getting a bit too heavy to carry around, but she would keep it where she could see it.

Over on the other side of the field, the Lumpox bellowed again, and now that she was awake, she realised it didn’t seem distressed.

Overhead the dragon made a return bellow of its own, circled once, and then continued onwards.

She shook her head, wondering what that was about, and headed towards her goat pen. She was up now, so she may as well get to work.