“Come to a book as you would come to an unexplored land.

Come without a map.

Explore it, and draw your own map.”

– Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis

Within a few days, I had the rhythm of ‘House of Figs’ down. Not that I was an expert and there were things that happened every day that surprised me anew or shocked me, but my confidence at having five fantasy characters serving the public grew as I watched them work together. Even Bastian and Faelan’s feuding was put aside for the greater good of the café. They still taunted each other and there was always a sense of competition between them but I began to see it as a rivalry as well as a determination not to change their ways for the sake of the other. It could have led to all out war but even in the battles, there was a kind of respect that neither caved to the other.

I mean, I think it would have deflated Bastian to see Faelan eat meat or Bastian concede that a salad was better tasting than his grilled, roasted or fried creations.

Rafael worked almost entirely autonomously and interacted barely and only when he had no other choice. He didn’t seem as hostile as before, the edginess of the few first days ebbing. He wasn’t friendly at all, that much was certain. He wasn’t rude and he greeted the customers at the window with a perfunctory hello but as the ones doing the walk-by coffee run were almost always in a hurry, they weren’t of a mind to chat so his speed worked well.

Rob was the backbone. He might have called me the linchpin but without Rob, we would have disintegrated into a legal, financial and stockless mess. Though he counted his abilities as nothing special, it never failed to amaze me that, the moment Rafael announced he was running low on milk, Eustace and Jet were hauling in a delivery from the dairy factory. Or when Bastian said, we were running low on meat, which was about as accurate as he got, the refrigerated truck was already on its way, stocked with everything the werewolf needed. When I queried him on this, he simply said that, because he knew the menu and what customers ordered, he was able to make preliminary updates to the stock situation and order accordingly.

Everyone was incredibly resourceful and competent about their roles…

…everyone, that is, except Eustace.

Loveable though he was, his attention span was limited at best and it only took the whiff of something fun or shiny or different to drag him away from what he was doing. It wasn’t that he was difficult to get along with, only that it was hard to know what to do with someone who had the energy of a toddler but the appearance of an adult.

Even though we’d had some success with pairing Eustace with Jet, setting them up with their own game room, it became apparent that it was taking its toll on Jet. He wasn’t easy to read but even I could see that his little methods of trying to maintain control of his life were becoming regimented, not to mention his nerves were brittle.

One day I talked it over with the others and then told Jet that I would look after Eustace for the day.

His relief was apparent as his shoulders sagged.

“That would be good. He’s not bad…but he’s constant.”

“Well, have a day off and do whatever you want to do and know that when you arrange things in patterns, he’s not going to mess it up.”

Jet shot me a brief look which I didn’t know how to interpret but I was immediately accosted by Eustace.

“What shall we do today?”

I decided that the best thing would be to burn off some of his energy so I suggested we go to the hospital and he could visit Aunt Jo. His face lit up and he beamed.

“I’d love to see Aunt Jo.”

We walked to the hospital. Well, when I say we walked, Eustace pretty much jogged the whole way, even to the point of running rings around me. And he asked questions about everything, sometimes not even waiting for an answer before the next question burst out of his mouth. I didn’t know how much he was taking in of my answers but I did know, by the time we reached the hospital, I was mentally worn out.

“You have to be careful in here, Eustace.” I warned him. “There are sick people inside and lots of machines.”

“I’ll be careful.”

And he was…for all of two minutes then his nervous energy got the better of him and he started jogging again, turning and running backwards to chatter to me as we went.

“Eustace!” I cried as he nearly careened into a man pushing a trolley of medical records. “Watch where you’re going!”

“Sorry!”

I showed him to Aunt Jo’s room.

“Hey Aunt Jo, I’ve brought Eustace with me to visit today.”

“Jo, I’ve missed you!” He flung himself at her and hugged her tightly. “When are you coming back? Why aren’t you awake? What’s this on your face?”

“No, leave it!” I cried, lunging forward to keep him from pulling the mask off. “It puts air into her lungs and keeps her breathing.”

Eustace frowned. “Why wouldn’t she breathe?”

“Because she’s in a coma, remember?” I couldn’t believe he’d forgotten.

“But that’s just sleeping, isn’t it?” Eustace asked. “She just needs to wake up.” He grasped her hand. “Come on, Jo…let’s play!”

“Eustace, stop!” I detached him from her. “She can’t play and she can’t wake up. That’s why she’s here.”

Eustace was deeply confused by this. “Why not?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know why. No one does. She was brought here like this.”

His handsome face twitched with conflicting emotion.

“She will wake up, though…right?”

“I hope so.”

Eustace sighed and looked around. “This room is pretty boring.”

And that was the end of his attention span in the beige hued room. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as we left the hospital and went back to ‘House of Figs’.

“Now I know why Jet looked so exhausted.” I shook my head.

The café was a frantic bustle and I wanted to offer to help but Rob told me the best thing I could do was keep Eustace out from underfoot.

“Perhaps he could water the plants?”

I took him to the back of the property where Eustace put his hands into the earth and I saw it become moist and soaked before my eyes.

“That’s incredible.” I breathed. “No wonder Aunt Jo doesn’t have a hose long enough to reach everything.”

“It’s my job,” Eustace beamed then his expression fell, “but it’s a bit boring…I wish we could do something fun.”

“Like what?” I sat on a chair. Eustace jumped up and swung on the trellis, like a kid would on monkey bars at a playground. He was so agile and flexible it blew my mind. “What’s fun for you, Eustace?”

“Swimming, flying…games with Jet, playing, searching…”

“Searching for what?”

Eustace put his finger to his lips. “It’s a secret.” Even though he hadn’t told me, I sensed that if I poked him a little, he would spill his secret without a second thought.

“Do you play in your world?”

“All the time.” He dropped to the ground and proceeded to perform acrobatics the likes of which I had only seen in movies. He could leap into the air and somersault and land on his feet with ease. He liked to do cartwheels, several in a row and then backflip the way he’d come. “It’s the best place to play. No walls, no ceilings…nothing to break.”

“It sounds great.” I took my shoe off, trying to find a stone that had become lodged in it. I wasn’t really concentrating when I added, “I’d love to see it sometime.”

This was something you said in a conversation that everyone knew was just a passing statement and not to be taken seriously…certainly not imminently.

However, everyone did not seem to include Eustace.

The moment the words cleared my lips I felt him grab my hand.

“Great! Let’s go!”

My protestation was left behind us as he effectively pulled me to the Observatory, my feet not touching the ground, opened the door to his world and pushed me through.

“I didn’t mean…” I froze where I was, my words finally catching up to me, “now…”

It had taken no more effort than stepping over a threshold but suddenly, I was not in my world anymore.

The sky was the kind of blue that was so bright it almost hurt and the sun was shinning brightly, glancing off scattered clouds. I was almost instantly hot in my winter clothes, minus one shoe. A breeze blew past me, ruffling my oversized cardigan and scarf, stealing my breath away.

“This is…”

The sight before me was unmistakably not from my world. There were islands hanging in the sky, some so large that they were adorned with mountains capped with snow. Dozens of these floating impossibilities drifted in the air, covered with dense foliage. Beneath them, as though they had been dug out of the earth by giant hands, were rocky bases in upside down pinnacles. I could see rivers flowing off the islands, pouring over the edge of their plateaus and followed the descent of the water…to see it crash into a giant ocean far below where I stood.

“That’s not possible…”

Abruptly I realised I was on one of those islands, standing at the cusp of its perimeter. I had a sudden and overwhelming panic attack, throwing myself backward from it in case I blacked out and fell. I stumbled over a bush and landed on my backside. As I looked around, trembling in fright, I saw that the island I was on was on the periphery of the floating isles. The larger ones were more clustered in the centre so my island was quite small, not much larger than an oval although much less rectangularly shaped. It had its own little mountain, covered in creepers and large and strangely coloured mushrooms. Yet embedded about six feet in on ground level, as though carved by the same person who had dug out the islands in the first place, was a doorway and framed by it was a door with a flame symbol on it it.

“Home…” I whispered and darted for it. I didn’t know where Eustace was. I didn’t care. This was all too much for me. I had to make do over the rocks with one boot on, one boot beyond the door somewhere. As I reached the cusp of the hollow the door was in, I paused.

There was an envelope pinned to the door.

An envelope…with my name on it…in Aunt Jo’s handwriting.

The sight of it was so surprising that I just stopped and stared, my hand inches from the door handle.

“What?” I whispered and reached out for it.

Abruptly the island shuddered and I was thrown off my feet. When I managed to get back upright, the island did it again and I fell the other way. And then the island seemed to make up its mind…and began to tip over. I was sliding for the precipice but caught hold of a mushroom and braced my feet as best I could. Instinct took over and I climbed madly upwards, comprehension of the sheer absurdity of what was happening on hold as I desperately tried to reach the door. I made the hollow as the island hung sideways as though it was on the very brink of succumbing to the tip and lunged for the handle.

And then the island tipped itself completely over.

By sheer coincidence, the handle turned in the same direction as I fell so the door opened, dropping me three feet down and stopping with a hard jar. I didn’t let go and looked up.

It was the strangest sight I had ever seen, the interior of the Observatory on its side…above my head.

If I could just reach it.

I tried pulling myself up, my legs dangling over a terrifying drop to the ocean below but I couldn’t get a grip on anything other than the door handle.

“Please…someone…” I whimpered.

Abruptly there was a buzzing nearby. I twisted, my fingers becoming raw from the grasp they had.

Approaching me were a half dozen dragons, not much bigger than a medium sized dog. Their wings beat the air with the speed of a hummingbird’s and their eyes were round and glassy, their scales all different colours, gleaming as they came close.

“Help…me…” I begged.

The dragons chirped and chattered then came close…and began to pull on me.

I gasped and held on all the tighter.

“Stop it! What are you doing?” They yanked my other boot off and grabbed at me with their claws, trying to pull me away from the door. “Let go! Let go of me!”

And then I looked up, the doorway to the Observatory and my own getting further and further away from me. I’d let go and was falling faster and faster, wind screaming past me, joining my own shriek of terror. I twisted and looked down, seeing the ocean’s wild, tempestuous surface rising to greet me.

“Eustace!” I screamed. “Eustace…help!”

Something large and white appeared below me and I was grasped in the grip of a large creature, my downward plummet turned into an equally fast horizontal flight. The dark blue, angry ocean thrashed in fury that it had been denied my broken body as we soared over it. I had barely the presence of mind to take it all in when a large reptilian face arched over and looked at me. It was so grotesque and deformed I let out a shriek as its mouth turned down into a snarl.

It clamped its mouth shut then twisted its head and I realised I’d been looking at it upside down. Now that its eyes were on top, its mouth was no longer a snarl but almost a smile…an oddly familiar smile.

“Eustace?”

Can you hear me?

“Whoa…” I trembled, almost feeling his words pulse through my body. “How are you doing that?”

You can hear me?

“I guess I can.” His mouth didn’t move as he spoke. “Is this your dragon form?”

His pearlescent white body was shining and beautiful and the shine from his scales gave off blue glows from the inky black of night to the palest sky you’d ever seen.

Climb up.

He had grasped me in his front claws and ever so slightly loosened his grip. I was able to twist and grasp the long, silky fur as I climbed up his side.

“Sorry!” I called as I pulled on it, getting onto the broad of his back. Abruptly, in the open space of the back of Eustace, the breeze struck me hard. My knees hooked over the shoulders of his front legs and I leaned in to streamline by body against the wind attempting to knock me off. Finally, when I had a moment to think, I looked at Eustace.

He resembled a dragon from the east and not like I thought Smaug would have looked like. His body was long and covered in opalescent scales and long hair. His head had a long snout to it, whiskers and eyebrows and horns that I could grip onto like the handlebars on a motorbike.

“This is incredible,” I gasped, forgetting the terror of moments before in the wonder I was sitting on, “Eustace…you’re amazing!”

His body rippled and shifted through the air like an eel through water and he took me on a ride between the islands, icy cold droplets hitting me from the spray of the waterfalls and scattered blooms as we trailed over meadows of wildflowers. We skipped over the top of a mound and I felt Eustace’s tail whack it. There was a loud, angry roar behind us and a snap. I looked over my shoulder to see a dragon with a stumpy snout like a pugdog’s, rising up with the mound we had smacked as part of its back. It was enormous! Earth, moss and trees…it was like watching a giant turtle that had been asleep for a hundred years, rise up with all that had made its home on its shell rising with it.

“Look out!” I cried as the grumpy rock dragon used its tail to hurl a boulder at us. I clung on tight as Eustace dove and weaved, easily missing the boulder. “Be careful next time!”

We passed over a cluster of smaller islands and in our wake, dozens of the small dragons that had pulled me from the door handle leapt into the air.

“They’re chasing us!” I rapped him on the head when I saw the flock gathering and pursuing us.

They are playing.

“Playing!”

Eustace’s speed went from leisurely and pleasant to downright terrifying. The dragons chasing after us chattered furiously, their wings whipping the air into a frenzy as they chased us. Eustace wove and darted, dove and climbed, his body flexing at impossible angles, able to curl up and spring out of almost any space. I clung on for dear life. The little dragons were persistent and undeterred. They followed us constantly, sometimes getting so close I thought I could feel their claws upon my back.

Catch us if you can!

“Wait!” I exclaimed then felt Eustace go into a sudden and dangerous dive. My scream was ripped from my throat as Eustace plummeted through the air, heading for the angry ocean.

“Stop!” I screamed but my words far above us a split second after I’d spoken them. “Eustace! Stop!”

The dragons stopped chasing us as if sensing a place they were not permitted to go yet Eustace did not halt. He struck the water like an Olympian diver, slicing through the surface with the precision of a surgeon. I was not so fortunate. Though it wasn’t nearly as bad as my striking it on my own, the blow knocked whatever wind was in me, out and not gently either.

Eustace dove deeper and deeper, his body moving even more fantastically in the water than it had in the air. Gravity no longer played a part in keeping me on his back and I was torn from his body, tumbling over and over like a giant wave had dumped me…but I was far from the surface. I could make it out faintly and began to kick and swim towards it yet I could tell it was just too far for my depleted lungs to reach.

I was becoming faint when there was a disturbance beneath me and I looked down to see Eustace tunnelling through the water, sending a stream of bubbles before him which caught beneath me and propelled me up into the air. I was thrown clear of the water, flailed madly for a grasp on anything that would keep me from falling and, because there wasn’t anything, hit the water again. This time Eustace was nearby and I clung to him.

What a great game!

I couldn’t speak in the water. I rapped him on the head.

Let’s play again!

He leapt into the air and into the ocean, over and over, jets of water streaming from his body every time like a hose with holes in it gone mad. He rolled, he twisted and he sprayed water constantly.

I couldn’t speak. I could only concentrate on taking in air every time I was above the surface and I could spare none of it on words. Every breath could be my last and it was like that for an hour.

Finally Eustace’s playfulness reached a brief pause as he leapt into the air.

Isn’t this the best?

I pushed my hair out of my eyes and, despite my throat being raw and my voice as rough as Jet’s social manners, I barked,

“Put me on land…now!”

My tone certainly wasn’t forceful or even strong but I felt Eustace shiver, as though he could feel my fury through his skin.

You don’t want to play?

“No!”

The ocean dominated Eustace’s world but there were some very large landmasses on it. Nothing compared to my world but large enough to have volcanoes, mountain ranges, forests, rocky shoals and sandy beaches. Eustace took me to one of those. I slid off his back, my legs giving way as I tried to stand in the surf, on my hands and knees as I crawled up the beach and out of the lapping waves.

Finally on ground that was not moving, I collapsed, holding onto the sand as if it was my lifeline.

“Bethany?”

I opened my gritty eyes and saw Eustace in his human form standing in the water. He went to walk towards me.

“Stay back…” My voice was hoarse and I scrambled away from him. “Leave me alone!”

He watched me go, confusion in his eyes. I made it to the sand where the waves did not reach and lay until my lungs had been convinced that they could drink long and deep, not shallowly and desperately.

I heard a splashing sound and pushed myself up on my elbows. Eustace was back as a dragon, playing and frolicking in the waves like a giant puppy.

Anger burned deeply within me at the disregard he had for my wellbeing and the way he didn’t seem to care about anything that had just happened.

“The power of a dragon…in the mind and will of a selfish toddler.” I wheezed.

Eustace played until the sun began to set and I began to shiver. Without the sun, the world turned cold and I was soaked through. My oversized cardigan weighed a tonne when it was wet. I had to take it off, left in a long sleeve tee and jeggings. My socks had been torn off at some point during the nightmare and were probably adrift in the ocean now. My cardigan, stretched out of all proportion now, was encrusted with sand and sticks in a sodden pile next to me.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, rested my head on them.

“How am I going to get home?” I whimpered.

“Why do you want to go home?” Eustace asked and I glared at him as he walked up the sand in human form. He had the nerve to do a couple of backflips, his agility unsurprising after the display he’d made as a dragon. “Didn’t you want to play?”

“Play?” I roared at him. “You call that play?”

He stared at me and I had the deepest urge to slap the confused look off his face should he come any closer.

“Are you angry?”

“Of course I’m angry! You nearly killed me you complete idiot!”

He blinked. “You said you wanted to see my world.”

“Yes, maybe with a picnic lunch at a specified time! Not dragged here like a sack and then tossed around like a dog’s chew toy!”

He tilted his chiselled features and studied me, his white hair like the fur when he was a dragon and his skin dotted with light groupings of scales. His blue eyes were as wide and as innocent as a child’s and he seemed genuinely baffled.

“Did you not have fun?”

“Fun?” I gasped. “Eustace…what you did to me…treating me like a toy…I could be dead!”

He blinked. “Dead?”

“Yes! Dead!” He stared at me. “Don’t you get it?”

“Like Jo?”

“No, not like Aunt Jo!” I growled in frustration, the anger staving off the violent shiver in my body. I’d be lucky if I didn’t develop hypothermia. “Dead…never to wake up! Without life…forever! Wouldn’t you regret that?”

He shrugged. “What’s regret?”

I stared at him, aghast. “Don’t you know what regret is?” He shook his head. I clutched my arms around myself even tighter, some of the wind taken out of my anger with the revelation that Eustace, though in the form of an adult, had barely a child’s understanding of the world. “Regret is when…you do something you wished you didn’t.”

Eustace sat in the waves and looked up at me on the dry sand. “Why did you do something you didn’t wish to do?”

“I don’t know,” my teeth chattered, “maybe it was a bad choice or maybe you thought it was something good and it turned out to be something bad. You know…regret!” His blue eyes conveyed nothing but a blank slate. “You have no idea what I’m talking about…do you?” He shook his head. “Don’t you regret bringing me here?”

“You said you wanted to see my world and to play.”

“But I’m not a dragon! I’m not like you. My body…I’m going to be bruised for a month after that.”

“I don’t understand. You wanted to come. If you are hurt, it is your regret, isn’t it?”

I closed my eyes, willing some form of explanation to come. “Eustace,” I began, trying not to let anger get the better of me, “you brought me to your world…that means you’re responsible for me here and if something happened while I was in your care…”

“Responsible?”

I stared at him for a long time. “You really don’t get any of it, do you? You just…play.”

Eustace beamed and nodded.

“Do you want to play now?”

“I want to go home.” I said, my jaw trembling.

Eustace’s expression fell a little. “But…”

“Now!” I barked at him.

I couldn’t feel sorry for the hurt look in his eyes at my tone. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean, you can’t?”

“The door…the island is upside down. If you go back, you’ll go through the wrong way…you’ll end up,” his tilted his head over sharply, “the wrong way up.”

I couldn’t quite understand what he meant. “I’ll just…go in upside down…oh…” I had a vision of myself crumpling on the ground after entering the door the wrong way up. My body was already aching powerfully. “Will the island turn itself back over?”

“Oh yes.”

“When?”

Eustace shrugged. “When it does.”

Suddenly everything overwhelmed me. I put my face into my hands and cried. After I had sobbed uncontrollably for a few minutes I braved a look up. Heartbreakingly, Eustace was playing in the surf again.

I was in a dangerous world with a dangerous man who had all the emotional maturity of a child.

Another hour later I was shaking so hard my teeth were clattering. I was really stiff and sore so I couldn’t get up. Everything hurt and I was growing colder by the second. Eustace was still in the waves as a dragon. He didn’t have wings like the other dragons I’d seen yet that hadn’t stopped him from flying. His legs were the same length as each other though the back legs looked more powerfully built but it meant he could walk with a sizeable clearance beneath him or he could slither if he chose. His tail was almost as long as the length of his body, ending in a sharp point that reminded me of a stingray’s tail. He rolled in the water and played without a care in the world.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

It was hard not to resent the hell out of him.

His blue eyes saw my gaze and I looked away. I heard a large splashing sound and glanced back to see him ambling towards me, his claws making deep impressions in the wet sand. He perched on his back legs and gave a shake, mist obscuring his body until Eustace stepped out of it in his human form, his clothes reminding me of something Jet would wear.

“Are you cold?” He asked.

It was hard to speak when my teeth were chattering so violently.

“Yes.” I ground out.

“It’s warmer in the water.”

“The reason I’m cold is because I’m wet.” I shot at him. I also wanted to tell him that I was probably suffering some bad bruising and my body was struggling to know what to deal with first, the injuries or the hypothermia. Eustace frowned then walked around behind me. “What are you doing?” I demanded tersely.

“Something you will not regret.” He said in a way that made me suspect he only knew how to say the words, not understand their meaning.

“What do you…”

He sat behind me, his legs wrapping around mine and, with his chest pressed again my back, he did the same with his arms.

“I don’t…” I felt really awkward being so intimately close with the young man and still furious with him also. But as I began to speak, I felt a strange drawing sensation across my body. I looked at my arms, the blue of my top, dark because it was wet, lightening as the moisture was drawn out of it. I could see it changing hue right before my eyes, drying out from my wrists, up my arms and across my chest. It was the same with my jeggings, my clothing drying in a matter of minutes. “I…I’m drying out. Eustace…are you doing this?”

“I can absorb water from anything I touch.” He said softly then drew back. “You are much drier now.”

I touched my clothes, not believing it. “I am.” I gasped, twisting in his arms to look at him. “That’s incredible.”

His blue eyes sparkled with pleasure and his mouth turned into a grin, showing his pointed teeth at the back. He was such a striking and handsome young man that it was impossible not to be distracted by his looks and innocent charm.

“You are not angry with me anymore?”

I faltered, sorting through my emotion. “Yes…I am still angry with you Eustace.”

He sagged. “I don’t understand.”

I shook my head. “No…and I’m not sure you ever will. I don’t think you can.”

Eustace looked a little perturbed at that but, as usual, his attention was immediately snatched away by something else.

“Do you want to play, now?”

“No!” I said it a little too forcefully but I could not let there be any misunderstanding that would allow me to be dragged into his game again. I might not survive it a second time. “I am a little thirsty.”

“Oh!” He held out his cupped hand and as I watched, it filled with water.

“Er…while that’s impressive…” I looked around. “Isn’t there anywhere I can get something to drink?” Eustace pointed to the ocean. “Not salt water. I can’t drink that.”

“I remove the salt myself,” he held his hand out, “drink.”

I sighed and tried to drink as elegantly as I could from his hand. It was awkward but the water was clean and refreshing. I was starving but I could forgo food now that my thirst was quenched.

I heard a roaring sound and looked up. “What was that?”

“Fire dragons.” Eustace pointed though he needn’t bother. I could see the brilliantly lit dragons from afar. They looked more like what I expected dragons to look like with their reptilian snouts, scales all over, monstrously large back legs and their wings…made out of fire.

“They’re incredible.” I watched as they soared overhead, sparks and cinders showering down, burning out before they got too close. “They’re huge!”

“Fire is always hungry.” Eustace remarked.

“That’s very true…what do they eat?”

He looked at me. “Fire.”

“Oh,” I nodded, “that makes sense. So you’re a water dragon and they’re fire dragons…what other kinds are there?”

“Earth dragons,” Eustace grinned, “they can be hard to move.”

“Is that the one that you smacked earlier that threw a boulder at us?” He nodded, pleased. “It was big too. What other dragons are there?”

“Wind.”

“Those little ones?” He nodded again. “I thought they’d be bigger.”

“They fly in flocks.”

“Oh I see,” I imagined them all circling together, like flocks of birds, causing air to ripple out from the collective power of their wings, “is that all? Four types of dragons?”

“Yes.”

I pursed my lips. “What about other water dragons?”

“There are no other water dragons.”

I stared at him in shock. “Wait…you’re the only one?”

“Yes.”

It was a startling thought that he was the only water dragon in the whole world. He didn’t look like any of the other dragons either. They all had wings but he didn’t.

“Eustace…how do you fly? You don’t have wings.”

“No. I am a water dragon.”

“Yes but…how do you stay up in the air?”

“There is water in the air.”

Perhaps he meant he used the moisture in the air to help buoy him. I found it hard to fathom then fell back to thinking about how he was the only water dragon.

“Do you have friends here?” I asked him. Eustace frowned. “You know, like back at the café?”

“Oh no,” he shook his head, “not like at the café.”

“How so?” I saw his confused look. “What makes your dragon friends different to your café friends?” I phrased a little more clearly.

“They have names.”

I stared at him. “Dragons don’t have names?” He shook his head as the fire dragons circled above us, creating a wake of flames, not unlike what pilots left in planes but these were sparkling and alive. “What do you call each other?”

“Nothing.”

“Then how do you know who each other is?”

“Smell.”

I nodded. “That actually makes sense.” I jumped as I felt the earth rumble. Eustace put his hand on my shoulder and pointed to a large grouping of rocks that twisted and turned on the island before settling back down.

“Rolling over.” Eustace grinned.

“Ah…he’s closer than I’d like him to be.” I murmured. If the rocks were anything to go by, the earth dragon near us was larger than the one that tossed the boulder.

“She is sleeping.”

“Oh, it’s a ‘she’. Sorry…” It was hard not to worry about being so close. I had to force myself to think what we’d been talking about. “So…if dragons don’t have names…how come you have a name?”

“Jo.”

“Jo,” I should have realised, “do you know why she picked that name?”

“A boy was turned into a dragon then back into a boy on an island.” Eustace explained simply.

I wracked my brains to think of the book. It sounded very familiar but the book title eluded me. I dug my toes into the sand, trying to keep them warm. Eustace leaned closer to my back again and his warmth increased my own. Had it been any of the others, and had it not been so cold, I would have told him to mind my personal space…but it was Eustace and he was the polar opposite to Bastian when it came to flirtatious behaviour and inuendo. There was nothing suggestive in his embrace. It was actually a safe place to be…as ironic as that sounded. He leaned back on his elbows and I leaned with him, both looking up at the sky, watching the fire dragons drift lazily across the expanse.

“Am I too heavy?”

“No, I am strong.”

I realised it was the most still I had ever known him to be. I couldn’t even feel him jiggling with nervous energy. He’d used it all up in his ‘play’. I’d been frustrated and exhausted by his energy in my world but seeing him here, I realised just how much energy he had and that we had seen only a glimpse of it.

“Eustace, why did you come to my world?” I asked softly.

“I was searching.”

“You mentioned that searching was something you like to do. Did you find the door while you were searching?”

“I did.”

I had an image of Eustace managing to get the door open but being stuck on this side of it due to his enormous size, a little like Alice before she had discovered Wonderland’s ‘eat me’ and ‘drink me’ transformation. I thought about this for a moment.

“How did you get through?” I sat up and looked at him lounging on the sand with his hands now behind his head.

“I had to become this…” He gestured to himself while still looking at the sky.

“So all dragons can do that?” I thought it odd, seeing as there were only dragons here. Why would one know how to make himself look human?

“No. I had to learn.”

“Someone taught you?” His eyes flickered to me. “Who?”

“It’s a secret.” A grin caused his mouth to curl up on the side and his eyes sparkled. He sat up, dislodging me from his lap and he walked towards the water. “I’m not allowed to tell any of the other dragons,” he looked back at me, “but you are not a dragon.”

“I’m definitely not a dragon,” I said, cold again, “but I don’t need to know. It’s your secret.”

Eustace seemed a little put out that I didn’t insist on it but, as was his way, he immediately thought of something else and got down in front of me, his face inches from my own.

“Would you like to see what I found?”

“Uh…”

“It’s a secret place.” His manner was so disarming that I found myself reaching for his hand. I yanked it back when I realised what I was doing.

“No, not after what happened when I said I might like to see your world.” I folded my arms to keep from taking his hand. “I don’t think I’d survive.”

“But…it’s the most beautiful place in the world.” He frowned.

“Is it dangerous,” I held up my hand before he could speak, “and by dangerous, I mean to me? To humans?”

Eustace actually thought about this. I could see him trying to chew it over.

“No,” he said after a moment, “it is not.”

“Is it in the water?” I asked.

“Yes,” he nodded, “but you will not get wet. You can ride on my back.”

“I don’t know…”

“No play.” He stated firmly.

I looked him in the eyes. “Promise?”

“Promise?”

“It means you won’t change your mind.”

Eustace pondered this then held out his hand. “Promise.” He said.

I sighed and took his hand. “Alright. No play and no getting wet.”

He nodded and drew me upright. My body ached badly at the motion. Eustace emitted his mist and out of the haze, his dragon form appeared. He draped himself on the beach and tilted his massive head towards his back. I sighed and, using his foreleg as a step, pulled myself up onto his back. Once there, Eustace headed for the water and I began to dread my decision. Yet, rather than dive beneath, he drifted on the surface, far beyond the island and out into open water.

Night in this world was as black as ink and I lost the line where the horizon met the sky. Eustace moved through the water as effortlessly as if it was the air, his body curving back and forth like a snake’s. He was so at one with the water, he barely caused a ripple. Thankfully the tempest of earlier had settled and the journey was rather peaceful. I looked up in the air, able to make out the edges of the floating islands that littered the sky.

“Those floating islands are amazing.” I said softly.

They are great fun to play around.

I could feel his body gathering strength and grasped him tightly.

“Remember your promise!” I warned desperately.

His shoulders relaxed and he kept on swimming.

After an hour we came across a large reef of craggy islands. I could see that a great many of them were covered in giant oysters and sharp rocks. They were curved around in a rounded horseshoe shape. Eustace swam into the middle of them.

“Wow,” I looked at the islands, ranging in size from largest to smallest, “that’s really quite cool…but is it that big of a secret? It’s just sitting out in the middle of the ocean for anyone to find.”

Hold on.

“Wait…hold…on!”

I grabbed him as I felt his body dive. I nearly wasted air on a scream, gulping a lungful before we descended. I banged on his back but he didn’t respond. He just kept going deeper and deeper. I was running out of air, my lungs were screaming and I was starting to become faint. Abruptly I couldn’t hold onto the air any longer and I gasped…and breathed normally.

I held that breath for a moment then tried it again…and again…

“I’m breathing…under water?” I shivered as I looked around. “How? Are you doing this Eustace?”

Air bubble.

“I’m…in a bubble?” I gently pressed my fingers forward until then met the slightest resistance. I drew back, seeing ripples caused by my fingers fan out from where I’d touched. The bubble extended all the way around me and about a foot above my head. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I started to see shapes in the water, stony outcrops from the reef, coral in enormous clusters and even more giant oysters. I saw some fish darting in and out, some even glancing off the surface of the bubble, stunned at the strange clear barrier they’d encountered.

“Wow…” I whispered. “This is incredible.”

And yet further down Eustace sank until we reached the sandy bottom. There wasn’t much to see where we had landed and I couldn’t understand why he had brought me here.

“Where is your secret place?”

I will show you.

He moved forward, large claws digging into the sand and pushing himself forward.

“Eustace,” I said quietly, “isn’t the water pressure too much for you? It gets really heavy this far down.”

I am strong.

I supposed if he’d come to his secret place often, he would know if he could handle the pressure. I had a brief, terrifying thought that maybe the bubble wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure. Presumably he wouldn’t have needed to create one before.

Fortunately the landscape changed and distracted me. We were coming up to giant pillars sticking out of the sand and between them were the crumbling remains of walls.

“Ruins?” I whispered. “Dragon ruins?”

Eustace took me through two pillars where the ruins had yet to fall down and we came across some stairs. Everything was still underwater but he drifted upwards through several submerged layers before breaking through the surface in a large space. I saw the water trickle over the top of the bubble.

“Is there air in here?” I asked.

Yes.

Abruptly it popped and before I’d stopped myself, I’d taken a gasp.

Thankfully the air, though stale, was breathable. I went to give Eustace a lecture about it then realised there was probably no point.

“What is this place?” I asked, sliding down from his back.

Eustace shook off his dragon form and became human again.

“My secret place.”

“Yes,” I followed him as we walked, “but you didn’t build it, did you?” He shook his head. “Someone must have so I wonder what they built it for.”

He gave me a funny look. “It has always been here and it is for one person.”

“A person?” I asked as he strode away. “Not a dragon?”

The space we were in looked like a ballroom that was fit for an emperor. At least, it would have in its day. There were large statues of dragons meeting in the centre of the ceiling, forming an arch all the way down its impressive length. Each of the pair of dragons had traces of a different precious material. One pair looked gold, another silver, another pair might have been carved out of jade…on and on they went, their façade eroded by time and tarnished by neglect. There were decorative murals on the walls that were almost covered with mildew and decay and large pieces of the floor were missing, some gaps looking down into the water which did not rise any further into, what I was quickly calling, underwater castle. There were doorways that led off in numerous directions, some completely caved in and others filled with water.

It should have been pitch black we were so far under the water yet the moss and fungi that grew on the walls and floor and even the clumps of it that hung from the ceiling glowed, their flowers and verge phosphorescent. It was really quite beautiful in an ethereal kind of way.

“Eustace,” I whispered, “this place is incredible.”

“It is my secret place.” Eustace grinned. “Only I come here. I found it. It called to me.”

“It called to you?” I walked up the stairs with him, across a dais where there were more murals carved into slabs of stone and to a large wall. “Uh…it’s a dead end.”

“It was never alive.” Eustace looked at me, puzzled.

“I mean it doesn’t go anywhere.” I explained.

Eustace winked, grasped my hand and reached out to touch the wall. It rippled like water, shimmering into a transparent wall and he, as he always did, simply pulled me through. I thought I was going to be drowned again but there was no water on the other side either.

It was a round room with a large, stone throne in the middle of it with its back and sides made from jagged, broken curved pieces. A tattered pile of cloth was on the throne, probably the remnants of its once plush cushion. Forming the point of a compass around the throne on diagonals, were four pillars, each showing signs of decay and on top, each bearing a different flame. One was red, another was blue and then there was a green flame and a yellow one at the back.

Above our heads was a ruined ceiling and to my horror, when I glanced up, I could see fish swimming overhead, held in place by an invisible barrier.

Eustace walked into the room, almost darting towards the throne.

“I’ve come back! Are you happy to see me, mother?”

“Mother?” I whispered.

The tattered cloth suddenly had a life of its own and I recoiled as a young woman with long, blonde hair lifted herself up to sit, somewhat reclined, upon the throne.

“My child,” she said, nearly swallowed up by the enormity of the throne and the tendrils of curling hair around her, “I am always happy to see you.”

Though she called Eustace her child and he called her ‘mother’, the girl on the throne looked younger than him. And though she said she was happy to ‘see’ him, her eyes were closed. There seemed to be a fragility to her, like she was close to death and weary.

“Did you find the egg?”

“No,” Eustace sighed then brightened, “but I brought you my friend, Bethany!”

Her head swayed from side to side so it was hard to tell if she was looking in my direction but even if she had, her eyes remained closed.

“Oh my son…you taught another how to change their form?”

“No, no,” Eustace insisted, “Bethany came like this. She is human.”

“Impossible…”

“She came from that door that I found.”

The young girl paused. “Is that where you have been all this time?”

“Yeah…” Eustace looked a little guilty at this point. “But I was searching!”

“The egg is in this world, my child. You must find it.”

“I will,” Eustace promised, “it’s my special game.”

“And you are so good at it.” She sighed and began to lie down. “I am weary…bring me the egg soon…”

Eustace nodded, grasped my hand and drew me out of the sealed throne room. The shimmering surface solidified behind us. I pulled my hand out of his and looked at him.

“Who is that?” I demanded.

“Mother.” Eustace insisted.

“She can’t be your mother. She’s human.”

Eustace frowned as if this was the first time he’d ever thought about it.

“She said she is my mother. She is mother of all of us.”

“Okay,” I shook my head, “what game are you playing? What is it you’re looking for?”

“An egg. It’s hidden and I get to find it. It’s a game.”

He skipped down the stairs. I jogged after him. “Wait…finding an egg is a game?”

“Oh yes. I’ve found them before.”

“Them? There’s more than one?”

“Oh no,” Eustace replied with infuriating innocence, “there’s only ever one.”

I pressed my fingers to my forehead as he began to cartwheel around me. “Eustace, stop!”

He landed on his feet and straightened, staring at me.

“Are you angry?”

“Just…listen for a moment.” I shook my head. “You’ve found eggs for her in the past?”

“Yes…” He went to start his acrobatics again but I grabbed his arm and stopped him.

I breathed out, letting go of my anger before I snapped at him.. “You’re looking for an egg? A dragon egg?” He nodded. “A single dragon egg?” He nodded again. “And you’ve found them before…but there’s only ever one?”

“Yes. Can we go?” He darted away. “I’ve been looking all over the world but I can’t find it. But I will. I always have. I’m very good at it.”

“So…” I panted trying to keep up with him. “She, your mother, she looks after the eggs?”

“Yes. And then another one comes and I have to find it.”

I was more than a little frustrated with the world and how it worked. It was even harder to understand when my guide gave such basic answers to everything. Eustace didn’t seem to see anything odd about having a human mother and for all I knew, this was the way the dragon world worked.

“Where have the other eggs been before?”

“One was hiding as a coconut.” Eustace beamed. “One looked like a rock on a shoal and I found one that had washed up on the beach.”

“Would any egg do? What about the eggs of the other dragons?”

Eustace gazed at me, baffled. “What eggs?”

“The eggs…babies of the other dragons…”

Eustace shook his head. “There are no other eggs. This is the only one.”

Talking with Eustace was like trying to have a conversation with a hyperactive child. There was no giving of extra information. I got what I asked for, if I was lucky, with no explanation.

“So then…this egg is pretty rare, isn’t it?”

“Very. It is why I am the one who must find it.” Eustace paused and sighed. “But I have not been able to. I thought it was through the door in your world.”

“You told her you needed to be smaller to look for it so she showed you how to change your form.” I guessed. “Have you thought to look around here?”

“In Sheol?”

“What’s Sheol?”

“This,” Eustace gestured to the underwater castle, “is Sheol. Maybe the egg is here! That would be a good hiding spot! Will you help me find it?”

“What about getting me home?” I asked with my hands on my hips. “When will the island tip up the right way?”

“Not for ages.” Clearly the telling of time or any concept of the flow of it was not something Eustace deemed important. “It’ll be fun!”

He was jigging about like he had far too much energy and I realised if we left with him in this state, I might be subjected to another ‘game’ like before. I didn’t think I’d survive it a second time.

“We can look around.” I nodded. “But this place is so big…”

“A lot of it is broken. It is very old.” To Eustace, ten years would probably be old, especially with him calling a young girl ‘mother’. “This will be great! I’ve never had something to look with me! What a great game!”

“Why don’t you look in all the rooms filled with water and I’ll look in the others.” I offered and he bounded away, gleeful that he had a playmate. I shook my head and moved over to the nearest dry passage. It was blocked a ways down so I came back and tried the next one.

“This is so stupid,” I muttered, “I don’t even know what I’m looking for. And an egg the size of a coconut that could be hidden anywhere in the world for the mother of dragons who is a human?” I looked around the large pavilion with the dragon statues in it. “Nothing about this place makes sense. Gosh I wish I was home.”

My feet were freezing and the ground was cold and damp in places. I’d accidentally stepped into a puddle and my jeggings were wet again. I was beginning to wish I’d never agreed to look for the egg. It could take months to find. I did a cursory glance down one corridor, feeling a chill enter my bones and then gasped as something cut my foot.

“Damn it!” I swore, leaning against the wall, prying the offending object out of my foot. It was not stone but rather a shard of some description, lightly concave with a dark mottled surface on one side and white on the other. “An old blade or something? Good grief, am I going to need a tetanus shot?” I dropped it and to my surprise, it shattered on the ground. “I hope that wasn’t a priceless antique.” My foot was aching. The cut wasn’t bad but it stung and my nerves were raw. “This is pointless…”

I turned to go and gave a shriek of horror to see Eustace’s mother standing behind me. The tattered rags that formed her gown hung from her slight frame, some of the hem scraping the ground and other parts trailing out behind her. Her mass of blonde hair drifted around her face like it was in water and her eyes were still closed.

“You need you to leave.” She said.

I was trying my hardest not to completely lose my cool.

“Trust me, I’m trying. As soon as I find Eustace…”

“Who is Eustace?”

“Your son…the water dragon?” I explained.

Her young face creased with concern. “You taint him with your ways…you will steal his innocence…”

“I hardly see how a name is going to do all that. You act like I’m out to hurt him.”

She clutched her arms around her body. “You will do so with the best of intentions and he and all my children will suffer.”

I let out a growl of frustration. “I don’t understand! It can’t always have been that way. Clearly, at some point, dragons and humans lived side by side.” She turned her closed eye gaze back to me. “This place is as big as needs be even for one of the rock dragons but the stairs are made for humans.”

She gave a small smile. “My son has been here many times and seen what you have seen…but he has not made the connection as you have.” She turned away and began to walk into the great hall. I followed her, favouring my foot.

“It was a long time ago,” she whispered, “dragons and humans existed together for a millennia, building a society that was based upon the principals of the four elements. Earth represented foundation, water represented life, fire was the energy that coursed through their veins and wind was motion and change. All four elements existed separately in four types of dragons. Though they were different, they worked together harmoniously. It was…utopia.” She shook her head. “Then curiosity overrode the common sense of humans. They decided to forge all the elements together to create a dragon who was master of all. And they succeeded in the very chamber I rest.”

She put her hand up and stroked a mural, depicting the four elemental flames around the throne that only now I could see what it really was. A giant egg that had cracked open.

“The humans rejoiced with their creation, not knowing it had been born out of the arrogance of their conspiracy…and with its first breath, it began to sow enmity between the dragons and humans…for it could take human form…and it taught the other dragons how to do so.” She shuddered. “The humans began to rise up against the dragons and the dragons retaliated against the humans, all while the dragon of four elements sowed discord on both sides.”

Her sightless gaze looked up at a damaged mural where the elements were swallowing up the humans.

“In the end…the humans perished as did the dragons, even the one who had started utopia’s downfall. The only dragons that survived were those in eggs, safe in their shells and hiding places. And me.”

“You?” I looked at her. “No offense, but this all happened a long time ago…you’re a little girl.”

“I am thousands of years old…but in that chamber I do not age.” She replied without drama. “I have watched over the dragons, responsible for their wellbeing. I have to keep them safe from humans…like you.”

I felt the sting of association. “I’m nothing like those humans. Heck, I’m not even from this world!”

“And yet you have already stained my son with a name and yoked him to your standards. These dragons know not of regret or sorrow. They have never known heartache or death.” She shook her head, her hair flowing through the air. “For the sake of this world, go and never come back.”

“I promised Eustace I would help him find the egg,” I said, suddenly a little annoyed that this woman, whatever her motivations and grievances with humans might be, was ordering me begone, “and when I have, I will go…and if he agrees, I’ll make sure the door to this world never opens again…but you’ve got to give us more to go on finding the egg than it’s in this world. Do you know how big this place is?”

“I cannot tell you what I do not know,” she said mournfully, “the egg…it is precious to me. I must take care of it.”

She walked back to the chamber, her tattered gown dragging behind her. I rubbed the back of my neck and wanted to growl then sighed.

“Precious to her. That’s not a clue. That’s not even a hint.” I shivered. “I just want to go home. I want sunshine. Eustace?!”

He appeared and we agreed that the egg was probably not in the castle. I climbed on his back and, enveloped in the bubble he formed around me, we left the same way we came in. Eustace’s body rippled and flowed through the water like it was water itself. He began to rise through the depths and, as we approached the surface, sunlight filtered down to us, making it that much easier to see the edges of the reef the castle was buried beneath.

And as we did so, I caught sight of the giant oysters around the reef.

“Imagine the size of a pearl that might grow in one of those.” I shook my head. “It’d be the size of…well…it’d be big…”

Then Bastian’s words returned to me…about the meaning of the word ‘precious’ and how he likened it to the treasure of a pearl.

I jolted so violently that Eustace twisted his long neck around and looked at me.

Bethany?

“Eustace…what if the egg was in one of the giant oysters?”

He tilted his head.

Why would it be in the oyster?

“Why would it be pretending to be a rock or a coconut? I don’t know…but have you looked inside the oysters?”

Eustace turned his large head around and studied the islands that made up the strange, curved reef.

I haven’t.

I pushed my hand through my short hair. “That’s a lot of oysters to shuck.”

Shuck?

“It’s the word used when you open an oyster.” I sighed. “Honestly, it would take us years to open all of them and that’s just on this reef.” I frowned. “I think you can open them using heat. Can you breathe fire?”

No.

“Oh…what about a fire dragon? He could breathe fire on all the oysters and open them all up.”

Fire dragons cannot breathe fire.

His words were so surprising that I was silent for a while. “Eustace,” I leaned down, “are you telling me that…no dragons breathe fire here?”

Yes. That is a strange question.

I felt rather dazed by this. Fire breathing seemed to be something all dragons, no matter what culture they came from, could do. The idea that I was in a world where dragons couldn’t breathe fire was unthinkable.

“It’d kill the oysters anyway,” I tried to refocus my thoughts but the notion was really hard to shake, “how big is the egg, Eustace?”

I have not found it yet.

“No, I mean the ones you’ve found before. How big were they?”

One of your world’s bouncy balls that go through a net…but not as round.

“A basketball then. Can you get me close to one of the oysters?” He drifted as close as he could without scraping himself. The edges of the reef were sharp. I studied the oyster closest to me. The colours of its exterior were petrol green and, depending on the glancing sunlight, it reflected purples, blues and even some amazing pinks that were almost fluorescent. It was so big my arms wouldn’t have been able to go around it. Where the top shell and the bottom shell joined was a wavy line, sealed tightly closed.

“Eustace,” I thought, studying it, “an egg as large as a basketball inside an oyster like that…I don’t think the oyster would be able to close properly. We’re probably looking for an oyster shell that’s propped open or bulging at its seam.”

I can look for that!

“Woah!” I yanked on his ears. “Before you do, let me off. I’d like to sit in the sun for a bit.”

I clambered onto the oyster and watched as Eustace dived down below the surface and then, as he went lower, out of sight.

I sat on the oyster shell, suddenly realising just how alone I was. If Eustace did not come back, I would be standard on a reef where my feet would be cut to ribbons by the sharpness of the rocks around me. And there was nothing to see from my position except more islands made out of the reef in its curved configuration and endless ocean.

Despite the warmth of the sun, I was suddenly cold.

And Eustace was gone for a long time.

My stomach was violently growling now and I was really tired. Even though night had fallen earlier in this world than it would have in mine, I had probably been awake for twenty hours. Coupled with my aching body from the ‘play’ abuse and my throbbing foot from the cut, I was not in good condition.

“Why didn’t I tell him to take me home first?” I muttered. “I could be stuck here forever.”

I knew Eustace, wherever he was, would eventually return to the reef but whether or not he would before I starved to death or died of hypothermia was another matter.

Fear, not a chill, made my teeth chatter.

“I want to go home.” I whispered. “I want to be back at ‘House of Figs’. I’m not grown up enough for all of this. I can’t handle it. I can’t help anyone. This place has got issues going back thousands of years! I’m just me! What was I thinking, imagining I could help somehow?”

It was a terrifying thought, that I was all alone and abandoned.

Unfortunately it was not a new thought. I’d felt this way before, after my mum had died.

That had been the result of other people’s selfishness and frailty.

This, however, was all my own fault.

“Eustace!” I shouted, the terror getting the better of me. “Eustace!” Tears began to fall down my cheeks. “Eustace!” I cried again. “Please…please come back!”

I put my face onto my knees and sobbed. I sobbed loud, long and hard.

It was a difficult thing to do, crying when you were always aware that others were listening.

I was always self conscious and didn’t like to cry where others could see or hear me. I cried at the funeral because that’s what was expected but apart from that, I hadn’t cried at all or if I had, I’d swallowed the sobs down and just let tears fall. But there was no one here to hear me cry. No one would judge me and I wouldn’t keep anyone awake. So I cried until I felt empty and weak, my arms wrapped around my legs and my head buried.

Something touched me. My head lifted up in shock to see Eustace in dragon form in the water, his long snout thrusting forward, his jaw full of oyster shell.

I gasped in fright as he promptly dropped the heavy object into my lap. His snout nuzzled my legs.

I found it. He rumbled through my body. I swam around the reef, looking at all the oysters and I found it!

“Eustace!” I exclaimed. “I thought you weren’t coming back!”

He looked at me with his big blue eyes and then clambered onto the reef and curled around me, his body enveloping mine.

Why are your eyes red?

I felt embarrassed now. “I…I was crying.”

Why?

“Because I thought you weren’t coming back. I thought you’d forgotten about me.”

You are my friend. I would not forget about you.

It was a simple statement and I did not doubt his sincerity, only his attention span. I sniffed, the terror moving away from the forefront of my mind and I looked at the oyster shell. It wasn’t quite as large as the one I was sitting on and it looked like it was bulging at the seams. The seal at its mouth was wider than all the others that I could see and it looked almost deformed in shape.

“That looks promising.” I admitted. “How do we get it open?”

Eustace’s large foreclaws reached around me, grasping the shell, his talons piercing the membrane that formed the seal.

I had the thought that, should the oyster just contain a pearl, I wouldn’t be complaining as one its size would be worth millions. Eustace pried the shell apart easily and too forcefully. A dark object was thrust into the air in my direction. I was faced with a dilemma of catch or repel and had to decide in a split second whether I was going to cower and put my hands up to protect myself or open my arms to receive.

In all honesty, I might have been going for the repel posture but it all happened so fast that I hadn’t got my arms up and the round object landed within my grasp.

I gasped and froze, staring at the ball in my arms. I didn’t dare move.

“Is…is that it?” I whispered.

I found it! Eustace crowed. I found it!

“I’m…holding a dragon egg?”

It was a sphere, not a perfect one but less pointy than a chicken egg. It was also larger than a basketball, requiring both my arms to hold it. It was heavy too as if whatever was inside was so large it was nearly ready to break free and hatch. The surface of the shell was dark grey, almost black and it had a bumpy texture, a lot like a golf balls dimples but uneven.

“Wow…that’s incredible!” Though the egg had been in the ocean, in the cold, as I held it, I could almost feel a warmth from it. “I can’t believe you found it so quickly!”

It was very clever hiding it so close to Sheol and mother. I didn’t think to search the reef.

I paused. “Eustace…who hides the egg? I thought it was a game.”

It is a game.

This seemed contrary to his mother’s urgency that the egg be returned to her care.

However, it was possible she did not want to burden Eustace with the responsibility of something urgent and fragile, making it into a game to preserve his innocence.

We should take it to mother. Eustace unwound himself from around me so that I could stand up, clutching the heavy burden and ease myself onto his back.

“Can’t I go home first?” I asked, holding onto the egg with my arms, pinching Eustace’s back with my knees to stay upright.

But you helped me find it. I could feel his pleading, his childlike request to share the experience. Please…

I sighed and nodded. “Fine. But I’m going home straight after.”

Yes. I will take you home.

He dove beneath the water, the bubble surrounding me and the egg. I was a little resentful of the way he’d manipulated me into coming and that resentment grew as we descended further into the darkness and we got further and further from the door that would take me home.

By the time we broke through the surface into the castle, I was not in the best of moods.

The euphoria of finding the egg had worn off and I was tired and hungry.

I held onto it as Eustace skipped ahead in human form, eager to show his mother the prize.

At the bottom of the stairs I paused.

“Wait,” I called to him and held out the egg, “you take it. I’ll wait here.”

Eustace pouted. “Why?”

“Because…this is your game. You found the egg.” And I didn’t fancy the glare from his mother again, causing me to shoulder the blame for the sins of the humans in the past. “I don’t mind. I’ll wait here.”

He was disappointed but I’d had enough. My goodwill had run out, as had my energy and interest. I didn’t care about the egg anymore. I just wanted to go home.

“Okay,” he took the egg, “I’ll come back soon.”

“I know.” I nodded and watched him walk off, a decidedly disgruntled stomp in his step that told me he wasn’t entirely happy with my decision. As he climbed the many stairs to the dais and then beyond, I turned and looked at the murals on the wall.

“It’s so sad,” I whispered, studying the carvings, “such a beautiful world destroyed because humans couldn’t stop interfering.” I didn’t like the sight of the war torn mural so I limped to another one. “Wow…is that what this city looked like?”

It was all spires and arches, places for dragons to fly and for humans to walk. The integration was amazing to see. I mean, if there were two creatures less like each other in all the world, a dragon and a human had to be it and yet the city was a testament to their cooperation. I saw dragons digging furrows in the earth for crops to grow, water dragons watering the new shoots, fire dragons lighting bonfires…

“Wait…they’re not lighting them with their bodies,” I peered closer, “they’re breathing fire…” I brushed some of the moss away. “That’s not one dragon…those are wind dragons…and they’re all breathing fire.” I put my hands on my hips and turned around. “I don’t get it. These dragons breathed fire. Why can’t they now? Have they forgotten?” I stepped backwards to look at the mural in its entirety when my foot landed on something sharp again. I swore and looked down at the broken pieces at my feet. Whatever I had stood on had been sharp but had also shattered like glass.

“No…not like glass…like an egg…shell…”

A shiver of horror ran down my spine. I looked at the stairs, Eustace having disappeared down the corridor towards the dais. I went to where I’d stepped on the larger shard…where his mother had confronted me.

“No…she distracted me…why?”

I was more than a little frightened as I entered the corridor I’d spared only a passing glance to. One end was blocked by rubble but the other direction continued for a short way. I walked down the corridor, seeing more fragments of dark grey on one side and white on the other. Then there was a larger piece and then some more larger pieces.

“An egg shell? Is this where the babies hatch?” I wondered then spotted another pure white piece at the edge of the doorway. “That’s not shell…”

I picked it up, the shiver of horror turning into a trembling.

What I held in my hand was a skull…of a baby dragon.

Riddled with fear but having come too far to stop now, I turned the corner…and found it wasn’t the only one.

In a room the size of ‘House of Figs’ were the remains of eggshells, their sharp curves broken and smashed. And discarded along with them were the bones of dozens…no, hundreds of baby dragons. Spines, rib cages, skulls, tails, wings, legs…some of them were broken in half and others were shattered into countless pieces.

“She killed them…she killed them all…”

And not just killed. The way they were broken, it was as though the attack had been violently personal.

I looked at the skull in my hand and dropped it in horror.

“She’s going to kill it. She’s going to kill that baby dragon!” I spun around and, forgetting about my injured foot, sprinted for the main hall. “Eustace! Eustace, stop!”