The waves had increased in size, and the rain had long since drenched everybody. Dark grey clouds blocked out much of the sun. With no one at the ship's wheel the angle of the bow had slowly shifted until the waves bashed in from the sides, blasting anyone on deck with hard biting salt spray.

But it was not the storm that had caused the boat to suddenly tilt, sending all on deck tumbling and grabbing for purchase. A large dark shape circled the ship from above. It’s wings were jagged as mountain cliffs. It’s scales were as dark as night. It breathed fire and it gave a roar that rivaled the wind.

The dragon had clipped the main mast mid flight, sending their ship into a sickening, but slowly simmering, rocking motion.

The beast spun on the air and started heading back in for a second round.

“Everybody below deck! Now!” Amanda roared. She handed Bobby off to Gemma, who then passed him off to Neko. Gemma did not want to miss this.

Most of the crew had removed their earplugs by now, and those that hadn’t were quickly made aware of instructions by their crew mates. Sailors scattered everywhere.

Sirius met his wife’s gaze. “Can you handle this?” he asked with a grim glance up at the dragon.

Teeth gritted, red hair wet and wind-whipped against her cheeks and forehead, she gave one single firm nod.

Above them the mast creaked and strained in the strong wind, threatening to snap.

“I’ll be at the wheel,” Sirius said to Amanda. Then he yelled at two men across the deck. “Sable! Fallon! Lower the top sails before the mast breaks!”

They each gave a nod, and got to work, no hesitation, no questions.

Sirius made for the wheelhouse, with Shiv in quick pursuit. “Get Griff, we’re gonna need a good heading,” Sirius barked back to Shiv as they walked swiftly, undeterred by the rough rolling of the deck beneath their feet. Shiv disappeared into the belly of the ship to do as he was told.

Amanda made her way out to the middle of the deck, to the spot where the dragon seemed roughly headed. She turned to face it.

Catching a glance of her eldest daughter still standing out on the now empty deck, she called. “Gemma! I said go below! Now!”

The ferocity in her mother’s voice was not one to be trifled with and so Gemma stumbled and skidded across the deck until she reached the door to the belly of the ship. There she paused a moment. With a glance back, she slipped through the door, and waited on the other side, poking the door open just enough that she could observe the scene on deck.

The dragon flew low. It’s wings rattled ropes. Amanda felt the heat radiating from it’s body. It swooped over her and then swung upward. It flapped in one place, hovering above the ship, it’s mighty wing strokes blowing Amanda’s hair back from her face so it danced out behind her, a red target on a dark ship. Between them the sails strained against old wooden masts.

The dragon pulled back it’s head, preparing to rain down upon their wooden ship a fiery destruction.

As the dragon thrust it’s throat out, it’s scales changed colour from a dark coal like black and began to glow a bright orange that increased in intensity until the dragon finally opened it’s mouth and the fire burst forth.

Amanda raised her hands. She felt for the fire. Dragon fire was hot, far hotter than any regular fire, and this not even Amanda could instantly snuff out. That took time. But she could direct it. Make her own, and push it away from the wood and sails of the ship. And she could try to do that for every breath the dragon took, but that would leave the dragon and her locked in a long battle of wills. A fight of who could last the longest. And all it would take to destroy them was one small persistent spark to alight on the deck or a sail.

There was the rain, and it helped, but only a little. Like holding up a block of cheese to protect against a bullet wound. What good was a little water against a beast that could evaporate the ocean?

Luckily, this was not Amanda’s first full grown dragon and she knew something of their natures. So she took a gamble, as she was often inclined to do, and instead of making the dragon’s fire smaller, she made it larger, and she shaped it.

From the fiery rain grew two jagged orange-gold wings and a long spiny neck.

For a moment the black dragon seemed confused as it eyed this new beast born from it’s own flame. Then it attacked again, only this time it targeted the fake dragon.

This is what Amanda had been hoping for. It was a risky move for sure and overhead the entire sky was lit up red. On her own, adding to the fire would have been a lot of work, but she was experienced, and she let the dragon do it for her. As it’s flames burst forth, Amanda pushed them up, away from the ship and it’s vulnerable sails. Right into the belly of the new creature, and before the black dragon’s eyes, it’s enemy grew larger.

The dragon balked and backed off, but it did not flee. It circled once, as if deciding what to do. It’s attention was fully on this strangely shaped fireball now.

Amanda put more detail into her creation. She sucked some fire away from where the middle of the eyes should be, and pushed more around their edges. But most of all, she concentrated on the movement. She made the tail swish, the way an adult dragon might do when it is challenging another dragon to a fight. It was bigger than the black dragon now, and she was not sure how long she could hold it. If she had made a mistake, if she had misjudged, she had just used up a significant amount of precious energy in doing so.

The other dragon wriggled it’s body and swished it’s own tail and Amanda feared it might decide to fight after all. She had no way to hurt it. It was the shape of another dragon and not the fire that made it wary. She could feel the sweat from both heat and exhaustion dripping down her skin. The air that had been so wet before was dry and crispy now.

Then, just as she thought she had no more in her the small dragon bowed it’s head in submission. With one last roar it dropped down and spun, ripping right through their main sail, before disappearing into the night.

Gemma turned from the doorway where she had been watching. She felt a mixture of both awe and frustration. Her mum could control dragon fire like it was nothing and here she was, couldn’t even set the sand alight to scare an annoying boy without almost killing him. And she would have to, if her mum hadn’t stepped in at the right moment. She stormed back to her cabin trying not to to think of fire, for anger and flames were not a good mix.

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What Gemma did not see was her mother putting out the fire. Doing so all at once risked losing control of the flame completely. Amanda had to hold it and let it dissipate slowly, until by the time the fire was out she was so exhausted that, breathless and panting, she fell to the deck, her knees hitting the wood hard. Sirius, having left Shiv and Griff in charge of the ship’s wheel, ran out to her and wrapped her in a warm blanket.

“You alright?” he whispered.

She nodded, and he helped her to her feet.

Beneath the deck, Bobby after being helped by Neko back to his cabin, had managed about 30 seconds of rest before Sasha and Katrina had appeared at his bedside demanding to know what had occurred on deck.

Salem, who had seen most of the action, and was by now tired himself, given he’d just experienced his first siren, slipped quickly out of the cabin to go and find somewhere quieter to relax.

Noticing Salem vanish and then the cabin door open and close, Bobby realised he’d just lost his only chance at redirection, and that the only way he was going to get any rest was if he told the two girls what they wanted to know. He did so in as succinct a story as he could, with no flare for the dramatic.

Even so, Sasha’s eyes lit up at the mention of the dragon. “And it’s up there right now?” she asked wide-eyed.

Bobby, too tired to read her tone properly, mistook her question as one of worry rather than excitement and intrigue. He rubbed his face, “Yeah, but don’t worry, Mum’s handling it.”

Katrina smirked in wonder. “Mum’s handling it,” she mused. She imagined the kind of power it took to fight off a dragon, and sort of glory one might attain if one got really good at it. Fire scared a little and her trials with borrowing fire magic had thus far not gone so well, but there were other methods to fight dragons and find glory, she was sure, and the recent events had given her an idea, something new she wanted to try.

Bobby nodded, missing the gleam in both of his sister’s eyes. “Yeah, we’ll be fine down here. Don’t worry. Just have to hold tight for now.” His head drooped and he pulled it back up and blinked sleepily.

Sasha seeing he wasn’t going to be up for much talking backed away toward the door mumbling, “Well, thanks for the update, I’m gonna go back to my room now. Bye.”

Bobby nodded and turned his attention lazily to Katrina, hoping she might go away too so that he could sleep in peace.

Katrina ignored her younger sister. If she’d been paying attention, she might have noticed the way Sasha had been far too eager to leave. But she had something else burning on her mind.

"Bobby, can I borrow some of your magic?"

“Huh?” Bobby blinked, and he focused on his sister, now a little more awake.

“Not now.” She waved her hands. “I mean, you’re tired obviously, but I mean, maybe later, tomorrow? Once you’re fully energised.”

Bobby frowned. “What do you want it for?” He’d let her borrow magic before, to help heal injured birds they’d found in the forest, when he’d been there to help. But there were no animals on this ship that he knew of, not unless she was planning to catch rats.

“I want to make an infusement.”

“A healing infusement?”

She nodded. “Imagine how useful it would be.”

“And dangerous. Katrina, healing magic is not to be toyed with. If you get it wrong you can give someone cancer or cause internal bleeding or all sorts of things, and...”

He saw her open her mouth and he held up a hand to stop her from interrupting. He continued,

“And even if you’re skilled at what you’re doing, there’s no guarantee that whomever gets hold of your item will be. Doing healing magic on another person is high risk. But healing magic on another person by someone who has no idea what they're doing and who just happened to stumble across a healing infusement that they thought they’d try out, well that’s a recipe for disaster.”

“I’ll be careful with it. No one else will get hold of it.”

Bobby shook his head. “There’s a reason items like that are heavily restricted.”

“That’s just for selling. I won’t sell it, and I promise not to let it fall into any other hands. There’s no one on this ship who would be stupid enough to use it anyway. Just while we’re at sea. Please. I bet mum would find it useful.”

Bobby thought about the events that had occurred on deck. Yeah, having a healing infusement up there would have helped a lot, and his mum probably did have enough of an understanding to use one. “Hmm.” Bobby rubbed one hand through his hair.

“Please?” Katrina batted her eyelids at him and pressed both her palms together.

Bobby sighed. “Fine, but you have to promise to only use it when I’m with you, and we have to tell mum what we’re doing okay.”

“Okay,” Katrina agreed with a nod, figuring she could find a way around the ‘tell mum’ part later.

Up on deck, Sirius had hugged Amanda tightly after lifting her to her feet. Now he frowned. He’d caught a whiff of the distinctive smell of alcohol on her breath.

“You’ve been drinking?”

Amanda sucked in breath and guiltily bit both her lips. “It was just a couple glasses.”

Sirius took a step back. His dark eyebrows were almost pressed together. Around them the rain fell gently. The sea, in contrast to Sirius’s expression, had calmed a little during the last few moments of the dragon attack, as if even it had been afraid.

“Enough to make you susceptible to the siren.” Sirius growled the words in his rough voice. “Salem almost went into the sea.”

Amanda dropped her eyes and her lip shook. “I know,” she whispered.

Seeing the sorrow and regret on her face softened Sirius. He released his hands from his fists. Someone had brought him his clothes while he had been in the wheelhouse and he no longer stood bare foot. There were dark rings under his eyes from lack of sleep. He looked at his wife, standing there in the rain, looking so sorry, and the last of his anger evaporated. All he felt was tired, and she looked much the same.

Amanda glanced back up at him, brown eyes full of regret.

He sighed, then turned his face up to the rain. Finally he looked back to her and reached for her gently again. “Come on.”

Together they walked back into the wheelhouse.

Shiv stood at the wheel.

Red-headed, full-bearded, pot-bellied, navigator, Griff was bent over a map with a frown on his face.

“Do we know where we are?” Sirius asked.

“Mmm, working on it,” Griff replied. “It’s just, what maps I have show no land near here.”

“I didn’t think we had any maps of here?” Sirius replied.

“Oh, I found some old ones, but there’s not much on them. They’re bigger and just because this water’s on them don’t mean people have sailed through.

“Why do you think there’s land?” Sirius asked.

Amanda answered in a soft voice. “Because of the dragon, right?”

Griff nodded. “Fire dragon’s are never far from shore.”

“You know what they say about a dragon and his lair,” Shiv piped in with a sly grin.

“What do they say about a dragon and his lair?” A small girl’s voice asked.

The group all turned.

Sasha stood in the door of the wheelhouse.

“Sasha.” Amanda held out her arms. It had been a long day and now all she wanted in this moment was to hug her daughter.

Sasha went to her and let her mother wrap her in a hug, but her questioning eyes never left Shiv. She wanted an answer to her question.

“Oh you know the song? The Dragon’s Lair. Well more of a poem really.”

Sasha shook her head.

“I bet your mum knows it.”

Sasha pulled out of the hug and looked up at her mother. “Sing it.”

Amanda shook her head and laughed softly. “I don’t know this one.” Then she gave Shiv a meaningful glance, silently trying to remind him that the song had better be suitable for an eleven year old.

Shiv started up in a deep voice, rough and jarring, with a hefty beat,

“Our ship does battle through the night,

Pursued by one we know too well.

It brings the clouds and blocks sunlight.

It dips and dives and not one spell,

Can send the beast back to it's lair.

We flee like hell but it's all the same.

Naught we find but despair.

The thing, it thinks it all a game.

The ship burns bright as our world dims.

Can't really blame the one we fear,

For we all knew the saying grim,

There's no safe port while land is near.”

Shiv had just recited the final word when the boat came to a sudden and jerky stop, letting out an horrendous creaking and groaning sound as it did.

“What’s happening?” Sasha cried, worry in her voice.

Outside the rain had also stopped, only to be replaced by a heavy fog. As the group peered out between the wisps they noticed a smattering of lights somewhere off to the left.

“I think,” Sirius said, “We’ve run aground.”