"Run!" Rose yelled.
I barely heard the word over the strange rumbling roar that came from the ground. Everything trembled. I'd never been in an earthquake before, and I did not like it. Then I wondered why we were running. We didn't want to be around those trees that kept swaying --
"Dragon!" Rose yelled as she reached me.
I ran.
My leg was not up to this sort of workout, though. I was slowing down within a yard and desperately trying not to fall. Four people -- the Commission -- charged past me in pure panic. I almost stumbled.
And that angered me. I grabbed hold of the next member of the Commission who went past me. He looked like he was about 30 and dressed in a long white toga that probably melted some high standing in the temple or something. I didn't care. I began shaking him, and he made incoherent noises.
"How in the name of all the gods can you have a dragon on a world without magic?" I demanded.
That question didn't reach the person I was holding, but it had Rose and Silvers's attention. When Rose landed on the man's shoulder, he almost fainted, and the ground shook even more.
"We're going to stay here until you give me some answers," I told the man. He focused back on me and took a couple of deep breaths.
"The Dragon was from the far past, back when we still had magic everywhere," he had a singsong voice that made me think I was right about him being a priest. "The Dragon was the last, and he went to sleep saying he'd return when magic came back. And the three of you came straight over him with your magic --"
"A couple of points to consider," Silver said as he took hold of the man this time. The ground wasn't shaking so much at the moment. I had the odd feeling that something was listening to us. "First, we didn't go over the Dragon; you did. I don't know where you got your magic, but it is much louder than what we use. You do not know what you're doing, do you?"
"And second," Rose added, as though she knew precisely what Silver would say. "If instead of chasing after us and getting us straight to this place, you could have told us there's a dragon in this area. We wouldn't have come running straight to it."
The priest gave several quick nods, but I suspected he heard nothing we'd said. Then, the ground convulsed, sending boulders and dirt everywhere. The three of us went straight to our knees while Rose leaped into the air.
When everything settled, I could see a shape not far away—a big shape still shaking some of the dirt off of him.
"Dragon," the priest said, waving toward the creature. Then he fainted and fell face down in the mud. I turned him over. I still had more questions.
Silver was the first of us to get back to his feet. I did the same, though I wasn't sure I would stay there for long. The priest's eyes fluttered open for a moment and then closed again. I looked around for the others, but they must have returned to the forest and disappeared.
"What do we have?" Silver asked as Rose circled back to us again.
"Something I've never seen before," she said. "It's a green Dragon, but I thought those were gone eons ago. I don't remember the stories about them."
"We may have to contact Prince Stejan for help. This might be more than a wolf and a pixie can handle."
"Perhaps you should ask me my intentions first," the Dragon said. He had moved until he was barely a yard away. None of us had heard him make a sound to get there. "You know what I was doing in the dirt?" he asked.
"I assume you fell into a trap," Silver said.
"I was there because I made an ancient promise not to return until the magic grows again. It has been a long time … but you three are not from this world, and this one's magic isn't his own. I think I made a mistake waking up now."
He sounded despondent. I looked at Rose. There had to be an answer for him.
"There was magic, but it disappeared?" Rose asked.
The Dragon looked at where she hovered and looked surprised and pleased. "I have seen nothing like you! And so much magic in so small a body. What a wonder you are!"
"I am a Pixie," she explained, landing on Silver's shoulder. "There are many of us in my realm."
"I shall dream of you for many eons," he said. I saw he was digging a hole with one paw.
"No, wait. There has to be a better answer!"
"I promised," he said. "Dragons never break a promise."
I looked around as though I had missed an obvious answer. "All you need is for magic to return, right?"
"All," he repeated with a shake of his gigantic head. "As if you could call magic up at a wave of your hand."
"But I can," I said and did so, Although it wasn't easy.
I remembered a story, though. More than a story, it was a fae myth—something so old that even we couldn't tell if it was true or not. But I could make it true in this realm.
I made a tree.
Not a normal tree, of course. This one sprang from the ground with silver bark and golden leaves and towered over even the Dragon in a few heartbeats. It was the embodiment of magic.
I wasn't done.
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