Dragon’s adoptive brother had stopped twitching and screaming by now. He was just a blackened lump of flesh on the floor, filling the air with acrid fumes, so strong they even overcame the lingering odor of the dream weed smoke.
The dragon that Dragon had become dipped its head and looked at her with one huge, golden, flaming eye. An eye that Bobbi estimated was nearly as big as her entire head.
“Please,” she whispered, not even knowing what she was saying as she and Keelah shivered on the couch, clutching each other. “Please, Dragon, if you’re still in there, don’t let it hurt me! Please, you promised it wouldn’t!”
The dragon seemed to understand her fear. It widened its nostrils, inhaling deeply as though catching her scent. Then, to Bobbi’s surprise, it began to shrink.
At first, she wasn’t sure it was really happening. But then she noticed the dragon only seemed to fill half the large room instead of filling it completely. Then his enormous eye—which she was still staring into—shrank from the size of a dinner plate to the size of a softball and then to the size of a tangerine.
And the rest of him was shrinking right along with it. To her surprise, in a moment the enormous dragon was barely the size of a horse. Which was still pretty big, but not nearly as huge as it had been a moment before.
“Oh…” Bobbi whispered, looking up at it. “Did…did you do that for me? Did you shrink yourself down because I was afraid of you?”
The dragon snorted softly and nodded its head—a definite “yes.”
“Well…thank you,” Bobbi said uncertainly. “That’s…very kind of you.”
The dragon ducked its head on its long, flexible neck and slowly approached her.
“Oh! Oh, no!” Keelah gasped. Pulling her legs up tight to her chest, she scooted to the opposite end of the couch, trying to get away from the dragon. “Bobbi, come with me!” she exclaimed, extending a hand. “Come on—we have to get away!”
But Bobbi was no longer sure they needed to run. She was remembering what Dragon had told her about the being that lived inside him. He had said that whoever he was, he only wanted to protect her and that he would never hurt her.
Well, he protected me, all right, she thought grimly, glancing at the dead Saurian bodies that littered the tiled floor, like game pieces that had been smacked off the board.
It occurred to her that, now that the threat Zerlix and his father had represented was gone, the dragon might want to meet her. Maybe that was what was happening here.
Tentatively, she put out a hand to him.
“It’s all right,” she said, in a voice that wobbled only a little bit. “It’s all right—come here and let’s get…get acquainted.”
“Bobbi, are you crazy?” Keelah whispered from the other side of the couch.
“I don’t think so,” Bobbi said, never taking her eyes off the slowly approaching dragon. “I think he just wants to meet me. He lives inside Dragon, you know, and Dragon loves me. I think—I hope—that he will love me too.” She nodded at the red and gold dragon who was even closer now.
As it—no, he—Dragon said he’s a male, she reminded herself—as he reached her, the dragon dropped gracefully to the floor, folding its legs under it almost like a large cat. He leaned forward and—very carefully—lay his large head in Bobbi’s lap.
“Oh!” she whispered and stayed very, very still. After seeing the flames in his throat, she would have expected that the dragon would be too hot to touch. But actually, he was just toasty warm—which was really quite nice, considering how chilly she always was here on Saurous.
“Do…would you let me…let me touch you?” Bobbi’s hand hovered uncertainly over the huge head, which took up her entire lap.
The dragon rolled his eyes up at her in a way that seemed to be affirmative.
Well, here goes nothing! Bobbi thought to herself. Very lightly, she allowed her hand to rest on the top of the dragon’s long skull.
To her surprise, his crimson scales were actually soft.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “It’s like touching feathers!”
She stroked him gently, caressing the length of the enormous head as she looked into his golden, burning eyes. Suddenly, she heard a voice in her head.
“Mmmm…feels good,” it said.
“Oh!” Bobbi looked at the dragon in surprise. “Did…did you say that?” she asked.
“Yes. Your soft hands feel nice…gentle. We can talk when you touch me,” he added.
“We…we can?” Bobbi asked blankly. “Oh, I guess we can!” She stroked the dragon some more—she was getting more comfortable with him now that she knew he was sentient and not just a mindless, ravenous beast.
“You’re the one Dragon has been sensing all this time—you’re his inner dragon, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I am his Drake,” the low, rumbling voice corrected her. “But yes, I am the one inside.”