“It’s coming closer!” I screamed, which popped Ben’s head out of the coach again.
“Daniel, you many have to scare the varmint away,” Ben said.
Meanwhile, one of the werewolves came loping over. He growled at the dragon, but didn’t do anything more. The other wolf, Bob, I think, based on the darker color of his coat, leaped at the dragon.
Timothy edged back and away, side-stepping carefully in a way that still allowed me to keep my seat on his back, but the dragon dodged both wolves and despite Timothy’s retreat, surged closer. I suddenly felt a wetness on my arm, a wetness that spread even through the long-sleeved cloth of the gown’s sleeves.
“Dragons aren’t poisonous, are they?” I asked. “This one just licked me, I think.”
The coach with the queen came to a complete, but the soldiers following the queen’s vehicle kept right on coming. In a moment they had surrounded us with their frankly rank-smelling soldier bodies. Swords and knives were out. Attack mode was in the soldiers’ eyes and postures.
“Help!” I shrieked, feeling panicked more from the battle-eager troops than from the slimy-tongued creature on the ground beside me.
I guess the dragon was feeling a little worried, too, because he bleated loudly, then fluttered his wings once and flew upward, landing on my lap. Before I could push him away, his head lay crushed against my breast, his eyes had shut, and like a small, terrified child he was shaking.
I should have felt even more panic from a strange beast having climbed into my lap, but the dragon was clinging timidly and issuing sad, little sobbing sounds.
“Back away, everyone,” I yelled. “You’re frightening him.”
The soldiers backed. The wolves stopped growling, and Timothy, my pooka husband, froze mid-prance.
I started petting the small dragon, trying to soothe him with babytalk like I would a clingy child, one desperate for reassurance in an alarmingly frightening world. Once again, the dragon’s tongue lapped at my sleeve, then he turned suddenly and gave me a kiss on my cheek. It was startling, but not slurpy. I wanted to wipe any moisture away, but I merely cooed louder.
Daniel’s bird fluttered off the pooka and landed beside me, changing shape before my eyes. Back in his human pose, he said, “He means you no harm, Penelope.”
Although Daniel occasionally entered my mind to communicate something, it was far different than Timothy’s interior voice. This time, Daniel, knowing how I felt about such intrusions simply spoke out loud. The thunderbird/thundergod took a step closer to me, then reached out to touch the dragon’s silvery tail.
“He is lost, Penelope, separated from his mother. He thinks you will help him find her,” Daniel said.
“Can you toss him down?” Timothy asked, using mind-speech since he was still in his pooka form.
The dragon’s claws were sharp as barbed wire, but he was being careful not to hurt me. The suggestion of releasing those claws from the material of my dress and doing what Timothy suggested, I instantly rejected. No one could hurl off a frightened baby. The little one needed me.
Besides, we had to find his mother. Daniel had said the dragon was lost.
Queen Moragana was peering out at me through the window of her fancy coach. “The dragon has bonded with you, Penelope. Obviously, you no longer need to find his mother. You are his mother.”