Queen Beatrice poked her head out of the other carriage’s window. “She’s a mother? How did that happen? I didn’t notice that she was pregnant.”
“No, not like that,” Queen Moragana said, shaking her head at the other queen’s error. “She’s the mother of a baby dragon.”
“I see. The human comes with two werewolves, a pooka, a bird of prey, and a dragon. What a wondrous child, especially for a mere human. Although she did spin fantastically, entertaining tales. She taught us: How much wood would a wood chuck chuck. . . Is a wood chuck a dragon? She never told us what . ..”
The carriage had once again heaved forward. So whatever Queen Beatrice was going to say next was lost to us. I wanted to yell out that a woodchuck was not a dragon, but the baby dragon was sound a sleep and snoring in my lap.
“Daniel, what should I do? Won’t his mother be worried?”
It wasn’t Daniel who answered me, though. A soldier had moved up closer, stepping behind Timothy’s rump. Pooka’s, like horses, do not like people walking up behind them. Timothy reeled about, snorted, and showed his teeth.
“Easy, there,” the man said. “I only wanted to explain to the young lady that dragons of this age are often cast off. Either the little one makes it on its own, or it dies. Good thing, too. That keeps the kingdom from being overrun by flying lizards.”
“That’s horrible,” I cried out, forgetting to be quiet so I wouldn’t awaken the baby. But my voice didn’t seem to bother the little one. He only snuggled closer, purred a moment, then went back to his vibrating snores.
Timothy pawed at the ground. We need to catch up with the queen’s carriage, my love, he mind linked with me. Hold on.
Without more ado, Daniel shape-changed back into a bird and soared up into the sky, The two werewolves let out joyous howls and leaped away, diving back into the forest on the right side of the path, and the soldier who’d come forward to talk with me, turned about and headed back to his troops.
“Sir . . .” I called out, hoping to get more information from the man.
Captain, Timothy mind linked.
“Captain,” I said, trying to call the soldier back. “What do I feed a baby dragon?”
But the captain either didn’t hear me or wasn’t interested in furthering the conversation. Almost immediately, I immediately heard the continuation of the clump, clump as the troops all resumed their jog forward.
Since we’d fallen behind, Timothy broke into a slow and easy canter. Although that was a fast pace for me to ride, it was so much easier to to sit than his trot. Still, I used one hand to cling to Timothy’s mane while the other hand tightened about the little sleeping dragon.