Serali placed the last few spell components into the pouches on her belt. Her clothes were already put away in her pack. The fancy dresses would stay behind, as would the jewelry and most of the books. Her spell book was packed with the clothes, and her lute case had been fitted with a strap for easy carrying. She looked around at the room, already looking bare and empty. Only a few more minutes and she would leave it behind. Strange to think that she had lived here for four years now. It seemed like it had been only yesterday that she had arrived. This was not the first time she had packed, of course. Her regular visits to her family had taken her away on occasion, and she had accompanied Janus on one of his trips to far lands in search of new spell components. This time, however, she would not be returning for years, if ever. She had earned the status of a journeyman wizard in an unheard-of two and a half years, possibly the shortest ever. She had not felt ready to leave then, so she had stayed on to complete a second course of study, this time in elemental wizardry. And now she could delay no longer. It was time to move on.

She realized that she was procrastinating. She had left places before, of course. Her family had moved to a new house when she was very young, and she had left her home to go with Janus, but it was not the same. Her family's move had only been from one house to another inside the same town. And even leaving home, she had known that she would come back. But she would likely never live in this room again. Oh, she might visit the tower again, but that day lay far in her future. She was setting off on a journey that might last for decades, even centuries, before she settled down again. She didn't think she'd be spending much of that time in Barona, the city or the kingdom. There was a lot more of the world out there and Serali meant to see as much of it as possible.

And besides, she though to her self, somewhere out there are dragons. My own kind. I want to find them, join them. Maybe with them I could find the place where I belong. With one last glance at all she was leaving behind she left the room and descended the tower stairs. Janus was waiting just inside the door. Without a word he opened the door and gestured to the courtyard outside. Serali walked through the door and Janus followed, closing and locking it behind him. Cervus was standing in the center of the dusty square. He was holding a tall black staff in one callused hand.

"Cervus, surely you aren't planning on going along with me this year after refusing so many times?" Janus asked.

"No. I just thought I ought to see my student off."

He turned to Serali. "You did well. Perhaps I could have hoped for better, but for someone who never intended to be a fighter you don't do half bad. If you had been willing to do nothing else I could have made you a champion. As it is, I'm proud of what you've done. I wish you were staying around long enough to learn sword fighting. I think you'd take to it like a fish to water. But a sword isn't a mage's weapon, so I suppose it's just as well. A staff is a mage's weapon though, so this is for you." He held out the staff to Serali who took it, running her hands over the smooth dark wood. "It's black oak, so it won't dent or break, and if you want to use it for spells, it'll hold one till he end of time." Then he smiled, an expression that rarely grace his leathery face. "And besides, since I broke your other staff, It's only fair that I should replace it."

Serali was speechless. Cervus had always been sparing with praise, and now this? At last she managed to say "Thank you!" Then, impulsively, she stepped forward and gave Cervus a hug. "I'm sure this will come in very handy. And so will everything you've taught me."

Cervus nodded. Then, with a last wave, he left.

"He acts like he doesn't care, but inside he's got a soft heart," said Janus.

Serali nodded. Then, as she turned to leave, Janus held up a hand. "Wait. There's one more thing we have to do before we go. Or did you forget about your horse?"

"Oh! I certainly wouldn't want to leave Orison here alone! I'll go get him. We can drop him off at Lord Mortigen's on the way out of town."

"No, I've decided that he needs to come along with us."

"What? But I was planning on flying most of the way. I don't think I could carry him for long, and I doubt he'd like it much."

"No, not that either. I've got another plan. Would you like to help me cast a major working, just for practice, before we go?"

"Sure," said Serali dubiously. "If you want to."

"I do." Janus pulled a small book out of a pocket. "We'll do dual power raising and technical changing spell."

Serali nodded. She took the book when Janus handed it to her and read through the lines of the power chant. Janus always had her do the chanting because chants work better when chanted on pitch, and Janus was slightly tone deaf. She began, repeating the words over and over. Then Janus began speaking to the background of her chant. The chant was in the formal language of magic, the one used for most spells. Its purpose was to raise power for use in the other part of the spell, which Janus was speaking. He was speaking in the technical language of magic. It was not used as often because it was more difficult to speak, but for changing magic it was the best thing. The technical language could define anything precisely. It was used most often by sorcerers because giving orders to a demon in that language made sure that it couldn't twist the words and do something else.

As Serali listened, she realized that for the first part of the spell, the part where you set out what is going to be changed, he was defining her horse. As the spell continued, he started defining something else. Some thing so big and so heavy, with properties such and such. When he had finished defining, he spoke one final word and made a gesture. Serali immediately stopped chanting. There was no visible result, though Serali thought she heard a faint clang from the direction of the stables.

Janus took back the book and walked over to the stable entrance.

"Shall we see what we've got?"

He walked inside with Serali following close behind. The stable wasn't large, and it was immediately obvious that Orison, Serali's horse, was gone. Serali walked over to the stall he had been in. It appeared to be completely empty. When she looked closer, however, she noticed a tiny glint in the straw on the floor. She bent over and picked up a statue of a golden horse, intricately detained and extremely lifelike.

Janus came up behind her. "You can take him anywhere you go now. He'll stay in the statue until you decide to release him, and he can be taken out and put back into the statue with a word."

"In the statue?"

"Yes. When you release him he'll appear, but the statue won't disappear. You'll have them both. When you decide you need to put him back he'll go back. The spell wasn't just a shape changing spell. It actually changed the basic nature of your horse. He's become a dimensional spirit. He'll spend the time he isn't in this world gazing on grass in some otherworldly pasture. I decided to do that, even though it's more difficult than simply turning him into a statue, because the statue spell would have left him aware. It would probably be quite traumatic or him to be put in your pocket if he could see it happening." Janus grinned.

"You're sure that this isn't hurting him in any way?"

"Quite sure. He'll probably be happier in the alternate plane than he would be at Lord Mortigen's in fact."

"Thank you." She gave Janus a hug too. "That's a marvelous gift. Now let's get going."

"Right."

Serali picked up the statue and took her staff in her hand. "What are you waiting for?"

Janus laughed. "Nothing." He walked out of the stable and out of the gate at the front of the courtyard, Serali close behind him.

"Sorry."

"If you were really sorry you wouldn't do it again!"

Serali just grinned.

A few days later they reached Land's End. Summer had arrived to the high desert and the heat was blistering. Serali, back in her human form, entered the cool dimness of her parents' inn with gratitude. Falio looked up from pouring drinks.

"Serali! We didn't expect you so soon!"

"Father!" She made her way quickly across the almost empty room and hugged her father. "I'm not staying long, but I'm glad to be back."

Her mother heard the commotion and emerged from the kitchen, followed by a young woman that Serali almost didn't recognize as her little sister Terla.

Serali hugged her mother affectionately and ruffled Terla's hair. "My how you've grown!

Terla swatted Serali's hand away. "Stop that! Now you've messed it up!"

Serali grinned "Trying to impress the boys, eh?"

Terla's blush was all the confirmation anyone needed.

Turning back to Falio, Serali said, "I'm not planning on staying too long. In another week or so Id like to be on the road again."

"You're welcome for as long as you're here. With both your brothers out of the house, there's plenty of room."

"I knew Dentol had married, but what happened to Ohlito?"

"He's apprenticed himself to Breck. Turns out he's got a knack for smith craft."

"They're all growing up so fast!" Serali shook her head. "I've missed so much, and now I'm leaving again."

Falio smiled at his adopted daughter. "We all miss you, but you can't live here forever. It's enough that we can enjoy your company while you're here."

"Thank you, Papa. Whatever else happens, I'm glad that you and Mama are my parents."

"Don't just stand there you two," broke in Marilla. "Sit down, eat something. You too Janus."

Serali smiled, her mother's reaction to just about everything was to try to feed it. A reaction which was responsible for the fact that she was getting plumper every year. Serali and Janus were indeed well-fed over the next two weeks, but at last the time came to go. Serali had enjoyed her stay with her family, but she was now looking forward to going. Out there somewhere was her real family. Serali still wondered why they had abandoned her. She feared that they hadn't wanted her, and yet she also feared that they had, and that they'd been killed by the mysterious enemies which they'd hinted were following them. Or maybe there was some other, more mundane explanation. But whatever the truth was, Serali was going to find out.

These lands were not devoid of life. Serali often say a hawk or eagle circling, of a group of large-eared and wide-eyed deer winding their way up to side of seemingly impassable cliff. Once she even glimpsed a griffin soaring in the distance. There were rivers flowing at the bottom of the deep canyons, and springs often sent cascades of water tumbling down the sides of the high cliffs. It is a rule of nature that where there is water, there will be life.

But at last Serali left these lands behind her. Now she flew over a nearly endless expanse of grass. The horizon stretched to infinity was she soared high over the almost perfectly flat land. She had reached the Ocean of Grass, a plain that stretched without anything to break the level monotony for hundreds of miles in every direction. Only the direction of the sun as it rose and fell made navigation possible in this land. On a foggy day trying to travel would be purest folly since the undifferentiated expanse of grass gave no clues as to direction. There were clouds in the sky as Serali wended her way across the plains, but the glow of the sun showed clearly enough to guide her.

She was enjoying her flight, the feel of wind in her face, the glorious freedom of motion as she dipped and dived playfully. There was a storm coming. She could smell it in the wind. The clouds overhead spoke of it. Rain, lighting, thunder. She thought she could hear a distant rumble, indistinct and unsure across the miles. Tonight there would be a furious storm indeed. Serali loved storms. Her mother had told her that she had been born in the middle of one of the fiercest storms that she had ever seen. Perhaps that was a reason, perhaps not, but Serali found no greater thrill than riding on the lighting filled winds of a storm as thunder crashed around her. She had been struck by lighting more times than she could count, but it seemed that in dragon form at least she took no harm from it. The feel of all that energy coursing over her skin was exhilarating.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by the impact of something that struck her from above like the lightning she so enjoyed. But this was much more solid, not to mention more painful. Serali tumbled from the sky and only just managed to get her wings spread enough to break her fall as she hit the ground. From down here it was evident that the plains were not quite as flat as they looked from above. Serali had landed in a dip between two small rises. Countless other such miniature hills surrounded her. She looked up but could not see whatever it was that had hit her. Perhaps it was behind one of the hills, or perhaps it was some creature of magic, and thus invisible.

Cautiously Serali climbed to the top of the nearest rise. Her muscles protested at the movement, the impact of the thing and her subsequent fall had left her bruised all over. From her new vantage point, Serali could indeed see her assailant, or rather, assailants, for there were three of them.

At the sight she let out an involuntary gasp of surprise. They were dragons.

,They were slightly different from her, being somewhat smaller, and having short horns poking from the sides of their heads. They had no cresting of spine ridge, and small horse-like ears stood just above their horns.

At the noise from Serali, the trio turned her way and started up the hill. The largest of them, a somewhat stocky dragon who looked, in the grayish light of the cloud-shrouded day, to be a light blue-green, rushed up the hill ahead of his fellows and threw himself at Serali, yelling, "Hriksha lossithar! Vashli kav ssitha!"

Serali backed away from his furious advance. He stopped moving forward and drew in a deep breath. Serali had a second of awful realization, he's going to flame, before instinct took over. Even as fire blasted out of the other dragon's mouth, Serali was rolling backwards down the hill. She felt the heat of the blast. If it touched her, it was a brief enough touch to do no harm. He scales were designed to resist flame, but if the fire was hot enough and close enough to her, it could do serious damage. But now was not the time to muse on the properties of dragon scale. Serali got to her feet quickly. She looked up. The blue-green dragon and his two slightly smaller companions were standing at the top of the hill. The blue-green dragon spoke again.

"Trevasslan vikar! Brith tav morin?" His voice was full of anger, his teeth bared in a raging snarl. Serali spoke in the only language she knew. "I don't understand you!"

The dragons didn't seem to understand her, for they again moved forward. Then a very fortunate thing happened.

There was a break in the clouds and the sun came out. Serali could immediately see that the three dragons all had scales that shone like pearl. The blue-green dragon's were especially vivid. His companions were both in more muted shades, the one a green almost the color of the grass he stood on and the other a light amber color.

The trio of dragons, on the other hand, could immediately see that Serali was a brilliant metallic gold. The sun glinted brightly off of her smooth scales. Their reaction was as startling as it was sudden. The lead dragon halted his forward rush, a startled expression on his face. "Arvasen," he said, in tones of wonder, and his companions echoed it.

"Arvasen."

"Arvasen!"

He walked up to Serali cautiously and, opening and closing his large wings once to make a sharp sound, he commenced to give a lengthy speech in apologetic tones. Serali couldn't understand a thing, though she though she caught one or two of the Dragonish words that Donovan had taught her. Which made sense, since these were dragons, what else would they be speaking? She shook her head and said again, "I don't understand."

The blue-green look at her with a puzzled expression. He walked back to his friends and spoke with them for a moment. They seemed to come to a conclusion, for he walked back over to Serali and motioned. The gesture was clear, come with me. He pointed to the sky and then repeated the beckoning gesture.

Serali nodded her understanding, pointing to the blue-green dragon, to herself and to the sky. The dragon smiled at her, nodding enthusiastically. Then he took a few running steps and leaped skyward. Serali followed, taking a bit longer to get airborne than the smaller dragon, whose wings, she noticed, were much larger in proportion to his body than hers. The other two dragons followed after.

After flying for some time, Serali noticed something ahead. Something that was definitely not flat. As they got closer she could make it out more clearly. Out of the unrelieved sameness of the plain rose an outcropping of stone. The light gray rock showed clearly against the green of the plains. Near the base of the rock, a streak of darker green marked the course of a stream. The rock looked like it might not be far, but they kept flying long after she thought they ought to have arrived. The rock just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was huge! And what she had thought was merely a tiny stream was really a great river. When they got close enough to make out the dragons moving about on the rock, the true scale of it hit home. You could easily fit the entire city of Barona inside this thing and have room left over, thought Serali. The rock was several miles wide at its narrowest point, and loomed thousands of feet over the flat plain. It was truly colossal.

The blue-green dragon led the way to an opening in the side of the rock. He landed gracefully on the edge of the opening and vanished inside. Serali followed him, although her landing was a bit more awkward. Inside there was a tunnel leading down into the rock. It was dimly lit by a set of glass globes hung from the ceiling at wide-spaced intervals. The passage twisted and turned for quite some time before finally coming out in a wide, high-ceilinged chamber. On a slightly raised dais at the far end of the chamber lounged a dragon. He was obviously quite old, his horns were cracked and his deep amber scales were losing their pearlescent sheen. He was also at least twice Serali's size.

The blue-green dragon clapped his wings and spoke to the amber dragon. Serali recognized the same gesture he had used when speaking to her. The amber replied briefly and then motioned to Serali. She stepped forward.

"I'm afraid I don't speak dragon, if that's what you're speaking."

The amber dragon looked quite surprised at this. He spoke then, in perfectly understandable common, although he had an odd accent.

"How is this, that you are a dragon but speak only the human tongue?"

"Sir, I was orphaned at my birth and raised among humans. I know no other language, and no other way of life," replied Serali.

"How is it that a gold dragon, of the royal race that was thought to be almost extinct, should be raised among humans?"

"My parents left me among them the very day I was born. I know nothing else."

"Why then have you come here?"

"I may be raised among humans, but I know better then to think myself one of them. I wish to learn the ways of my true people."

"I understand your desire to know your people." He gestured to another dragon that Serali hadn't noticed standing in the shadows in a corner of the room. He spoke for sometime to her in the dragonish tongue before turning back to Serali.

"Child, you are welcome here. We rejoice to find one of the race thought lost. I myself shall see to it that you learn what you must know to live among us. I am Grevass, the leader here at the dragon stone. Now come, sit here and tell me your story."

Serali climbed to the dais, still a bit apprehensive. She began to tell the amber dragon about her life. By the time she reached her encounter with the blue-green dragon and his friends, she was feeling quite at ease. The small dragon that Drevass had spoken to walked into the room just as she was finishing her telling. She tugged at Drevass' tail, a gesture Serali though rather odd, seeing how everyone else had respected the elder dragon so much.

Drevass noticed Serali's gaze. "That is Sleeah, my several times great granddaughter. I let her get away with almost anything, the dear child. Besides,. She isn't even twenty yet. She's not old enough to know better."

"But I'm only just turned twenty myself," Serali protested.

"Well yes, but you've had a great many more experiences then she. We dragons tend to shelter out children, because we have them so seldom. She has found a dragon not to far from your own age who speaks the human tongue and is willing to be your interpreter and guide while you are here with us."

He spoke for a moment more with the smaller dragon, the motioned her out of the room. A moment later, she returned, trailed by a smallish dragon whose scales were a vivid sky blue. The new dragon turned to Serali with a smile.

"Hello, I'm Cherval. Drevass says you only speak human?"

Serali nodded. "Yes. I was raised by humans, so I don't know a thing about dragons at all."

"That's really weird. I've never heard of anything like it!"

"Neither have I, to tell you the truth."

"Well, Drevass tells me he wants me to start you learning proper speech as soon as possible, so I guess we ought to start now. I'll show you around the dragon stone and tell you the names of who or whatever we see in dragon, how's that?"

"Sounds like a plan to me." Serali smiled back at the smaller dragon.

His smile widened and he turned to go, Serali trailing behind. "Now this room we are in is just one of many here, and the word for room, by the way, is vart, though actually, you can use that word for a natural cavern as well. And this hallway here is called…"

He also taught her about the culture of dragons, though often he plead ignorance to some of her many questions. But as Drevass was always willing to spare a moment or two for her, she soon learned much. One thing that continually amazed her however, was the respect that all the other dragons, even the older ones like Drevass, gave her. Cherval explained it to her.

"The metallic dragons have alsways been the nobility among us, but the golds especially are respected, ever since the day Arvass became the first dragon king. But everyone thought that there was only one gold left living, a huge ancient named Brethor. He spends all his time writing, since he's the keeper of the Books of Knowledge and the Books of Thoughts.

"Some say that the old dragon king and his mate are also still alive out there somewhere, but most dragons think they're dead. The current dragon king, Skrisish, who's a royal red, chased them from the royal caves in the north mountains and they haven't been seen since. I was just a hatchling at the time, so I'm not sure exactly what happened. But you can see why all the dragons here are so glad to see you, since everyone thought that all the golds were gone."

They were speaking in dragon, and Serali had needed to stop Cherval once or twice for clarification, but she understood what he had said. She thought for a moment, if Cherval had been a hatchling when the old dragon king had left, when had it happened, and could it possibly be that she…

"Cherval, how old are you?"

"Twenty-seven." He paused a moment, then volunteered, "I was six, not quite seven, when the old dragon king left."

Serali nodded. "I see," she muttered abstractedly.

"Serali…" Cherval started, but he could see her mind was elsewhere.

Serali turned and went back to the little nook that she had been given to live in, thinking confused thoughts. Images of kings and queens, of dragons and humans, and of a certain stormy night that she had seen but did not recall, swirling through her mind.

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