The sight of two hundred plains dragons was perhaps not as stunning as the thousands that would be at the dragon's moot, but it was stunning enough. Spread out in dozens of V shaped formations, they nearly filled the sunset reddened sky.

Serali had been pleasantly surprised that morning to go outside and discover that nearly a foot of snow had fallen in the night, but the reactions of the other dragons to the scene had been astounding. There was a holiday mood over everything.

Youngsters played in the new fallen snow, but a surprising number of adult dragons had abandoned their dignity to join in snowball fights and in the building of immense snow forts. She turned to Kethro, who seemed to have taken Cherval's place as a tag along, following her everywhere she went, for an explanation.

"I don't know. I like snow well enough, but I've never seen dragons react to it like this."

"Let's find Cherval and ask him," suggested Serali.

"Good idea."

After passing through a half-dozen snow fights and getting thoroughly pelted with snowballs in the process, the pair managed to find Cherval. He was helping a group of smaller dragons build a snow fort. Several yards away a second group, this one composed mostly of older dragons, was building another one. "Cherval!" Serali tried to get his attention. "Cherval, what is all this?"

The sky blue dragon looked up at her and waved. "The first and last snow, that's what it is. Today we'll have the snowfest and tonight we'll move south."

"What?"

"We don't live here year-round. When the first deep snow falls we go south."

"Why?" Serali asked, puzzled. "Surely the cold don't bother you?"

"No, but it bothers the herdbeasts. Without them we can't live as we do. They go south for the winter and so do we."

"But why all the celebration?" Kethro asked.

"We see snow only once a year. That's cause enough to celebrate, I think. Why don't you two join in?" Serali looked over at where the older dragons were almost finished with their fort, then back to where Cherval and the youngsters were building theirs. Most of the dragon children were probably older then Serali was, she realized. It's about time I had some fun, she thought.

With a grin she ran over to where the youngsters were building the fort. Kethro followed behind. With their help the snow fort was completed swiftly and the smaller dragons began making snowballs.

With mock roars the adults charged over the field between the two forts, flinging snowballs as they went. Kethro and Serali charged out to meet them while the younger dragons provided a covering fire. Serali got splatted several times, but she scooped up snow as she ran and gave as good as she got. Suddenly a large snowball took her from the side. The impact nearly knocked her off her feet. Turning, she saw Kethro grinning at her, holding another snowball in his hand.

"Traitor!"

He just laughed and threw the other snowball.

Serali dodged and, scooping up and handful of snow, she dashed at Kethro. He grabbed up more snow and started to make another snowball, but before he could throw it, Serali launched herself into the air. She dropped her snowball form above, hitting Kethro square in the middle of his back, and then followed it with herself, flattening the larger dragon to the ground. She sat on his back, laughing, and dumped handfuls of snow on his head until he managed to get enough leverage to tip her over. She sprawled in the snow in a tangle of claws, wings and tail and Kethro picked up an armful of snow and dropped it on her head. Serali shook her head, sending snow flying, and picked herself up. Then the two of them were overwhelmed with a deluge of snowballs. The young dragons had swarmed out of the fort, chasing the older ones across the field and now they were pelting Serali and Kethro, who were the only ones left outside.

"And you called me a traitor!" Kethor laughed and, scooping up and handful of snow he charged back at the fort. Serali grinned and followed. Dodging through a hail of cold white missiles, the pair made it to the fort wall. With a huge leap, helped out by a flap of his wings, Kethro landed on top of the fort wall. The snow was hard packed, but not enough to support his weight, and it collapsed under him, dumping him into the snow. Serali laughed and bounded over him into the midst of the young dragons only to fall on her face as Kethro caught her ankle. The younger dragons took advantage of the fact that she was now down at their level and piled onto her. Serali tried to get up, but weighed down by a dozen little dragons, she couldn't budge. Cherval was sitting on the ground a few feet away and laughing so hard he could hardly move. The adult dragons had noticed the chaos at the other fort. Deciding to take advantage of it, they mounted a charge. The young dragons were taken by surprise, snowball smacked into them left and right. But Kethro rose to his feet and letting out a roar, he proceeded to fling pieces of the fallen wall at the enemy.

The young dragon scattered away from Serali, hiding behind the remaining fort walls. Left in the open, Serali had no choice but to join Kehtro in battle. The two of them sent a barrage of missiles at the charging adult dragons. The young dragons joined in, popping up from behind the walls to launch snowballs. Disheartened by the attack, the adults retreated to their fort across the field.

Made reckless by victory, the young dragons streamed out from the fort and charged after them. Serali and Kethro followed, throwing snowballs at both sides as they ran. Serali was hit from behind. Whirling, she spotted Cherval, still back at the fort, hurling another snowball her way. Since she was already facing that direction, Serali charged back at Cherval.

Meanwhile, the young dragons, with Kethro close behind, reached the older dragons fort. Braving a veritable hail of snowballs, the scaled the walls. Most of them fell off as the loosely packed snow crumbled underneath them. Just as Kethro reached the fort, the hail of snowballs ceased. Out through the gaps in the wall came the adult dragons. Alone or in pairs they singled out a youngster or two and pounced.

Serali didn't notice much of that though. She was busy washing Cherval's face in snow. She had never much liked getting her face snow washed herself, but the faces of human girls were much more tender then the faces of dragons, so she figured Cherval wouldn't take it too seriously. Having given him a thorough bath, she at last relented and turned to where Kethro still stood just outside of the adults fort. Between the youngsters' attack and the adults' retaliation, most of the fort had been flattened. The battle no longer raged over what was left of the fort walls. Instead little knots of dragons straggled back towards dragons stone. All of the young dragons had attached themselves to an older dragon, or a pair of them. Serali noticed that dragons of similar colors were grouped together. A pair of sea green youngsters trailed after two adults, one light green, one sky blue. A little ways beyond a trio of hatchlings, two amber and one yellow green followed an amber male toward where a grass green female was waiting on top of a little rise.

They were all families. Mothers, fathers and children playing together. Serali was struck by a sudden pang of homesickness. She turned away from the scene with a sigh. Kethro came up beside her. "Why the sighing?"

"It's been a long time since I saw my family. I miss them vary much. But sometime I wish I had been raised by my true parents. Seeing this," she gestured at the family groupings around them, "I wonder what it would have been like to be raised as a dragon. I'm not much older then most of those youngsters out there today, you know. I'm just a lot larger. Drevass tells me that golds mature the fastest of dragons, but that doesn't keep me from missing the century-long childhood I might have had." She sighed again. "Just one more reason not to fit in here. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever find a place to call home."

Kethro put one clawed hand on her shoulder. For one moment it felt strange, alien, inhuman. Then the moment passed and Serali understood the warmth and comfort the gesture represented. She stood there for a moment, just feeling like that. Feeling like she was part of something, like she belonged. Then she turned and headed back to the dragon stone.

There was a meeting and a chamber Serali had never seen before. Drevass sent Sleeah to invite Serali and Kethro to it. As Serali entered, she saw the whole chamber filled with dragons. There seemed to be hundreds of the, though Drevass told her there was hardly three score gathered there. There were in the process of arguing as Serali entered. A vivid dark blue dragon, very nearly as massive as Drevass and showing the worn horns of age, was standing in the center of the bowl shaped room. He was gesturing wildly and speaking in a loud, offended tone to a smaller dragon, this one a pale amber-orange.

"I'm one of the finest fire mages in all of dragon stone, and I tell you that there is no such thing as a sure guarantee in magic! The spell will likely work, but I can never be sure. You will have to accept it."

The smaller dragon was nearly flattened to the floor by the psychological force of the other's shout, but he lifted his head into the mental hurricane and replied, "I will not go without the assurance that my eggs will survive the trip. This is my first clutch, and I am not likely to have another for many centuries, if at all."

"I can assure you that I will do all in my power to keep the spell constant, but again I say there are no guarantees! Magic is unpredictable, wild! There is no dragon mage on the face of the planet that can guarantee a spell!"

Serali turned to Drevass, who was standing not to far from where she had entered. "What is all this?"

"Vulcnor, that's the orange fellow there being blown away by the force of argument, clutched just a month or two ago. Autumn clutches are rare, most dragons lay in late winter or spring when if the eggs will hatch after the migration the parents can merely stay behind for a few weeks. The winter lands are hot in summer, but not unbearably so, and there is some game. But to stay here through the winter is sure death for the eggs and possibly for the parents. Neither of them is a mage, so warming their chambers against the coming cold will be impossible. As the weather gets colder there will be less game. To stay alive both of them will need to hunt every day, but if they leave the eggs for more then a few minutes the cold will kill them.

"Thedrill, the large fellow who is blowing like a winter blizzard, is a fairly good mage. He has an overly high opinion of himself, but many mages do. He wants Vulcnor and his mate to move the eggs with the rest of us to the winter lands. But much of the travel will be through the cold, so the eggs will need a warming spell to protect them. Dragon magic is not like human magic, it is raw power controlled very closely. The warming spell will probably work just fine, but there's always a chance that Tehdrill will lose his concentration and let out too much power. If that happened, the eggs would probably be cooked."

"Why doesn't he just seal off his spell then?"

"Do what?"

"Seal the spell so that it maintains itself. It's easy to do, you just need a word or two in the formal language of magic."

"I have no idea what you are talking about. Dragons speak only the language of dragons for the most part."

"Your mages don't use word spells?" Serali suddenly realized that in all her learning about dragons, she had never bothered to find out how dragon magic worked.

"No. I'm no mage, but I've been told it is a matter of mind mastery."

He looked speculatively at Serali. "Could you seal a heat spell that Thedrill had set?"

"Possibly. But why do that when I can set a heat spell of my own easily enough? I spent two years learning fire magic. I think I have some small mastery of it by now."

"And you are certain that it would neither grow colder not hotter after you had done this?"

"I have staked my life on such bindings while practicing dangerous spells before this. I am certain enough to stake the lives of any number of unborn dragons on it."

"In that case, I think it's time I put and end to this absurd argument."

Drevass made his way to the center of the room and placed himself between Vulcnor and Thedrill. They kept arguing around him for a moment more before realizing the futility of it and quieting. Drevass waited until he had their full attention, the addressed them.

"If I may intrude into your little feud, may I suggest a solution?" He stared at first one and then the other, daring them to say no. After a long silence he continued. "I have noted that you, Thedrill, said that no dragon mage could guarantee a spell. Tell me, what of a human mage?"

Thedrill looked a bit upset at the idea, but after a long moment he conceded, "Yes, they haven't the power of dragon mages, but human magic is somewhat more stable."

Vulcnor on the other hand looked aghast. "You would allow a human to cast spells upon my eggs?"

"No, he would not, Vulcnor." Serali stepped forward, feeling somewhat upset at the prejudice against her adopted race. "Though I've known many a human to care for their children with as much care as any dragon mother. But there are no human mages here in any case. There is only me. But I was trained in human magic fop several years and I know the spells that would assure the life of your hatchlings."

Vulcnor clicked his teeth nervously, unable to decide between the known uncertainty of dragon magic and the unknown promise of this stranger. Serali stepped toward him and looked him in the eye.

"Know this, that I would stake not only my own life but the life of my own future child upon this spell. I know fire magic, I trust my knowledge. There is no loss greater than the one you risk, but I tell you that you will not risk it if you will only trust me."

He nodded once. "I do not know you, but I think you say truth. Cast your spell. And may the Creator have mercy on us both if it is not as sure as you say."

Thedrill threw Serali an offended glance, but said nothing. After a moment of silence, Drevass stepped in and spoke. "Now that that has been resolved, are there any other issues to be raised?" He waited for a few moments, but no one spoke. "In that case, let us go and begin the move. Noon is past and sundown approaches."

The dragons all began moving toward the exits in ones and twos, discussing the day's events as they went. Serali turned to Vulcnor as the last of the others left the large chamber. Her voice echoed slightly in the almost empty room.

"Where are your eggs?"

"I'll show you, follow me." He led the way through the twisting corridors of dragon stone to a small chamber. Serali had to go into the room on all fours, and even then it was a tight fit. Inside a yellow-green dragon lay curled in a circle around a dozen cream colored eggs. Sitting against one curved wall was a basket. It was the first such thing that Serali had seen among the dragons. The only furnishings in dragon chambers were things carved out of the stone. Bookshelves that were nothing more then alcoves in the walls, beds that were mere dips in the floor. Benches that were ledges on the walls. She hadn't thought that dragons made such things.

With a mental shrug, Serali turned her attention to Vulcnor and his mate. Fortunately the chamber was bigger inside than its tiny door suggested, otherwise the three of them would never have fit.

With great care the two of them were placing the eggs in the basket, one by one. After they were secure and a lid fastened on top, Vulcnor turned to Serali.

"They are ready. Cast your spell."

Serali nodded. Pausing a moment, she went through the words she needed in her mind. Then she said them. No chant rhythm was needed for so simple a spell, nor gestures, nor mystic symbols chalked ion the floor. Those things had their place, and many mages would have used them for this spell, but to Serali fire magic was as natural as breathing. She spoke the words as she might have spoken in casual conversation. There was a sensation of heaviness in the room as the word gathered power and then a sense of release and lightness and the spell took hold.

"It's done."

"It is?" Vulcnor looked as if he didn't quite believe it.

"Yes. See for yourself." Serali placed one hand on the basket. Vulcnor did likewise. A slight warmth, no more than the warmth of touching a dragon's scaled side, radiated from the basket. "The spell is on the basket, not on the eggs, so do not remove them. I've set the spell to break when any of the eggs are taken out. You can, however, lift the lid to check on them without disrupting the spell."

"And you are certain of this?" asked Vulcnor.

"As certain as I have ever been of anything."

"Thank you."

The sun was low in the sky, casting twisted shadows over the trampled snow as Serali lifted off. Kethro, tagging along as always, launched himself into the air after her and they set off after the rest of the dragon stone dragons, all two hundred of them. They flew south as the sun set, vanishing into the night like the tragic hero of an old ballad.

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