The days fairly flew by after that. Serali experimented with her new-found powers, discovering their limits. Fire was amazing, and flight a true joy, and soon she was an expert at both. She often bemoaned the fact that she had to waste so much of her time doing chores and helping around the inn when all she wanted to do was fly, but in reality, her life was fairly uncluttered and she spent many a happy hour winging her way across the high plateau upon which the village rested. And that, perhaps was not wise of her, for she was seen, never clearly or up close, but often and from a distance the villagers caught glimpses of her reptilian form in the sky.
She heard a few rumors of the dragon's presence around the town, and was dismayed by the alarm that some of the villagers showed at the thought of it. But she wasn't going to give up flying. She did, after that, try to keep a little further from the village itself, but the damage was already done. They knew a dragon was lairing nearby.
So it happened that one day when Serali was helping serve drinks in the inn, a stranger entered. This was cause for comment, and he was quickly surrounded by a small crowd of the curious. Serali, quite curious herself, slipped closer, hoping to overhear something of interest. Her curiosity increased greatly when she caught the word "dragon" in the stranger's conversation. Trying to be unobtrusive, she half-hid behind a rather wide man and listened closely.
"That's what I heard," the stranger was saying, "The rumors have reached Cartos, where I happened to be staying in between jobs."
"Aye," said one of the village men, "It's truth, far as I know. I've never seen the beast up close, but I've caught sight of it in the distance often enough to know the truth of it."
"I've seen the thing too," spoke up another of the men, "We can all agree that it's there. The question I want answered is this; can you do somethin' about it?"
The was a chorus of agreement from the men, swiftly silenced by the stranger's raised hand. "I don't know what needs doing, but this I can say, If the dragon proves to need slaying than I'm the one to slay it for you." He paused dramatically, while Serali, unnoticed, sagged weakly against a table, shocked almost to fainting. Then he concluded in a ringing, dramatic voice: "For I'm Donovan, the dragon slayer!"
Somehow Serali managed to make it through the rest of the evening without giving way to panic, but when finally her father gave her permission to leave she raced home, her heart pounding, and shut herself in her room. I have to think, she told herself. I can't let my imagination run away with me. She sat on the bed, breathing deeply, until her heart had stilled. Now, calmly, I need to run over this. So he's a dragon slayer, so what? He doesn't know I'm the dragon. From now on I'll just have to go further before I change and go flying. Yes, I'll only change... then she realized how futile her panic had been, and almost laughed out loud. Serali, you are a fool. There's no reason for him to ever see you at all. Just stay in human shape 'til he gives up and goes away. You can give up flying for a few weeks if it saves your life. And maybe... an idea hit her then, a marvelous prank. With a chuckle she lay back on the bed and began to formulate a plan.
The next night Donovan and the small band of villagers who had enough courage or bravado to want to join in his efforts gathered at the inn. They sat at one of the tables in the back and they all looked very serious, but also very excited, as they discussed the plans for the coming hunt.
Serali was quite attentive, making sure that no one had to call her when they wanted a fresh drink. She expressed much admiration for their endeavor, and much curiosity too.
"Well, the first thing to do is to find the lair," said Donovan confidently. "You don't want to go in right away, mind, but you need to know where it is. Now this dragon hasn't burned any property or killed anyone yet, so we don't want to go charging in and get it angry. We need to find its habits, study it, figure out what it does and judge how dangerous it is."
"Why don't we just go in and kill it?" asked one of the men.
"Firstly because if it escapes, and it wasn't angry before, it will be after, and it might do a lot of damage before we bring it down. And second, because even though it is a monster, it's still a sentient. Sometimes you can reason with dragons, and it's easier than trying to fight them."
Serali was a little heartened to hear that this man didn't want to slaughter her right away, but she was a little angry that he'd called her a monster! Whether she was a human who could turn into a dragon, or a dragon who could turn into a human, she was a person, just like anybody else! But she kept that locked inside and just continued to keep the ale coming.
The men made their plans to search for the dragon's lair. Serali had a hard time keeping from grinning, knowing that this dragon "laired" right in the village. But Donovan had asked about the country around, and had determined that the bluff above was the place to start looking, so the next day they would be heading to the north and scouting along the cliffs there, looking for the signs of a dragon's den.
They did not set off first thing in the morning. Serali had, after all, kept the ale flowing all night, and most of them didn't turn up at the inn until well after noon. Donovan hadn't been up much before that himself, having staggered out of his room only half an hour before the sun reached it's zenith.
Serali wasn't particularly sympathetic towards the little group of aching heads, some of whom ordered a round to try and cure the problem with the thing that had caused it. Even if they hadn't been would-be dragon slayers, she'd never had much patience with drunks, and she'd seen an awful lot of them. She'd been helping to serve tables since she was ten. Two years was enough time to be quite certain that drunkenness was something she never wanted to experience. She'd tasted ale, once, and hadn't liked it, and seeing what it did to the men who drank it put her off the stuff entirely. It was disgusting.
But eventually aching heads were soothed enough, and energy enough was found for the little group to set off. There was no one but Donovan staying at the inn, and this early there weren't any other customers now that the hunters had left, so Serali was able to get the rest of the afternoon free once they'd left. She grinned wickedly as she trotted through the fields south of town. This was going to be fun!
She reached a grove of scrub oak that stood just past the fields and, judging that to be cover enough, she shifted into her dragon form. From there she took to the sky, and spent the next half hour circling around, well within sight of the town, though she never passed over it. She knew at least four people down there were decent shots with a longbow, and she wasn't going to risk that! But she made sure that everybody in town saw her, before soaring off to the west. When she'd gotten well and truly out of sight she turned south again and flew over the edge of the Great Escarpment. She circled around until she wasn't far from her starting spot, flying the last little bit quite low, to be sure she wasn't seen. Then she landed and changed back.
She was back at the inn when the dusty dragon-hunters trooped in. They took their usual table, and Serali listened, having to work hard to keep a broad grin off her face. They had obviously already heard the news that the dragon had been sighted practically on top of the town, to the south, while they'd been searching the bluffs to the north.
"Well, better luck tomorrow," said Donovan. "There's no sign of a lair where we looked, but they said it flew off to the west, so I think tomorrow we should go in that direction, see what lies there and if there's any sign of a lair."
So the next day they went west, and the dragon was just barely glimpsed in the distance to the east. Serali wasn't going to go that close to town twice in a row. But she was certainly going to be seen nearly every day, and she was delighted at how well her plan was playing out. Every night she heard what they would do, and every day she did just the opposite. And when they split into smaller groups to try and cover all directions, why then she was nowhere to be seen. And on the one day when they ranged very far afield indeed, still trying to find the furthest extent of the dragon's territory, she flew directly over the village, though high enough to be out of arrow's reach.
After several weeks of this game of hide-and-seek, the townsmen were puzzled and Donovan was frustrated. He was beginning to think that his particular dragon must be some great dragon-mage to keep fooling them so.
"It's not possible!" he complained, venting his frustration. "All the sightings agree it's a small dragon, a young one. How could it be so powerful as to know what we do before we do it?" He got up and began pacing across the length of the commons room. "And its range! If I didn't know better I'd say that it had to be centered on the village itself, either that or it's got such a huge range that we'll never find its lair! I am almost ready to give up!" He sat back down in his chair, slumping wearily.
Serali looked over at him and felt a bit sorry for him. Over the weeks that she had played the game during days and listened to his plans in the evenings, she had come to see that he was a good man. Breck had even joined in the hunt for a brief period and he had agreed with her assessment of him. "I've never thought much of dragon hunters, they seldom care for anything but getting rich and earning a reputation, but Donovan seems a fine fellow." Serali thought that over in her mind. I wonder, what would he do if he knew? Her musings were interrupted by Donovan's continuing complaint. "I don't know why you people are even worried about this phantom. So far the only thing it's done is to put some scratches in a few trees and scorch a couple of rocks." He sighed. "If I don't find any evidence that it's going to be a danger, then I'll just leave it be. People have learned to get along with dragons before."
The villagers looked at him with some incredulity, and Getrel spoke up. "What is that supposed to mean? Are we then to make sacrifices to this monster?"
Donovan looked at him wearily. "No. I mean only that not all dragons are as fearsome as folk like to think they are. A very few are kind and will help humans living near by, and most will at least leave them alone. The largest reason that I had for hunting down this one, was that it was showing itself so close to the town, which dragons seldom do save when they intend to damage things. Generally dragons dislike humans and avoid them. And since they don't like humans, if they're not avoiding them it means trouble. But as I said, there are a few exceptions, and I'm starting to think that your dragon is one of them."
The villagers were murmuring disbelievingly, but Serali felt a sudden upsurge of hope. If she could talk to him, perhaps he would listen and leave her alone. Now, how to go about it? she mused. Perhaps I can pretend to know the dragon? That would be a fine joke! With ideas swirling in her brain, she went back to the kitchen area, absentmindedly putting the drinks she had gone to serve back on the counter. Her mother looked up from the stew she was making, but seeing Serali's expression of concentration, she made no comment.
"Can I go early today Mama?"
"Of course dear."
Without a further word, she headed back home. She had plans to make.
After another fruitless day of searching, Donovan sat staring into his mug, despondently. If he didn't find this phantom soon, he'd be out of luck. Staying here at the inn wasn't costing him much, but after so many weeks, his funds were nearly dry.
"And then what, mighty dragon hunter?" he muttered to himself. "Where do you go from here? I'll tell you where, nowhere, that's where." His bleary eyes noticed that the mug he was staring into had somehow emptied itself. He waved his hand in the air.
"C'mere, I's need more of this stuff."
The inkeep's daughter wove her way between tables towards him. Nothing's right, he thought to himself, disjointedly, none of the stories came true. No evil dragon, no grateful townsfolk, not even a winsome inkeeper's daughter. The girl bearing a mug toward him could hardly be more than fourteen.
She plunked it down in front of him, and then started to move off, but hesitated. Glancing around at the mostly empty room, she leaned over the table and looked at the drunken would-be dragon-slayer.
"Sir? Why do you want to kill the dragon?" She asked, her head tilted to one side in a gesture of curiosity.
"Why? ‘Cause it's mos' likely dangerous, tha's why. Dragons don' live near villages, ‘cept when they're up to somthin' so this one's mos' likely trouble."
"But what if she isn't?"
"Maybe be the best that way, then. I don' know if I kin kill the thin' anyway. If the thin' is, is. . ." His lost track of what he was saying for a minute before finding it again. "If it wants," he pronounced very carefully, "to be friends, that's good. Always good to have friends."
The girl was peering down at him. Tall, he thought to himself, she's awfully tall for a little chit like that, how'd she get so tall? Then his head met the table and he was out of it.
Serali shook her head. She'd seen plenty of drunks in her life, but it was still pitiful to see a grown man collapse like that. He hadn't drunk quite that much on any of the previous evenings, but apparently his lack of success was getting to him. I'll talk to him in the morning, she thought, maybe I'll have more luck then. But I'm becoming more and more certain that I'm safe, that he doesn't really want to kill me.
Donovan awoke with a splitting headache and a nasty taste in his mouth. The angle of the sunlight through the little room's single window told him that noon had come and gone, though not by much. "Ugh, by this time I should know better." He sat up, glad that at least he had managed to make it back to his room before collapsing. Or had he? There was a dim recollection of that girl standing over him before everything went blank. With a groan, he crawled out of bed and began to dress. Just as he was about to go down to see if any breakfast was left at this late hour, there was a knock at the door.
Opening it, he found himself looking at the golden haired inkeep's daughter.
"Sir? I have a message for you."
"Huh?" He said brightly.
"Here." And she held out her hand. Donovan gasped. Lying in the center of the girl's palm was single dragon scale. Dragon scale is as hard as the finest steel, and more resistant to heat. It's lightweight as well, and when forged with common steel by the correct methods, it can be made into a substance called dragon steel that is harder than any other metal, as well as being lighter and less brittle. Because dragon scale is so rare, and also light, it is worth ten times its weight in gold.
The scale resting on Serali's hand was perhaps twice the width of his thumb, but it was worth as much as all the funds he had come here with.
"Take it." she said.
"Where did you get that?"
"From the dragon."
"What?"
"She wants to meet with you. This is in promise of more if you'll come."
Suddenly something that the girl had said last night leaped out at him. He had been too drunk to notice it at the time, but now it was crystal clear in his mind. The girl had called the dragon "she" But no one had yet seen the thing close enough to know that.
"You know this dragon?"
"You could say that, I suppose. We're... friends of a sort. And she would like to be friends with you, or at least reach a truce."
He shook his head, amazed, and then regretted it as the world seemed to spin around him.
"You can tell your friend," he said after everything stopped moving, "that I'll be glad to meet her, but later, please. I'm not feeling too well right now."
The girl grinned. "I'll bet not, after how much you put away last night." She turned and walked down the short hallway to the stairs. "I'll tell her. Come to the needle's eye this afternoon and she'll be there."
Some time later, Donovan was walking down a dusty trail towards the northern bluffs. He walked, because horses were terrified of dragons, and training one to stand firm near a dragon was often more trouble than it was worth. And cost more than he'd felt like sparing when he set out, so his horse stayed behind at the inn. He was feeling a bit bemused as he walked. Here he'd spent weeks hunting the thing, and now he had an appointment to meet it. Though he'd finally managed to put two and two together and figure out how the dragon had been avoiding him. She was friends with the innkeeper's daughter. And they had made all their plans at the inn. He shook his head wryly as he walked along. He'd never even considered that such a thing could be possible.
The needle's eye was a tower of stone that stood away from the bluffs, a lone sentinel reaching up from the nearly level plateau around it. The spire was so named because of the hole in the bottom that made it look like a needle stood on end, point up. As the base of the spire came into view, Donovan saw that it seemed someone had threaded the needle with gold thread. The dragon was lying in the hole, her head out one end and her tail trailing out behind. She was small for a dragon, Donovan noted. Hardly fifteen feet long, she would still tower over him, but even a plains dragon would likely be bigger. She can't possibly be full grown, she's just a child, he realized.
He approached the glittering form cautiously and stopped a few yards away. The dragon smiled, an expression that was not as reassuring as it might have been. Donovan had been part of a dragon-slaying party before, but he'd never been this close to one.
"Hello," it said.
"Uh. Hello."
There was an awkward silence, neither of them quite able to think of anything to say to the other. Finally Donovan said, "My name is Donovan. Your friend said you would like a truce? I hope that you aren't upset at me for coming here."
"Not unless you still intend to kill me. I think that would be a little upsetting."
That startled a little laugh out of him. "Oh no! I have no intention of harming you, so long as you have no intention of harming the townsfolk. Though I do admit, the amount of scale you represent is very tempting. But I could never do something like that! I hunt dragons to protect people. Enriching myself is just a sort of side benefit."
The dragon chuckled. "That is very good to hear. I can promise you that I mean no harm whatsoever to the villagers." She smiled a knowing sort of smile and said, "I'm actually quite fond of most of them. So can we reach a truce?"
"Yes, I think we can. Though... your friend mentioned perhaps a friendship?"
The dragon eyed him. "And what does a dragon-slayer want with the friendship of a dragon?"
"Well, all of the best dragon hunters, the ones that kings hire when they have a dragon problem, have contacts and treaties with various dragons, so when they have to deal with a rogue dragon that's too much for mere humans to handle, they have someone to help them kill it, or reason with it, or just to give advice. It might make my career if I could go and say that I was on friendly terms with the great gold dragon... umm... what is your name, anyway?"
The dragon's expression turned sad. She slowly shook her head. "I don't know."
"What?"
"I'm an orphan. I've never met any other dragons. There was no one to give me a proper dragonish name."
He looked at her, her head bowed, and suddenly felt sorry for her. She wasn't a monster, she was a child, all alone in the world. "I'm sorry. Perhaps... I speak a little bit of dragon, though not very much. Perhaps I could help you name yourself? You seem to know humans pretty well, is there some human name you favor that I could render in dragon for you?"
The dragon looked up and smiled. "Yes, there is. I think the name of my friend, Serali, is a fine name."
"Well! That it is. But if it's to be a dragon name, you have to pronounce it differently. First, you need to hiss the ‘s' and then..."
Several hours later, Donovan interrupted the impromptu language lesson to point out that the sun was sinking toward the horizon.
"I'm afraid that I must go."
The newly named Sserrali looked at the sky with surprise. "Oh my! It's much later than I thought! I need to be off as well."
Donovan turned to go back down the path when the dragon called out
"Wait! I almost forgot!"
She reached back into an alcove in the side of the eye of the needle and pulled out a small leather bag. It was dwarfed in her clawed hand. She turned and threw the bag at the dragon hunter. "This is for you."
He caught it. Opening it he saw that it was filled with small golden scales, ranging from tiny flakes to ones an inch or so across. He'd held more money than that, but only once, when he'd gotten his share after the slaying of a rogue dragon. This was a smaller amount than the parcel that had first set him up as a solitary slayer and not somebody's helper, but it was still a not inconsiderable sum. The dragon grinned at him. "Ssevtal, trrevaler," she said, trying out some of her newly learned Dragonish.
"Ssevtal," Donovan answered, almost absently, "And may we meet again."
Donovan walked back down the dusty path. Once the shock of having a double handful of dragonscale in his possession wore off something he had just seen began nagging at him. The dragon, when she had thrown the bag. She'd thrown it with her right hand. During their entire conversation, she'd kept her right side turned slightly away from him. He'd thought nothing of it, but now... He'd seen as she tossed the bag a flash of slightly different textured gold from the rest of her scales. It had looked like a little golden bracelet. And there was something familiar about that bracelet, he'd seen it before somewhere.
He reached the town and went to the inn, still lost in thought. He sat down at his usual table. A distant commotion caught his ear. Serali's mother in the kitchen was chewing the girl out for arriving late and for being gone all day without telling her where she had gone.
Poor girl, he thought, having had many such lectures when he was younger. Shortly the girl came out, bringing his usual mug of ale. She plunked it down on the table and turned back to the kitchen, but not before Donovan saw something that made his jaw drop. Serali was wearing a gold bracelet. A gold bracelet in the form of a dragon biting its own tail that might have been the twin to the one the dragon had worn. He sat there with his mouth open, thinking furiously. She can't be a dragon. She's a human girl, for heaven's sake. The innkeeper's daughter! But then, he answered himself, she's obviously adopted. No, he countered. These people would never have let me come here if they knew they had a dragon for a daughter. But must they know? How could they not? And yet, her gold hair, the exact same color, and that bracelet! He shook his head, and then realizing that he must look like an idiot, he closed his mouth and looked up. His eyes met Serali's across the room. She looked at him, grinned, and then winked a leaf green eye, an eye the exact same shade as the dragon's.
Donovan had hardly been gone a month when another stranger came through town. He was somewhat tall, but then everyone from outside the village tended to look tall, he would have been only average in most places. His face was unremarkable, his clothing was unremarkable, and everything was unremarkable about him except that he rode a horse, which there were very few of in the village. Most people had oxen and donkeys, which were more practical for farm work than horses were.
He stayed at the inn, but he said nothing about his business, though everyone in the village was curious. There were few things to bring a stranger to Land's End. But he left again only a few days later, having done nothing, as far as anyone could see, and having said nothing about why he had come.
He returned a week after that, and his reasons for the earlier visit instantly became clear.
He had been scouting.
He had come alone the first time, but now he was accompanied by a score of men, all on horseback, and all heavily armed. They rode into the center of town, not hesitating to ride right over anyone who didn't get out of their way. One elderly man who wasn't fast enough was trampled beneath their horses' feet, but they didn't seen to care. They came to the town square and stopped there, but they didn't dismount. The stranger who had visited already rode to the front, in front of the inn, which was the largest building in town, and shouted, "I am Jack Red-eyes. I am taking over this town. My men and I need a base of operations, and as the guard never comes this far, we've decided this town will suit us quite nicely. Where is your mayor?"
Many of the villagers had fled into their houses, but Serai's father had come to the inn's door, and Serali hovered behind him, wide-eyed with startled fear. Neither he nor any of the other villagers still outside answered Jack's question. They were all afraid, but they were stubborn people. Serali knew that very well. That same stubborn nature that kept them from accepting her and the other outlanders was keeping them from answering this bandit now.
"Answer me or I kill one of you now," he said. More people ran out of the town square at that, and Serali's father stepped back and shut the inn door.
Marilla was in the doorway from the kitchen. The inn was empty, it being too early yet for the usual customers to come in for their nightly drinks. "What are we going to do?" she said in quiet, fearful tones.
Falio shook his head. "I don't know. We can't fight them, we hardly have any weapons and nobody knows how to use then if we did. But we can't just roll over either."
Suddenly there was a heavy blow to the door. An instant later there was a second, and then the door flew inward, ripped off its hinges. Serali dashed into the kitchen with her mother, but her father stayed put in the center of the room. "The door wasn't locked, sir," he said mildly to Jack, who stepped through the splintered door frame.
"Well you'll just have to buy a new one. And you'll have to buy a new inn too," he added, "because I will burn this one to the ground if I don't get what I want. I want to know who the mayor here is. And I want my men housed and fed."
"I'm sorry sir," said Falio with a quiet dignity. "The mayor isn't here. I will be happy to serve your men. It's two copper a meal, and ale a copper extra."
Jack glared coldly at him. "You think you're very clever, don't you? I'm not paying a penny."
Serali didn't hear what her father said next, because she had darted out the door that led to the stables. She dashed from there out behind the inn and ran down the deserted street. These men talked about killing, and they talked about burning down the inn, and she couldn't let them do it. She couldn't let them kill her family and burn down the place where she'd been born and raised. Not when she might be able to stop them.
She halted as soon as she reached the edge of town and didn't even bother to go past the fields to where the trees would hide her. That would take too long, and nobody would be looking this way right now.
She shifted into her dragon form, and with a leap and a clap of her wings she was aloft. Her heart was going fast as she flew. She had never fought before, and the men has swords and even a few bows. Her scales were tough, but if they knew what to do, they could still hurt her. But however nervous she might be, she was even more determined. Nobody would be hurting her family, or burning down her father's inn!
No one noticed her at first as she streaked low over the houses. They were all looking at Jack's men, not at the sky. But they couldn't help but notice her when she dived at the gathered horsemen and breathed out a long blast of fire at them. Horses screamed in panic and scattered, several of them dumping their riders off. Men screamed too. She had not aimed at anyone in particular, but the wash of her breath had touched a few of them enough to burn. She wasn't trying to kill, she didn't want to kill again, but she wasn't going to hold back either. The most important thing was getting them to leave the village alone, one way or another. If the ran, that was good, but if they died, that would serve too.
Jack came out of the inn, shouting curses at his men, but he stopped dead when he saw Serali, who was circling above for another pass. His eyes went wide. She roared and dived down directly at him. He let out a panicked yelp and tried to retreat into the inn. She landed in front of him before he could and snapped at him, her sharp teeth meeting less than a foot from his face. He stepped back and stumbled over the threshold, falling flat on the floor inside. One of the other bandits had gathered the courage to charge at her, and she felt a sharp impact against her side. She turned her head to find the man bringing his sword back for another blow. The first had simply rebounded off her scales. She snapped her wings open and bowled him over with them easily. When she turned her attention back to Jack, she found he was out cold and her father was standing over him, looking more than a little wild-eyed, with a large skillet from the kitchen in his hand. She turned and took to the sky again. Men on horseback were scattered all through the village now, and to her satisfaction they mostly seemed concerned with escaping her.
She swept over the village from west to east, chasing them towards the road out of town. She dived and threatened them with streams of fire if any tried to turn in another direction, and soon they were all riding down the road at a panicked pace, save for Jack and a couple of his fellows who had been unhorsed right at the first. She whirled then and returned to the town square, landing in the center of it, where a small crowd of brave souls had gathered. The all backed away from her, some of them looking very frightened.
For a long moment villagers and dragon regarded each other in uncomfortable silence. Finally Serali spoke. "It's all right," she said, glad that her voice as a dragon sounded fairly different from her voice as a human. "I don't want to hurt you. I just wanted to make sure they are all gone and everyone is all right."
Breck, never one to be easily frightened, stepped forward from the crowd. "Thank you for chasing them off," he said."They've killed two people, and there are four of them still here but we have them safely tied up now."
"That's good. I need to go then." She looked past the crowd and was relieved to see her parents standing in front of the inn, both looking fine. She took to the sky again and flew away from the village, going east just to make sure the bandits, or whatever they were, were still running. She could see the cloud of dust that rose from the dry road behind their horses, and it looked like they were going as fast as they could get the horses to go. She landed in a copse of scrub oak that was only just tall enough to hide her, and changed back.
She sat there for a moment, shaking. Once she'd begun her attack she'd felt nothing but determination to do what needed to be done, but now she felt all the fear and worry and risk rushing in on her. She might have been killed. Humans could kill a dragon, especially a small one like her. And they might have killed her family, she'd been afraid that their leader would kill her father before she could get back and chase them off. They might have actually burned down the inn, or even burned down the whole town! She wrapped her arms around her knees and trembled with it for some time before calming enough to get to her feet and run back into town.
When she got there her mother grabbed her up in a hug. "My Serali! I was so afraid for you. But here you are, safe." Serali hugged her mother back. "I'm sorry I ran off, Mama. I was afraid."
He mother smiled at her, but then she started scolding. "But don't you do that again! I was so worried! You run off like that again and you will make your poor Mama drop dead from worrying about you!"
"I won't, Mama," she said.
But she knew that if she had to, she would do the same again.