Preparations were made and goodbyes were said. Galen gave her quite possibly the nicest and longest kiss they'd had yet before she went, and with that happy memory to warm her along the way, she began her journey with a smile on her face.

With a light step at the thought of seeing her family again she set off for Land's End. The first part of the journey she would make on foot. There was plenty of traffic along the road out of Barona so she didn't have to worry about being assaulted, but the crowd of fellow travelers also meant that she wouldn't be able to change into dragon form until she reached the turn-off that led homeward. Serali didn't really mind though. She strolled along, taking her time and watching the people who shared the road with her. Nobles in covered carriages, going to or from country estates, farmers with loaded wagons heading to town to sell their loads of fruit or vegetables, a caravan of merchants heading for the elven lands to trade, a second caravan, similar in appearance but vastly different in purpose, of pilgrims headed for one of the western shrines. All of them moving together in a great crowd of humanity on the dusty road. And a bit of not-quite-humanity as well. She saw a few elves, and a group of very short people who were almost certainly dwarves, and there was herself, of course, she wasn't human any more than they were.

The weather was good, summer was drawing to a close here, though at Land's End the weather would still be hot. Barona was farther north and fall would not be long in coming. She was looking forward to her first winter in Barona. There would be snow! She'd seen snow a few times as a child, but never much. But she'd been told that in Barona it sometimes snowed as much as two feet at once! She had a hard time picturing what that much snow would look like, but she was sure it would be wonderful.

As the sun set, Serali reached a fork in the road. Traffic was already much thinner, and as she turned off down the smaller side track, the main road was emptying as travelers sought out places to stop for the night. The side road was completely deserted so Serali merely walked down it far that someone passing by on the main road wouldn't be able to see her. Looking around one more time to be sure she was alone, she changed into dragon form. By now she was so used to shifting she didn't even have to think about it. Spreading her wings, she took off into the air. She wanted to make some distance before stopping that night.

A few hours later, she was flying over a forested area, having covered in that short time almost twice the distance that she had made during daylight. With a yawn she decided that it was time to stop. Finding a small clearing, she landed, curled into a ball, and went to sleep.

She awoke the next morning with a stinging pain in her neck and the sensation that something was wrong. She opened her eyes to find a burly man standing over her with an axe. Without even thinking about it, she rolled over and leaped in a flash of motion, ending with the man pinned to the ground, his axe on its way down from a long arc across the clearing.

Serali was nearly as startled by her instinctive reaction as the man was, but she managed to recover herself before he did. Turning her head around so that she was looking him right in the eyes, she asked, "What were you doing?"

The man looked at her with surprise. For a long minute he was silent and then with an air of one who has given up he said, "Trying to protect my family from a monster"

Serali sighed. There was that word again. "I'm sorry. I don't mean you or them any harm. I didn't even notice anyone lived near here or I wouldn't have stopped for the night."

The man blinked up at her. "You didn't mean any harm? But you're a dragon. Dragons kill people."

"And humans kill more humans than all the other races combined," she snapped at him, losing patience entirely. She was getting very sick of this "monster" business. Just because she was a dragon, that didn't mean that she was some kind of vicious animal. She was every bit as much a person as any human was! Then she sighed again. Getting angry at the man wouldn't help things any. She sat back and let him up.

He looked more than a little surprised at that, and also still rather fearful, and she couldn't keep from rolling her eyes. "Oh don't look at me like that. I said I don't mean any harm. I'm not going to hurt you! You're the one who attacked me without any provocation at all. And you can go ahead and pick up your axe, if it makes you feel any better about things."

He backed away from her, then ran to where the axe had fallen and retrieved it. She watched him for a moment, but he didn't show any signs of attacking her again. Serali took a moment to examine the source of the stinging pain in her neck. Much to her surprise, she found that where the man had swung the axe at her several of the scales were actually cracked, and the tender skin underneath torn. With a great deal of twisting, she managed to lick at the spot. It was bleeding slightly, but didn't look serious.

"When you do something, you don't do it by halves, do you?"

He looked surprised all over again at her humorous tone. "No, I don't," he said. "Though this time I didn't get what I thought I would."

"I for one am glad. But I have miles to cover today, so I must be off."

That said, she spread her wings and, running down the length of the clearing, she leaped into the air and with a few beats of her wings was gone.

Two more days of travel brought her to the plateau where Land's End sat. Choosing a spot well outside of town, she set down and changed back to her human form. It felt a bit odd at first. She had been a dragon for nearly three days, the longest time she had spent in that form so far. After a moment of unsteadiness though, she adjusted to the familiar feelings. Setting a brisk pace, she headed towards home.

Her family hadn't been warned of her arrival, any letter she could have sent would have reached them long after she did. So when she walked into the house her mother nearly dropped the pan she was carrying. Putting it down quickly on the nearest flat surface, she rushed over and gave Serali a hug.

"Serali!"

"Oh Mama, I'm so glad to be home!" Serali exclaimed. All of the sudden her homesickness, which had crept up on her so slowly she had hardly realized it was there, was gone. The rest of the family came piling out of the house. Serali looked at them. Even little Carita was beginning to look grown-up. As for Turla, she was looking quite the young woman. And Ohlito had filled out over the last year, going form a gangly teen, all knees and elbows, to a solid young man. But someone was missing.

"Where's Dentol?"

"He's moved out." Marilla answered. "Young Rella caught his eye and they were married two months ago."

Serali's face fell. "I'm sorry I wasn't here."

"It's all right, Serali. We all know that you couldn't have made it in time. Barona is a long way away."

I could have, she thought. It only took three days to get here. If they'd just told me… but they couldn't have known that. She shook her head. "I guess you're right. But never mind that. I'll visit them later. Right now I want to know what's for dinner!"

Turla grinned. "That's our Serali, always thinking about food!"