A younger dragon, a third Serali's size and probably three times her age, who had been circling above through the whole hunt now landed. Children were not allowed to hunt, it was too dangerous, but one of the older ones always got to go along to be the pole bearer. Strapped to his sides were an assortment of long wooden poles. The other dragons quickly assembled them into stretcher-like frames on which they loaded the carcasses of the huge beasts, the combined weight of which in several cases outweighed that of the dragon pulling them.

Cherval had outdone himself and caught three of the huge creatures, and without Kethro's help he might not have been able to even budge the huge load, but the larger dragon moved it with ease, and soon the party was headed back to dragon stone with the youngster flying scout overhead

Serali walked near Kethro as they made their slow way back to the dragon stone. "What brings you here? I'd gotten the impression that mountain dragons don't visit the plains often."

"No, they don't much. But I've always enjoyed the new and different, ever since I was a hatchling. I've been flying all over the northern mountains since I was able to fly, much to the dismay of my parents. I wanted to see everything! But now that I'm more than grown I decided that I'd seen enough of mountains, and that it was time to see something different. And the plains are definitely different!" He looked over at her. "You're different too. I didn't think there were any other gold dragons, besides old Brethor. And, uh, no offense but your accent is really strong. Where in the world are you from?"

"From a place called Land's End," said Serali. "But you won't have heard of it. There are no dragons living there now that I've gone. It's a human village. I was raised as a human. I've only been living among dragons for a few months."

His eyes went a little wide. "Wow. That's amazing. I've met a few humans, I speak a bit of their language. There are a few that live in the mountains, though we usually avoid them. But as I said, I like new and interesting things, so I spent some time talking to them. They're odd creatures."

"I suppose they must seem very odd to you. To me though it's dragons that are odd. I'm still getting used to the way the plains dragons do things, and I've no idea what it's like among mountain dragons."

"Well, perhaps eventually I'll take you north and you can find out."

She smiled over at him. "Perhaps."

When they reached the dragon stone, a small crowd of dragons was waiting. Cherval had explained this to her before the hunt. Since there were so many dragons at dragon stone the plains dragons, always more willing to cooperate than their mountain cousins, had worked out of system of hunting and sharing so that most of the dragons could devote their time to other things.

"It's a custom you won't find among other dragons, but we're rather proud of it. You see, dragon stone is home to many of the greatest scholars and mages in the world. But without such cooperation they would have to waste much of their time hunting." He had puffed up with pride at the very thought.

Serali smiled at the memory. She knew that the little blue dragon was serious, but that only made his behavior more humorous. Without paying too much attention to the crowd she left her kills outside and went back to her room. Drevass had invited her again to eat with him that evening so she had no need to claim any share.

Plopping down in the padded depression in the floor that served as a bed, she picked up her copy of the Book of Truth.

And behold because the dragons were scattered, First Father ordained a time that they might meet together and speak one with another. And also that they might sing together. So it was decided that on a certain day, one year out of every ten, the dragons would meet…

Serali put it down again. She wasn't really in the mood for reading. She looked around the bare room, wondering what to do. Her pack was leaning in one corner, the human sized bag looking very small in the dragon sized room. Her lute case was still strapped to the back of the pack.

She picked up the case, but her clawed fingers couldn't manage the tiny metal clasps that held it closed. Without really thinking about it, Serali shifted into human form. By now the change was almost instantaneous, she had done it so many times. She could remember Janus' surprise when he had attempted to teach her how to shape shift. He had begun to lecture her about the principles involved and the spells she would need to learn, but she had interrupted before he'd really gotten started.

"Janus, I've been shifting shapes since I was twelve years old. I don't think I'll need the formal magic."

"You've been shifting between the shape you were born in and your natural shape. This is going to be quite different."

"But you yourself told me that royal dragons are natural shape-shifters. Let me try it my way first, and if that doesn't work you can teach me the formulas and incantations."

"Very well."

She had remembered the feel of shifting between dragon and human. She recalled the familiar sensations of becoming a dragon from her human form. Then she merely imagined what it would feel like to change into a third form. Picturing in her mind one of the great cats that roamed the high desert around Land's End, she imagined what it would feel like to have fur instead of smooth skin or scales. What it would be like to go on all fours. Her vivid imagination easily provided her with the images she needed and in only seconds she was flowing into the cat form.

Janus had been rather apologetic afterwards. Serali had just grinned. After having dozens of spells backfire on her when she tried something different, it was good to have one of her attempts at improvisation succeed.