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. The dragons of dragon stone were migrating.

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 other dragons reacted with far more enthusiasm than a little snow seemed to warrant. 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 and asked 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." Cherval still didn't seem to like Kethro that much, but he had come to a grudging sort of acceptance of the mountain dragon's presence, and Kethro had no problems at all with Cherval. Serali wasn't quite sure why Cherval was still upset after so long, but he seemed to be keeping his annoyance with Kethro on a tight leash, and she was sure that eventually they would all get along fine.

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 it doesn't get that cold here!"

"It gets cold enough, but that's not why we go. We go because the herdbeasts do. Without them we couldn't live as we do, so we follow them every year."

"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 she 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 from 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 legs, 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!" Kethro 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. 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, snowballs 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, they 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 than 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 the dragon 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?"

"I miss my family. But that's not really it, it's more that... 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 younger than most of those youngsters out there today, you know. I just had to grow up fast. I can't go back to being a child again, 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 smiled at Kethro and turned and headed back to the dragon stone.