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Ehail blinks, when she finds the bar instead of her room.
She goes in.
She looks out the window, at the exploding things.
"I don't think this is my planet," she observes to herself, tucking silver hair behind her ear.
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Ehail's eyes open very wide and she stops holding down the octagon button.
"Really?" she says in a small voice.
"Really?" she says in a small voice.
nonbird
"Very definitely really," says Lazarus. "And you are impervious to slurpy contagion. Your magic looks much happier now."
"Can I - is there someplace I can go try - it's not that I don't believe you but -"
nonbird
"It would probably be moderately inconvenient for a dragon to be seen flying around above Toronto," he says. "People might be alarmed. Libby? Clever magical solutions?"
prima-sequentem
"Coming right up," she says, smiling slightly. "Let's see... I could teleport us to somewhere extremely remote, and make us temporarily invisible to the rest of the world. Would that suit?"
"Yes," says Ehail. "...There aren't any dragons anywhere around, are there? If he's wrong?"
prima-sequentem
"There aren't any dragons anywhere around," says Libby. "As far as I know. It seems very unlikely that someone else from this world would happen to have brought a dragon from your world here from Milliways just now and would happen to bring them to the same remote location I teleport us to."
"Okay. Oh - um, when I shift there will probably be a few hundred years of lost scales. Is that a problem?"
prima-sequentem
"No. I'll teleport us now," she says, and then they are somewhere else. Specifically, they are on a large flat grassy area with no other people and very few notable geographic features in sight.
nonbird
"...I did not know Earth locations came in this much flat," says Lazarus, looking around. "That is a lot of flat."
prima-sequentem
"I thought it might be reassuring," says Libby. "Now, in the extremely unlikely event that a dragon somehow showed up in this world, we would see them coming from miles away unless they also happened to teleport directly on top of us. But in case of passersby, we're also all invisible to anyone but each other until I take us back."
Ehail turns on the spot, confirming that she can see quite a long way and there are no dragons hiding in the area.
Then she stands back from Lazarus and Libby and changes.
Several pounds of assorted sized scales of silver skitter down her sides; she shakes them off her wings when she stretches them out and looks up hopefully at the sky.
And then she takes off.
Then she stands back from Lazarus and Libby and changes.
Several pounds of assorted sized scales of silver skitter down her sides; she shakes them off her wings when she stretches them out and looks up hopefully at the sky.
And then she takes off.
Ehail doesn't come down for a while.
She is making big lazy circles over him and Libby. After some time, she breathes a silver plume of fire; her tail lashes happily when it works as expected.
Eventually she glides to a landing and tucks all her feet under her and folds her wings.
"Thank you," she says softly, ducking her head.
"Thank you," she says softly, ducking her head.
prima-sequentem
"You're welcome," says Libby. "Do you happen to know the exact population of - most-of-dragons in your world? If you did, you could save time by making enough eights before we go back to your world."
nonbird
"Oh - speaking of which," says Lazarus, turning to Libby. "I have figured out an important thing about coins that you should probably know. I think that the same thing that is wrong with sevens is also wrong with all the coins below them - sixes and fives at least, I saw you use both of those. They do extra magic, in the amount of the next coin down. When you used an eight safely it didn't do that. So I think it's extra important to be safe with eights, because if they went wrong it would probably be a lot worse than what happens with sevens. And I guess the reason sixes and down don't seem like they bite is because they are not aiming well enough for a five's worth of magic to end up biting very hard."
He declines to specify Libby's exact procedure for safely using large coins - but of course he knows it.
He declines to specify Libby's exact procedure for safely using large coins - but of course he knows it.
prima-sequentem
Of course he does. She knew he'd pick up on that when she did it in front of him.
"Thank you, Lazarus. I'll keep that in mind."
"Thank you, Lazarus. I'll keep that in mind."
"I don't know it exactly. I can just make extras, though. New babies hatch all the time. Is there a reason not to make them back in my world?"
prima-sequentem
"There's no reason not to make them back in your world - although if you want to use them back in your world, I'll have to tell you how to do it safely. I just thought you might prefer to have a supply saved up ahead of time, to make going around distributing the wishes that little bit more efficient. How is the population arranged, anyway? Will you be able to find them all?"
"Some of them very easily - the rest will be harder, they're scattered, but this will be news, I'm sure they will all be found sooner or later, and the babies will be easier to locate than anyone else and they're the most important to do quickly. Most of us grow up in one of four houses. Some stay after that. The dragon council knows where to find anyone who's with their - families."
prima-sequentem
"Four," she says. "And there's three of us. If I brought Chris, and if you could arrange to vouch for us in all four places first, we could complete all the babies pretty quickly. In which case it would be very useful to have a supply of coins ahead of time, so we wouldn't need to teleport back and forth between you and our respective locations to get more."