Page 26 of Escaping my Dragon

“The monster sleeping inside the mountain.” The words blurted out. Judging by the grim expressions and lack of surprise, they knew what I spoke of.

“You’ve had the dream,” stated my father.

“For several nights now. But, oddly enough, I’m not me in it, but a woman, who stands atop a mound of snow facing a wall, only it’s not a wall, for within it, a giant eye opens.”

“When you say giant, how large would you say it is?” Father canted his head.

“Taller than Abaddon, maybe more.” A reminder that had me shivering.

Pollita gave me a little squeeze. “You’re safe.”

“For now,” Father murmured. “But once the destroyer awakes…”

“Our world as we know it will cease to exist.”

The new voice startled everyone, except Father. He smiled as the pale blue dragon alit, her wings almost soundless.

“Persephone? What? How?” Abaddon appeared at a loss for words.

The dainty dragoness waved her paws. “Someone named Astaria called me a few days past and suggested I visit Tigger.”

“Who’s Astaria?” Tutu asked, sucking on a rocket pop that led me to wiggling until Pollita set me down. My tummy had a rumble that needed filling.

“A friend of mine,” Father murmured. “A selkie who gets glimpses of the future. Strange she chose to call you.”

“She said you were taking too long to gather the hatchlings and that we needed to be moving faster if we were to arrive in time to make a difference.”

“I don’t suppose she told you where to go?” Father asked.

The riveting Persephone shook her head and her horns sparkled. “No.”

“Have you been dreaming of an ice cave?” Abaddon inquired next.

“Volcanoes, actually. Four of them, exploding one after another in a place of⁠—”

“Ice and snow,” we all said, interrupting her.

“Well, yes. How did you know?”

“We’ve all been having dreams,” Pollita stated.

“Not everyone. Father hasn’t,” Abaddon chose to interject.

“Likely because I’ve learned to better guard my mind given my age and experience.”

“What have you dreamt?” Persephone treaded in my direction, and I quickly snatched a Rocket Pop to offer.

“A cave of ice, which I think is the same one Tigger’s seen.” Pollita replied taking a popsicle from Tutu and eating it in a single bite.

“Mine’s a little different in that I’m seeing it from the perspective of a human female, and there’s a ginormous eyeball that appears,” I corrected rivetted as Persephone used her ability to increase the size of her rocket pop.

She pointed it at Abaddon. “And what of you? What have you seen?”

“A shaking mountain at first, but the other night I saw Malone heading for it. Likely he’s the reason why your dream shows those four exploding volcanoes.” The mad scientist had a method for making even dormant ones suddenly rouse with a magma fury.

“He’s going to wake an old dragon. A big one,” my father’s ominous prediction.

“And?” I queried in between sucks of my rocket pop. All eyes turned on me. “What’s the big deal? I mean, Malone woke us up, and the world is fine. Because of him, we met our father. Who’s to say waking up this dragon is bad?”