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licking its bloodstained
chops. It heard them and turned to face them. It snarled, about to attack.
     
     Becka assumed her dragon form and
snarled back. The dragon, seeing that Becka was larger than it was, turned tail
and scooted into the forest on the far side of the glade.
     
     Now there was silence, physical and
mental.
     
     Becka resumed human form. “Where
to?”
     
     Clio looked at the compass. The blue
arrow had faded out. The red one was now just beyond the mark. “We're
here,” she said. “But it seems, too late.”
     
     “Too late for what? There's
nothing here.”
     
     Clio got a dreadful notion. “That
dragon ate them. The ones we were suppose to meet.”
     
     “The lovers? That's ghastly!”
     
     “I've got to fix that.”
     
     “How? You can't un-eat prey.”
     
     “We'll see.” Clio exerted her
talent. She hated to do it, but it was really necessary.
     
     She and Becka started moving backward.
They retreated to the trees. Meanwhile the small dragon charged back, tail
first. It turned and saw them, snarling, but Becka was already in dragon form
snarling back. Then Becka was in girl form again as they backed into the
forest, leaving the dragon chewing on its prey.
     
     They continued on back through the
copse and along the beach. There were thoughts of mutual love. Was this far
enough? No, not yet. They reached the place where they had landed and stood
there talking.
     
     “Isn't that the most handsome
dragon you ever saw?” Becka asked excitedly. “What fa-”
     
     “Turn dragon. Carry me to that
glade,” Clio said, pointing. “Hurry!”
     
     Surprised, Becka turned dragon. Clio
leaped on her back. Becka took off. In a few wing-strokes she lifted off the
ground and cleared the copse.
     
     The dragon was lurking there, behind a
tree, just about to pounce on a pair of little lizards. “Drive it
off!” Clio cried.
     
     Becka landed beyond the lizards and
growled at the other dragon. Intimidated, it fled.
     
     Meanwhile Clio was jumping off Becka's
back and orienting on the lizards. “We're friends!” she cried,
realizing as she did so that this was stupid; how could lizards understand
human talk? Friends, the thought came. Telepathically, obviously. She
had understood their love thoughts;
     
     they could understand her spoken
thoughts, because they were accompanied by her mind thoughts.
     
     True,the male lizard thought. Then: But
we are not lizards; we are dragons.
     
     “Dragons!” she echoed,
surprised. “But you're so small!”
     
     We are small dragons, of course,he
thought, a nuance of annoyance tinting it. We wouldn't fit our type if we
were larger.
     
     Dear, they are from elsewhere,the
female thought. They don't know about our world.
     
     “We're from Xanth,” Clio
said. “We are here to recruit dragons of all types to immigrate to
Xanth.”
     
     Both dragons laughed, mentally. And
you come to us? The male asked incredulously.
     
     Instead of to a large leader dragon
?the female added.
     
     “I was guided by a-a magic sign.
It brought me here, just in time to-” But she halted, not wanting to tell
them what had just unhappened.
     
     But they got it from her mind. Great
balls of fire! The male thought. It's true!
     
     Oops. “No need to go into that.
The point is-”
     
     She saved our lives,the female thought.
By winding time back. We were crunched as we were kissing.
     
     Both gazed at her. In that case, we
owe you, the male said. We had better go into relationship mode and
discuss this.
     
     “I don't think I understand,”
Clio said.
     
     You will in the next chapter,the male
said.
     
     If you will just step across to it
now,the female agreed. We will be glad to explain.
     
     “I don't-”
     
     “I think we had better do as they
ask,” Becka said. “We do need their explanation, if we are to
accomplish anything here.”
     
     “I suppose so,” Clio agreed,
halfway