“Sea and Sky” by K.C. Shaw (read by Nenekiri Bookwyrm)

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You’re listening to The Voice of Dog,

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and Today’s story is

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“Sea and Sky” by K.C. Shaw,

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who writes fantasy and furry fiction

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and also hosts the nonfiction

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Strange Animals Podcast.

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Her latest book, Skyway,

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is a collection of short stories about a couple of lady airship pirates,

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available from Mannison Press.

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You can find more of her stories at kcshaw.

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kcshaw.net. This story

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originally appeared in the anthology

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Black Dragon, White Dragon

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published by Ricasso Press.

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Today’s story will be read for you by Nenekiri Bookwyrm,

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reminding you to curl up with a good book

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and be kind to yourself.

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“Sea and Sky”

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by K.C. Shaw Spider was fishing when he saw the inland dragon.

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He first noticed her as a bright red mote in a sky the color of rain clouds.

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He banked and hovered over the sea to watch her,

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using the gusting winds as expertly as any gull.

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It was a few minutes before he was sure it really was a dragon

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and not an ember carried from some far-off fire.

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It took the red dragon a long time to approach.

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Once she was close enough,

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Spider saw why: she was very young, too young to know how to use the buffeting winds to her advantage.

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She struggled forward,

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wings thrashing. Spider sideslipped and let the wind push him to the cliffs,

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where he landed in the grass and folded his wings.

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A few minutes later the red dragon landed too,

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much more clumsily,

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and sat up on her haunches.

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She was barely old enough to be flying at all,

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certainly too young to be on her own.

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Her red coloring,

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which had seemed so bright in the distance,

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was tempered up close by a faint blush of pale orange,

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reflected in the paler red-orange of her wing-feathers.

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Her ribs showed more than they should

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and she smelled as though she hadn’t washed in some time.

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She looked up at him and said,

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“Do you have any food?”

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Spider had to clear his throat twice before his voice would obey him,

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and then it sounded rusty.

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He hadn’t spoken to anyone in years,

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not even himself.

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“I’ll bring you a fish.”

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“Thank you. What are you called?”

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“Spider.” “Because your legs are so long.”

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She nodded. “I’m called Sunrise.”

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The name suited her,

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but Spider was out of the habit of speaking and didn’t say so.

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He spread his wings and let a gust of wind lift him,

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then coasted low above the waves.

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When he saw the shadowed shape of a fish just below the surface,

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he dipped his wings and snagged it out of the water.

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The wind gusted harder,

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bringing the first stinging raindrops as a storm moved in off the ocean.

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Spider only needed to flap his wings twice,

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buoyed by the wind,

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to rise to the top of the cliff where Sunrise waited.

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She shone like the sun on water,

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the only bright thing in a view of sea and sky and windswept clifftops.

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Spider dropped the fish in front of her as he landed.

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She pounced on it with both forepaws.

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“How do I kill it?”

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she said, staring in consternation as it bucked and jerked.

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Spider pointed to the fish’s belly.

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“Bite its guts.” She bit the fish open and gulped the offal,

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then stripped back its tough skin to get at the flesh.

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Spider watched her in amazement.

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He’d never seen an inland dragon up close,

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certainly not one so young.

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Her horns were still scarcely longer than one of his talons.

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Sunrise finished eating

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just as it began to rain.

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She licked her jaws and said,

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“Where do you live?”

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“Follow me.” Spider coasted off the cliff,

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then glanced back to make sure Sunrise was following.

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By the time they reached his cave,

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halfway down the cliff,

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her feathers were spiky with rain and she was

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flapping frantically to stay aloft.

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Spider landed on the lip of the cave and moved aside to give her room to land too.

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She stood with her wings sagging, her hide gleaming with rain.

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“Shake your wings,”

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Spider said, and demonstrated how.

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She imitated him,

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spraying him with water,

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then followed him deeper into the cave.

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Spider had cleared it of rubble long ago

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and had brought in armloads of dry grasses to make a nest in the back.

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He settled into the nest and was surprised again

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when Sunrise crawled up next to him

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and snuggled under one of his wings.

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“You’re nice,” she said.

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“Can I stay with you?”

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“Where are your parents?”

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he asked. “They’re dead.

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They all died. All the dragons died.”

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She pressed her snout into the hollow behind his foreleg.

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Spider could feel her shivering and he spread his wing over her.

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He didn’t ask her any other questions and she didn’t speak.

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Before long she fell asleep,

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but Spider stayed awake,

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listening to the rain and to the sea breaking against the cliffs. ***

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Spider woke to find Sunrise still curled up next to him,

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but the cave stank of unwashed dragon.

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He got up and went to the cave’s mouth for fresh air.

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The sun was rising in a rain-washed sky.

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Far below Spider’s cave the tide was out,

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exposing a narrow half-moon of sand.

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He was still considering whether he should wait for high tide to make Sunrise wash when she joined him.

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“Can I have another fish?”

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she asked. Low tide wasn’t the best time to fish.

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It took Spider a while to find one big enough to bother catching.

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He brought it to Sunrise

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and left again to find his own.

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When he returned,

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having half-eaten his fish in mid-air,

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Sunrise had already finished hers.

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She picked at the bones

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and watched Spider eat out of the corner of her eye.

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He gave her the last few bites.

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“Thank you,” she said when she had eaten it.

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“I wish I could fly like you.” “Throw the bones into the sea,”

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Spider said. He waited until Sunrise pushed the remains of the fish

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over the cliff edge,

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then said, “See those gulls?”

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Gulls wheeled overhead,

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and a few tussled over the fish bones Sunrise had left on the clifftop the night before.

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“See how they let the wind go under their wings instead of fighting it?”

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Sunrise nodded. “Try it.

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Hold your wings out and practice.”

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Sunrise spread her wings,

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leaning forward with her front paws wrapped over the edge of the cave mouth.

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Her wings were scruffier and dirtier even than he’d thought.

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He wondered when she’d last groomed them.

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He waited, remembering his mother giving him the same lesson

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long ago. Then Sunrise said,

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“Oh! Now I feel how.”

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She launched herself from the cave

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and Spider followed closely in case he needed to catch her.

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But she glided on the gusting sea winds,

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not particularly well

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but certainly better than she had flown the night before.

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They flew along the coast for several miles before Sunrise tired,

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and landed at the water’s edge at the mussel bay.

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“My feet are sinking,”

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Sunrise said. She picked up a forepaw and examined the wet sand clinging to it,

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then sprang back with a squeal as a wave frothed around her legs.

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“Wash,” Spider said.

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“When you’re done I’ll show you how to open mussels.”

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“What are mussels?”

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“Shellfish. You eat them.

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Go on, wash.” Sunrise waded into the surf a short distance and crouched down.

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“It’s cold,” she said.

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“You’ll warm up once you start scrubbing.”

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Spider waded in next to her.

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Sunrise scooped up a pawful of sand and began to scrub without enthusiasm.

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Spider washed too,

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much more quickly,

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then swam out into the bay

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and dived for fish.

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When he returned

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Sunrise was playing with a shell,

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using it to make grooves in the sand

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and laughing when water filled the grooves.

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“Did you wash your wings?” Spider said.

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The feathers were still dry.

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Sunrise dropped the shell guiltily

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and ducked into the waves.

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She bounded out of the water again after only a few moments, though,

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and shook her wings out.

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Drops flew, catching the morning light and flashing rainbows.

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Spider took her to the mussel rocks

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and showed her how to pry the mussels loose.

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He expected her to have trouble opening them,

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but her blunt claws seemed made for the task.

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Within minutes she was quicker at it than he was.

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“How long ago did your parents die?”

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he asked her after a while.

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“It was winter.” A quarter of a year, then.

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No wonder she was thin.

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She was gobbling mussels as fast as she could open them.

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“What happened?” She sat back and looked at him,

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her eyes wide and dark.

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“Everyone got sick.

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Everyone in the whole valley.

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My sister got sick first,

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then my mama. I helped take care of them

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—I brought water from the river,

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in a skin, so they could drink.

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Daddy hunted. Then he got sick too,

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and I tried to hunt instead

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but I didn’t do very well.

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My aunt gave me some of their food,

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but then she died.

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And my sister died.”

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She rubbed her snout with a sandy paw.

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“My daddy took her body to put it in the woods,

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but he never came back.

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And then my mama died.

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And when I went to find someone to help me,

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no one was left. I went looking for my daddy

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but he was dead. There were flies on him.”

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Spider’s wing feathers prickled with horror.

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Sunrise poked at the empty mussel shells scattered around her

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and said, “I went into the woods so I would die there.

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But I never got sick.

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Why didn’t I get sick?”

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“It’s the plague. Some dragons don’t get it.

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It came through our colony when I was a little older than you

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and I never got sick either.”

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“Did you have a brother or a sister?”

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Dragons always laid two eggs.

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“A brother.” “Did he die?”

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“No. Not then.” Spider stood up.

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“Let’s go sit in the sun and groom our wings.”

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He flew to the top of the nearest cliff.

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Sunrise followed

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and settled next to him.

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“Are you a real dragon?”

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she asked. “Yes. Of course.”

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“I’ve never seen a dragon who’s green.”

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“I’m not green.”

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Sunrise waved a paw at the ocean.

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“You are. You’re the color of the water.”

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Spider was pleased,

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but he didn’t know how to say so.

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“Groom your wings,”

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he said, and started to preen his own feathers.

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A few moments later he glanced up.

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Sunrise was sitting on her haunches,

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watching him mournfully.

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“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

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“I don’t know how to groom my wings.

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Mama always did it for me.”

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Spider sighed, but moved closer to her and began to smooth and straighten her feathers.

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She still had fluffy nestling down between the flight feathers. ***

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Over the next week

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their days fell into a rhythm: baths

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at dawn, fish and doze until low tide,

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and another trip to the mussel bay so

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Sunrise could play in the sand and eat mussels.

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Her appetite for any kind of food

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was endless. Spider ate less than she did.

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But the food and care were already making a difference.

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She was starting to look properly baby-plump.

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She still claimed she couldn’t groom her own wings,

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but Spider didn’t mind doing it for her now

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that she no longer stank.

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Her flying skills improved daily.

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She slept snuggled close to him in the nest and he welcomed her warmth on the chilly spring nights.

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One night, more than a week after her arrival,

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she wriggled around and put her mouth close to Spider’s ear membrane.

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“My name’s Falatha,”

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she whispered breathily.

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It had been a very long time

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since Spider was trusted with a dragon’s secret name.

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He nuzzled Sunrise’s jaw and said,

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“Falatha, my name is Tsakil.

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Tsakil.” “Tsakil,” she said solemnly,

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and snuggled under his wing again.

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He heard her muttering his name to herself until she fell asleep,

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so she wouldn’t forget it.

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The knowledge of Sunrise’s name,

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and her dependence on him,

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made Spider uneasy.

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For the first time he realized she was here to stay.

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No one would come to take her home.

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He wondered frequently,

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over the next few days,

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what he should do about her.

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He remembered his activities at her age

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—learning to swim with the other young dragons,

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fishing with his brother,

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playing rough-and-tumble games in the wet sand at low tide.

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Always there had been dragons around,

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young ones to play with and old ones to watch over them.

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Sunrise had only him,

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and he had long ago forgotten how to play.

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It was another week before he decided reluctantly that he needed to find her a home among other dragons.

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For a moment he considered taking her to his old colony,

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but rejected the idea almost immediately.

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Too many dragons in his old colony had promised to kill him if he ever returned.

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He watched as Sunrise chased a retreating wave into the sea

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and fled in mock-terror from the next one.

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It wouldn’t be wise to leave just yet, anyway

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—not until Sunrise regained the weight and strength she had lost.

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Spider relaxed and put his decision to leave in the back of his mind.

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Spring progressed and the water warmed.

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The fishing was good.

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Sunrise became almost adept at snagging fish from the water,

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although her claws weren’t made for it the way Spider’s hooked talons were.

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From time to time he remembered his decision, though,

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and it troubled him.

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By mid-summer, he knew Sunrise was at the peak of health now.

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Gleaming new feathers were replacing the fluff on her wings.

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It was time to go…but

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there was always tomorrow.

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Today they would explore a new bay,

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or fly out to sea to look for whales,

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or simply lie in the sun and drowse. They were lying in the cave mouth one afternoon,

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waiting for low tide,

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when Sunrise rolled over and looked at Spider.

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“How’d you get that scar on your neck?”

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she asked. He had almost forgotten about the scar.

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“I was in a fight once.

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A long time ago.” Sunrise was silent long enough that Spider nearly drifted back to sleep.

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But she said, “Did your colony all die?”

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Spider opened his eyes,

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thoroughly awake now.

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“No. I left them.” “Why?”

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“The fight,” Spider said.

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“I fought with my brother and accidentally killed him.

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His friends told me to leave.”

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He remembered the argument with his brother,

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words that couldn’t be taken back—words followed by a vicious, slashing fight above the sea.

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And then his brother falling silently amid blood drops,

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feathers spiraling after him,

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and the waves closing over his body.

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Sunrise stared at him with wide eyes.

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“You never went back?”

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“No. I had to leave.

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I can’t live among dragons anymore.”

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“Except for me,” Sunrise said.

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She shifted around to lean against him.

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The conversation made him remember how much Sunrise needed other dragons.

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He considered, seriously this time,

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taking her to his colony.

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Perhaps the old anger had faded

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and he would be welcome again.

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He thought of his parents, his cousins and aunts and uncles,

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his friends. Had they forgotten him?

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Would they be glad to see him?

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Finally, late one evening when the surf murmured against the cliffs

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and stars glittered in the sky and the sea,

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Spider said, “We’ll leave tomorrow.

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We have to find you a home.”

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Sunrise had been lying near him in the cave mouth,

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half asleep. Now she looked up at him in alarm.

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“Why can’t we stay here?”

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“You need friends your own age.

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You need someone who can be a mother to you.”

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“But there aren’t any other dragons,”

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she said. “They all died.”

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“You didn’t die, and I’m still alive.”

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She watched him the rest of the evening with worried eyes.

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He pretended to fall asleep

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so she would stop staring.

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But in the morning, when dawn lifted over the cliffs and the breeze began to move off the sea,

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Sunrise only seemed excited.

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She chattered as they fished,

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her voice mostly lost on the wind,

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and washed quickly in the mussel bay.

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“When are we leaving?” she asked him,

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spreading her damp wings out for him to groom.

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“Soon,” he said, and spent more time than usual preening her feathers and then his.

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He felt heavy and reluctant as they flew to the freshwater spring.

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Once they had drunk,

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Spider stretched thoroughly.

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Sunrise mimicked him.

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There was no more putting it off

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—no more tomorrows to retreat ahead of them like chased waves.

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It was still early.

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The sky was white with clouds that had blown in overnight.

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The two dragons flew along the coast,

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above cliffs half crumbled into the sea.

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Spider remembered his long-ago despair

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that he would never find a comfortable home again,

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a safe cave to shelter him from storms and cold.

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When they stopped for the night

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he was pleased that Sunrise seemed nearly as fresh as she had that morning.

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They slept in the grass at the top of the cliffs.

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The night was hot and still with

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scarcely a breath of wind.

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By midmorning the next day

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Spider began to recognize the coast below them:

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its bays and inlets,

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the angle of its cliffs against the sea.

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The cliffs were once again pocked with caves and topped with windbent trees.

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They arrived at his old home at noon.

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There were no dragons in sight.

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“We’re here,” he called to Sunrise.

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His stomach felt as though he’d swallowed a live fish.

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He banked and slid down the breeze to land in a cave mouth.

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Sunrise landed next to him and crowded close to his side.

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“Who lives here?” she whispered.

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“My parents,” he said,

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“or they used to.”

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The stone was smooth from generations of passing feet,

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but there was windswept debris underfoot

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—gull feathers, sand, leaves.

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He sniffed around briefly.

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No scent of dragon clung to the entrance.

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“Did you grow up here?”

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Sunrise peered into the cave.

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Spider was suddenly, acutely homesick.

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“Yes. There used to be a big nest in the very back,

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made up of brush and old feathers.

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Thousands of feathers, from my parents and their parents and their parents.” “May I go in?” “I’ll come with you.”

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Spider felt he was Sunrise’s age again,

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returning home to sleep through the afternoon’s heat with his brother beside him.

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It wasn’t until they came to the nest that he realized why there was no scent of dragon.

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He flung a wing in front of Sunrise.

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The nest was still there.

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So were his parents.

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At first glance in the dim light they seemed to be asleep.

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The sea had long ago swept the smell of death from the cave.

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“Go back,” he said to Sunrise.

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“It’s not nice.”

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He hoped she had not seen,

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but knew from her stunned expression that she had.

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When they were in the cave’s mouth again,

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Sunrise crouched down with her wings huddled around her.

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“We’re the only dragons left,”

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she whispered. Spider looked up and down the coast.

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They were alone. He put his wings around Sunrise.

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“They must have gone away,

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the dragons who survived the plague.

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We’ll find them.” “I don’t want to.”

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Sunrise pressed her muzzle under his jaw.

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“I want to go home.”

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Spider hugged her tight for a moment.

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“We’ll go home, then.”

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They flew far into the night,

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both of them eager to put distance between them and the dead.

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Only very sick or very injured dragons wouldn’t fly far out to sea to die;

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only a colony devastated by plague would leave bodies where they fell.

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Spider wished he had stayed long enough to give his parents to the sea. They stopped finally,

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long after they were both exhausted.

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It was another still night,

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but Spider sensed a change coming in the weather.

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He groomed Sunrise’s wings and felt her relax.

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“I did want to meet some dragons my age,”

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she murmured sleepily. ***

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Spider woke before dawn,

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troubled. The waves were slow and heavy.

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A storm was coming.

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He nudged Sunrise awake.

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“We need to beat the storm home.”

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The wind gusted off the sea all morning.

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Around noon a hard, heavy rain fell,

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lashing down without stopping.

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Spider hoped to find a cave

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—any cave at all—but the cliffs here were sheer and featureless.

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The sea frothed and roared against them.

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The wind buffeted them away from the sea.

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Before long they were far inland.

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It frightened Spider,

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because he no longer knew where they were.

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But Sunrise shouted,

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“I saw those trees the day I met you!

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I think we’re almost home.”

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They turned to fly directly into the wind.

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It was hard enough for Spider;

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Sunrise could scarcely make any headway.

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They stalled over the band of trees.

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“Land here,” Spider called.

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The trees weren’t thick enough to give much shelter.

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One had already fallen and the others thrashed as though in agony.

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The wind keened and whistled through the branches.

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“We’ll have to run,”

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Spider said. “Keep your wings folded tight.”

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They started through the trees,

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but a moment later Sunrise stopped and squealed,

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“It’s another dragon!

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Look! It’s another dragon!”

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The strange dragon was dark red,

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his wings nearly black.

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He was male and his bone-colored horns curved back from his head

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like the spines of a bladefish.

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He was much bigger and heavier than Spider expected, too,

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built like a bull shark.

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At the moment, though, he looked as wretched as Sunrise.

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“Is there shelter anywhere?”

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he asked. “Come with us.”

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They ran, blinded by rain.

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The wind grabbed at Spider’s folded wings.

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He led the way, glancing back often,

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and was reassured to see the strange dragon help Sunrise when she stumbled.

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At last Spider heard the roar of the sea against the cliffs.

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Moments later they came to the cliffs’ edge.

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He stopped and waited for the others to catch up.

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“Help her fly,” he told the strange dragon.

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“We’re almost there.”

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He launched himself off the cliff,

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flapping frantically to keep the wind from driving him back again.

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Behind him the strange dragon did the same,

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clasping a terrified-looking Sunrise around the middle with his forepaws.

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Spider was certain she wouldn’t have been able to make it to the cave otherwise.

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They landed in the cave mouth and scurried inside.

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The wind had blown rain all the way back,

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but the nest was dry.

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“Is it safe here?” the strange dragon asked.

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“Yes. I’m Spider; this is Sunrise.”

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Sunrise huddled beneath his wings,

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shivering hard. “Thistle,”

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the strange dragon said.

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He looked toward the cave entrance,

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where rain slashed sideways in the wind.

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The wind howled, the sea roared,

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and thunder shook the sky,

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but inside the cave they were sheltered and safe.

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Thistle said, “I came looking for other dragons.

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I’m glad I found you.”

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Sunrise peeked out from under Spider’s wing.

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“We’ve been looking for other dragons too.

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We thought everyone else had died.”

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“Not everyone,” Thistle said.

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“The survivors from my colony have moved to a valley about four days’ flight away.

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I’ve been searching for other survivors ever since.”

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The sound of the wind deepened and increased,

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drowning Thistle’s voice.

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Sunrise ducked back under Spider’s wing.

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Gradually the pitch of the wind eased.

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The rain slackened.

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Sunrise fell asleep against Spider’s side.

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After a little while longer

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Thistle said, “Were there any other survivors from your colony?”

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“I don’t know,” Spider said.

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He hesitated, too ashamed to tell Thistle about his exile and half-afraid the dragon would guess anyway.

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“We couldn’t find anyone else alive.

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alive.” Thistle sighed. “I’ve never heard of plague hitting us this badly.

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Only seven of our colony survived out of almost two hundred.”

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He stared out the cave entrance,

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where gray rain fell into a gray sea.

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“I’ve only found about forty more dragons to join us,

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out of months of searching.”

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Spider knew he should fill the listening silence Thistle left for him.

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But he didn’t know what to say.

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He held Sunrise tightly against his side.

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Thistle said, “Do you suppose it’s safe to leave now?

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I need to get back to my colony

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—with you both, of course.” Spider thought of leaving the sea forever and living inland,

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among the shadowed trees.

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He felt a surge of unaccustomed fear at the thought, mixed with shame again at his disgrace.

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He didn’t belong among dragons,

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but Sunrise did. “It’s still raining.”

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Spider got up carefully so he wouldn’t disturb Sunrise,

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and went to the cave entrance to look out.

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The sea was choppy and lathered,

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still roaring against the cliffs.

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Thistle joined him.

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“You will come with me, won’t you?”

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Spider didn’t belong in a colony.

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He had been sent away.

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Except that the dragons who had sent him away were most likely all dead.

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No one cared now if he lived alone or among dragons again.

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Spider felt that he was waking for the first time in years,

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breathing in the cold rainy wind like his first breath out of the egg.

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He was too full of newness to speak.

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Thistle sounded irritable.

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“If you won’t leave,

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at least let me take Sunrise.

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She needs a family.”

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She did need a family, Spider knew.

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But so did he. He nodded.

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“All right, then. Once the rain stops we’ll go.

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I wish you’d come with us.

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You wouldn’t be the only sea dragon there, you know.

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We’ve got five or six others.”

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Spider turned to look at him.

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He still wasn’t sure he could speak.

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He thought he must be shining from within.

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He heard Sunrise scramble out of the nest behind them.

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A moment later she flung herself at Spider.

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“I want to stay here with you!”

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Spider wrapped his wings around her.

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“I’m going too. We’re both going.” ***

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The rain ended. Sun gleamed on foam-webbed waves,

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on the wet grass at the top of the cliffs.

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Thistle sailed from the cave mouth, followed closely by Sunrise and Spider.

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With the wind under their wings,

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they turned inland.

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This was “Sea and Sky” by K.C. Shaw,

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read for you by Nenekiri Bookwyrm,

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reminding you to curl up with a good book

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and be kind to yourself..

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You can find more stories on the web at thevoice.dog,

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or find the show wherever you get your podcasts.

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Thank you for listening to The Voice of Dog.