Kendra and Seth dragon tamers

  "You shine brightly, small one," the dragon said. Each word sounded like three female voices shouting a dissonant chord.

  Dripping, shivering, Kendra could not move. She wanted to reply, but her jaws felt glued shut. Her lips twitched. A response awaited in her mind. She wanted to say, "Not as bright as you," but her mouth refused to make the words. Kendra groaned feebly.

  "No last words?" the dragon said. "How disappointing. "

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Seth pushed up the flap and climbed out of the knapsack. He was in a field beside Kendra, near a rippling pond. The dragon was bigger than he would have imagined: the horny head larger than a car, the claws longer than swords, the body a massive hill of flashing scales comparable in size only to a whale.

  "Another one?" the dragon exclaimed in its ringing triple voice. "Similar aspects--siblings, I would suppose, but opposites, one dark, the other light. Have you a sharper tongue than your sister?"

  Seth was no longer aware of Kendra beside him. He was unafraid, his muscles felt no paralysis, but he found himself utterly fascinated. Those eyes--jewels enlivened by a radiant inner fire. He lost all sense of urgency beneath the mesmerizing gaze.

  "Double disappointment," the dragon lamented. "I take it silence runs in the family? Whom shall I devour first? Light or darkness? Perhaps both together?"

  The dragon shifted its gaze back to Kendra, and Seth glanced over at his sister. Had the dragon said it meant to eat them? His head was swimming. He didn't want to die. He didn't want his sister to die. Bracing himself for dragon teeth, he took her hand. All of a sudden, cold clarity rushed through Seth's mind.

  "Neither!" Kendra blurted, squeezing his fingers. "Shouldn't we get acquainted first?"

  "She speaks," the dragon exclaimed, eyes narrowing. "Why the delay?"

  Seth stared the dragon in the eyes. "We were overwhelmed at first. "

Chapter 19