Ildreth crept towards the door. She almost thought she had made it out silently, but her mother's voice called after her: "Ildy! Take your little brother with you!"

"Oh, Mom," she protested. "The other kids don't want to play with him."

"He's little. You be nice to him." Her mother appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "And make the other kids be nice to him, too. Come on now, Lar."

Ilarion slunk from behind their mother, his tail lashing in anticipation. Half of his golden scales were dulled by the remains of his breakfast. Ildy shuddered: no one was ever going to play with them that way.

"Oh, come on, Mom," said Ildy, "at least clean the goat blood off him. If I'd worn that much of my breakfast when I was four, you'd never have let me out to play!"

Her mother swiped at the bloodied scales. "Dragons have to eat like dragons, dear."

"They could at least eat like polite dragons." Her mother didn't look at her. Ildy always thought that she blamed herself for the way Ilarion was born. After all, nobody could remember any of their dad's relatives being dragons, ever, and their mother had a first cousin who was the town dragon over in East Snorring. It was clear where it had come from.

Finally, Lar was clean, and he scampered after Ildy out of the door. Ildy sighed. It was unnerving to have a little brother who was so much bigger than her -- he was only four, but he'd already molted twice, and he was already five feet tall and ten feet long. He kicked up a cloud of dust as they hurried down the road, and the others, waiting at the crossroads, could see them coming.

Ildy was surprised they didn't scatter.

"My mom said I had to bring him," she said, the minute they could hear her.

"Couldn't you...I don't know, get him to play by himself?" asked Holin.

"I wanna play with you guys," said Lar immediately.

"We were going to play jacks," said Redda. Smoke started to stream from Lar's nostrils. "But we don't have to," added Redda hastily. "We could play just about anything, really."

The four older children looked at each other glumly. There are only so many games you can play with a four-year-old, and only so many games you can play with a dragon. There aren't many that are good for both. They all knew what was coming.

"How about hide-and-seek," said Jin wearily.

"Again," muttered Holin.

They picked Jin as "it," and they all scattered. Ildy climbed up the gnarled apple tree on the village green, whispering to herself, "Please don't let him hide in a barn, please don't let him hide in a barn."

But there aren't very many places to hide a ten-foot-long dragon, and Jin checked the nearest barn. Ildy heard her screech and hurtled herself out of the tree and across the village green. She was up in Holin's father's barn in an instant and helping Jin stamp out the fire Lar had started in the straw.

"I'm sorry," said Lar brightly. The others joined them, and the fire was out in a few minutes. "I said I was sorry." Lar's nostrils began to smoke again.

Holin immediately said, "Oh, it's all right, no harm done. Let's, um, let's go outside."

"Lar's it," said Jin. "I caught him before the fire started."

"That's a pretty bracelet, Jin," said Lar. Jin pulled her sleeve down guiltily, but it was too late. "I like that bracelet."

"Um, thanks, Lar," said Jin.

"Why don't you give me pretty bracelets like that?"

"I only have one."

"Then why don't you give me that one?"

Jin pulled it off reluctantly and handed it to him. He stepped into it. It barely fit over his claws, but no one said anything. Dragons who didn't get the gold they wanted had horrible reputations.

Lar covered his eyes with his wings, and the other children looked at each other. "Quick," hissed Redda. "This way."

They ran after her, out of the village and down through the fields beside the king's road. "Where are we going?" asked Ildy.

"I found this cave yesterday," said Redda. "It's only a few minutes away, and I don't think anybody knows about it. It's perfect."

Ildy had to admit that the cave was perfect. It wasn't too damp or too cold, and the four of them had plenty of room in it. There was even a flat space for Redda and Jin to get out their jacks, and they kindly let Holin and Ildy borrow them. Ildy had just finished a round of fours when she looked around guiltily.

"Lar's been gone an awful long time," she said.

"Good," said Holin.

Redda smiled guiltily. "I mean, it's nothing against you, Ildy...it's just...."

"I know, I know," said Ildy. "But if he tells Mom we ditched him, I'll be in big trouble."

Jin sighed. "Well, maybe you'd better go look for --"

"Hey, this is a great hiding place!" said Lar's voice from the entry of the cave. Ildy winced, and all the others scowled. "I love this!" He trotted in and spread his wings. "It's big! And dry!" He nudged the bracelet off with his snout. "Just perfect for a dragon's cave. Thank you for finding it for me!"

"Oh, this is too much," said Holin.

"Shut up! Do you want to be crisped?" whispered Jin.

"You're welcome," said Redda, but her heart wasn't in it. Ildy wished she had left to go look for him sooner.

"Yeah, you're welcome," the others repeated.

"I want to stay here forever!" said Lar.

Hope bloomed on the other kids' faces, but Ildy shook her head. "Mom will want us home for lunch soon. We'd better go." She barely smelled the smoke before she remembered to add, "But we can come back after that. Aren't you hungry?"

Lar was, so they all started walking back to town. Lar and Ildy walked behind Redda and Holin, and Jin danced ahead of them. Abruptly, Jin stopped dancing. "What's that light?" she said.

Holin squinted. "Looks like fire."

"But it's on the road," said Redda.

Ildy and Lar caught up with them and squinted ahead.

"Bandits," said Ildy. "They're headed into town."

"I'll run around," said Holin. "Maybe I can get there in time to warn the grown-ups."

"What good's a warning going to do?" said Ildy grimly. "We need to scare them off."

Redda's forehead wrinkled. "How are you going to -- oh."

"Lar," said Ildy. "See those men up there?" He dipped his head in a nod. "They want to burn our house down and hurt Mom and Dad. Here's what you do."

She gave her little brother quick instructions, and Lar flew off as fast as his wings could take him.

"What if it doesn't work?" whispered Redda. "He's only four."

"He's a dragon," said Ildy. "It'll work."

And it did. Lar started breathing blue fire before he got to the bandits, roaring furiously. They whirled around, clinging to each other and gibbering in terror. Lar blew their torches out with one puff of air and relit them again with blue flame. The bandits' hair singed. They whimpered and screamed.

"Stay away from that town!" shouted Lar. "That town is mine, do you hear me? Stay away!"

"Y - yes, Master Dragon," said one of the bandits.

"Never come back! It's mine in purple tootie!"

"Perpetuity," Ildy explained to the other kids. "Close enough. Bandits aren't so good at big words."

And indeed, it appeared that the bandits hadn't stopped to think about the big words at all. They passed the children at a dead run, shouting, "Run for your lives! It's a dragon!"

The children all giggled and ran towards the fearsome dragon to congratulate him.

"Way to go, Lar!" shouted Holin.

"Great job!" yelled Jin.

Redda got close enough to pat his scales. "You saved everybody. I can't wait to tell my parents."

All of the adults were thrilled to hear how Lar had scared the bandits. Then Redda remembered to tell them that Ildy had told him what to do, and she was a hero, too. Jin's father brought them a loaf of bread, and then Holin's mother had some of her special spiced sausages to share with their
mother. It occurred to Redda's mother that a growing dragon might like an old sheep the best. The whole town was in and out with gifts for Ildy and Lar. Finally, their mother shooed everybody away so that she could feed her heroes lunch.

"I don't get it," Lar said to Ildy. "Nobody wanted to play with me before."

"You were good and helpful to them today. You were mean and scary before," said Ildy.

"No, I wasn't!"

"Yes, you were," she snapped. "You were just like a bandit."

"Nuh-uh!"

"You set people's barns on fire, and you kept taking their jewelry."

"It was nice and shiny," said Lar wistfully.

"Those bandits came and threatened us with their fire and wanted to take people's favorite things away. Just like you did with Jin and her bracelet this morning," said Ildy.

Lar's eyes went wide. "It's not the same thing!"

"No, it's not. Jin cares about Mom and Dad and me, so she wouldn't be able to fight back as well. You could be even more of a bully than those bandits."

"I could not!"

"Of course you could."

Lar rose a few feet in the air, flapping in agitation. "I wouldn't! I'll show you! I'm going to the cave to get Jin's bracelet right now, and I'll give it back to her!"

"Good," said Ildy.

"So there!"

She watched him fly away, smoking indignantly as he went. Satisfied, she went to the pump to wash her hands for lunch.

"I'm proud of you, Ildreth," said her mom from the door to the house.

Ildy turned in surprise. "I didn't know you were listening."

"You handled that beautifully. I was afraid you were going to start yelling at him."

"I wanted to," muttered Ildy darkly.

"When my cousin Renn was Lar's age, I wanted to kill him. It took me ages to work up that kind of patience. And now he's a respected village dragon."

Her mom smiled. "Behind every successful dragon, there's a stubborn big sister."

Ildy blushed. "But little brothers are still annoying," she whispered to herself. "Just maybe...trainable."

The End

Marissa Lingen is a freelance writer living in Minnesota. She intends tobuy a dog soon, is allergic to cats, and has a backyard full of squirrels that throw things at her. She is working on a fantasy novel featuring Finnish mythology, early computers, and the Cold War. She has published over thirty short stories.

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