Kate stared out her window. 'Window'. Right. Like this wasn't a gigantic huge wall of glass looming in front of her, braced with wrought-iron girders. Sure. Absolutely.

She stared out the window, feeling dwarfed and small by the size of the palace around her. Dwarfed. Small. And alone.

The servants were nice, but they refused to spend time around her. Even when she begged them to stay, they would not stay. She had tried to leave and go down into the town, but they had stopped her. It was as if she were a prisoner in what they swore was her own house.

More like a twisted, jewel-ridden cage.

She demanded to speak to Amity, to use the transportation circles, but they were insisting they were not functioning properly. She had this tight, squeezing sensation filling her body and soul.

And to make matters worse, it was about to explode into a rainstorm.

The silk cloths of the Wishing Tree whipped around in the wind. She could hear the ocean roaring outside her window. How she had managed to land in the palace by the sea, she didn't know. Nor did she really care. She wanted to go home. She wanted to be back in her bed in her clothes in her world.

She was feeling very maladjusted.

Gavin was poking his eggs with a fork while his egg, his dragon egg stared at him.

Not that it had eyes or anything, but Gavin got the distinct feeling that it was staring critically at him.

"Look," he said. "This is nothing against you. I just... happen to like eggs. Really really runny eggs. Um. Do you... want to look the other way?"

The egg sighed, or at least Gavin guessed it did. If it had those eyes it felt like it had, Gavin was sure it would have rolled them.

As it was, the egg rolled itself. And rocked itself. And pushed itself. Until finally there was a tiny little snap and the egg lay still. Gavin blinked at the colored egg and leaned in, curiously. "Hello?" he asked quietly.

The egg snapped back and rolled across the long table, until it struck against the candellabra. It jiggled again, and a pair of wings flexed through the shell, cracking it, as a sopping wet, furry mass of black and brownish fur shuffled out of the egg and lay panting on the table.

Gavin blinked. "Um. Hi?" he tried again.

The dragon looked at him with an exhausted look on its face and closed its violet eyes to rest. *Just eat your eggs,* his tiny voice commanded. Gavin couldn't help but notice the large ram's horns on the dragon's head, the slicked-back fur in its wings.

But ... well. He figured it was smarter to do as he was told. So, he took another bite. "You want some?" he asked merrily.

The dragon gave him a look and sighed again. He shook his little black head and collapsed to sleep on the table.

The egg loomed in the doorway to her room. It was heavy, like whatever was inside it was packed solid. The pamphlet the little satyr had given her was akin to an IKEA instruction booklet. All little doodles, no actual words. But the size of these dragons! They were huge! Massive! No wonder it felt solid.

There was an endearing little scribble of who Palm assumed was the bondmate pointing at the egg with a thought bubble of another person with a series of squiggles, and a callout depicting the same symbols. She assumed that meant they had to be named after someone important. She sighed.

Easter bunny dragons. Oh this was absurd.

"I should name you something after Easter, I guess," she said. "But I've never been particularly religious. And chocolate gives me hives sometimes." She sat next to the bright green egg with a silver palm leaf on it. If there was ever any doubt this egg was for her, well, that should clinch it. "How about I name you after Tybalt Capulet?" she asked. "I always liked him. He's a character in my favourite play, and it's a good name, I think." She sighed and stroked the egg adoringly. "I'm glad you're not giving me a headache anymore, though. Thanks for that."

The pamphlet hadn't said whether or not she should talk to the egg. But it felt better to do so. She didn't hear things like she had been. And she'd definitely been hearing things.

This whole place was bizarre, a mix of shadow and substance, something she remembered Gavin as quoting from the Twilight Zone. She was substance. And Gavin and Lucy were substance. And the eggs and dragons were substance. But a lot of the rest of the place looked as if she could walk right through it were she so inclined. In bright light, their clothes were translucent. The people around them were translucent. Their words sounded like they were echoing from down a long tunnel, and she was at the far end of it.

More so than usual, anyway.

She sighed and fondled the amulet she'd woken up wearing. It hung on a golden chain, the shape of a stylized sun, with a large cabachon of tiger's eye set in it. She looked into it and shook her head. It was barely visible in the shaft of sunlight, but it held weight.

This place was weird.

And she wanted to go home. Where things made sense. And things were solid.

*My name is Chao Xue,* the little black dragon with bronze fur and bronze markings told him, staring up at him with cynical purple eyes. *You may call me Josh.*

"Doesn't the uh, ... Don't I get to name you?" Gavin asked, blinking down at him as they walked down the hall. "I mean, it's a good name and all, but... er. Josh?"

The dragon didn't look upset or anything. He carried himself well, for one just born, as if he'd done this routine before, even though he very clearly could not have. *It's a long story. We're not getting into it. Call me Josh. Please.*

"Alright. What are you?"

*I'm a Decorated Clarus Dragon. I believe Maria told you that sometime before. I'm your bondmate. I'm here to help you.*

"But--"

*Listen. Don't think about it too much. You'll hurt yourself. Just suffice to say that I like you, and you're stuck with me. I'm not going to screw you over innordinately. It's a little late in the game to be getting cold feet.*

Gavin stared down at the dragon. "Just how old are you?" he demanded.

*Old enough. I'm very precocious. I've hung out with a few brilliant minds before I came to you.*

Gavin remembered the sharpie on the post-it note. "There was another na--"

*We're not getting into it,* Josh replied crisply and continued to walk.

"But--"

*Not. Getting. Into. It.* Josh bared his teeth and narrowed his eyes.

Gavin squeaked. "Yeah. Sure. Of course not!"

Up ahead, there was the sound of a transport circle being activated. Gavin hurried towards it, followed by Josh's padding footsteps.

"Can't you fly?" Gavin asked, glancing over as he hurried towards the circle chamber.

*With what?*

"You have wings, don't you?"

*I have the limbs for them. I don't have the membranes. Don't count on me flying anytime soon.*

"Oh," Gavin managed and skidded to a halt as the blue circle shimmered and out of it stepped a tall woman in red with ... uh. Wings. Those were definitely wings. One was big and purple and kinda dragon-y. The other was a big white feathered wing. She had brown hair over half her face, and bright green eyes.

"Gavin Scott," she said firmly.

Gavin swallowed hard.

Beside him, Josh bowed his head a little and hid behind Gavin's leg. Gavin couldn't stop staring at the huge sword she had with her. "Uh. Present?" he said.

"If anything happens to this dragon, you'll answer to someone much worse than me."

Gavin blinked first at her, then down at Josh. "Uh...?" he managed.

Josh peeked up with a fake smile. *Oh, hi, Hjördis...* he managed.

"Don't even try to sweet-talk me, Chao Xue. Are you happy now?" she asked him dryly.

Josh's expression darkened a little. *I'm here, aren't I?*

Hjördis rolled her eyes. "I brought you your mask," she said. She presented him with a little wooden box, which he pushed open with his little black paws.

*Thank you,* he said cordially as he opened it to reveal a bronze mask to fit him, with black spirals and twists across it. *I trust you can find your way home well enough.*

Hjördis's face tightened a little. "I have plenty enough to do that you don't need to remind me, Chao Xue."

He smiled up at her and batted his eyes. *Yes. Well. Don't go threatening to kill Gavin. I'll keep a good eye on him.*

She stared down at him. "I'm sure you will," she said coldly.

And then she was gone, and Gavin stared at the air in which she'd stood. "But-but-but-" he stammered.

Josh stared down at the little bronze mask. He nodded a little, and then put it back in the box. *Let's go find something to do,* he said very calmly.

"Aren't you going to put that on?" Gavin asked. "I mean, she came all this way."

*So did the Crusaders when they fought the Muslims. That doesn't mean they got Jerusalem.*

Gavin stared down at him. "Has anyone ever told you how weird you are?"

*Have I ever been hatched long enough for it to come up before?*

"No, I guess not."

*There you have it, then. Let's go.*