Jesse James and the Dragon's Egg

Invasion and a Mother's Love

"Jesse!" It was late. Jesse had been deep asleep, dreaming that his mom was angry at him for not taking out the trash. Kate was in the room and tugging him by the arm before he had fully realized her presence.

"What's going on?" King was back. In his sleep addled mind, Jesse went immediately to the afternoon's events and all he could think was that King was back.

"Come quick! You have to see this!" she called to him as she sprinted back out of the room.

"What?"

She sprinted back into the room and grabbed the boy by the arm.

"Come on!"

The two ran out into the cool night, down the shoreline just outside the boundary of the camp, under the careful eye of a stout guard.

"What's going on? Is something wrong?"

"Yes! That's going on!" Kate put her hands to his head and turned it toward the ocean.

They had stopped just at the edge of the surf. The ocean gently lapped on his bare toes. The night was crisp and clear. The moon sat low on the horizon and the gentle murmur of surf whispered to them. Floating and flitting just above the surface of the water was a group of tiny lights. "Oh, cool. Fireflies." He said, nonplussed at being drug out of bed in the middle of the night, but trying to be polite.

"Not fireflies!" She whispered. "Look again. Look closer."

Jesse stared at the flitting lights. He found it hard to focus against their constant motion. He would just catch light out of the corner of his eye, but before he focused on it, the little glowing speck would flit off into the night.

It was only when a small fish lept from the water and suspended itself in mid-air that Jesse understood what he was truly seeing.

"Faeries!"

They littered the air in front of him. His vision cleared, and he saw that the little creatures were skimming the water with little nets while others were trolling with little lines and hooks. "They're fishing!"

Jesse and Kate got as close as they dared and sat down in the cool, wet sand. The tiny fishers took little notice of the boy and the girl, stopping their work only long enough to flutter up and touch each of them gently on the nose, then returned quickly to their night's catch.

They sat there for a time, watching the fairies, not speaking. They sat close enough to touch, but neither dared to move. The little conversation they did have was awkward. What had started out as a pleasant quiet between two friends was slowly becoming an uncomfortable silence.

"What do you suppose our friends think?"

"What?"

"Our friends. You know, our other friends. What do you suppose they think happened to us?"

"Um, I don't know."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence then. After some ten minutes of not speaking, they tried again.

"This is pretty cool." She said.

"Yeah." He replied.

"It's a nice night."

"Yeah."

Jesse wanted to say something, but he had no idea what. From time to time he could feel her attention on him, hearing her breath catch just a bit as if she were about to speak, but he steadfastly ignored it. He just had no idea what to say.

The quiet splashing of tiny feet in the surf brought a welcome intrusion to the almost painful silence. It was a trio of Welsh Corgis. The regal little dogs were trotting toward them through the surf. As they grew closer the Jesse and Kate could see that the canines were mounts for three more Fairies. The middle dog was ridden by what appeared to be a leader, perhaps a queen. She wore brightly colored robes, and the others deferred to her speech.