“My mind is racing over all the terrible possibilities your Vasilisa left us with,” I said, moving quickly back up the hill.

“Terrible possibilities?” Artur asked.  He didn’t have to catch up so much as hold himself back well enough to hear me.  He didn’t quite have a full seven-league stride (not like the Water Prince) but with legs like tree trunks you do manage to eat up a lot of ground.  Only not literally.

“I was thinking about how Dragons reproduce, if they don’t… make with the squishy.”

“Parthenogenesis?” Artur suggested.

“That’s a word you don’t expect to come out of the mouth of a eight foot something tree guy.  Um.”

“What, too high-falutin’ for ya?  Mister `make with the squishy’?”

“If you imagine any word coming out of–yeah.”  I sighed.  “I was actually thinking things like, `It’s too late, she’s already expelled an embryo into Doloise somewhere, probably the esophagus for the pop culture reference.'”

Artur chewed on that for a moment, only not literally.  “Pleasant,” he decided.

“Or maybe a magical technique like that.   Dragons laying eggs in the Realm’s aura,” I shrugged.

“Naul has the talons of an eagle, not the features of a cuckoo,” Artur suggested.

“So eggs are a possibility.  I thought the scales made them pretty reptilian, but I guess Nellie looked kind of cuddly.  What is a Dragon?”

“Not ovoviviparous?” Artur asked, casually.

I broke down the word in my head, pretending I wasn’t talking to him.   Oh, fine, I wasn’t pretending.  “How old are you again?”

“Just because I look about thirteen doesn’t mean I don’t read.”

“I gave you the benefit of fifteen at least,” I retorted.  “You have the sullen kid thing down pat.”

“To the people of my father’s kind I will probably never be anything but,” he admitted.  “I would argue sullen, though.  I’m young enough, mortal enough to be a kid.  I like to think it gives me the excuse to have some of the exuberance of youth.  There’s a lot to be said for the freedom to make mistakes.  I hate to blame things on not knowing any better, but having my enthusiasm run away with me in trying to do the right thing is worth a heck of a lot.”

“Better to ask forgiveness than permission and all that?”  I shrugged, trying not to trip over Nikolai as he sped up past me.  He acted as if this were a great game and he was out taking a run with me. 

“Better than the being victorious or coming home on your shield part, I think,” Artur suggested. 

“How mortal are you?”

He laughed.  “Mortal enough not to kill you for your rudeness.”

“Hey, that’s why I asked you,” I teased.  “Seriously, though, is it every practitioner who likes to hedge the extent of their abilities?”

“If you hear someone say, `I can’t do that,’ it’d better be a moral stance,” he agreed.

“Huh.  I am so glad I’m small potatoes.”

“Not if it’s a hashbrown world.”

“I have never heard it put that way.”

“I eat a lot of fast food.”

“Can you do that?”  My curiosity will get the better of me, I’m sure.

“A lot of my kind have moral stances against all sorts of food, but I’m not that picky.  I digest some things better than others, but who doesn’t?   I try not to eat anything sentient, but I also don’t administer any kind of IQ tests.”

“You’re not hungry, are you?” I was kidding.

“After the smell of burning Ivan?  Nah, that put me off my appetite for another hour or two I think.”  He winked.

“So, no photosynthesis?  If I cut you you won’t bleed sap?” 

Artur looked down at his legs, as if suddenly noting he was part tree.  “Separation of kingdoms is a tough one, but life and magic have a common source.  And if you cut me, I will bleed a sap,” he threatened.

“So did your folks make with the squishy?”

The half-lesiye started laughing.  “Did yours?”

“Are you implying –”

“Hey, what does the spelldog have?” Artur interrupted me.

“Spell dog?  Sorcepup?  Spelluppy?  Spound of Spell?  Nevermind.”  I looked over to where Artur was pointing.  Nikolai was crouched down on the ridge.  Artur was going to have a better look, but it suggested a good time to be quiet and get down.

Good thing, too, because that’s when things started exploding.