Indi was still jittery from their crash. She couldn’t stop thinking about how the whole world outside her window had been a jumble of colours and about how no one had been hurt. She wasn’t sure if she had shielded. She hadn’t seen the light purple shimmer that her shield often had, but Falco said it had been there so it must have been. And given how far they’d come down the hill and how little damage the car had she had to have shielded at least some of the way.

  They’d come much further down the hill than she’d thought they had. How much of it had they slid and how much had they rolled? She really wasn’t looking forward to climbing back up there. And what about the car? How were they going to get that back up there? She wasn’t actually too worried about that though. She knew they’d figure something out. She was more worried about Cat. Cat must be worried about the baby, even though she’d probably never say so. She was always trying to be so tough.

  In a bout of spontaneity, Indi hugged her.

  “What’s that for?” Cat grumbled. But she didn’t try to pull away.

  Indi let her go. She shrugged. “I dunno. Figured you needed one.” With a devious grin she reached for an unopened bag of candy. “Shall we open the sour worms too?”

  Cat had been looking up toward the road with a worried look. She turned sharply at Indi’s words and frowned. “We’ve already got two packets open. I thought you said you were saving one for each day?”

  Indi shrugged. “Well if we only eat a portion of each one then it’s kinda like having one bag a day.”

  Cat scrunched up her face in disgust. “Even half a bag of candy a day is too much candy.”

  In response, Indi reached into one of the open bags and pulled out two gummy dinosaurs. “What colour do you want? Pink? Green? Purple?”

  Cat sighed. “Purple’s the best colour.”

  Indi grinned and handed her a purple one. “Purple is the best colour but it’s not the best flavor.”

  Cat rolled her eyes. “What’s the best flavour?”

  “Yellow, or some days blue. It depends.”

  Cat didn’t answer. She just looked at the upside down car and then over to where Falco and Wolf had made a pile of the bags. Wolf was now inspecting his books and Falco was looking back and forth between the car and the top of the hill.

  Cat’s hands fiddled with the hem of her shirt, her arms crossed protectively across her lower belly.

  “I’m sure the baby’s fine but we can get Amanda to look at it once she gets here.”

  Cat snorted. “What’s she going to do?”

  Indi considered what Amanda would usually do. Then she put her hands on her hips, gave Cat her sternest look and said, “Sometimes Sirius has healing magic with him.”

  Indi’s tone must have surprised Cat because it got her attention and her eyes widened. But then she scowled again and shook her head. “Maybe enough for healing a scratch, the good shit’s expensive,” Cat muttered.

  “Enough for an assessment,” Indi pressed. “Anyway, I’ve seen her heal a bullet wound.”

  “She stopped the bleeding. She didn’t heal it fully. And the other time was an infusement from Coal, not one made by Katrina.”

  “Well, Amanda said Katrina’s getting better at making infusements. Anyway the point is-”

  Indi didn’t get to tell Cat what the point was because at that moment Falco yelled across the car at them, “Look out!”

  A glance up the hill told them all they needed to know. A large grey dragon was barreling down the hill toward them.

  Indi froze in awe. The magnificent size of the beast and the way it moved was something else entirely. It was hard to imagine that something so big could move with grace, and yet it did.

  “My books!” Wolf cried out as Falco pulled him away before he’d had the chance to grab them.

  “Forget the books! Run!” Falco commanded.

  Indi was too transfixed by the sheer beauty of the beast to be afraid. She couldn’t imagine the concept of something like that doing any harm. In the back of her mind she knew that was wrong but she also knew she had her shield. Sure, she couldn’t always activate it when she wanted to but it seemed to generally work when she needed to. Everything would be just fine. Everything always was just fine. There was no time to run anyway.

  Cat yanked her to her feet.

  Indi yelped and soon found herself half stumbling, half pulled along behind Cat.

  “Come on!” Cat yelled.

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  “I don’t think it wants us. I think it just wants the car,” Indi said as she tried not to fall over her feet.

  Somehow Cat managed to prevent them both from tumbling down the hill as they fled from the path of the dragon. “Yeah, but do you know how they eat their food. They like it cooked.”

  “Oh,” Indi said, and then upon realising what was about to happen to the car she cried out, “My laptop’s in there!”

  “Forget the laptop. Fuck, you’re as bad as Wolf.”

  Behind them came a sudden roar, but it wasn’t from the dragon, it was the sound of the flames engulfing their vehicle.

  It was at that point that either her or Cat or both of them lost their footing and went tumbling forward.

  There were a few exclamations of ‘ow’, more out of reaction than pain since Indi managed to shield at the last minute, and then both of them turned to look at the flames.

  No more than five metres or so away, the rocks were scorched a dark black. Beyond that was a roaring fire which the dragon was devouring with abandon.

  “Whoa!” Indi said, once again transfixed by the raw beauty of the destruction.

  Cat made some sort of noise from beside her and then she yanked Indi to her feet. “Come on,” she said again, and she tugged Indi away, this time with an angle up the hill.

  Indi groaned once she saw the direction they were heading. It was such a big hill. “I don’t think it will come for us.”

  “It might,” Cat replied. Then she spun and reached for Indi’s belt. “Take off your belt.”

  “What?” Indi said in surprise.

  Before Indi could react much more though, Cat had yanked Indi’s belt off and thrown it in the direction of the dragon.

  “It has metal in it,” Cat explained, already starting to drag her up the hill again. “So do your earrings and boots, but we won’t waste time with the earrings, and we need shoes to move quickly. Belt has more metal anyway.”

  “Not that much,” Indi complained between breaths. She did not like hill climbing and these were not hill climbing shoes.

  “Yeah, well, belts are useless anyway. You should just buy pants that fit.”

  “My pants do fit. The belt was aesthetic. I liked it,” Indi told her with a sad glance back down toward where Cat had thrown it. In truth, she did have like half a dozen other belts at home, some that looked almost exactly the same as that one. It wasn’t like it was her favorite. She wasn’t particularly overly attached to belts. Now, if Cat had thrown her purple jersey down the hill, that would have been a different story. There wasn’t anything she had quite like that jersey. It was cute and comfy and right now it was way too hot. “Can. We. Slow. Down?”

  To her surprise, Cat paused long enough to mime something to the guys across the hill and just enough for Indi to get a breath, before they were off up the hill again.

  Indi’s feet already hurt and a quick glance up the hill said they weren’t even half way up it yet. “Oh my gods,” Indi panted, “Just leave me, Save yourself. I’d rather be eaten by the dragon.”

  At the thought of such a fate though, Indi glanced back down the hill, and was pleased to find that the dragon was fully preoccupied with the car. Then she had another realisation.

  “My clothes!”

  Wolf and Falco may have retrieved the bags from the car but they hadn’t got them anywhere near far enough away to save them from the flames. Everything that had been in the car was now incinerated.

  “Just be glad it’s not us,” Cat told her.

  “And the candy!” Indi moaned. This day was getting worse and worse.

  “You can get more at the next fuel station.”

  Indi frowned. She didn’t see how the were even going to get to the next fuel station without the car. And this hill was so big, she’d probably die before they got to the top of it anyway.

  “I can’t go on,” she complained. “I’m gonna die.”

  “Don’t be so dramatic.” Cat pulled her up another large step.

  “My inhaler was in the car,” Indi moaned.

  At that, Cat stopped and spun. She eyed Indi with concern.

  Indi would have told her that she was fine and not to worry, except she was too busy being relieved that they’d paused for a second or so.

  Satisfied Indi wasn’t in immediate danger, Cat looked past her and down the hill. She watched the dragon for awhile. Given she didn’t appear in too much of a hurry to get going again, Indi figured the dragon must still be devouring the car.

  “Are you alright?” Falco called across the hill. He sounded closer than he had been before. He and Wolf must have been crossing over as well as going up.

  Indi watched Cat nod. The woman stood more alert now than she had been when she’d been sitting on the rock earlier. Her sharp features matched their rugged surroundings.

  Indi had been resisting the urge to look back down the hill again. She didn’t want to know how short of a distance they had come in comparison to how far they had to go. But at the sound of Falco’s voice, she turned.

  Falco and Wolf were picking their way across and up the many rocks that covered the slope. They were a little up the slope from Cat and Indi but not by much. They’d done a lot of sideways movement. The rocks they all had to climb over were sharp edged and most were the size of soccer balls. Some of them tended to move underfoot too so every few steps up the hill sent them all back one.

  She was glad to see both of the men unharmed but now that Indi was facing across the hill, it was easy to glance down as well.

  There wasn’t much of the car left and the dragon was sniffing and nosing at the rubble, looking for any metal it had missed.

  The view caught Indi’s eye as well. She hadn’t been able to see it quite so clearly from inside the car. Picking the passenger seat had meant she’d mostly been on the mountainside during the drive. Now, she had an unfiltered view of not just the valley below but all the mountains in the distance. The peaks across the valley were shorter than theirs and she could see over them to glimpses of several more valleys. The furtherest view was blocked by another larger peak but in between was a world of colour. The season meant a mix of green and orange leaves. But it was also late enough for snow. White and blue ice gave way to grey cliffs marred with darker patches of shadow while the peaks glowed bright in the sun.

  “Whoa!” Indi breathed.

  Her remark drew Cat’s attention and must have made it clear that she had enough of her breath back to keep moving because suddenly Cat grabbed her arm again.

  “Come on,” Cat said as she tugged her upward.

  Indi groaned.

  Then out of the corner of her eye something moved.

  The movement caught Cat’s eye too, for she stopped and for a moment they stared down at the dragon again.

  At first Indi was relieved that the hill climb had been delayed once more, but then she registered the scene below and she knew immediately, with a sinking heart, that more running was about to be thrust upon her.

  The dragon had finished with the car and was now sniffing among the rocks where Cat had thrown Indi’s belt.

  The little silver and amethyst studs in her ears burned, figuratively speaking, and she considered taking them out and throwing them away. Even her shoes weren’t helping much on this slope. She’d likely need her phone though. And what about her glasses and the small metal screws in them? Could the dragon smell them?

  She didn’t have time to do anything about any of that however, for Cat was soon tugging her off up the hill again.