The dragons, three of them, finally coming out of their confusion, found the wit to band together. They put their heads next to each other and exhaled a ferocious column of flame. It shot across the room and splashed on the opposite wall.
Assa had anticipated this move and flew out of its path immediately by going up even higher. She hung in the air near the ceiling of the room and looked down on the three dragons. Other dragons, who had entered the room in search of wood to eat, saw her and heard her: she began mewling and crying in a dragon sound she didn’t know she had, but which was right there when she needed it.
The entering dragons, touched by her sounds, which were distress signals, nervous signals, and warning signals all wrapped up into one cry, saw that the three other dragons
