The first sign something was wrong came when Nimbus stopped paying attention to his handler.
The young dragon had spent most of the morning in the training yards along the lower terraces, tolerating instruction with varying degrees of enthusiasm while apprentices hauled feed buckets between enclosures and argued over whose turn it was to clean the smaller pens. Beyond them, dragons occupied nearly every corner of the sprawling complex. One young green repeatedly tested the patience of three handlers by trying to set fire to a stack of practice targets while a pair of older dragons watched from neighboring enclosures with what looked suspiciously like amusement.
Nimbus ignored all of it.
His attention had fixed on a single figure crossing the far side of the yard.
Lexi.
The moment he s
