Excerpt: Assorted Daydreams

Nirlina was walking along, just minding her own business. Well, actually, no, she wasn't minding her own business per-se. She was minding the business of that rabbit she'd been tracking for the last five minutes. She was rather hungry, and the idea of rabbit for dinner was making her stomach rumble. She licked her lips, and tried to move even more quietly than she had been. She heard a rustle in the grass just ahead and to the right, and tensed.

That was when something leaped out from behind a tree, and threw some kind of net over her. Of course, the sudden movement startled the rabbit in the grass. But Nirlina wasn't really thinking about that anymore. No, she was backing up rapidly, trying frantically to get the net off of herself. But it's remarkably hard to get a net off when it's tangled up in your wings.

Perhaps this is a good time to mention that Nirlina is a young green dragon, perhaps four feet long, from nose to tail tip. Now, this might not sound like a very big dragon. And you'd be right. She was very young, but she was also the runt of the litter, much to her own annoyance. But despite being small, or perhaps because of it, she was strikingly beautiful. Her coat was the color of young spring grass, but in the sun, the color shifted and moved, giving her the appearance of moving even when she wasn't. She was quite proud of it.