High fluting notes flew across the empty plain before them, with no echo, snatched by the clear air. She played on, blending one tune into the next, lost in the music, until her father sprang to his feet with a gasp.

The whistle dropped from Emmie’s mouth.

“What is—” She stood and clutched Pa’s arm.

A black silhouette above the peak of the volcano. Bat-like wings, powerful body, legs hanging below. It flew at such speed, it grew bigger by the second, and although Pa pressed Emmie to get down, she grabbed him, and instead he put his arm around her shoulder, and she felt him tremble. They both raised their chins to stare.

They were powerless, tiny; there was nothing to be done, nowhere to hide, because it was flapping directly toward them.

A soaring giant of glinting gold.

A dragon.

The dragon swooped low, and Emmie’s body told her to crouch and cover her head, but instead she froze, Pa’s strong arm tight around her. She gaped upward at its pale belly and the mighty claws as it swept overhead, casting them in its long shadow. The wind from its enormous wings battered their upturned faces, whisking up dust. It raced past, then soared upward and around, banking back.

It hovered between them and the volcano, wings spread wide, the bright sky shining through their thin leather. With the sun darting off its scales, the dragon looked like something owned by the Gods of Olympus in the Greek myths Mama used to read to her, and she quaked and clung to Pa.

The dragon dropped from the sky like a stone, only at the last moment flapping its wings in one final eye-watering blast and landing gracefully on all four of its powerful legs.

It was now only fifty or so steps away from Emmie and Pa. A hillock of gold.

Pa released his hold around her shoulders and turned.

“Stay here,” he whispered.

She grabbed his hand to stop him, unable to tear her eyes from the dragon’s head, wider at the top and crested by two deep bronze spiraling horns. Its huge golden eyes flashed, its snout tapered to dark nostrils. Did the fire come from those or its mouth? Emmie couldn’t remember what Pa had told her.

Pa eased his hand from hers. She wanted to hold on to him but didn’t dare make a fuss, didn’t dare attract its attention, which was all on Pa. Was this the mother dragon? It certainly looked exactly how her father had described her.

Emmie swallowed as Pa removed his rifle and placed it on the ground, followed by his knapsack and finally his hat. He had nothing but the clothes he was wearing.

Pa put out both of his hands, palms up in front of him, and slowly walked toward the dragon.

How to describe its size? Bigger than four stagecoaches all squashed together but much longer with its tail as well. Its wings were now folded against its body. Pa stopped only a yard or so in front of it and Emmie’s heart pounded in her throat. The dragon ducked its head so its eyes were on a level with her father’s, except its head was bigger than Pa’s whole body and its eye bigger than Pa’s head. She gasped with fear for him and covered her mouth to stop herself crying out. It blinked and then made the most curious sound she had ever heard.