"I'm sorry, Che," she said softly. "I sing only to—to animals and things."

"Perhaps if you thought of me as an animal." he said, his voice muffled.

"Oh, you're not an—" But what was he, if not an animal? A friend, in this terrible time.

He needed comforting. Could she withhold from him what she would grant freely to her cat?

"Maybe I can sing to you," she said doubtfully.

She tried it, uncertain what would happen. She had never before sung for anyone who understood what it was. She wasn't sure it was possible. Flowers and animals were uncritical; they never thought it was foolish or out of tune or whatever, or tried to critique it to be more conventional. They just accepted it as it was, and that was the way she could do it. Che might be a foal, but he had awareness beyond that of any animal or flower, and that was likely to interfere. Certainly he had a critical mind.

The sound didn't come. Her throat was tight; it just wouldn't let go. She just couldn't sing in this kind of company.

Still, a five-year-old foal.

She tried again, just breathing in tune. After a moment she was able to hum, and then her voice came, and she was singing as before. She was back in the fancy of the Princess, and the castle, and the dragon who looked like a prince.

There was a sound outside. Was a goblin coming? Che's head turned; he heard it too. But Jenny kept singing, hoping that the goblin was just passing by and wouldn't stop.

The sound faded; whoever it was was going away. Jenny kept singing, and her picture of the Princess became clearer and nicer. There were no mean things there, just pretty flowers and a beautiful day. The only dark cloud in sight was small and distant; it looked a bit frustrated.

But then something horrible happened, like awful meat appearing in the hut. The dragon wanted to eat the Princess! He wanted her to come to him when he was in his natural form, so he could eat her and be a king among his kind. What was she to do?

Jenny sang, and the words came naturally as the fancy developed of its own accord. It was almost as if someone were sending to her, so that she wasn't making up the story but receiving it. She was in it, in a way, as the Princess, and Che was in it too, as the dragon Prince, for both were winged monsters. Despite the horror of the situation, she knew that the dragon loved the Princess. He had a funny way of showing it, by her definition, yet she saw also that the love was true by his definition. Dragons were violent creatures who lived to roast and eat others, and the most perfect fulfillment of his nature was the eating of a pure and sweet princess.