Catacomb Dragon, Creature
Illus. David O'Connor

Reality Ripple, Instant
Illus. Alan Rabinowitz

Amber Prison, Artifact
Illus. Donato Giancola

Staggering to her feet, Fola looked desperately around for the sickly goat and its master. Although the herder, Jojo, was nowhere to be seen, the goat stood shakily in front of the old hut, its four legs splayed out in terrified defiance, head lowered as if preparing for a desperate charge.

Fola swiped her hands hastily across her eyes, attempting to clear them of the stinging mixture of blood and sweat that mingled across her brow. Was the goat preparing to charge the Night-beast? It could never survive! Unless . . . Fola concentrated her failing resources on the goat nervously pawing the ground in front of Bwire's monstrosity. An image of comfort and protection rose in Fola's mind. Would the spell take in time?

The goat charged up the ridge and dug its horns into the Night-beast. They slid through and did no damage. The monster reached down to pin the goat between its talons; just as its shadowy hand closed, a great swirl of rainbow lights cascaded in sheets across the animal's body.

Smiling grimly at the small creature charging over and over again at the giant beast above it, Fola almost didn't notice the leathery rasp of wings overhead. A small, child's voice cried out in Fola's heart not to look--to crawl deep within the brush and pretend she was a meerkat, as she had so often crawled into her mother's bed and hidden among the blankets as a child.

Glistening black coils lurching through the night sky, neck stretched as if searching already for Kenlo, still far away; the dragon was back, and she had failed. She did not have the Prison! She was not ready! The dragon would pass over Fola's head like a flag marking failure, and her people would die. No. She couldn't let it happen again.

The lights around the goat began to fade. The Night-beast snatched it into the air. A scream of fear and pain echoed as Fola ran towards the Night-beast. Bwire or Jojo? Fola wondered, recalling that she had seen Jojo leap at the shaman an instant before.

The beast lifted the goat high over its head as if to dash it to the ground--and suddenly, unexpectedly, wavered and rippled in front of her as if it were a mirage, an imagining of the mind. It simply collapsed in upon itself, tumbling backwards and backwards, until it was merely a rush of darkling light pouring into Bwire.

Its captor gone, the goat hung in the air for an endless instant; then fell hard, the wind knocked out of it. It coughed violently, and with a retching noise, it dropped from its mouth a faintly glowing amber stone: the Prison!

Fola leaped forward and scooped up the stone. She released the human trapped within and, ignoring the stranger's startled cry of rebirth, gathered the last scraps of energy from her soul as she thrust the Amber Prison above her head with one hand. "On this night, I am forged a warrior!" Fola cried.

The dragon above her shrank and shrank, even as it dropped toward her upraised hand. A great downdraft threatened to throw her to her knees. She suddenly realized she could hear nothing, not even the sound of her own breath. The tiny dragon, brilliant gold glowing along its scales, fell into the stone and fused with it: trapped in amber.

Sinking to her knees on the desert grass and nettles, Fola stared at the jewel-like dragon cradled in the Amber Prison.