Alex, can you please come in here? The question in Alex's head interrupted her from her studies.

What is it? she asked Christine as she walked through the torch-lit hallways of the palace.

I'm not sure. I'll show you when you get to my rooms. Can't you walk any faster than that?

Alex grinned. Duke Edward's already yelled at me twice this week for running down the halls, she answered. Besides, I'm here!

"Now, what's the problem?" she asked as she entered Christine's main room.

"This." She shoved a small basket in front of Alex; in it was a white egg, larger than any Alex had ever seen.

"So? It's an egg," she said plainly.

"Yes, but no egg I've ever seen. I found five, counting this one, in my yard this afternoon, but no bird in my range said they were theirs. Plus, they don't feel like birds' eggs," Christine said as she set the basket in front of the fire and next to four other, similiar baskets.

"Maybe Spider knows?" Alex suggested, eyeing the gray cat who sat on a windowsill, catching the last rays of the April sun.

"Spider?" Christine asked, petting her cat, who was mostly commonly referred to as her familiar.

They are nothing you have encountered before, I know that, was the cat's reply. They will hatch in less than a week, and you must be prepared with lots of food. Newborns are mad with hunger. And do not let the children break any of the eggs.

Christine nodded, although none of the information was particularly helpful.

"And where are you going for the summer, Alex?" Christine asked one night as they watched the eggs in front of the fireplace. "Surely you don't plan on staying at the palace all summer?"

"I don't know," she confessed. "Sir Otis says I can stay at his place again, but he'll be on business all summer, travelling from country to country. I don't want to impose on him all summer. I think I'll just stay- oh! What's happening?" One of Christine's eggs had begun to rock, and she cautiously took it out of the basket.

"I think it's hatching," she replied excitedly. "Quicky- run to my kitchen and get the bowl of meat scraps I've been saving up from downstairs!" And Alex ran to one of the adjoining rooms to get the huge bowl. No sooner had she set it down than her egg started to rock, and her full attention focused on it, forgetting Christine and her four eggs.

She carefully deposited the egg on the rug-covered floor. There was a creature in it, for sure, and trying madly to get out. That was causing the rolling of the egg. Then, it cracked, and a beak popped out. The crack broke the egg in half, and out tumbled a...dragon? No, it was much too small to be a dragon. It was a rich brown, with many-faceted red eyes. It looked at Alex and made a piteous sound...

"Quick, feed it!" Christine reminded her, and Alex grabbed a handful of meat and held it out to the...thing. It greedily snatched the food and begged for more. Alex was kept occupied by it for another five minutes until it had filled itself and fallen asleep in the crook of Alex's arm. Only then did she get to look over at Christine.

The older woman smiled at Alex, her body covered in other small, scaled bodies. She saw a gold, bronze, green, and blue creature sleeping on any available part of her. "In all my years, I didn't think they really existed..." she whispered finally.

"What are they?" Alex asked. "They resemble some descriptions of dragons, only much smaller..."

"They're fire lizards," she answered. "Supposedly, they're cousins to dragons, or at least in Anne McCaffrey's books. I never thought they actually exited...And to have found some stray eggs in my yard...And a queen!" She looked at Alex and smiled. "Sorry, I forgot you haven't read books about fire lizards. The gold one is the queen of each clutch. They're wild, unless Impressed at birth. To Impress," she explained, "you have to feed them right away, as we did. Spider wasn't joking when she said we should have food nearby for when they hatched! They're very responsive to their 'owner's' emotions, and I use the term owner loosely. If you're nice and kind to them and love them dearly- which I don't doubt you will- they'll love you back and are right quick to defend you. Basically for the first week, they'll eat and sleep. If you start to get severe hunger pangs, don't worry, it's just your little fire lizard telling you it's time to feed it. If they're not fed, they get vicious. And loud. Their scales will become dry once they start growing in a few days. We'll have to get some oil for that...Oh, and they can disappear and end up in another place. Don't worry about it."

"Magic?" Alex asked.

"I don't know. It seems so, but the books didn't mention magic. They just said they went between, not what it was. Well, they did say, 'Black, blacker, blackest, and cold beyond frozen things. Where is between when there is naught to Life but fragile dragons' wings?'," she quoted, "but that doesn't help much."

"They're very emotional?" Alex asked, craddling her tiny brown fire lizard.

Christine nodded. "Little balls full of emotion, I must say," she told Alex. "Speak softly to my lizard fair, not raise your hand to me. For they are quick to take offense, and quicker to champion me. You share a link with your fire lizard now, and you can't hide any emotion from it. Their eye colour changes, too. Red is hungriness, blue is happiness, yellow is anger..."

"Okay, you don't have to name them all!" Alex told her. "What stories do you know about them?"

"Not stories, but a song," Christine said. "It was written in the books as a song, but never really made into an actual song. So, I took the liberty." And she started to hum until she found the right pitch, and then sang softly, so as not to disturb the sleeping fire lizards.

The little queen all golden
Flew hissing at the sea
To stop each wave
Her clutch to save
She ventured bravely

As she attacked the sea in rage
A holderman came nigh
Along the sand
Fishnet in hand
And saw the queen midsky.

He stared at her in wonder
For often he'd been told
That such as she
Could never be
Who hovered there, bright gold

He saw her plight and quickly
He looked up the cliff he faced
And saw a cave
Above the wave
In which her eggs he placed.

The little queen all golden
Upon his shoulder stood
Her eyes all blue
Glowed of her true
Undying gratitude.

"That's beautiful," Alex whispered. "I didn't know you could sing like that."

Christine smiled. "Well, being surrounded by stars, you pick up a few things," she said. "My voice is no miracle. You should hear my friends from high school... I just sing as a pasttime. I'd definitely never win an award for it."

Suddenly, Jen ran in the room. "Christine- oh, good, you're here also, Alex. Father's invited all of us to go to- What are those things?" she asked curiously, spotting the fire lizards for the first time.

"They're fire lizards," Alex answered, as if she had always known this. "They're what hatched from the eggs. Now, what were you saying?"

"Oh, Father's invited the four of us, and Christine and Adán, to go to Medazzaland over the summer," she told them. "Then I explained to him that Christine had three young ones to take care of, and he said they could come as well. He was uncertain as to how you'd get the message, Alex, but I told him I'd find a way to tell you..."

"When are we leaving?" Alex asked her sister.

"In a week," she answered. "Father's going to come get us, so you'll have to find an excuse for Alexander to disappear."

Alex grinned. "Oh, I think I can manage that," she replied.

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