Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. -Revelation 12:3 (NIV) Melissa had seen dragons before. Of course she had. Duel Monsters was chock full of them, and though the game had somehow transported itself to Prana by some other name, she was from a world obsessed with the sport. If there was some manner of dragon, from wyvern to hellkite to snapjaw, she had seen it rendered in full three-d by a hologram. But that still had not prepared her for the real thing, all flesh and blood -- as far as she could tell, anyway -- flying, landing, standing before her. It was a truly singular experience, one to treasure for as long as Melissa could hold on to it. She hoped it was the same for everyone else, especially the onlookers they had attracted on their way into the park.  Well, it wasn’t right to say that they had “attracted” the onlookers. But there were onlookers, even if they were trying to pretend that they weren’t. Melissa could see the occasional glance sent her way, and could feel everyone’s gaze even when she wasn’t returning it. Part of her wished she hadn’t figured out that “head on a swivel, and let the computers help parse everything” trick. It just made them all easier to spot. So she tried her best to just focus on the dragon, on the majesty of God’s creation. Her focus shifted to the woman on the dragon’s back, Rona, as she dismounted and greeted the three of them. Fen took the first half of introductions, as was her right as squad leader, though Melissa still raised a hand in a little wave and a “Melissa,” when gestured to. The wave became a gesture of her own when it was her turn to speak, motioning out towards all the prying eyes and asking. “Are… they part of what we’ve been asked to do today? Is that why they’re all here?” Rona said, “Oh, no, those are just your standard onlookers,” and waved at some of the more obvious ones. This was not the answer Melissa wanted to hear, though on balance, she wasn’t sure exactly what answer she did want to hear, so she returned her focus to Cormag the dragon, shifting closer to him as she did so. The more Cormag took up of her field of view, the less she had to think about everyone else. Recalling what little she had learned so far of Prana’s mythology, she asked, “Is Cormag from your world or did you meet him here?” Then, blurted out as an addendum, with her arm already half-raised, “Can I- can we pet him?” “Yeah, Cormag has been with me since I was a kid,” Rona said. She reached out her hand and Cormag craned his neck down to rest his chin on her palm. “Sure, you can pet him. He’s a bit of a grump, but don’t let that fool you.” Melissa looked at Rona, then at Cormag, arm fully outstretched in front of her now, and took a step forward. Cormag growled at her, which got Melissa to yelp, but seeing Rona tut out half a laugh somehow managed to embolden Melissa instead of embarrass her. She took another step forward, and ended up with her hand on Cormag’s nose. Cormag still glared at Melissa, but he didn’t snap at her or pull his head away either. Melissa, for her part, at least gave Cormag the dignity of returning his eye contact.  

The creature was down. As Ziun repeatedly struck it with ice they could see more and more shadowy substance seeming to leak out of the creature and evaporate. Still it stayed down as though it didn't have the strength to get to its feet. This didn't mean they were out of the danger though. The three shadows for some time started towards Lana and then doubled back towards Chris only to turn to Lana again. After a moment, though, they all split off. One of them each heading for each of the group. They would notice that the shadows were moving more smoothly now. Still twitchy and jerky in their movements but not as awkward as before. Which meant that they were gaining ground faster than ever.