Okay, I thought. Now it’s time to run.

The Mimic and I weren’t on the greatest terms after the ass-whooping Tiberius had handed to it. All it would have to do is ally with the bone dragon and we were goners.

However, the mimic’s arrival gave me a few precious seconds to stagger up to my feet. Tiberius staggered over to me, looking like a strong gust of wind could knock him over. He’d had a long day.

And it wasn’t done yet.

The mimic, in all its phoenix dragon form glory, stood tall on its hind legs, flicked open black and orange wings, and let out a crackling roar. It didn’t glance my way. All its attention was on the bone dragon.

The bone dragon roared back. It didn’t bother with the purple haze gas. Facing the other dragon directly, it stamped its feet and gnashed its jaws.

The two of them were roughly of equal size, and they were squaring off for a showdown.

Then, without any other build-up the two fell on each other in a fury.

I had the presence of mind to scoop up a staggering Tiberius in my arms and hold him close in case I needed to run... or limp away.

Jane and Sienna came up on my other side. Sienna held her Ferdinand and Commodore rode on Jane’s shoulder. All of us looked worn out. The dragons most of all.

“What’s going on?” I asked, staring wide-eyed at the snarling, fighting dragons. The two were leaving off any special attacks at the moment and seemed to be bent on ripping each other apart.

“Territorial fight, I think?” Jane said.

“But that mimic should have been miles away by now,” I said.

“Unless it’s a second mimic,” Sienna muttered.

That was a scary thought. It seemed this world was full of powerful, wild dragons. Had I been super lucky walking through that forest, or what?

“Can mimics copy each other’s powers?” I asked. “This one has the same house dragon and phoenix form as the last.”

“No, it has to be the same mimic,” Jane said.

My arms tightened on Tiberius. “Then we should take the distraction and get the hell out of here.”

None of us made a move.

I can’t speak for the other girls, but there was something… majestic about watching the two dragons fight. Scary as anything, but weirdly awe-inspiring too. Like watching a wildfire clash up against a tornado.

As I said, the two dragons were of nearly equal size – the bone dragon a shade longer in the tail – but it was clear that the mimic had gotten the upper hand from the start. It was fresh to the fight. Plus, fire seemed to overpower undead energy.

And the phoenix form had a lot of fire to go around.

As they two clashed, snapped, and tried to tear chunks (bones?) out of one another, the phoenix dragon sent rings of fire out in a dozen feet in all directions. The rings incinerated all the little undead mice and whatever else tried to scurry to the bone dragon’s aid.

The undead bunnies, already looking more than half rotted from our battle, fell without effort.

The three of us girls backed away to a safer part of the graveyard.

Finally, the phoenix dragon batted away a raking bone hand and darted forward. Its jaws clamped down on the bone dragon’s neck. Then it shook the other dragon, like a dog would with a bone.

The bone dragon’s semi-transparent illusion fell away, showing an eerie white creature looking much diminished and less scary than the monster that had taken over the graveyard.

The bone dragon opened its mouth and let out a pitiful cry and the phoenix released it.

The moment it was free, the bone dragon turned on its tail and flew off out towards the safety of the forest.

The phoenix opened its mouth and sent a streak of fire after him. The fire didn’t quite roast the bone dragon, but if it had eyebrows it would have been singed off.

Then the mimic in phoenix form turned. And one blazing purple eye focused on us.

“Oh, shit,” I said.

Tiberius stirred and jumped down from my arms to stand in front of us. He looked utterly beat and a little wobbly on his legs but did a passable menacing growl at the other dragon.

The mimic glared at us for a few moments. I got the impression it was weighing whether we were worth the effort to kill or not.

The mimic out a snort. Then, with a pop, it reverted to its house dragon form.

It flew towards us. I tensed, but it circled well overhead once, twice, and then flew off to a stand of trees off beyond the hill to the east. Opposite the way the bone dragon had gone.

I let out a breath and all three of us looked at each other.

“What the heck was that about?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Jane answered slowly. “It was no doubt the same dragon.” She looked at Sienna as if to confirm.

The other girl rolled her eyes but nodded in agreement.

I wracked my brain but couldn’t figure out a reasonable explanation for why the mimic would appear again. “It wasn’t helping us out, was it?” I had to voice the question even if I didn’t fully believe it.

“No,” Sienna said. “Unless it was tamed, it wouldn’t have any sense of obligation to us.”

“Then…” I said slowly, feeling out the words as I said them, “Maybe it was defending its territory? The bone dragon was about the same size—”

My eyes widened as a thought hit me.

“Oh my god.”

“What?” Jane asked.

“Oh my god.”

“Which god?” Sienna asked.

“Oh my—wait, what?” I looked at her and then shook my head and reached to scoop up Tiberius. Then I turned, with my hand shielding my eyes against the sun. “Did you guys see where the mimic flew off to? Like, exactly? That way, right?” I pointed.

“Yes?” Jane said, unsure.

“Great.” I started hobbling in that direction. Thankfully, there was a gate that let out on that side of the graveyard.

Jane called, “Harmony, where are you going?”

“Shouldn’t you loot the rest of these bunnies?” Sienna asked.

The girl had a point. I needed hides to finish out the quest, and money to get out of town… but if I was right then time was of the essence. It might already be too late.

I shook my head. “No, we have to follow it. I don’t want to lose its trail!”

The girls were either still shellshocked from the fight, exhausted, or already too used to me browbeating them with my crazy ideas. Either way, Jane and Sienna glanced at each other, exchanged a mutual shrug, and then followed me.

Unfortunately, me and “haste” didn’t add up.

My bad leg started to cramp up. I had to slow my pace well before the tree line.

Tiberius made an encouraging little coo. He was my supportive little guy.

That brought another thought. I frowned. “Sienna, you said you learned about bone dragons in school, right?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Tiber spent a lot of time in that toxic purple gas. Should I be worried?”

She’d said something about wounds festering, right? He seemed to be okay. Tired, but okay…

She shook her head. “That was a low leveled bone dragon – probably still tier one. Possibly even a zero.”

“Because it didn’t use more than one special attack, right?” I asked.

“Exactly,” Jane said.

Of course Sienna had to voice an immediate descent. “Generally, yes. There are some species with innate characteristics that can be mistaken for special attacks. So it’s not a guarantee. Just an estimate.”

“Like… the mimic?” I guessed. “Someone might think switching forms is a special attack, but they’d be mistaken because each of those forms can carry a special attack.”

Sienna nodded. “And I’ve seen Tiberius chew with fire breath, but that’s him eating. It’s innate, but he can use it to attack – even though it’s not considered strictly a special attack. It’s not tied to a tier.”

“Got it,” I said. This world had a lot of video-game type rules, but when you got down to the nitty-gritty it could be as messy and complex as any organic system on Earth. “So… was the purple haze breath a special attack or an innate characteristic?”

“Special attack,” Jane said.

“Innate,” Sienna said.

The girls glared at each other.

“All right,” I said slowly, “The point is, do I need to be worried about Tiber spending so much time in it? He seems fine, but I don’t want him zombified.”

“He should be fine,” Sienna said. “Did you notice the gas dissipated when the mimic defeated him? The effects vanished right away which meant it’s really low level. Whatever creatures it took over must have had to be exposed for a long time or have been seriously injured for the gas to take hold.”

“You should still keep an eye on him,” Jane added. “We should for all our dragons.”

No argument there.

I glanced again at Jane, about to suggest that she send Commodore up to scout for the mimic’s path… but the house dragon was slumped stretched out asleep across her shoulders, his tail wrapped loosely around her neck for balance.

She caught me looking and said, “Will you tell us of your plan?”

“Not much of a plan. Just an idea,” I said.

She didn’t miss a beat. “Will you tell us your idea?”

“You said the mimic was protecting its territory, but I think it's more than that. If I’m right… it’s not going to run off anywhere. And that’ll make it easier for Todd to catch it again. I don’t want that to happen.

"No argument here," Jane murmured.

***

There wasn’t a clear-cut path through the line of trees, and I was slowed down further by having to step over untidy piles of leaves, deadfall, and shrubs.

I sincerely hoped that none of these plants were poison oak.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the true forest and if I was right, I didn’t have to go that far.

This was borne out when the ground became rockier. The three of us spied what looked like a cave nestled between several of the trees ahead.

A low rumbling growl stopped us dead in our tracks.

“What’s that?” Sienna asked.

“The mimic.” I pointed to the cave. “It lives there.”

There was a ‘pop’ and suddenly a winter dragon stood in front of us, mantling its icicle-like wings threateningly.

But in the gaps between its body and wings, I saw what lay beyond it. The whole reason why the mimic hadn’t run off to the hills. Possibly the reason why Todd had been able to capture it – her – in the first place.

The mimic was protecting a clutch of eggs.