\n "That was my parents," Chris said, putting away his phone.  "They thought we were coming by air, and said we have to land somewhere else because the patio's in use."

\n "We couldn't have flown home; the police have enough evidence as it is without seeing me fly from the crime scene to Montana again," Sean said.

\n "I know, I said that.  Also, dinner will be ready soon.  Hey Aithsa, how does your tail feel?"

\n The young dragon sniffed at the blood-soaked cloth covering the spot where the bullet had passed through his scales.  "I think it stopped bleeding a while ago, but it still hurts whenever I move."

\n "All right.  I already called Pat and he should be at the house in just a few minutes, and he'll fix it up for you."

\n Sean made his way back to Chris' house, and when he turned the last corner of the driveway they saw why they wouldn't have been able to use the patio: there was a dragon sitting there, talking to Chris' father, Scott.  The dragon looked up as Sean stopped in front of the garage, and Aithsa shouted, "dad!"

\n Chris frowned.  "But it's...  It's not even dark yet.  What's Vallen doing down here?  He should know better than to fly during the day."

\n Sean shrugged and opened both his door and half-door behind it so Aithsa could jump out.  Aithsa crouched, then leapt through the opening, half-running, half-flying over to his father.  "There you are, son," Vallen said, purring and lowering his head, and when Aithsa got close enough he reached out with his forelegs and clutched the smaller dragon against his chest.

\n He squirmed and yelped indignantly, but Vallen ignored his protests, nuzzling his neck and shoulders.  "I was so worried about you," he whispered.  "Thank the ancients you made it back safe...  But what's this on your tail?"

\n "There were... other humans, dad.  They tried to take me away, I don't know why, and one of them shot me.  But then Chris and Dave came, and shot the other humans, and then brought me home."

\n "They shot you?"  He sniffed at the spot, then tugged the rope and cloth aside with a claw and licked the wound a couple of times.  "Chris, did you call that doctor of yours?"

\n Chris walked up onto the patio.  "Yes, he's on his way out here now.  What are you doing here, though?  You could have been seen, or shot at, or who knows what else on the flight down...  There could be people on their way here right now to try and capture you again."

\n Vallen snorted.  "Your closest neighbors live at least eight kilometers from here, so if I keep low to the ground, nobody can possibly see me.  Besides, I wanted to see my son; thank you for getting him out."

\n "Welcome.  Dad, how's the farm been holding up?"

\n Sean sighed and leaned against the side of his car while Dave unloaded his things from the trunk and side compartments, then transferred them to his trailer.  Karen and Tessa ran outside a moment later, shouting excitedly, and made their way to where Vallen and Aithsa were speaking in the peculiar grunts and growls of their natural language.  When the twins approached, Aithsa turned away from his father and started to play on the patio with the girls, chasing sticks they threw, racing them in circles around Vallen, who had started talking with Chris and Scott, and occasionally flying short loops in the air above the house.

\n Then another car pulled into the driveway.  Everyone turned to look, Vallen getting to his feet and shifting to shield Aithsa from whoever this new human might be, but after a moment Chris waved when he recognized the man in the driver's seat.  The man got out, took a sizable box from the back seat and walked up onto the patio.

\n "Thanks for coming out here on such short notice, Pat," Chris said.  "Busy day?"

\n Pat shook his head.  "No, not much going on, but either way I'd gladly make room on my schedule when you need me to see one of your patients.  Now, who am I treating today?" he asked, glancing between the two dragons.

\n "The young one, Aithsa.  Aithsa, come here!  Pat needs to have a look at you."  Aithsa broke off playing with the twins and walked over.  "There were other humans there when we broke him out of the San Diego zoo, and he was shot in the tail."

\n "Well, what's so bad about that?  Getting stunned or shocked isn't necessarily bad for you."

\n "He was shot with a bullet."

\n Pat frowned.  "Oh.  Lie on your belly and hold your tail still," he said to Aithsa, then he knelt down, removed the rope and cloth from Aithsa's tail and examined the wound.  After a moment's consideration, he went to work.

\n "Chris, I was meaning to talk to you about that," Vallen said.  "Do we have any idea what these humans wanted?"

\n He shrugged.  "Aithsa, did they say anything about why they may have wanted to kidnap you?"

\n "They didn't say much...  One of them asked another why they shouldn't have just killed me in my cave, so I guess they wanted to kill me..."

\n "That's what it sounds like, and I don't like it.  Any idea why?"

\n "They didn't say anything about why.  One of them said something about wanting to make a scene, but that doesn't make any sense..."

\n Vallen growled.  "Sounds like poachers.  Chris, you know what that means."

\n "I don't think it's poachers.  Aithsa, do you remember exactly what they said about a scene?"

\n "Ow."  He flinched and looked back at where Pat was working, then said, "I think it went something like, ?it'll be spectacle enough when they come back in the morning to find it lying dead in its cave.'"

\n "See, that just doesn't sound like poachers to me.  I don't know who they were, but I don't think they were after a hide, or teeth or claws or any of that.  Maybe they wanted to kidnap him for ransom?"

\n "Hard to tell, but it can't be good for us," Vallen said, sniffing at the air.  "This only makes our departure even more urgent."

\n "Yes, I know.  Do you want me to go call my man on the border now?"

\n "If it means we can get out of here faster, then yes."

\n "All right.  I'll be right back with his answer."  Chris turned and walked inside.

\n "Can you get the lights on your way in?" Pat shouted, and Chris flicked on the patio lights for him.  "All right.  It's a clean enough entry, and I've found the bullet.  Now I need to get it out...  Aithsa, this is going to hurt.  Can you be sure that you aren't going to pull away or swipe at me?"

\n Aithsa looked up at his father.  "I'll...  I'll try."

\n "Here, son, hold onto my paw," Vallen said, leaning over and taking Aithsa's front paws in one of his own, then pinning down his hindquarters and the end of his tail with the other.

\n "You're blocking my light," Pat said, and Vallen moved his head away.  "Now, are you ready?"

\n Aithsa shivered, then said, "yes."

\n "All right.  Here I go..."  Pat stuck one of his tools into Aithsa's tail, and the dragon yelped with pain.  "Got it.  Just hold still a minute longer, now."  Aithsa growled, clenching his teeth and trying not to move.  The pain sharpened until he felt like a knife was cutting through his tail and he cried out again, flaring his wings and squirming against the ground, but he couldn't free his tail or his hind legs from his father's grip.  After what felt like an eternity, he heard something clink and the stabbing pain faded away.  "There, it's out.  Good job," Pat said, rubbing his hand along Aithsa's tail and patting his flank.  "Now let me clean it out and put a couple of stitches in, and we'll be all done."

\n Vallen let go of Aithsa, looking at the underside of one of his forepaws, which he licked a couple of times before setting down.  "You feel better now?"

\n Aithsa tilted his head, turning to watch as Pat smeared some pale cream into and around the wound, pulled the skin around the bullet-hole together and inserted a couple of stitches, then covered the spot with a bandage.  "There you are, all done.  Try to leave that alone, even if it itches, for a week or two so it can heal properly.  Don't worry if a new scale starts to come in over it; both the bandage and stitches will dissolve once they're no longer needed.  Now, I just have to talk to Chris..."

\n Sean and Dave walked up onto the patio as Pat started to walk inside, but then Chris came back outside, phone in hand.  "Good news and bad news," he said.  "First, Vallen, the clan can get into Canada tomorrow night between 23:53 and 23:57.  That soon enough?" he laughed.

\n "That's great, thanks.  We'll all eat as much as we can tonight, and sometime tomorrow expect me to come back down to say goodbye.  Aithsa, are you all ready to go back up to the cave?"

\n Aithsa stopped chasing Karen around the patio and returned to his father's side.

\n "Now, what about the bad news?"

\n "Well, that's mainly for us humans.  Sean and Dave, you're both listed as suspects in the thefts of... well, of the dragons, and there are warrants out for your arrests."

\n "What about you?"

\n Chris shrugged.  "My name didn't turn up.  Either way...  Well, I don't think I can shelter you here.  I won't call the cops on you, obviously, but hiding people and hiding dragons are two different things."

\n "I'm a dragon," Sean said.

\n "Not the same."

\n "I'd have to talk to the rest of the clan about it, but you could come with us if you want to," Vallen said.  "I don't think they'd mind you at all, Sean, given your other form, and Dave...  Well, we can hardly do any less after breaking us out.  And aren't you a biologist?"

\n "Yes, I am."

\n "Well, I'm sure you'd be glad for the opportunity to observe our society.  As long as you stay out of our way--and have some way of feeding yourself--I think you could come with us, too."

\n Dave looked at the ground.  "I...  I'd have to think about it, and I don't have much time to prepare..."

\n "Hmm," Sean said, and after thinking for a while continued, "well, it'd probably be better than finding some other place to hide, and I'd like a chance to learn more about the species I share a form with.  I'll go."

\n "I guess if you're all willing to have me along, then I'll come too," Dave said.

\n Sean grinned.  "Great.  Vallen, we should be ready to go by the time you come down here tomorrow night."

\n He nodded and spread his wings.  "See you then.  Come, Aithsa, back to the cave."  Aithsa took off first, then Vallen jumped up after him, both winging their way back home.

\n The six humans watched them go, then Chris gathered up Karen and Tessa.  "Dinner's been ready for a while, so we should go inside.  You three are welcome to eat with us, if you like."

\n Pat shook his head.  "No thanks, I'm sure Vicki's waiting for me back home.  Nice seeing you, Chris."  The vet crouched to gather up his equipment and clean away the splashes of blood from Aithsa's tail that had accumulated on the ground during the bullet's removal.

\n Dave followed Chris inside, but Sean said, "I'll be there in a minute; I have a phone call to make."

\n Sean watched them go inside, then walked over to the far side of the patio, dialed a number and held his phone to his ear.

\n "Hello?" said the person on the other end of the line.

\n "Hey, it's me.  Chris talked to his contact, and they'll be coming through tomorrow night, about five minutes before midnight.  Is everything ready up there?"

\n "Yeah, they agreed to it all a lot more easily than I thought they would; we'll be waiting for them a few kilometers past the barrier.  Just make sure there will be no danger to our jets."

\n "I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any guarantees."

\n "Thanks.  See you then."

\n "Mm-hmm.  Love you."

\n "Love you too.  Bye."
\n  

\n
\n "How long do you think we'll be there?"

\n "Until the heat's off, I'd imagine," Sean shrugged.  "Though I don't know how long that will be, or what would convince authorities here to forget about us.  I suppose I could get some lobbyists together, but that would take some time, and it'd be hard to do without being able to actually go talk to them."

\n "Right."  Dave tossed a pair of pants onto a pile and looked around his trailer.  "Oh, cell phone charger.  I don't have my charger."

\n "Where do you expect to find an outlet in the middle the mountains anyway?  Just keep it off unless you have to call someone."

\n He shrugged.  "I'd have a plug if you put your car in generator mode.  Sleeping bag..."

\n "Oh, do you have one I can borrow?  At first I was thinking that I could just sleep as a dragon, but I've decided that I probably shouldn't."

\n "Why not?"

\n "Well..." Sean faltered and looked away.  "I don't know, but it's probably for the best if I don't.  I mean, we're going to be around a lot of dragons, including some females, and...  I don't want to be confused with one of the real dragons."

\n Dave raised an eyebrow, but said, "all right, I'll take the spare from my rock blind.  Can't forget rifles, either...  Never know what could happen in territories outside UN control."

\n "Or before we even make it that far.  How much re-stimulator do you have left over from the releases?"

\n Dave looked through his backpack.  "Four and a half doses.  You think I should bring them, too?"

\n "Definitely.  We have to make it through Canada, Alaska, Russia and China before we even get to Nepal.  That's a lot of space for bad things to happen."

\n "Okay.  And, finally, some cash.  How much do you have?"

\n "All I could get safely was a hundred UNits.  How about you?"

\n "Two hundred.  Think that's enough?"

\n "Well, it's more than enough to buy the fuel block I'll need to get us to Nepal, assuming we can actually manage to find a place to buy one without being arrested.  What I don't know is how we're going to eat.  We can't hunt like the dragons can...  And I don't think we can go buy from the locals.  I don't even know what language they speak in Nepal."

\n "If they would even accept UNits, which I doubt they will.  I have a few weeks' worth of field rations somewhere in here that are left over from a project I did back in the spring, and if you could get a dragon to teach you to hunt in that amount of time...  We may be making something out of nothing here.  For all we know the females could have humans watching out for them just like Chris does here."

\n "I guess we'll see.  You have everything you need, then?"

\n Dave nodded and picked up a couple of items.  "Not everything I need, but everything I have here that I can use.  The rest is back home, where I can't get it.  How about you?"

\n "Same, everything I have that could be useful.  Including my cell phone charger," he laughed.  "Well, let's get everything in the car.  Can't hurt to be ready early."  Sean turned and walked back to the house.  Dave was about to follow him, but then his cell phone rang.  He took it out of his pocket, looked at the number and groaned.  It was his brother.

\n He held the phone to his ear.  "Hey, Jim.  How's it going?"

\n "Could be better, could be worse...  I was watching the news last night, Dave, and your name came up.  Apparently the police think you're connected with the dragon thefts?"

\n He paused.  "Apparently."

\n "Well, are you?"  Jim's voice grew louder.  "You know what this means for me, don't you?  That all the dragons are gone?  All the zoos I sold to are demanding that I work with them to get their dragons back, and I don't even know where they are, or how to stop them.  I mean, I have a guess, and I've been getting some people together, but...  I need your help.  You have to know something, otherwise the police wouldn't be suspecting you."

\n "Jim, I...  I don't know anything.  I can't help you."

\n "You know, you aren't a very good liar."

\n "I--  I wasn't lying!  It was a... coincidence.  I just happened to have gone to all the zoos on the same days Ca-- the dragons were stolen.  I wasn't involved."

\n "Do you know what's going to happen if I can't recover the dragons?  All the zoos will demand that I pay them back, and I don't have that kind of money!  I had to pay the people who worked for me, and I don't have much past what I earned from the auction.  If I don't get them all back, I'm sunk.  Please, Dave, you have to help me."

\n He sighed.  "I can't help you, Jim."

\n "Fine.  I have some ideas for where they'll be and where they'll be going...  There's someone I know I can talk to; maybe he can help me if you won't.  Talk to you when this is over."

\n "Whatever you end up doing, be careful about it.  The dragons will be dangerous if they know you're the one responsible for what happened to them."

\n "I'll be fine.  Bye."

\n "Bye, Jim."  Dave hung up, then stared at the phone and sighed.  Poor Jim.  I'm sorry I lied to you, he thought.  But I had to.

\n The rest of the day passed in a sort of blur.  Chris watched the news almost constantly to see if anything about the dragons or Sean and Dave came up, while Dave took out a notebook and asked him about the dragons' habits and society to take his mind off their departure as best he could.  Sean sat with them, but didn't seem to be paying much attention; he spent a while staring at his hands, watching them shift from fingers to claws and back again, over and over.

\n Up at the cave, most of the dragons were already awake; all they needed to wait on now was for darkness to fall.  Carnoc, having been released from his alcove a day early due to the clan's impending departure, sat near the entrance and watched the sky, taking the sights, sounds and smells into his memory--it could be a long time before the clan came back here.  Nesleh walked up and sat down next to him, leaned against him for a moment, then said, "what's on your mind?"

\n Carnoc sniffed the air.  "Nothing really...  Trying not to waste any energy.  Going to be a long flight."

\n "It is quite a trip.  Excited?"

\n "Sort of...  I think you've asked me that before, back when we first thought we were leaving.  And my thoughts haven't changed."

\n "Ah.  All right, then."

\n "...well, maybe one thing has changed.  I still say that these two humans shouldn't be coming with us."

\n "You know we already decided to bring them along, Carnoc.  They've done more than enough to help us just out of their own goodwill, and now it's time for us to return the favor.  We all agreed last night to have them fly with us, and you did too.  So stop complaining about it."

\n He lashed his tail.  "Yes, it's charitable of us, aren't we so nice to the humans for everything that they've done for us.  It's because of humans that we have to fly at night, that we only go out with the fear of getting seen and maybe captured again, it's because of humans that..."

\n "Not because of these humans," Nesleh said.  "These two, and Chris, have been more than nice enough to us, you know that.  Or would you rather still be in a cage on the other side of the country?"

\n "The dragonesses won't like it either."

\n "We'll leave that for them to decide.  And like Vallen said, Sean and Dave will know to stay out of the way.  They won't distract us during the flight, they won't interrupt the elders while they choose your mate, they won't interrupt you while you're with your mate.  There are humans out there smart enough to know to stay out of our way, and these are two of them.  I really doubt the dragonesses will mind their presence."

\n "I still don't think so.  I mean, it's because of Dave and his brother that we got caught in the first place!  I can still remember waking up all of a sudden and seeing the two of them standing next to me while I was tied up and helpless.  And Sean?  His ability to change aside, he either refuses to fight or is afraid to, and I don't like either of those choices."

\n "Enough, both of you," Vallen said, extending his wing between them.  "I'm going down to get Sean and Dave, and Carnoc, I expect you to respect the two of them whether they're around or not.  They helped us get away from our prisons, so it's the least we can do to let them run from theirs with us.  And besides, as they're humans themselves, they could be able to tell when other humans might be close to seeing us while we fly or rest."  He raised his voice.  "Everyone, be ready to leave when I get back!"

\n Vallen turned, walked outside and took off from the ledge, keeping just above the trees despite the darkness of the night sky.  He swooped down over the house, then flared his wings, hung in the air for a moment, and dropped down onto the patio.

\n "There you are, Vallen," Chris said.  "Is everyone ready to go?"

\n "Yes.  What time is it?"

\n "22:45; you should make it to the border in time if you leave in the next ten minutes or so."

\n Vallen nodded.  "Good.  Where are Sean and Dave?"

\n "Dave's in the bathroom," Sean said, walking outside.  "I want to give you my communicator so we can stay in touch while we're in the air."

\n He lowered his head so Sean could insert the earpiece.  "Right.  I'll have the clan headed north in a few minutes...  Should we wait, or will you catch up?"

\n "I'll catch up to you."

\n "Vallen," Chris said, "when will you be back?

\n He looked away, pawing at the ground.  "I don't know, Chris.  Typically, we'd be gone for about a year, maybe a month or two more, then come back with the new generation of eggs.  But now...  We just can't be sure that it's safe to stay here any more, which is why we're taking the young and old ones with us.  And that also means we may not come back."

\n "Oh...  I hope things do calm down here enough for you to come back here.  We'll all miss you."

\n "I know.  We'll miss you, too."  He dipped his head and nudged Chris in the chest with his nose, and Chris reached up to scratch the dragon's neck with his fingertips.

\n "Well..." he stepped back to give him room to take off.  "Goodbye, and tell the rest of the clan that for me.  And good luck."

\n Vallen nodded and raised his wings.  "Bye, Chris."  And then he was gone, rising into the still night air.

\n He returned to the cave, not bothering to keep low this time.  The ledge outside the cave was empty, but he could see as many dragons as could fit into the entrance at once all waiting there, watching for him.  "Come on!" he called without bothering to land.  "The dragonesses are waiting for us; let's go!"