by Heather Jerrie
Prologue
It was the ring that started it all. It lay heavy and cool in Emily's palm, rolling slightly - an intricate coil of gold, carved as a dragon, with glittering, emerald eyes. It curved in an elegant spiral, and a few grains of sand still clung to its carved scales. The children stared at it, awestruck. "How beautiful!" Emily breathed. Ben said slowly, "But where did it come from?"
Chapter One: The Sand Dragon
They had run down to the beach after lunch. "No swimming, kids," their mother had said, before she went in to take a much-needed nap. Sitting on the shore, watching the waves endlessly rolling and retreating, they idly dug in the sand. "Let's not make a castle," Emily said suddenly. "Let's make something special, like a mermaid or a whale." "A dragon!" Ben burst out, and so they did. All afternoon they had shaped and patted the warm sand, and in the hot, sleepy, heavy sunlight it had seemed to somehow take shape all by itself.
The body was long and slender, its tail curved around it neatly, its head resting on the front paws. They shaped a rough mane - "like those Chinese dragons", Ben muttered - and crisp, sharp spikes down the back. Finally they sat back on their heels to gaze at their creation. And it was then that Emily had noticed the small lump of gold jutting out of the sand between the curved claws.
She slipped it on her finger carefully, and the held it up to the sunlight, admiring the intricate spiral wound gracefully up her small finger. "Funny," she said absently. "It just fits…." "It looks like it could almost be a magic ring!" Ben said, half joking. "Make a wish, Emily!" She lay back against the sand dragon dreamily. "Wouldn't that be cool?" she murmured.
"You know what would be really great?" Ben leaned to look at the dragon's sleeping face. "If there really were dragons. Dragons you could ride on, or little tiny ones, wild ones, or old ones that could tell you stuff." "Like our sand dragon," Emily said wistfully, patting the knobby elbow by her side. "I wish you WERE alive, you!"
There was a sudden rumble, like distant thunder, and a cool breeze sprung up and ruffled their hair. "We'd better get back. It sounds like a storm is coming up!" Ben got up and dusted the sand off his shorts. Emily sighed, and got up, and they turned to go.
But suddenly they stopped, and Ben grabbed Emily's hand. Behind them, a low sound was growing, a rasping, grumbling sound that made the hairs on the back of their necks prickle in excitement. They turned slowly, and stared.
Once in a great while, in every person's life, a moment comes that changes everything. The ground shifts, and suddenly everything you knew is different, and you know your life will never be the same. You meet someone, and suddenly know that a new friend has stepped into your heart. Or, in one terrible instant, someone you love must leave you forever. These moments happen to every one of us, and we are never, ever ready for them. And so it was for Emily and Ben, as they gazed wide-eyed at the sand.
The long shape was moving - slowly shifting and unfolding. The sand was falling away from their dragon, sifting away in sheets, and revealing shining bronze scales. Now the head was lifting, and the huge creature turned its head slowly and looked straight at the children with glowing, emerald cat's eyes. They stood stock-still, fascinated and terrified, and the dragon opened its mouth to reveal its glittering teeth. They trembled.
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