A fair-haired girl was sprawled across the bed, the smooth fabric of her silk nightgown rubbing against the coarse (and probably highly unsanitary) hotel blankets, an old-fashioned corded phone in her hand.
"Mum?"
The reply on the other end of the phone was scratchy and filled with static, though the girl wasn't sure whether the problem originated from the thousands of miles separating the two ends of the conversation or just the local system being a bit on the patchy side.
"Yes, it's Winifred- you know I hate when you call me that! Stop it!" She did her best to suppress a giggle as amusement began to overtake her annoyance. Much as she would have liked to deny it, it was good to hear her mother's voice, pet names and all.
Winifred twirled the cord of the phone with her finger absentmindedly as she shifted position. "Yes, yes, everything's just fine so far. I told you not to worry so much, didn't I?" A pause as the voice on the other end of the line grew louder. "I did not! Look, I got to the hotel less than an hour ago, I didn't- I know, I know! …fine, go on then, whatever…"
The room's wallpaper was an uninspired beige color strongly reminiscent of that which covered Winifred's living room. This room could well have been back at home for all you could tell. Slowly, carefully, Winifred inched her way over to the window, tuning out her mother's ramblings as she opened up the shades.
"Really, now aren't you the one who spent a year backpacking across the continent right after university? And you honestly…"
The girl wasn't quite sure what she had expected to see as she looked out the window of her hotel room for the first time. Palm trees, maybe, and sandy beaches lit by a bright yellow sun. Or just a brick wall- after all, she hadn't bothered asking if her room had a nice view, which meant it probably didn't.
But she definitely wasn't expecting to see something big and red meandering across the sky, something that had wings but was much larger than any bird she'd ever heard of, something with shimmering scales, something which belched smoke and flame…
Winifred racked her brain trying to think of what native wildlife this could possibly be, but came up empty. All that it reminded her of was… was…
A dragon?
And was that somebody screaming?
"Mum, I'll call you back, alright?"
The girl practically threw the phone back onto its handset, ignoring her mother's frantic protests, before sighing and collapsing onto the (probably filthy) bed.
Maybe her mother was right.
Maybe going on holiday to Australia hadn't been the best idea after all.