"We could try back street turtle racing…" Spud offered, trying uselessly to comfort Trixie.
The girl in question sighed. Trixie's boys were like protective big brothers to her, and had been since they were all just little kids. She loved them to death. But right now, they couldn't do much to help her.
Her mom would be heartbroken over that vase…
"Spud," she snapped, unwilling to be vulnerable, "No more schemes. I need money. Cold hard cash, and it ain't gonna just fall out of the sky…"
Ironically, at that moment something did actually fall out of the sky.
Trixie resisted the urge to scream in terror as she and Spud stared at the unconscious creature. Was that…an oversized lizard?
About seven feet tall, it was scaly, red, and frightening. And it had wings. No, not a lizard.
It…no. There was no way. That couldn't be…there was no such thing…
"Whoa, that is one big lasagna. Maybe I'm dreaming…or maybe you're dreaming. Hey! What are you doing dreaming about me anyway?" Spud joked, obviously trying to hide his own fear of the beast.
Trixie stared at the dragon. This was a fairy tale creature, something that could kill her and likely would the moment it woke up. But she couldn't run; this was like a train wreck. You couldn't just look away.
Fighting to keep the tremble out of her voice, Trixie asked half-rhetorically, "Is it dead?" She knelt next to the monster and rapped it on the head, then moved back in fear. Oh, she was so screwed.
Spud moved closer to it and wrapped his yo-yo string around its upper jaw, and Trixie desperately wanted to warn him. "It's still breathing," he commented, as fire shot involuntarily from the dragon's mouth. "Breathing fire!" Fire spurted from its butt, and offhandedly Trixie wondered if that was painful. "Out of both ends!"
"Big, scaly, and breathing fire," Trixie murmured, not wanting to say what both teens were thinking. She pulled a certain wrinkled-up flyer from her pocket. Spud stared at the flyer, then at the dragon. Flyer, dragon, flyer. Yep. It was a dragon.
Now, how to get it to Rotwood's place without getting eaten…
Trixie regarded the dragon warily, fearfully. It was a good thing this dragon was unconscious, because otherwise that would have been impossible.