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“Probably not?” Noah assumed the female dragon would tell her mate that they’d helped her and everything would be cool. That didn’t stop a ball of cold fear from growing in his belly. He needed Pan here to translate…but the vet also needed him to translate. They needed another translator.

“I thought you knew all about dragons?” the farmer said, as though this was Noah’s fault.

“What made you think that? I’d never seen one until a couple of days ago.”

“You looked like you knew what you’re doing.”

“So did you.” And the farmer had more experience with animals than he did.

A cry cut through the air.Oh, shit.Noah peered up at the sky as the other dragon flew toward them. He swallowed hard and tried to shrink into the seat or become invisible or something. He wasn’t getting paid enough to deal with this. He wasn’t getting paid at all, although Pan had promised him a magical object. A magical object wasn’t going to do shit if a dragon ate him.

The dragon on the trailer chirped and clicked, no doubt updating her mate about the situation. He disappeared from view for several seconds. The farmer pointed in the mirror. Noah leaned to the side and saw the male dragon bringing up the rear, chatting to his mate as if catching her up on all the gossip.

Pan had said they were as smart as small children. Things beyond the immediate were hard for them to comprehend, as was losing their entire world.

The spire of the palace came into view and Noah breathed a little easier. He was home. Or near enough to it, and the dragon had been found.

It was far more of an adventure than he’d planned on having. Now all he wanted was a long hot shower and a lie down. “Do you want to come in for a drink before you head home?”

The farmer stared at him like he’d lost his mind. Maybe he had. “With those two parked out the back. No, son, you’re on your own. I only offered because the vet said I’d be able to offload some carcasses. I’ll drop them here tomorrow.”

“Um…how many are we talking about?”

“I’ve got another ten.”

That seemed like rather a lot of cows, even for a dragon. “Give me your number and I’ll call you. But dragons only eat sort of once a week or something.”

“Huh…I can’t keep them for that long. They’ll rot.”

“Yeah, and it’s a terrible waste of meat, so give me tonight to work something out.”

The farmer wagged his finger at him. “Ay, but they can’t be used for human consumption.”

Noah nodded and pulled out his phone to add the farmer to his list of contacts. How the fuck was he supposed to find a home for ten dead cows? Was this his problem to solve?

No one else was going to do it. And offloading the dead animals had been part of the deal. “I’ll call you tomorrow, after lunch.”

“If you don’t call, I’ll be dropping them here before dinner.”

Nan was going to love that. They’d have dragons and dead cows in the car park behind the pub. That was not a sentence that would’ve made sense a week ago. This was like a fever dream or a bad trip where everything made just enough sense that it could be real, but there was no way…

“You’d best be unloading that dragon so I can go home.” The farmer gave him a nod.

Noah forced a smile. “Sure.” Not that he had any idea how to get a dragon off the trailer. “Thanks for your help.”

“Let’s not be doing it again.”

Noah slid out of the cab and landed on the street. The jolt reverberated through his bones. The male dragon saw him and clicked excitedly, prancing his feet like a dog who wanted to play catch.

“Hey, mate. We need to get your girlfriend off the trailer. And she can’t put any weight on that leg.” The dragon didn’t understand a word that he was saying, but it made him feel better to be talking.

He glanced over his shoulder at the cop who was sitting on his bike about ten meters in front, like he had no intention of helping but planned on enjoying the show. Noah scrubbed his hand over his face, feeling like the only thing he was capable of doing was having a breakdown in the middle of the street.

Keep it together for a few more minutes. Then I can have a drink…or three.

How far away was Pan? How long would it take to treat all the centaurs?

Would the centaurs let him go?