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“I got her spikes, as you can see. Unfortunately, I didn’t get her size. She’s a whopper! Almost forty feet from nose to tail.”

“Wow! That’s huge.”

“She is a larger female, but hardly huge.” He flew across the room and gathered another two-picture frame.

He flashed one photo to Paige. A light-purple dragon with two huge horns and teal feathers down his spine stared back from the photo.

“Here’s dear old dad. His name is Rowan.”

“Oh, he’s very dapper looking.”

“Dad’s about fifty-five feet long.” Dewey tilted the frame to show the second picture. “And here’s my whole family.”

Paige studied the image. She recognized Imogen and Rowan on either side of the four dragons. In the middle, a dapper red dragon stood with his tail raised in the air and two horns poking from his head.

Dewey tapped the red dragon. “My older brother, Connor.”

His claw scratched the glass over an orange dragon with horns similar to Rowan’s and orange feathers down its back. “My older sister, Freya.”

On the opposite side of the red dragon, a green dragon with peach wings and a yellow chest sat with her tail wrapped around her feet. “And this is my younger sister, Phoebe.”

Paige studied the image, noting a small teal dragon in the middle. Dwarfed by the others, he stood on his hind legs with a paw raised in the air.

“You’ve got a big family, in more ways than one,” Paige said with a chuckle.

“Very funny, Paige.” Dewey flitted across the room and set the picture down. “How’s the pain?”

“Eh, it’s not so terrible right now. Maybe your slime is working.”

Dewey smiled and nodded at her. “Give it a little more time and see if it can dull it a bit more. Let me finish up in the kitchen.”

He disappeared from the room. Paige angled her head to stare over at the photo frame on the table across the room.

How did Dewey get along with his family, she wondered? How odd to be the only tiny one in a family full of huge dragons.

As she stared at the picture, the dragons in it seemed to move, shifting around in the image and melting into the frame below.

Paige blinked her eyes a few times, and the picture reset itself. She furrowed her brow as she shifted her gaze to the picture of Dewey’s mother. Smoke seemed to pour from her nostrils. Paige’s eyes widened, and her gaze flicked around the space, searching for anything else amiss.

She pushed up to take a closer look at the picture. She froze as her back arched. With a wiggle of her shoulders, she tested the pain reliever. No burning, no pain, not even an ache. The slime worked.

A smile crossed her face, and she sat up. The room spun a little, but it settled after a moment. She hadn’t noticed how vivid the colors in Dewey’s room were before.

She swung her legs over the nest’s edge and hopped up to stand. Her knees wobbled for a second, like the first moments on a boat. She steadied herself before she stumbled toward the door.

“Need any help?” she called as she shambled into the living room.

“Paige! What are you doing up?”

A broad smile spread across her face. “I feel great! Fantastic, actually. That slime really works, Dewey. It tastes terrible, but does a great job with the pain relief. I don’t feel a thing!”

Paige stuck her hands on her hips and glanced around the room with a satisfied sigh. “You know, I never really noticed how pretty this room is.”

Dewey narrowed his eyes at her, hovering in the air as he dried his paws on the dish towel before tossing it onto the counter. “You sure you’re feeling okay?”

“I feel wonderful. I’ve never felt so good, actually. I bet I could run around the entire archive and not even get tired. Whew! I feel great.”

“Maybe you should sit down.”