Date: 2007-04-23 14:29 Subject: When the Dragon Falls Security: Public

This story was first published in Realms of Fantasy in August of 2005. Enjoy.

When the Dragon Falls

By Patrick Samphire

1.

Tam found the fossil jutting from the crumbling slope above the lake.

The day was hot, the air thick with humidity and gnats. Chasing along the trails had left Tam red faced and sweaty. So he thrust through the tangle of hawthorn and started down the slope towards the glass-flat lake.

The fossil was in full view. The slate had slipped away, and the long, fossilised bone stared up at him.

The others gathered around quickly.

"A dragon," gasped seven-year-old Rosie, wide-eyed. She was the youngest of them, and she had tagged along all morning like a burr in a dog's tail.

"A dinosaur," Josh said. At thirteen, a full year older than Tam, Josh knew everything.

Tam wasn't so sure. He didn't know what it was, but he did know one thing. He had found it. It was his.

Lisa rolled her eyes and stepped over the fossil. "Are we going swimming or not?" Her long hair was stuck to her sweaty neck.

"Not yet," Tam said, dropping to his knees. The fossilised bone ridged from a bed of dark grey slate. The same bed disappeared beneath the loose scree a couple of yards further up the slope. Tam brushed the fragments away with his hand. "There could be more of it."

"God, who cares?" Lisa said. "It's just a bone."

( Keep on reading When the Dragon Falls )

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