I got up as close as I dared, about a hundred yards or so away, and stopped to consider my options.

One of the weird aspects of the astral plane is that you can jump five times further than you can in the real world, but, for some reason, you can only jump half as high. (Don’t ask me. My high school taught physics, not metaphysics.) But, even with the extended range, there wasn’t another path anywhere near close enough. Besides, with the nature of paths on this plane, I could jump onto a plane immediately to my left, and find myself with no path to my right to jump back onto.

Fighting it was definitely not an option. It’s a dragon. I’m just a skinny little geek from Regina. My magickal tutor was 352 when he died, and even he wasn’t ready to take on a dragon. So, fighting was out.

Abandoning my journey was also out. This was too important. I had to complete this journey.

Which left me one option: I had to wake it up and talk to it. Wonderful. Dragons, no matter the stripe, always wake up grumpy.

Joy.