Noodles the Cockapoo Stands Guard Page 5

"Did you see Hummingbird?" Jess asked the prince.

  "No. We didn't," he answered her. He had been so delighted that Jess was alive and unharmed that he had completely forgotten about her dragon. "If you're okay yourself," he offered, "we can go look for Hummingbird now. She might have fallen to the ground near where you were attacked."

  "That would be great," she agreed, and held onto him a little more tightly, leaning the side of her head against the prince's back. They swooped quickly across the open sky to return to the point just beneath the clouds where they had first spotted the Skreeagle racing away with the girl.

  There they started to swoop in large lazy circles, like a buzzard circling in a desert sky in the movies. In fact Fire Tiger was using all his senses, even his echolocation, to scan the ground below for any sign of the shimmering lilac-toned dragon that both he and the little girl cared for. Noodles sniffed the air and listened. Both Jae Vaughn and Jesse Lynn scanned the ground with their eyes.

  Time passed as they searched, though they were not aware of its passing, so thoroughly was their attention concentrated on the search; but time passed nonetheless.

  The pale afternoon sky faded to a darker muted denim, like dirty old bluejeans; and that faded in its turn toward a midrange charcoal grey, like a schoolroom blackboard covered with a thin layer of chalk dust. The air that brushed against them as they flew became cooler with each circle they drew in the sky. It began to smell of dampness and night. Evening was approaching like a stalking cat, and the searchers had not yet found any sign of the fallen dragon Hummingbird.

  "We need to go home," Jae Vaughn finally announced with sadness. "We aren't going to find her tonight. Tomorrow I'll ride out with some good men and mount a proper search."

  So it was that Jae Vaughn took Lady Jesse Lynn back to her family, barely getting her home before dark. Then he and Noodles headed back to the castle, where they settled Fire Tiger into his big box stall in the stable. Fire Tiger lay down to rest on a big pile of fresh pale straw, and Jae Vaughn put his saddle and bridle away on racks.

  "You may as well come with me inside," the boy said to Noodles. "You can sleep on the floor by my bed."

  Noodles wasn't really sure he should be spending the night. He really needed to get back to Granny. Then again, he didn't know how to get back. So he decided to follow the prince, and let things play out whatever way they would. Maybe he'd find the interdimensional portal again tomorrow; after finding Hummingbird first, of course. For tonight, he'd just have to sleep at the castle with the prince.