The dragon's head, as large as Hagrid's entire body, hung high in the air, its lamp-like eyes staring straight at the tiny humans-suddenly,
Carter, the Welsh Green, snorted two jets of thick smoke and opened her mouth, heat rolling out as her barbed tongue swept toward Brian!
Dragon saliva stank. Apparently, brushing dragons' teeth was not part of a sanctuary researcher's job. Brian, the firefighter who had completed his emergency assignment, held his breath at the enormous tongue that stopped just in front of him, avoided the highly corrosive saliva, and carefully placed the dragon egg on it.
Putting out a dragon mother's rage was no easy task even for ancient magic. Fortunately, knowledge from books always came in handy at crucial moments, and Chair Horn had been right-although Carter had still successfully fired her dragonfire, its range at least tripled by her fury, the flames had shifted from straight ahead to higher in the sky.
The change in direction was good news for Brian's group. They were unharmed rather than well-done, and after Targaryen promptly cried, "Hooba! Roar-dang!" a few times, Carter calmed down too.
But it was undoubtedly bad news for the cloud overhead, now sporting a huge hole in what looked like a tribute to a certain Federation Muggle leader with a wide-open mind-countless raindrop families were torn apart.
Fortunately, the raindrops' sacrifice brought the dragon mother and her child back together.
The egg's weight reassured Carter. Her tongue sank, immediately folding over twice like a blanket to wrap the egg securely before curling back and swiftly withdrawing.
"This is a special way Common Welsh Greens protect their eggs. Like their scales, their tongues can switch between soft and hard," Charlie explained to Hagrid at just the right moment.
"Roar!" Hagrid seemed to say something, but Carter's