Tilly and Jayshu remained hidden among the trees while Yadira headed further along the river toward one of the boulders that sat right on the riverbank. The plan was for her to hide behind the boulder and then signal Tilly and Jayshu to jump out and try to draw the dragon away from the cave mouth while she snuck across the river and into the cave. Hopefully, with two of them to fight back with magic instead of one, Tilly and Jayshu wouldn’t wind up burned to a crisp before Yadira managed to rescue Mirradel.
“I can do this,” Jayshu whispered to himself as he and Tilly watched the dragon. “I can be brave. I can fight a dragon.”
“Of course you can,” Tilly said, almost reaching out to pat his shoulder before deciding he probably wouldn’t like that. “We can. It’s just a dragon, right? How har
